Uttar Pradesh: 4 Lakh kids missed inoculation due to curbs, drive from Monday

In an interview with TOI, UP CM Yogi Adityanath said: “The state has worked hard to boost routine immunization. In fact, Mission Indradhanush was taken up on mission mode. The special campaign aims to ensure that the momentum is maintained.”

Lucknow: To reach out to nearly 4 lakh children who missed their vaccination shots because of the Covid-19, the UP government is launching a massive immunization campaign from November.

In an interview with TOI, UP CM Yogi Adityanath said: “The state has worked hard to boost routine immunization. In fact, Mission Indradhanush was taken up on mission mode. The special campaign aims to ensure that the momentum is maintained.”

The move comes after the state government realized that over 3.96 lakh children had missed their vaccine during the lockdown period. Health officials said that this group includes parents who kept their kids away from health teams fearing that they may contract the infection.

The children were line listed in the door-to-door Dastak campaign organized in the second week of October.

To cover the additional target, the state government has added Monday to the routine immunization days which till now were Wednesday and Saturday.

“The drive begins on the first Monday of November and will continue for the next three months. In case Monday is a holiday, the campaign will take place on the subsequent day. It will also cover 4.96 lakh pregnant women,” said senior health officials.

“It not only ensures that the beneficiary child is prepared to fight a number of diseases, but also guarantees the well-being of all children in the neighbourhood by creating herd immunity,” said Dr Praful Bharadwaj, health officer, Unicef.

The campaign will be formally launched by the CM on Sunday while the booth activity will start across urban and rural areas of the state from Monday. Health officials lauded the hard work put in by field workers especially, ASHAs, anganwadi workers and ANMs to list out every child.

They also urged the people of the state to come forward in the best interest of their child and get them vaccinated.

On March 20, the state was forced to suspend all fixed and outreach immunization sessions. Only birth doses continued at government delivery points. The situation remained the same till May 2.


Besides the problem of convincing parents, the key challenges in the resumption of services included engagement of health workers in Covid-19 surveillance, maintaining the quality and supply chain of vaccines and logistics, effective adherence to Covid-19 protocols and following basic principles of immunization.

Officials thanked partners, particularly Unicef, and other communication channels for spreading awareness.