Ministry of Health launched Intensified Mission Indradhanush 3.0
By TIOL News Service
NEW DELHI, FEB 20, 2021: HEALTH Minister Mr Harsh Vardhan launched the pregnant women and children immunisation campaign, Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 3.0 on Friday, targeting those who have missed their vaccine doses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The IMI 3.0 which will be conducted in two rounds from February 22 and March 22 in pre-identified 250 districts and urban areas across 29 States and Union Territories, said the ministry.
Mr Vardhan also launched the IMI 3.0 portal, released the operational guidelines and the awareness material developed as part of the campaign.
"Focus of the IMI 3.0 will be the children and pregnant women who have missed their vaccine doses during the COVID-19 pandemic. They will be identified and vaccinated during the two rounds of IMI 3.0. Each round will be for 15 days each. Beneficiaries from migration areas and hard to reach areas will be targeted as they may have missed their vaccine doses during COVID-19," said the ministry.
The Health Minister noted that IMI 3.0 will build on the gains of previous phases of the campaign as they have covered 690 districts, vaccinating some 37.64 million children and 9.46 million pregnant women.
As per the guidelines released for IMI 3.0, there are 313 low-risk districts, 152 medium-risk and 250 high-risk.
Expanding on the role of the campaign in the context on the COVID-19 crisis, the Health Minister said, "The country has successfully been able to contain COVID-19 and the drive for two indigenous vaccines is being carried. With this, the importance of a vaccine has never been so strongly felt."
"Mission Indradhanush is indeed a successful strategy to reach out to every dropped out and left out child and pregnant woman. There has been remarkable improvement in the immunization coverage which is also evident in the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) data as available for 22 States," he added.
Mr Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare and Mr Mangal Pandey, Health Minister of Bihar, were also present.
The ministers called for 'COVID Appropriate Behaviour' (CAB) to be ensured during the immunisation activities and said the staggered approach will avoid overcrowding at the session sites.