J & K Chief Secretary reviews COVID containment measures; Directs universal vaccination of 45 and above age category by 30th June

Srinagar: The Chief Secretary, Arun Kumar Mehta today chaired a meeting to review COVID containment measures including the progress of vaccination drives.

Financial Commissioner Health & Medical Education, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Mission Director National Health Mission (NHM), Director SKIMS, Principals GMC Srinagar/Jammu, and Directors Health Services Jammu/Kashmir participated in the meeting.

The Chief Secretary complimented the efforts of the Health & Medical Education Department, divisional and district administrations in mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reviewing the stock position of vaccines, the Chief Secretary directed achieving universal vaccination of 45 and above age category by the end of June. He directed the Health & Medical Education Department to prioritize and saturate the targeted groups of vulnerable population in 18-45 age category; and organize systematic vaccination drives for prompt vaccination of the remaining segment on arrival of the next consignment of vaccines.

The Department was asked to strengthen the panchayat-level COVID care centres as grid of COVID related services by facilitating COVID testing therein and lifting at least 10 samples per day towards early detection of COVID cases and subsequent establishment of micro-containment zones in cases of high positivity rate.

The Chief Secretary reiterated the ‘zero-tolerance’ policy of the Government towards COVID inappropriate behavior and asked the Department to promote its awareness among general masses through wider IEC activities including advertisements and radio talk shows. “People flaunting such an inappropriate behavior in disregard to the laid down SOPs should be penalized for jeopardizing public health”, he said. He also emphasized timely testing, tracking, treatment and isolation as the way forward.