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J&K sees 116 cases, 1 death in last 24 hours
Of the total, Kashmir valley contributed 85 cases while the Jammu division saw 31 infections. The summer capital Srinagar in Kashmir saw the highest count of 47 cases.
Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday recorded 116 fresh Covid-19 infections while a fresh death related to the disease was reported in Kashmir valley.
Of the total, Kashmir valley contributed 85 cases while the Jammu division saw 31 infections. The summer capital Srinagar in Kashmir saw the highest count of 47 cases.
The number of patients who were cured in the UT was 168 with active positive cases reaching 1,327. Srinagar district has the highest number of active cases at 548 followed by Budgam district with 163 active cases. Srinagar deputy commissioner (DC) Mohammad Aijaz Asad, while chairing a Covid review meeting, directed the chief medical officer and all zonal medical officers to scale up the percentage of the vaccination in the district.
Centre asks J-K, U’khand to focus on second vax dose of 60-plus population
The Centre on Saturday asked eight northeastern states, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir to focus on the second dose vaccination of the 60-plus population, saying the coverage in some of these states was ‘unsatisfactory’. The vulnerability of people aged above 60 to Covid-19 makes this exercise of prime importance, the Centre told these states.
Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan chaired a review meeting with representatives from Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Uttarakhand and the northeastern states, Arunachal Pradesh; Assam; Manipur; Meghalaya; Mizoram; Nagaland; Sikkim and Tripura.
According to the health ministry, the inoculation of both doses among the 60-plus population in Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Meghalaya is unsatisfactory. In the meeting, the states and UTs were also asked to quickly saturate the first dose coverage among the 18-plus population.
The health ministry added that the attention of the states was brought to the fact that the administration of the first dose has progressively outpaced the administration of second dose.
“It was suggested that states earmark doses, earmark days and target the completion of the exercise for these beneficiaries,” the ministry said.
The details of balance stock of 0.5 ml syringes, vaccination coverage among special groups such as transgender persons, persons with disabilities and prisoners and among women, were also discussed.
The ministry said the states and UTs were advised to closely monitor the stock from state-level stores to cold chain points, check rational distribution and restrict vaccine wastage to below 2%, and update data on eVIN (electronic vaccine intelligence network) daily.
