Punjab plans to give 1st Covid vaccine jabs to college students, staff in July

State chief secretary Vini Mahajan said that the health department would set up special camps at colleges of the state for the purpose of Covid-19 vaccination

Punjab on Monday announced it has plans to launch a special initiative under which all students aged above 18, and staff – both administrative and academic – of colleges, will be administered the Covid-19 vaccine, news agency ANI reported. The Punjab health and family welfare department said that it would set up special camps at colleges for this purpose so that staffers and students can get inoculated with their first vaccine jabs in this month itself. Chief secretary Vini Mahajan has asked officials to appoint a team at state and district levels for a weekly review of Covid-19 positivity data in order to alert whenever the positivity rate increases, ANI reported.

Punjab chief secretary Vini Mahajan has also instructed the Punjab Health Systems Corporation (PHSC) to form a fleet of 270 ambulances, including those obtained after 2017, and scrap the old ones – which were unfit for use. (Bloomberg)

She said that she has also asked the principal health secretary, Hussan Lal, to appoint a nodal officer to make sure that all Covid-associated health infrastructure is utilised in the state at the earliest. The ANI further stated that Mahajan has called for aggressive contact tracing and testing to keep the virus rise in check, and even asked her department to ensure full accuracy by districts while updating Covid-related data on Cova mobile. She added that the same accuracy should be maintained while updating data in the daily Covid-19 state bulletin too, ANI reported.

The chief secretary has also instructed the Punjab Health Systems Corporation (PHSC) to form a fleet of 270 ambulances, including those obtained after 2017, and scrap the old ones – which were unfit for use. According to the ANI report, Mahajan has emphasised the need for sufficient health manpower, proper training and required equipment to combat the ongoing pandemic.

Mahajan further asked for ramping up amenities at the PGI Satellite Centre in Sangrur and AIIMS in Bathinda to make them robust for tackling a probable third wave of coronavirus. Punjab on Saturday administered a record 5.14 lakh Covid-19 vaccine shots to beneficiaries.

According to the Union ministry of health and family welfare data, as of July 5 at 7am, as many as 6,607,383 people have received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine and 1,217,548 have been administered the second jab. The state has till now inoculated 7,824,931 people with the Covid-19 vaccine, the data showed.