COVID-19 vaccination drive kick starts in J&K, 4000 vaccinated on day 1

Srinagar, Jan 16: The much-awaited Covid-19 vaccination drive commenced on Saturday in Jammu and Kashmir along with other parts of the country.

Top health officials said that the drive has commenced and around 4000 health workers were vaccinated on day 1.

The inaugural event of the drive was held  at SKIMS Soura  where Advisor to Lt Governor, R R Bhatnagar, SMC Mayor Junaid Matoo and Deputy Commissioner Srinagar, Dr Shahid Choudhary were present. The first vaccine shot was given to Director SKIMS, Dr AG Ahangar and a sanitation worker.

In Jammu LG Manoj Sinha inaugurated the vaccination drive.

State immunisation officer Dr Qazi Haroon said that in 40 sites of J&K around 100 frontline workers were vaccinated at each site on Saturday.

“Many head of departments came forward and got vaccinated. It is a message that vaccination is safe and there shouldn’t be any hesitancy,” he said.

Qazi said that it will take around two weeks to vaccinate one lakh health workers of both government and private hospitals.

R Bhatnagar, advisor to LG speaking with reporters at the inaugural ceremony of Covid-19 vaccination drive at SKIMS  said that around 5000 health care workers have been trained at district and block levels to vaccinate front line workers while more people are being trained.

Bhatnagar said that in phase one, over one lakh health workers are being covered for which they have already received vaccines, while in the second phase around 4-5 lakh people including police, parliamentary forces, municipality and other front line workers will be covered.

“In the third phase, the government is planning to cover more around 20 lakh people who are more than 50 years of age,” he said, adding that  after that people below 50 years, people having comorbidities will be the next lot to get the vaccination.

He said that over 3 lakh people have already registered for vaccination in J&K and the vaccine which we are using has been authorised by a competent authority.

In Jammu division LG Manoj Sinha inaugurated the Covid vaccination drive where he advised people to continue to follow precautions so that they can fully beat this deadly virus.

“This is a historic day. We are working to successfully carry out the first phase of the vaccination drive within the deadline and then complete the second phase to make a healthy Jammu and Kashmir. We need to continue following Covid protocols,” he said.

It is pertinent to mention here that J&K on Wednesday received a batch of 1. 465 lakh Covishield vaccines and among them 79,000 were received by Kashmir division.

As per the government of India guidelines, people who receive the first shot of Covidshield vaccine will be injected only Covidshield as the second dose as well—(KNO)