Guwahati: The Assam government will launch the nationwide Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 5.0 on August 7, with the aim of covering 1 lakh children and pregnant women across all districts of the state.
IMI 5.0 is a vaccine catch-up campaign that focuses on reaching zero-dose children between 0 and 5 years and pregnant women who might have missed any vaccine doses in the national immunisation schedule.
The campaign will be formally launched by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma at Bokakhat in upper Assam’s Golaghat district on August 7. There will be three rounds of six days each per month. The first round will begin from August 7 to 12, the second round will be from September 11 to 16 and the third round will be conducted from October 9 to 14.
“This initiative also aims to achieve 95 per cent vaccination coverage of two doses of measles and rubella containing vaccine (MRCV) in every district across the state with a focus on the elimination of measles and rubella (MR), two highly contagious and vaccine-preventable diseases. The drive will also cover any left-out pregnant women with Td vaccine,” said Assam Health Minister Keshab Mahanta.
“Mission Indradhanush is also an opportunity to roll out the U-WIN platform throughout the state and country for digitalization of paper-based recording and reporting of immunization in line with the success and experience of the CO-WIN platform which was used during Covid-19 vaccination,” Mahanta added.
The campaign will be conducted across all the districts under the leadership and supervision of the district commissioners and will be implemented by the district establishment of the health and family welfare department with the active support of other line stakeholder departments and UN agencies.
“The campaign will cover approximately one lakh left out, dropout children between 0-5 years of age and pregnant women. New beneficiaries would be added over and above the target set for the first round in the subsequent 2nd and 3rd rounds in September and October respectively,” Mahanta said.
The minister said special focused areas would be tea gardens, char areas, forest areas, hilly areas, migratory populations and areas that experience floods frequently.