NEW DELHI : 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.
The universal immunization programme is one of the largest public health programmes targeting close of 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 1st 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.