NEW DELHI: Dr Harsh Vardhan, Minister of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India, launched ‘Intensified Mission Indradhanush 3.0’ on Friday, February 19. The said mission will be conducted in two rounds, across 250 districts/urban areas across the nation, starting from February 22 and March 22. He launched the IMI 3.0 portal as well at the event.
Dr Vardhan introduced operational guidelines for IMI.30 and the awareness material, also called as IEC package, which has been developed as a part of the campaign. An official release by MoHFW stated Dr Vardhan’s elation at the elaborate preparations to immunize every mother and child in the nation. The release stated that the IMI3.0 has been launched in a bid to vaccinate children and pregnant women who missed their vaccine doses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The IMI 3.0 will identify and vaccinate the beneficiaries in two rounds, where each round will last for 15 days. The release mentioned that beneficiaries from migration areas are often hard to reach, and therefore, they will be targeted on priority basis, for there are more chances of them having missed their vaccine dose.
Dr Vardhan commented that implementing large campaigns like IMI 3.0, even during the rollout of COVID-19 vaccine, clearly indicates that India’s health system is getting stronger day by day. This programme will aim to reach the population which have remained unreachable so far with all the available vaccines under Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) and will thereby accelerate full immunization and complete wellbeing of children and pregnant women.