India has vaccinated more than 6 million healthcare and frontline workers in the last 24 days. However, many others have either missed their turn or have still not got the shot, possibly due to vaccine hesitancy.

In order to seamlessly reach the goal of vaccinating priority groups, the Union health ministry has written to states/ UTs asking them to wrap up vaccinating priority groups and those healthcare workers who have missed their turn to take the vaccine.

“We cannot keep rescheduling healthcare workers,” Rajesh Bhushan, health secretary, said on Tuesday.

The health ministry has advised states and UTs that all healthcare workers should be scheduled for vaccinations by February 20, 2021.

By February 24, a mop up round or round up session should be scheduled for those healthcare workers that have missed their turn to be vaccinated. This would be the last day for them to take the first jab.

According to the health ministry officials, by March 1, 2021, all frontline workers should be scheduled to get the first jab of the vaccine.

By March 6, 2021, all frontline workers should get a mop-up round - meaning those who have missed should be covered.

States have been told that they could schedule multiple mop-up rounds to cover all priority groups.

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan recently said that vaccination for elderly priority groups is slated to begin in March.

As of February 9, 2021, till 6.30 PM, nearly 65.2 lakh beneficiaries have received the vaccination under the countrywide Covid-19 vaccination exercise.

Out of these, 55,85,043 are healthcare workers and 9,43,167 are frontline workers.

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https://www.indiatoday.in/coronavirus-outbreak/vaccine-updates/story/missed-your-turn-govt-is-giving-healthcare-frontline-workers-another-chance-to-take-covid-19-vaccine-1767612-2021-02-09