Srinagar: Additional Chief Secretary, Health & Medical Education, Vivek Bharadvaj on Monday kick-started vaccination drive for children between 15 and 18 years in Kashmir at Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Kothi Bagh, Srinagar.
On the occasion, Director Health Services Kashmir (DHSK), Dr Mushtaq Ahmad Rather, Deputy Commissioner Srinagar, Muhammad Aijaz Assad, Director School Education Kashmir Tasaduq Hussian, CMO Srinagar, DHO Srinagar, and other officials of health and education department were present.
The Additional Chief Secretary said that there is an estimated target of more than 8 lakh children who are scheduled to be inoculated in the vaccination drive at 308 vaccination sites in Jammu division and 514 in Kashmir division.
He said that the vaccination drive for children is very important in order to contain the spread of Covid-19 and expressed hope that the Union Government will keep stock of vaccines available so that this process can be completed as soon as possible.
The Additional Chief Secretary said that the Health and Medical Education Department have made elaborative preparations. He said they recently held a meeting during which a strategy was chalked out in association with the School Education Department and District Administration Srinagar so that they are able to identify children and sites for the vaccination drive.
“We have already received nearly 3 lakh vaccines. We are hopeful that we will complete the fresh vaccination drive within a short period of time. We will soon achieve the vaccination target,” he said.
The Additional Chief Secretary also said the administration is fully prepared to tackle any eventuality as number of beds including ICU, ventilators have been increased by many times besides that oxygen supply has been increased by 10 times.
On the occasion, Director Health Services Kashmir (DHSK), Dr Mushtaq Ahmad Rather said vaccination for children between 15 to 17 years will keep the children safe. He appealed to children to get vaccinated to protect themselves.
Later, the director visited many vaccination sites. He also inaugurated a vaccination site at Kashmir Institute of Excellence (KIE).
Similarly, in each and every district of the valley, Deputy Commissioners and Chief Medical Officers also inaugurated the fresh vaccination drive for children across the places.
Besides vaccination, counseling facilities for children have also been made across the districts in order to encourage them to get vaccinated.
On the first day of the inoculation drive, 22,905 children between 15 and 18 years were vaccinated the first dose at 1172 session sites across Kashmir valley.

KR Desk