The Jammu & Kashmir unlike many states and union territories of the country has withstood the challenge of public health crisis with the active cooperation of healthcare workers as otherwise fighting back to back three high intensity covid pandemic waves won’t have become a reality. More than the cooperation health care workers the improvement in the testing facilities at government run covid care centres and public awareness campaigns on vaccination process were crucial to covid control treatment process both in Kashmir valley and as well as Jammu division . The 2 crore vaccination is no doubt a milestone achievement but the vaccination of the unvaccinated population of Jammu & Kashmir is by all standards of understandabilities a huge challenge for both the government and the heath care workers. Vaccine hesitancy still found in sections of population across Jammu & Kashmir is more crucial for the completion of the vaccination process than the Government’s spending on vaccines and availability of vaccines in government hospitals. Since government has times and again clarified that vaccines are freely available in all the government run hospital across Jammu & Kashmir the motivation of unvaccinated populations of Jammu & Kashmir for their immediate vaccination remains the only challenge before the health care workers of Jammu & Kashmir’s health department. Last year Government deputed vaccination teams to the doorsteps of the people for vaccination of the unvaccinated souls and even some remote villages reported 100% first dose vaccination in both Kashmir valley and as well as Jammu division but people in many localities not only showed their unwillingness to take vaccines but also virtually came to blows with several vaccination teams. Amid unprecedented surge in the ongoing third wave of the pandemic dominated by the spread of new variant called “ Omicron” the vaccination of the unvaccinated populations according to top health experts in not only inevitable but also unavoidable.
Vaccinating the unvaccinated populations is not as big a challenge for both the government and as well as the healthcare workers as was the milestone achievement of 2 crore vaccination.
The emerging covid scenario demands that health experts lay more emphasis on vaccination than the intensity of the spread of positive cases and covid fatalities in Jammu & Kashmir keeping in view the facts vaccines are the only sources of protection against the current high intensity wave of the pandemic. While the healthcare workers face the challenge of motivating the unvaccinated populations for cooperation in the vaccination process the onus of vaccine availability in government run hospitals lies on the health department. What matters the most is the fact that vaccinating the unvaccinated populations is not as big a challenge for both the government and as well as the healthcare workers as was the milestone achievement of 2 crore vaccination.
