CM Dr. Manik Saha to launch state-level IMI 5.0 vaccination drive on Aug 5

Chief Minister Dr. Manik Saha will launch the massive vaccine catch-up campaign of Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 5.0 for three months in the state of Tripura to immunize pregnant women and children up to the age of five against the diseases like Measles and Rubella.

Addressing a press conference here in the conference hall of the Mission Directorate of NHM, Tripura, the director of National Health Mission Subhashish Das said that with the launching of the IMI 5.0, the state of Tripura has set a target of full immunization during the three months long drive for vaccination.

“Tripura recorded 69.5% vaccination coverage during the year 2019 as per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) report, which perhaps has taken Tripura to reach an average of around 98% vaccination coverage,” he said, adding that this time Tripura has set a target for full immunization under the IMI 5.0.

He said that this is for the first time that the children with upto 5 years of age has been brought under the vaccination coverage of the IMI 5.0, which was earlier between the age group of 0-2 years only.

He said that the first round of the vaccination drive of the IMI 5.0 will be held from August 7 to 12, second round from September 11 to 16 and the third round from October 9 to 14. During these three rounds, children of 0-5 years age group and pregnant women, who have missed any dose of vaccine as per National Immunization Schedule (NIS), will be vaccinated, he told reporters.

He further informed that information regarding Mission Indudhanush-5.0 will be registered online in the WIN (U-WIN) portal like that of the Co-WIN portal of COVID vaccination. All children and pregnant women will be registered through the WIN portal and all information regarding their vaccination will be archived in the portal. U-WIN platform will help the guardians of the children or the beneficiaries to do their session planning for vaccination, he added.

“This time we shall approach more to the pockets of the state, where there is some vaccine hesitancy. There has been report that some are very reluctant to take vaccine in the name of its risky outcome, but the fact is every vaccine is national tested and hence there lies no risk factor,” he said, adding that target has been set to reach out to at least 1,897 pregnant women and 10,260 children of 0-5 years age group for this IMI 5.0 immunization programme.

Quick response team is set up in every block, sub-division, and district to address any untoward incidents during the time of immunization, he said further.

On the other hand, the state immunization officer Dr. Moushumi Sarkar spoke about the Tribal Immunization Strategy (TIS) and said that several strategies have been taken up for maximum coverage of the vaccine in the tribal populated areas of the state.

“We have seen in the past that the full immunization coverage is less in the tribal populated areas of the state. So, this TIS is to render maximum coverage in those tribal populated areas and bridge the gap,” she said, adding that several strategies including outreach session, mobile session, adequate meetings with the mothers and providing incentives to the best performing health sub-centres.