NEW DELHI: The World Health Organization on Tuesday called for intensified efforts towards childhood immunization with a focus on reaching the 2.3 million unvaccinated and 650,000 partially vaccinated children.

The WHO's South-East Asia Region complimented member countries for scaling up childhood immunization coverage to pre-pandemic level.

Every child deserves to be protected against life-threatening diseases with routine immunization, said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, the regional director of WHO's South-East Asia region.

"The momentum built with impressive efforts and immunization service recoveries must continue to benefit every child for a healthy and productive life," she said.

The WHO and UNICEF estimates for national immunization coverage for 2022, released on Tuesday, show that in WHO's south-east Asia region the coverage rate for DPT3, third dose of diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus vaccines reached 91 per cent of the pre-pandemic level, a sharp increase from 82 per cent recorded in 2021.

The region has also shown a six per cent improvement in coverage of the measles vaccine in 2022 compared to 2021, moving from 86 per cent to 92 per cent.

The number of children who have not received even the first dose of DPT vaccine halved from 4.6 million in 2021 to 2.3 million in 2022.

Similarly, the number of partially vaccinated children -- who have received at least one dose of DPT vaccine but not the complete primary series of three doses, reduced from 1.3 million in 2021 to 6,50,000 in 2022.

The south-east Asia region had the best immunization recoveries among all WHO regions which can be majorly attributed to efforts being made by India and Indonesia, Singh said.

India recorded 93 per cent DPT3 coverage in 2022, surpassing the pre-pandemic all-time high of 91 per cent in 2019 and a rapid increase from 85 per cent recorded in 2021, she said.

"While we draw lessons from the pandemic to strengthen capacities to respond to future health emergencies, we must learn from countries which maintained their immunization rates even while responding to a pandemic," said the regional director of WHO's South-East Asia region.

"While overall immunization coverage levels are looking good and the progress encouraging, there remain variabilities in the coverage at sub-national levels in countries, especially in those with large populations.

"The inequities in immunization coverage leading to accumulation of pockets of unvaccinated children pose the risk of outbreaks of measles, diphtheria, and other vaccine-preventable diseases.

These gaps must be closed," Singh said.

The countries and partner agencies must continue to scale up efforts to identify unvaccinated children, strengthen the capacities of the health workforce, better understand and engage with vulnerable populations and roll out tailored strategies to reach every child, she added.