By: Afaq Bhat
Srinagar: The Health Department is trying its best to ensure that the eligible population i.e. adults above 18-years of age get COVID-19 jabs as quickly as possible.
An official spokesman on Friday said that Anantnag in South Kashmir has become the first district to achieve the feat of providing first dose of vaccinations to 100% adult population. “The district Anantnag has achieved the milestone of cent percent Covid vaccination of above 18 year population with 742043 beneficiaries in this category having received the first dose of the vaccine. With a mammoth figure of 746666 inoculations in 18 plus population, the district became the first district from Kashmir Division to achieve this feat. Besides, 297804 jabs as 2nd doses are administered to the eligible population,” the spokesman said.
An official of the Health Department while talking to Precious Kashmir said, “The inoculation drive is going on at a fast pace. Our workers are reaching out to every nook and corner of the Valley and all the efforts are being put to ensure that everyone gets vaccinated.”
He said, “In the initial days people were hesitant and our teams faced resistance from the people, but now people themselves are coming forward and are getting vaccinated. We hope to cover the 100% adult population of other districts in Kashmir with the first dose of vaccination within short span of time.”
A medico said, “People have started realizing that getting vaccinated is the only way out to defeat the pandemic. The memories of first and second COVID-19 wave are still afresh in the minds of people and they don’t want to see it again. The awareness campaign about COVID-19 vaccines being safe has helped to convince more and more people to come forward.”
The medico said, “The past two years have taught us that the COVID is very contagious and can spread like a wildfire. We had to fight like warriors without weapons to contain the pandemic as even the doctors were also clueless about how to treat the patients as the virus was new and no one was aware about how it will behave. But now we have reached an endemic stage and light is clearly visible at the end of the tunnel. We are hoping that we will see better days ahead and the COVID-19 will become a history.”
He said that getting vaccinated holds the key to develop the herd immunity and left out people should leave hesitancy and come forward.
Kashmir on way to defeat COVID-19 pandemic
