Govt tells states to refocus on universal immunization as covid cases fall

The Union health ministry has directed states and union territories to focus on the universal immunization programme (UIP), which was severely affected during the worst years of the covid pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

- Priyanka Sharma

The universal immunization programme is one of the largest public health programmes in the world targeting close to 26 million newborns and 29 million pregnant women annually. A child is said to be fully immunized if it receives all due vaccines as per the national immunization schedule within the first year of life.

"During the pandemic, the immunization division of the health ministry was occupied with the covid-19 vaccination programme. As a result, the routine vaccination programme went in backlog. With more than 2 billion covid vaccine doses having been administered so far and covid cases declining, there is a need to revive the universal immunization programme," a senior government official said.