Jammu and Kashmir expected to get vaccines by May 20 for persons above 18

Jammu and Kashmir will provide COVID-19 vaccine free of cost to people in the 18-45 age group, the office of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha had said on Saturday.

“We have placed orders for supply of vaccines to undertake vaccination free of cost to people in the 18- 45 age group. We expect to get vaccines by May 20,” Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education, J&K, Atal Dulloo told PTI news agency here.

He said 3,000 to 4,000 vaccination centres will be set up to ensure there is no rush during the vaccination drive.

"We are preparing for vaccination of about 65 lakh people in the 18-45 age group from next month," a senior official said.

He said the government has vaccinated 22 lakh people in Jammu and Kashmir, which is 50 per cent of the target, so far in age groups of people above 45.

Referring to the increasing number of cases, Dulloo said the COVID-19 situation in the Union Territory is “challenging” with cases rising steadily, but there is no need to panic as there is no dearth of facilities, including oxygen beds and required medicines.

“There is a concern. The situation is challenging, as there has been a continuous increase in the cases of COVID. There were 3,100 fresh cases reported yesterday,” he said.

He said there are 22,000 active cases in Jammu and Kashmir and mortality rate is 1.3 per cent.

Mortality has increased during the past few days, he said.

Dulloo said the health administration is fully geared up to deal with the situation while testing and treatment is going on effectively.

“We are doing 40,000 to 45,000 tests daily that include 11,000 RT-PCR tests. We are going to increase the testing capacity soon”, he said.

He said the government has declared 23 hospitals as fully dedicated COVID centres to deal with the situation.