lucknow the up government has decided to launch a special drive to reach out to children who have missed their routine vaccine shots on account of the ongoing covid19 pandemic vaccines are a lifesaving measure that lays a direct impact on the quality of life of an individual in times of novel coronavirus pandemic a large number of children missed their routine vaccines accordingly the state government has decided to launch a threemonthlong special drive for routineimmunization ri said additional chief secretary health and family welfare amit mohan prasad on wednesdayaccording to sources in the state family welfare department ri services were hit during the lockdown though senior officials claim that a large number ofprelisted children were covered a new list is being prepared to reach out to children of migrants who could have missed the shotsclaiming that the drive will begin in november prasad added the groundwork for the ri campaign will begin in october when the state launches the communicable diseases prevention campaign one of the elements of this drive is to line list the children who have missed their shots ashas anms andanganwadi workers have been given relevant instructions for thisit may be noted that the three categories of field workers have been asked to conduct house to house visits between october 1 and 15 as a part of the communicable diseases prevention campaign in every village the three women are also responsible for promoting routine immunization the additional task of collecting data on names and number of children who missed their shots will come handy when the special ri campaign is launchedhealth officials also noted that even when the services were offered some kids could have been missed even when services were offered a number of people are either unable to access them because of reluctance to leave home transport interruptions economic hardships restrictions on movement or fear of being exposed to people infected with covid19 also many health workers are also unavailable due to restrictions on travel or redeployment to covid response duties as well as lack of protective gear sources said world health organisation unicef and other health sector agencies have also expressed concern over the alarming decline in the number of children receiving lifesaving vaccines around the world due to disruptions in delivery and uptake of immunization services the likelihood that children born in the present day will be fully vaccinated with all globally recommended vaccines by the time they reach the age of five is less than 20 according to a recent report brought out by who and unicef