2nd war on Covid, says PM as Tika Utsav begins

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched “Tika Utsav” – or the vaccine festival -- saying that the four-day drive aims to encourage people to take the jab against coronavirus to fight the pandemic.

In a statement, Prime Minister Modi said, “The Tika Utsav marks the beginning of the second war against COVID-19... We should vaccinate as many eligible people through a special campaign and decide on zero wastage.”

In a tweet, he also made four requests to the citizens. “We are going to begin ‘Tika Utsav’ today nationwide. I urge countrymen to abide by four things - assist those who need help getting inoculated, help people in COVID treatment, wear masks and motivate others and if someone tests positive, create micro-containment zone in the area,” he said.

Pitching for “zero vaccine waste”, he said it has to be ensured that not a single jab is wasted. “We have to move towards optimum utilisation of the country’s vaccination capacity. This is a way to augment our capacity,” the PM added.

Several states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are gearing up with appeals being made to eligible people to get themselves vaccinated during the duration of the Tika Utsav.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has also issued

an appeal to people to get vaccinated in large numbers during the Tika Utsav.

On Saturday, the health ministry said that India is the fastest nation to administer 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccine in 85 days.

The US took 89 days to administer 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine, while China took 102 days to cross the same number, it said.

The Prime Minister’s Office also tweeted a chart showing India as the fastest country to reach this vaccination milestone, calling it “strengthening efforts to ensure a healthy and Covid-19 free India”.

In his interaction with chief ministers to discuss the Covid-19 situation and the ongoing vaccination drive on Thursday, Prime Minister Modi had urged them to focus on vaccinating all those who are above 45 years in age in high caseload districts.

“Sometimes, it helps in changing the atmosphere. The birth anniversary of Jyotiba Phule is on April 11 and on April 14, there is the birth anniversary of Baba Saheb. Can we organise a ‘Tika Utsav: or vaccine festival and create an atmosphere of ‘Tika Utsav’?” he had said.

“We should vaccinate as many eligible people through a special campaign and decide on zero wastage. If there is zero wastage in four days during Tika Utsav, it will also increase our vaccination capacity,” Modi had asserted.

He has also called for making optimum utilisation of vaccination capacity. “Let’s see how we can mobilise things from April 11 to 14 and there will be satisfaction of achievement. It will greatly help in changing the situation. I have also told the Indian government to provide as many vaccine doses as possible,” he said.

This should be our endeavour to vaccinate maximum eligible people during the Tika Utsav, Modi had asserted.

The daily count of positive cases reached new record highs in the last few days despite having dipped to about 20,000 a few weeks back.

While some states have flagged a “shortage” of vaccine doses, the Centre has maintained that a sufficient quantity of the jabs have been allocated to all the states and that many of them have been unable to inoculate all eligible beneficiaries.

On Sunday, Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh took his first dose of the vaccine at the launch of ‘ Tika Utsav’ in Imphal’s Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences.

Karnataka health minister K Sudhakar launched the drive at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Medical College and Research Institute in Bengaluru on Sunday.

In Jharkhand, eligible people queued up outside an inoculation centre in Ranchi’s Ashok Nagar to receive the vaccine.

People in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala, and Delhi also participated in huge numbers in Tika Utsav and got themselves vaccinated.