Srinagar: An official said that the appeal to the Centre by Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta was made during a high-level meeting chaired by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba to review the public health response to COVID-19 on Thursday.
He said currently J&K has 6,782 active Covid cases with 96.5 per cent recovery rate, 1.4 per cent mortality rate and 0.9 per cent positivity rate.
J&K, he said, has so far vaccinated 85 per cent of its health care workers, 84 per cent of frontline workers and 80 per cent of people in above 45 age category. “About 10 per cent of the population in 18- 45 age category has also been vaccinated in the UT so far,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Chief Secretary asked the Health Department to ensure 100 per cent vaccination of health care workers and frontline workers within a week.
Mr Mehta has directed the Health & Medical Education Department to undertake an extensive IEC campaign to promote Covid appropriate behavior and healthy habits to contain the pandemic.
He asked the Department to install certified laboratories in J&K for genome sequencing of Covid samples for early detection of mutant virus strains. The Department was further asked to maintain adequate stocks for Covid specific medicines.
UNI
