Chief Secretary Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta reviews public health response to COVID 19

SRINAGAR, OCTOBER 01: The Chief Secretary, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta today chaired a meeting to review the public health response to COVID-19 and asked the divisional and district administrations to ensure 100 % coverage of all eligible populations with the first COVID vaccination dose by 15th October 2021.

Administrative Secretaries of Finance, Health & Medical Education, Revenue, General Administration, besides Divisional Commissioners Kashmir/ Jammu, Inspectors General of Police, Kashmir/ Jammu, all Deputy Commissioners, all District Superintendents of Police along with MD, National Health Mission, Director, Family Welfare, and other concerned officers participated in the meeting.

It was informed that in Jammu and Kashmir, 12,10,920 tests per million population are being done and 0.21% daily positivity rate is being reported against the national average of 4,21,449 tests per million and positivity rate of 1.49% respectively.

 So far, 1,14,31,276 vaccination doses have been administered to the eligible population in the union territory. A total of 79,05,930 (85% of the total population) people of 18 years and above age have been administered the first dose while 35,25,346  in the same age group have been given the second dose (38% of the total population). A total of 13.97 lakh vaccinations remain to be done in J&K with the first dose.

The Chief Secretary appreciated the efforts of the district administration, Srinagar in lowering the daily positivity rate from 0.89% to 0.19% and vaccinating approximately 1,29,300 people during the previous week

Dr. Mehta impressed upon all the district administrations to mobilize all resources towards universal vaccination of eligible groups, including initiating door-to-door campaigns or week-long campaigns, if necessary, to saturate all the eligible population in all districts with the first dose by 105h October 2021.

They were advised to utilize the manpower from the blocks/areas where saturation has already been achieved for dedicated vaccination drives in the left-out areas during the upcoming week while ensuring that the process of second dose vaccination does not suffer.

The Health and Medical Education Department was asked to ensure regular supply of vaccines to the districts, besides enhancing testing facilities and adequately equipping them with resources so that any increase in COVID infections is identified in the nick of time and the likelihood of the third wave is stymied.

The department was further advised to reassign some of the staff from the Control Rooms to their original places of posting or in the areas facing a shortage of vaccinators as a part of staff rationalization to cater to the increased demand of vaccination in view of target dates for completion of vaccination.

Dr. Mehta stressed the need for strict enforcement of the COVID appropriate behaviour (CAB) and COVID SOPs, especially during the upcoming season of festivities. The enforcement agencies were directed to strictly implement the established protocols and levy penalties on defaulters.