Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education Department, Atal Dulloo Thursday chaired an officers meeting to review the preparedness for COVID19 vaccination expected to be launched after January 15, 2021 besides taking stock of implementation of AB-PMJAY SEHAT scheme in Jammu and Kashmir.
The financial commissioner also had detailed deliberation on functioning of Jan Aushadhi and Amrit stores, vital healthcare issues besides discussing handling of UK returnees.
A PowerPoint presentation highlighted the broad contours of the plan and preparations being put in place for COVID19 vaccination in J&K. The presentation focused on several important issues regarding the subject which included key assumptions during COVID19 vaccination, vaccination booths, vaccination rooms, observation rooms, inter-sectoral convergence within the departments, public and private health facilities mapped in CoWIN and related matters.
The meeting was informed that as part of phased introduction of COVID19 vaccination, the first round would cover healthcare workers, frontline workers and high-risk population including those above 50 years of age and less than 50 years with associated co-morbid conditions. It was also informed that further phases may be planned based on vaccine availability and epidemiology besides high-risk group would further be categorised as 50-60 years, 60-65 and above 65 years.
The financial commissioner while exhorting all the stakeholders to put in their best for making this vaccination programme a grand success said that the goal of the department was to protect public health, minimise societal and economic impact by reducing COVID19 mortality. He asked the officers for inclusion of Anganwari workers and employees of Revenue department in the first round of the vaccination in view of the nature of their services.
Taking stock of preparations regarding the vaccination, Dulloo was informed that the session site planning had been envisaged keeping in view the socio-economic, demographic and climatic considerations of J&K and told that great care was being taken to minimise chances of any adverse impact following the immunisation.
Regarding Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY SEHAT scheme, the financial commissioner had a detailed assessment of district-wise registrations and BIS status report till December besides reviewing other important aspects of the programme.
Regarding the handling of UK returnees, the financial commissioner asked the officers to speed up the process of tracing out these travellers with the support from concerned district administrations. He asked for keeping these returnees in the government quarantine centers after their identification.