According to latest data, India's first dose coverage is at 82% and second dose coverage at 43%

Pointing out that India was in the last lap of Covid-19 vaccination, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Monday called for an "aggressive campaign" to increase its pace and expand the coverage.

“Let us ensure collectively that no eligible citizen is left without the ‘Suraksha Kawachh’ of COVID19 vaccine in the country, and to address issues of hesitancy, misinformation, superstition etc," he said.

Mandaviya was interacting with Health Secretaries and senior officials of the Health Department from Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Puducherry to review the status of Covid-19 vaccination.

An official press release issued by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare after the review noted that India's first dose coverage was at 82% and second dose coverage at 43%.

However, Puducherry (66%, 39%), Nagaland (49%, 36%), Meghalaya (57%, 38%) and Manipur (54%, 36%) lag behind from national average in their first and second dose coverage, it pointed out.

Mandaviya reiterated that vaccination was the most potent weapon in the fight against Covid-19 pandemic.

The Union Health Minister urged the States and Union Territories (UTs) to innovatively rope in all stakeholders including NGOs, faith-based organisations, religious leaders, community influencers and other partners to motivate and mobilise all eligible population towards full Covid vaccination.

He urged the States to deploy all State Govt officials, one day each week, to visit each eligible household to motivate and mobilise them to towards full vaccination.

The Union Health Minister engaged with the States/UT to know the specific reasons holding back the wide scaling up of vaccination drive under the ongoing ‘Har GharDastak’ campaign.

India's first dose coverage is at 82% (as on date), except for the UT of Puducherry, coverage of other states remain below 60%, he pointed out.

Meghalaya with a target population over 20 lakh has 8 lakh people waiting to be given 1st dose and due beneficiaries for 2nd dose are over 2.5 lakh.

Similarly, Manipur has over 10 lakh people yet to get their 1st dose and over 3.7 lakh due beneficiaries for their 2nd dose out of a target population of 23.4 lakhs.

Nagaland with a target population of 14.7 lakhs has over 7.5lakh 1st doses to be achieved and 1.2 lakh beneficiaries due for 2nd doses.

Puducherry with a target population of 11.3 lakhs has 3.88 lakh people yet to get 1st dose and 1.91 lakh eligible but yet to receive 2nd dose.