Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday told the laggard states that Covid-19 vaccines should now be taken door to door so that they are delivered at every doorstep in order to accelerate the campaign.

Immediately after returning from his visit to Italy and Glasgow, the Prime Minister today held a virtual meeting of Chief Ministers and officials of states where the vaccine coverage is less than 50 per cent, PM Modi said:  "Till now all of you have made arrangements for taking the people to vaccination centres. Now vaccines should be taken to every doorstep, there should be a door to door vaccine drive."

He urged the health workers to reach every house with passion ‘har ghar tika, ghar ghar tika’

“Now we are preparing to take the vaccination campaign to each household. With the mantra of  ‘Har Ghar Dastak’, knock on every door, every household lacking the security net of a double dose of vaccine will be approached” he said.

PM Modi recalled his meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican, a few days ago and urged for a special emphasis on taking the message of religious leaders on vaccines to the public to step up the campaign. Youth organisations like National Cadet Corps and National Service Scheme should also be roped in, he added.

Magistrates of more than 40 districts across Jharkhand, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, and other states that have low vaccination coverage were at the meeting. Chief Ministers of these states were also present on the occasion.

"Under the free vaccine campaign, we have administered about 2.5 crore vaccine doses in a day. It shows our capacity," the Prime Minister said.

Now the motto is 'Every home vaccine, door-to-door vaccine'. We have to reach every house with this spirit, the Prime Minister said.

"We have to focus on every village, every town. If you have to make a different strategy for each village, do it… you can form teams of 25 people. He suggested that the officials along with implementing door-to-door vaccination, also ensure that the people take their second dose. "Because whenever the cases of infection start decreasing, sometimes the feeling of urgency decreases. People start feeling — what is the hurry, we will get it," the Prime Minister remarked.

During the interaction, the Prime Minister discussed the issue of vaccine hesitancy and the local factors behind it in detail. He discussed a wide array of ideas that can be implemented for ensuring 100% vaccination coverage in these districts.

He pointed out that even the better performing districts had similar challenges but they were met with determination and innovation. He asked the officials to develop micro strategies, keeping in mind the experience so far to go for saturation of vaccination by addressing the gaps at local level.

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