The district administrations in Bandipora and Ramban have launched a door-to-door vaccination drive against the coronavirus pandemic in Jammu and Kashmir.
According to Deputy Commissioner of Bandipora Owais Ahmed, the drive was started on May 29 and will continue till the people who need to be inoculated are covered under the drive.
He said the drive has been launched in collaboration with officials from the health department, revenue and other departments.
“Yesterday (Saturday), we covered Bandipora block and today we are doing it in Hajan block,” he said. “So far, the drive has been going on smoothly, but we also have to ensure that other commitments of medical staff should not suffer.” He said the response to the drive is 80 per cent and they were facing a few difficulties to identify people who needed timely vaccination.
“We are also conducting door-to-door visits for people who are in home isolation,” he said.
He said around 325 teams of block- and village-level officials are assisting in the drive.
He said ASHA workers and doctors are also available and some patients who needed to be shifted have been shifted for proper treatment.
“The oxygen plant is in operation and panchayat-level health care centres are also working,’’ he said. “Very few patients are being referred to Srinagar for treatment now on a weekly basis,’’ he said.
Deputy Commissioner of Ramban Masarat Islam said the door-to-door vaccination drive was launched in the district three weeks back.
also read
- Village defence guard killed in gunfight with terrorists in J&K, search op underway
- Gandhi's India is being converted into Godse's India: Mehbooba Mufti
- Lok Sabha polls: BJP's plan to reach Kashmir via Mughal Road suffers a setback
- In Jammu, the fight is between BJP's Jugal Kishore and Congress's Raman Bhalla
Ramban has a considerable nomadic population living in inaccessible remote areas, he said. “They resist vaccination because COVID positivity among Gujjar and Bakerwal community has been very less. But we have to ensure their safety also,” he said. “Rather than asking them to visit our vaccination spots, the administration decided to launch a door-to-door drive in their remote areas and it has been very successful,” he added.
“Areas like Batote medical block have areas with very-poor road connectivity,” he said. “Coronavirus curfew also made it difficult for the people to visit the vaccination centres, so we mobilised our teams along with health officials to take the vaccination drive to people’s doorsteps,” Islam noted.
The home vaccination drives in the two Kashmir and Jammu regions, respectively, also involve COVID-19 test Rapid Antigen Testing (RAT) and RT-PCR testing.