Centre urges states to prioritise second COVID dose; recommends 30% supply for first

As India fights the devastating second wave of COVID-19, the Centre highlighted the urgent need to address the large number of beneficiaries waiting for the second dose. The Centre on Tuesday directed the state governments to prioritise the second dose for those who have already administered the first dose. This was discussed when Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan chaired a meeting to review the progress of COVID vaccination with States/UTs. In order to hold vaccination drives for the people who have already taken their first jab, States can reserve at least 70% of the vaccines supplied to them from the Centre (free of cost) for second dose vaccination, while the remaining 30% can be utilised for the first dose. However, the states are at full liberty to plan as per their discretion.

The States were asked to undertake an awareness campaign for reinforcing the importance of complete vaccination with two doses of the vaccine. Presenting details of States who have ensured high coverage of priority groups (like aged 45+, FLW and HCW) and the others, Union Health Secretary urged states to ensure that priority groups are vaccinated.

"States have been informed in a transparent manner in advance about the COVID vaccines being provided to them from Govt of India channel. The visibility for the forthcoming fortnight is conveyed to them in advance to enable better and more effective planning by them. The next allocation for the period 15-31th May will be conveyed to them on 14th May. It was pointed out that States can utilize the information regarding dose allocation for the next 15 days to plan their vaccination sessions," an official statement read.

"States were also urged to minimise vaccine wastage. While the overall levels have considerably reduced, Union Health Secretary pointed that there were many states which still needed to substantially reduce the wastage. It was suggested to States/UTs to retrain and reorient vaccinators to ensure judicious usage of the vaccines. All wastage more than the national average hereafter is to be adjusted from the subsequent allocations to that State/UT," the statement added.

India's COVID-19 situation:

India has so far conducted 17,27,10,066 vaccinations across the country, with 25,03,756 doses administered in 24 hours on Monday. Meanwhile, India became the fastest country in the world to administer 17 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses. The country that is battling the world's worst outbreak of COVID-19 has administered more than 17 crore vaccine doses in just 114 days, for which China took 119 days and the United States took 115 days to reach the landmark.

India after witnessing an alarming surge of over 4 lakh cases per day for nearly a week, the daily spike has gradually come down to 3.29 lakh cases on Tuesday. The single-day rise in new coronavirus infections in India fell to 3.29 lakh after 14 days taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 2,29,92,517, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday. After registering a steady rise for two months, the active cases have reduced to 37,15,221 comprising 16.16 percent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 82.75 percent.