Vaccine / Govt advises 15 states over 'slow pace' of COVID-19 vaccination by private centres

Zoom News : Jul 15, 2021, 09:46 AM
New Delhi: The Union ministry of health and family welfare on Wednesday directed 15 states and Union territories (UT) to review the progress of Covid-19 vaccine procurement by the private centres on a daily basis. The government also cautioned the health secretaries of these state and union territories that the slow pace of Covid-19 vaccination by private centres in these states is a “cause of serious worry.

The remarks followed a high-level meeting chaired by Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan with the health secretaries of 15 states and UTs. Health secretaries of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Telangana, Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, West Bengal, Delhi, Punjab and Haryana along with nodal officers from Bharat Biotech and the Serum Institute of India were present in the meeting.

“Highlighting the slow pace of vaccination through the PCVCs, States were advised to review status and progress on vaccine procurement by PCVCs on a daily basis. They were advised to ensure speedy and effective coordination between the PCVCs and the vaccine manufacturers to remove bottlenecks, if any. It was pointed out that advance visibility of the COVID vaccines to the States by the Union Health Ministry is in turn required to be communicated to the citizens by States,” the ministry said in a statement.

According to a Hindustan Times report, the government highlighted four main concerns to the states and also gave related advisories to the states and UTs.

Here Are The Main Concerns:

Many private vaccination centres have not placed an order for the number of Covid-19 vaccines allocated for them.

The payment towards the quantity of vaccines ordered has not been made in some cases where the order has already been placed while in other cases no payment has been made for the entire order.

While in some cases the quantity of vaccines paid for has not been fully lifted by the states and the private centres and in some other cases, the quantity procured has not been fully administered, the ministry further said.

“States were again informed of the usage of the CoWIN platform as the backend management tool for the order placements. States and UTs are required to aggregate this demand,” the ministry further said in its statement.

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