The matter was discussed during a review of Covid-19 vaccination by the Union Health Secretary

More than 2 crore (20 million) additional vaccine doses will be sent to the states and Union Territories (UTs) from August 27-31 to vaccinate school teachers and non-teaching staff on a priority basis.

States and UTs can use UDISE (Unified District Information System of Education) data and co-ordinate with State Education Departments, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, and the Navodaya Vidyalaya Sangathan to provide necessary fillip to this vaccination programme, the Union Health Ministry has said.

The matter was discussed during a review of the progress of COVID-19 vaccination by Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Wednesday.

During the meeting, states and UTs were advised to focus on enhancing second dose coverage as well as immunization of school teachers and staff, both government and private, the health ministry said.

The Union Health Secretary stressed on having a definite district level plan to increase coverage of second dose.

States were advised to undertake targeted strategies like earmarking specific days/ specific vaccination sites (CVC)s/ specific timings every day/ separate queue to exclusively administer second dose of the vaccines.

They were also advised to undertake widespread IEC campaigns for enhanced awareness among the beneficiaries. The States were also requested to identify districts whose vaccine coverage is lower than the State average and monitor as well as enhance progress of vaccination in these districts.

The Union Health Secretary also cautioned the states and UTs regarding a surge in COVID cases during the upcoming festival season and advised them to undertake all possible public health measures to curb this.

According to the health ministry, he cited the example of Kerala where a visible rise of cases has been registered over the past week post Onam.