New Delhi: Highlighting the slow pace of vaccination through the Private COVID Vaccination Centers (PCVCs), the central government today asked the states to review the status and progress on vaccine procurement by PCVCs on a daily basis.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan chairing a high-level meeting with Health Secretaries and senior immunization officials of 15 States/UTs, termed the slow pace of vaccination through the PCVCs as a cause of “serious worry”.
He highlighted the areas of concern and advised the States to review the status on a daily basis and ensure that indents for the earmarked quantum are quickly placed with the private vaccine manufacturers, saying that “Many Private COVID Vaccination Centers (PCVCs) have not placed any indent for the earmarked quantum of COVID vaccines.”
“Many State Governments need to facilitate the vaccine procurement by the PCVC,” he said.
States were also advised to ensure that the gap between the indented quantity and payment towards their procurement reduced to zero as in many cases while the indent for the COVID vaccine has been placed with the state government, payment has not been made for the entire amount of indented vaccines and in some cases, no payment has been made for the entire indented quantity.
They further asked to quickly ensure lifting of dispatched doses.
“In some States, wherever vaccine doses have been lifted by PCVCs, the actual administration of COVID vaccines is seen to be less than the vaccine quantity lifted,” the ministers said advising states and PCVCs to review this and ensure that the balance of unutilized vaccine doses is quickly administered.
The states were also advised to ensure speedy and effective coordination between the PCVCs and the vaccine manufacturers to remove bottlenecks if any.
The meeting was held with Secretaries and senior immunization officials of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Telangana, Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, West Bengal, Delhi, Punjab and Haryana through video conference (VC).
The nodal representatives from the two COVID vaccine manufacturers, Ms/ Bharat Biotech and M/s Serum Institute of India (SII), were also present at the meeting.
In light of the revised guidelines for universalisation of the countrywide COVID Vaccination Program and recent advisories, the progress of vaccine procurement and administration by the Private COVID Vaccination Centers (PCVCs)in these states/UT was reviewed.
States were again informed of the usage of the Co-WIN platform as the backend management tool for the order placements.
