New Delhi, Nov 16 "Pradhan Mantri Narendra Modi Ji had reiterated that achievements with regard to vaccination belong to the entire country and not the government alone," said Union Health Minister Mandaviya on Tuesday while interacting with representatives of various stakeholders helping in furthering the reach and coverage of COVID vaccination.
"Involvement of all stakeholders working according to their expertise and capacity to achieve a collective goal is the very essence of democracy," he said.
Mandaviya said that Jan-Bhagidari is essential for such a mammoth exercise like India's vaccination programme. "India stood tall in COVID crisis because of the initiative of non-government organisations and civil society organisations who supplemented the efforts of the government to ensure that nobody went to sleep on a hungry stomach during the COVID lockdown," said the minister.
He underlined their contribution to the mass vaccination coverage in ensuring that 80 per cent and 40 per cent of the population received their first and second dose of the vaccine, respectively.
Giving the example of developed countries whose health system and healthcare delivery have been exhausted with multiple waves of Covid, the Minister emphasised on completing the COVID-19 vaccination drive with 100 per cent administration of both the doses as an immediate necessity to end the pandemic in India. "We have to all ensure that everybody is vaccinated," he stated.
He welcomed all NGOs, political parties and citizens in the endeavour to provide vaccination against COVID-19 to the last citizen.
He exhorted the partners in the meeting to transform the vaccination exercise into a 'Jan Andolan' and highlight the importance of the second dose in protecting from serious illnesses and hospitalization. Mandaviya suggested to them to identify an area according to their capacity and go for saturation vaccination among all the inhabitants.
Mandaviya asked them to work towards dispelling myths, misconceptions and doubts related to the COVID-19 vaccine, support on-site mobilization of beneficiaries, participate in state, district and block level task forces for overall support in planning and implementation of the vaccination drive.
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