12 states have achieved 60 per cent or more vaccination coverage of healthcare workers. (File)
The second Covid vaccine dose for those who took the first shot on Day 1 of inoculation drive on January 16, will be administered on February 13, the government has said. The Centre also said while the country has made remarkable progress in terms of the number of people vaccinated, there is room for improvement in the number of average vaccinations per session.
While 12 states and Union Territories achieved 60 per cent or more vaccination coverage of healthcare workers, they were all advised to "improve the percentage coverage of vaccinated beneficiaries," a statement from the government read.
The government gave the states a deadline today.
"Every State/UT must schedule all healthcare workers for vaccination at least once before 20th Feb 2021 and immediately thereafter organize mop-up rounds for them. Similarly, all frontline workers must be scheduled for vaccination at least once before 6th March 2021 and immediately thereafter organize mop-up rounds for them," the statement read.
The slow pace of vaccination has been a matter of concern, with doctors pointing out that at this rate, the country will not be able to meet its own six-month deadline to vaccinate 30 crore people -- health workers, frontline workers, people over the age of 50 and those with co-morbidities.
Doctors and administration officials agree that the dip in numbers is due to what they called vaccine hesitancy -- concerns about the vaccine in the mind of beneficiaries.
On January 30, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had told states that there is a "huge scope for improvement in the number of average vaccinations per session" and had asked them to increase the number of vaccination sites. Soon after, several states, including Delhi, increased the number for vaccination sites.
