Coronavirus | States told to focus on second dose for healthcare, frontline workers

Low vaccination for the priority groups a cause for concern, says Health Secretary.

A health worker preparing to administer a dose of Covid-19 vaccine to sportspersons at Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru on June 10, 2021.

States have been advised to focus on the second dose of COVID-19 vaccination coverage among healthcare and frontline workers.

A release issued by the Health Ministry said Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan chaired a high-level meeting on Thursday and informed States and Union Territories of the modifications in CoWIN platform, aimed at making it more effective as a back-end management tool for the countrywide vaccination drive.

“Mr. Bhushan highlighted the low vaccination coverage among Healthcare Workers (HCW) and Frontline Workers (FLW), especially for the second dose for both the priority groups, terming it a cause of serious concern,” said the release.

The Ministry said that while the national average for the first dose administration among the HCWs was 82%, the national average for second dose among HCWs was only 56%. Punjab, Maharashtra, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Assam had a coverage below the national average in this aspect.

For FLWs, the national average of first dose coverage was 85% but the national average of second dose coverage for FLWs was only 47%, and 19 States/UTs had reported second dose coverage of FLWs less than the national average. Among them were Bihar, Haryana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry, Telangana, Karnataka, and Punjab.

Private sector lagging

“The Secretary highlighted less than adequate private sector participation in the COVID vaccination drive. As per the revised guidelines, 25% of the vaccine stock can be procured by the private hospitals. Limited presence of private hospitals and their unequal spread were highlighted for Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Assam, etc,” said the release.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry also alerted the States to the new features in Co-WIN portal which were incorporated in light of the new vaccination guidelines.

Revised features allow rectifications in the personal information (Name, YOB, Gender and Photo ID number of the card used) by citizens requesting changes only in any of the two fields out of the four mentioned. These changes are allowed only once. Once updated, the old certificate will be deleted and it will not be possible to reverse the changes.

Also change in vaccine type, date of vaccination, vaccination events particular not recorded in Co-WIN can be made with the help of District Immunisation Officers (DIOs). These changes can’t be done by users themselves, but users have to request the DIO.

“States were informed that the CoWIN platform was now available in 12 languages. The platform is equipped to register UDID unique disability ID card as well,” noted the release.

It added that accounts can now be blocked for 24 hours if greater than 1000 searches are done in 50 login sessions of 15 minutes each.