100 % jabbed in 45 plus group in J&K
Emerging as one of the country’s leading regions in terms of Covid-19 vaccination, the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has inoculated its entire population in the 45 plus age group category with at least one of dose of the vaccine.
Despite initial hesitancy by residents, especially in the Kashmir valley, due to sustained efforts of health and medical education department including micro-planning and engagement with authorities at district and panchayat levels, as well as with religious leaders, helped them to ramp up the vaccination drive in J&K.
Vaccination against the novel coronavirus in the category began in Jammu and Kashmir January 16 with two inaugural ceremonies in Jammu city and Srinagar respectively.
Dr. Saleem Ur Rehman, Director General Family Welfare, MCH and Immunization, J&K said, “The first dose achievement of above 45 age group in the UT has touched 100%. We have geared our efforts to vaccinate the entire population and working on mission mode to achieve the targets in a time-bound manner. Also in the above 45 age group 41% population of J&K has been jabbed with second dose as well”.
“In fact in the 18-44 age group we are above the national average and above 30 lakh citizens have been inoculated by at least one dose”, he added.
Initially the health authorities started administering Covaxin doses in both Jammu and Kashmir, later the people started receiving Covishield doses as well.
Few days back, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha while taking stock of the cumulative Covid vaccination, observed that the J&K Government has substantially ramped up the vaccination capacity across the UT, which will add to the efforts of inoculating the maximum population.
He had directed the officials to work with renewed energy for increasing the speed of vaccination in the 18-44 age group and meet the targets in a time-bound manner.
Till date 76,51,151 vaccine doses have been administered in the J&K across all the categories with 59, 20,315 first and 17,30,836 as second doses. On Wednesday, 34,540 vaccine shots were administrated across J&K at 1495 government health facilities and seven private facilities.
As per official date out of the total 76,45,364 doses, 59,15,640 doses have been administered to citizens above the age group of 18 years, while 5,35, 193 doses(both first and second) have been administered to front line workers(FLWs), while 1,77,125 doses(both first and second) have been administered to health care workers(HCWs).
