Health Ministry’s new directive says no contemporary registrations for healthcare and frontline employees

A brand new directive from the Union well being secretary states that contemporary registrations for the Covid-19 vaccination beneath classes of heathcare and frontline employees is not going to be allowed.
A letter dated April 3 was issued to chief secretaries of states stating that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare obtained a number of inputs that at some vaccination centres, ineligible beneficiaries are being registered as HCWs (healthcare employee) and FLWs (frontline employee), and that they’re getting vaccinated in full violation of the prescribed pointers.
“There has been a 24 per cent increase in the HCW database in the last few days,” Bhushan has written within the letter. The subject was mentioned with state representatives on April 3, following which it was determined that no contemporary registration will likely be allowed beneath these classes.
“All efforts have been made in close collaboration with states and union territories to saturate the vaccination of HCWs and FLWs. While tracking the progress for completing the vaccination of all HCWs and FLWs with the first dose, the timeline was extended multiple times and was fixed at February 25 for HCWs and March 6 for FLWs. Around a month has elapsed and new groups have been identified subsequently,” the letter said.
While common vaccination of HCWs and FLWs of these registered must be accomplished, no new registration must be made, Bhushan has directed states.
Across the nation, the vaccination drive has lined greater than 7.5 crore beneficiaries. Over 6.5 crore have gotten the primary dose, whereas multiple crore have gotten the second dose. Till April 4, Maharashtra has vaccinated greater than 73 lakh beneficiaries. According to state well being officers, Maharashtra was capable of obtain a report 4.62 lakh vaccinations on a single day on Sunday, throughout 4,102 vaccination centres.
While Mumbai, Thane and Nagpur are recording a excessive variety of vaccinations day by day, Pune district has now began inoculating greater than 70,000 beneficiaries day by day. A marketing campaign has additionally been launched within the district to begin vaccinating multiple lakh folks day by day from April 5.

According to Sudhir Mehta, coordinator of Pune platform for Covid response and president of MCCIA, to attain these numbers, they’d roped in all Ganesha mandals to volunteer for the vaccination drive of their respective localities. Close to 100 NGOs and social organisations additionally mobilised their groups to boost consciousness, handle websites and the gang. Over 200 hospitals deliberate extra vaccination websites to assist obtain one lakh a day goal.

“With increased vaccination centres, our hospitals have recruited additional staff, most of whom are still not vaccinated. Volunteer groups, which are major drivers of our vaccination campaigns and smooth implementation, are also not eligible for vaccination. This new directive from the health ministry has taken us back in our journey towards safeguarding Pune district that is going through an emergency crisis with close to 10,000 cases a day and an average of 50 daily deaths,” Mehta mentioned.
He identified that the variety of deaths had been growing, together with within the youthful age teams, and this was inflicting anxiousness amongst volunteer teams. Given the state of affairs, volunteers, frontline and healthcare employees not lined by vaccination had been now backing out, he mentioned.