Vaccinate students on priority, LG Sinha tells J&K officials

In a meeting with the deputy commissioners and district police heads, Sinha directed for adopting zero-tolerance against non-observance of Covid appropriate behaviour to ensure that the Covid situation remains under control.

Jammu and Kashmir’s lieutenant governor (LG) Manoj Sinha on Saturday said the average first dose vaccination coverage in the 45-plus age group has reached 99.9% in the Union Territory, while underlining priority inoculation of the college and university students.

Divisional commissioners and DCs were instructed to monitor the working of joint teams for effective enforcement of containment measures. (ANI)

In a meeting with the deputy commissioners and district police heads, Sinha directed for adopting zero-tolerance against non-observance of Covid appropriate behaviour to ensure that the Covid situation remains under control. “As the Covid situation in J&K has improved significantly, now, we can work out a plan to open educational institutions in a staggered manner,” he said.

He said as against the committed 6.5 lakh vaccine doses for the current lot, the government of India provided more than 16 lakh doses to J&K. “This will also help the UT government to achieve its target of covering 60% of the population with the first dose by August,” he said. He said positivity rate has dropped to 0.2% and all districts were in the green zone.

Divisional commissioners and DCs were instructed to monitor the working of joint teams for effective enforcement of containment measures.

118 fresh Covid cases

Srinagar Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday recorded 118 fresh novel Coronavirus infections and no death related to the disease.

There were 78 cases in Kashmir valley while the Jammu division saw 40 infections. Officials said with 19 cases, Srinagar had the highest number of new infections, followed by 15 in Baramulla. Fourteen districts had no or single-digit cases.

Officials said 58,463 tests were conducted in the past 24 hours in the UT.

The number of patients who were cured in the UT was 113 and the number of active positive cases stood at 1,176.

Srinagar district has the highest number of active cases at 318, followed by Jammu district with 111 active cases.

The overall number of people who have recovered reached 3,15,908, prompting the recovery rate to reach 98.26%. Since the pandemic started, the overall cases in J&K have reached 3,21,462 and 4,378 people have succumbed to the virus. Jammu district has the highest (1,139) virus-related fatalities, followed by Srinagar with 832 deaths.