• Home
• /
• coronavirus
• /
• Life and Living

Covid-19: Indian states told to focus on second dose for healthcare, frontline workers

New Delhi - While the national average for first dose administration among healthcare workers was 82%, it was just 56% for the second dose.

The Indian health ministry has urged state governments to focus on the second dose of Covid-19 vaccinations among healthcare and frontline workers, as their coverage is quite low.

While the national average for first dose administration among healthcare workers was 82 per cent, it was just 56 per cent for the second dose. Similarly, for frontline workers, the first dose coverage was 85 per cent, but for the second one it was 47 per cent. States including Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Delhi had a low coverage as compared to the national average.

Rajesh Bhushan, the health secretary, who chaired a high-level meeting on Thursday, said the low vaccination coverage for the second dose for the two priority groups was a cause of serious concern. He also highlighted the less than adequate private sector participation in the Covid vaccination drive in India.

The secretary also highlighted the modifications that had been introduced to the CoWIN platform to make it more effective as a back-end management tool for the vaccination drive. The platform is now available in 12 languages. And to prevent its misuse, accounts can be blocked for 24 hours if more than 1,000 searches are done in 50 login sessions of 15 minutes each.