Srinagar November 26 (KNS):Jammu & Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has directed the Health & Medical Education Department to prepare a strategy to deliver vaccine across 20-districts of UT ahead of the possible launch of Covid-19 vaccine in Indian early next year,
Recently Lt. Governor during a meeting had Directed Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education Department, Atal Dulloo to prioritize the delivery of vaccine to cover the entire population of J&K in phases.
The move by LG comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 24 during his meeting with chief ministers and representatives of various states had reviewed India’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Experts told KNS that a possibility is there that Oxford-AstraZeneca and other vaccines may be launched in coming months after approval given by a central government appointed committee.
Sources added a steering committee and block-wise task forces may be established in UT to prepare for the distribution of vaccines when it will be available for disbursal.
“We have to prepare a comprehensive strategy to deliver the vaccine to the entire population. Our first priority will be vulnerable groups and corona warriors. Keeping in view the remoteness of some villages in J&K, it is necessary to do a massive logistics exercise”, said an official source in the Health department.
Although Covid-19 positive cases in J&K have shown constant decline during the past two months, there is still a threat that virus cases may surge due to the ongoing marriage season and winter.
As on November 25, a total number of positive cases in Kashmir division has reached to 64,730 including 60,358 recoveries and 1,091 deaths while as total number of positive cases in Jammu division have reached to 43,089 including 40,534 recoveries and 572 deaths.
The total number of active cases in Jammu and Kashmir are 5,264 including 3,281 from Kashmir division. With 570 more recoveries, the tally of total recoveries in Jammu and Kashmir has reached 100,892, which is 93.57 percent of the total cases.
The Health and Medical Education Department had conducted seru-prevalence surveys in Jammu and in Kashmir Valley. “There is still a possibility that virus cases may rebound due to cold and failure of people to follow the guidelines. We are monitoring the situation on a daily basis”, said an official source in administration.
Senior officials in the Health and Medical Education Department are quite concerned and say there could be another surge if precautions are not taken and guidelines are not followed by the general population before the arrival of medicine
Regarding the targeted testing in vulnerable clusters J&K Government has recently launched a ‘sweeping’ strategy, wherein universal testing is carried out to identify patients and the process is repeated regularly to sweep clean the area.(KNS)