Vaccination for teens in the age group of 15 to 18 years started in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday along with the rest of the country amid a sharp surge in Covid-19 cases, fuelled by the new Omicron variant of coronavirus.
J&K Additional Chief Secretary Health and Medical Education department Vivek Bharadwaj kick-started the drive at Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Kothi Bagh in Srinagar, officials said. 822 vaccination sites have been set up across 20 districts of the union territory.
“8.33 lakh children (15-18 years) will be vaccinated in J&K and a plan has been already devised to vaccinate one lakh children on a daily basis,” Bharadwaj told reporters.
He said that the administration was fully prepared to tackle any eventuality as the number of beds including ICU, ventilators and oxygen has been increased by many times compared to the time when the second wave of Covid-19 hit the UT in April-May last year.
Official figures reveal that since May 2021 the administration has increased the bed capacity for Covid patients across J&K by 100 per cent. Similarly, the number of ventilators commissioned in hospitals too has witnessed an uptick.
In May 2021 there were 8,820 isolation beds designated for Covid patients across J&K in hospitals. Now the number of such hospital beds has gone up to 19,783, the figures reveal.
Director School Education, Tasaduq Hussian, who was also present on the occasion, said that supplementary exams were available for all those students who missed it due to being Covid positive.
In Jammu, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha launched the Covid-19 vaccination drive for children from Government Higher Secondary School (Boys), Gandhi Nagar. A large number of schools and other educational institutions are being used as vaccination centres in the UT. On December 25, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that vaccination for the 15-18-year age group will begin from January 3.
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