Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday held a review meeting with senior officials and cautioned them against complacency while appealing them to take vaccination drive to remote areas. He also thanked officials and ASHA workers for the progress in inoculation drive.
“Progress made so far is due to your hardwork. Every member of administration, ASHA workers worked a lot, walked for miles and took vaccination to remote locations. But if we become lax after 1 Billion, a new crisis can come,” the Prime Minister said at a review meeting.
In the virtual meet, which was attended by District Magistrates of 40 districts and Chief Ministers of 11 states, PM Modi said that the country shouldn’t bring slightest of laxity and appealed officials to employ innovative methods to increase vaccination.
Pointing out that he recently met Pope Francis at the Vatican City, the prime minister said special emphasis was needed on taking message of religious leaders spreading awareness and encouraging the vaccination drive to the people. He urged the district officials to take the help of local religious leaders to spread awareness about COVID-19 vaccines and fight rumours.
“In this biggest pandemic in 100 years, nation faced several challenges. A significant thing in nation’s fight against Corona was that we found out new solutions, used innovative methods. You too will have to work more on innovative methods to increase vaccination in your areas,” he said.
“You’ll have to remember that the states that have achieved the goal of administering 100% first dose of vaccine, also faced different challenges in many areas. There were challenges of geographical situation, resources but these districts overcame those challenges to go ahead,” he added.
The meeting, which was held via video conferencing, included districts with less than 50 per cent coverage of the first dose and low coverage of the second dose of vaccine.
Modi stressed that there is a need to adopt innovative ways to increase vaccination in districts with low coverage. “So far you’ve been working to take people to vaccination centres, now it’s time to reach every house and work with ‘har ghar dastak’ campaign,” he said.
The 40 districts are spread across Jharkhand, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra and Meghalaya, among other states, according to the Prime Minister’s Office. Prime Minister Modi held the meeting immediately upon his return from abroad after attending the G20 and COP26 meetings.
Highlighting the need to accelerate the pace and coverage of vaccination, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya had recently said that there are more than 10.34 crore people in the country who have not taken the second dose of vaccine after the expiry of the prescribed interval.
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