States/UTs roll out Intensified Mission Indradhanush 3.0, over 29,000 children covered on day 1

The States/Union Territories (UTs) have rolled out the first phase of Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 3.0 to cover children and pregnant women who missed the routine immunisation during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

It informed that over 29,000 children and 5,000 pregnant women were covered on Day 1.

The program is aimed to accelerate the full immunisation of children and pregnant women through a mission mode intervention.

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan launched the IMI 3.0 campaign on February 19, 2021, along with the IMI 3.0 portal and the operational guidelines for it and the awareness material as a part of the campaign. He urged the states and district functionaries to reach each and every child and attain maximum full immunisation coverage.

The campaign was inaugurated by the Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh on February 21, 2021, in Rajasthan with its Health Minister Dr Raghu Sharma on February 22, 2021, and in Madhya Pradesh, by Dr Prabhu Ram Choudhary, the State Health Minister on February 22, 2021.

The campaign is scheduled to have two rounds of immunisation lasting 15 days (excluding the routine immunisation and holidays) starting from February 22 and March 22, 2021. It will be conducted in pre-identified 250 districts/urban areas across 29 States/UTs in the country.

As per the guidelines released for IMI 3.0, the districts have been classified to reflect 313 as low risk, 152 as medium risk, and 250 as high-risk districts.

States have been asked to follow the "staggered approach" to avoid crowding at the session sites and even plan break-up sessions if the approach is not effective to avoid crowding. The sessions are also planned in such a way that not more than 10 beneficiaries are present at the session site at one given point in time.

( With inputs from ANI )