Srinagar: Amid rising COVID-19 cases across the country, Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to fast track vaccinations, and strictly implement test, trace, treat strategy, COVID appropriate behavior to counter the spread. The decision has been taken after a meeting of Cabinet Secretary, Rajiv Gauba, with the Chief Secretaries of all the States and Union Territories.
While reviewing the situation, the Cabinet Secretary said that the country over the past few weeks has witnessed a sharp rise in COVID case adding that there has been almost a ten-fold increase in the number of new cases in comparison with February this year.
Immediately after the meeting, government of Jammu and Kashmir announced carrying out a fast-track vaccination drive to cover all persons in the eligible age groups in four districts including Jammu, Srinagar, Budgam and Baramulla showing maximum number of COVID cases.
Special emphasis has been laid on monitoring the COVID trajectory among local population, especially in districts with an increased tourist footfall.
The move has been aimed to ensure a multi-sectoral response in addition to swift vaccination drives to cover maximum population of the target age groups to prevent subsequent waves of infection especially in the wake of emergence of mutant strains of the virus.
J&K has also decided to improve the rate of testing especially in districts that are falling short of target quotas, increase the share of RTPCR tests viz-a-viz RATs, adopt refocused & stringent containment strategies and undertake priority vaccination with provisions of geographically targeted vaccination in clusters witnessing a surge in COVID cases.
There has been a sharp growth in the daily reported cases and the average daily deaths across the country since June last year. 11 states including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Punjab, Chhattisgarh etc., are contributing maximum number of cases and deaths due to COVID-19 in the country.
Union government has asked all the states that to strengthen healthcare facilities along with testing, contact tracing, and containment, while authorizing the states to counter the threat through legal and administrative provisions.