Ranchi: In order to encourage beneficiaries who are hesitant to take the Covid-19 vaccine, the state health department has asked all 24 districts to make sure that registered beneficiaries are allowed to take the jab any day during the drive, irrespective of the date allotted to them after registration.
The direction comes in the wake of a letter issued by Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan which apprised the states of the new feature – ‘allot beneficiaries’ – that has been added to the Co-WIN app. As per the letter, the new feature is expected to facilitate the maximum utilization of staff deployed at vaccination sites so that they can cater to optimal number of beneficiaries per session.
The nodal officer for the vaccination program in state, Dr Ajit Prasad, said, “As per the directive from the Union health ministry, we have directed all our site in-charges to ensure that a beneficiary is administered the vaccine on any day of his/her preference during the inoculation drive. He added, “Once a beneficiary turns up at the centre to take the jab on his/her day of preference, the site in-charge will verify the beneficiary’s details by entering the latter’s mobile number in the database and then administer the vaccine.”
Following a directive by the Centre, the state health department conducted a video conferencing session with several deputy commissioners and immunization officers to improve the vaccination coverage rate which has dipped since its launch on January 16. “We have asked all our site in-charges to proactively coordinate with the beneficiaries and accordingly, plan the drive on a daily basis so that the rate of coverage can be increased,” Dr Prasad said.
The coverage rate for January 16 was 66% which came down to 61% the next day. On January 18, the coverage rate was 56% as only 2,749, out of the registered 4,892 beneficiaries, turned up to take the shot.