In a national review meeting held in New Delhi yesterday,  Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya pointed out that about 103.4 million people in the country have not taken the second dose of the COVID19 vaccine in the prescribed interval. The minister also launched a month-long door-to-door vaccination campaign — ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ in order to ensure that people get fully vaccinated against coronavirus.

“We’re going to launch ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ door-to-door vaccination campaign for the next one month. We have to ensure full vaccination for every district,” Mandaviya said while chairing the meeting with the state health ministers.

The campaign will focus on vaccinating people eligible for second dose and also those who have not taken the first dose, especially focusing on the districts that are performing poorly in the vaccination programme.

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The Union Health Minister also stated that adequate vaccine doses were available in the country, and more than 120 million unutilised doses are available with the states for administering.

“No district should be without full vaccination,” Mandaviya was quoted  in the press statement issued by the health ministry yesterday on October 28. “Let us aim to cover all eligible with 1st dose of COVID-19 vaccine by end-November 2021,” he added.

So far, more than one billion doses have been administered in the country. Of the total doses, 316 million (30 per cent) second doses have been administered. The gap between the first and second dose is 12 weeks for Covishield, four weeks for Covaxin, and three weeks for Sputnik V.