PIB News Update: Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh today said Elected Representatives should augment the Vaccination Drive in a people friendly manner in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir. In a detailed interaction with Mayors, Deputy Mayors and Chairpersons of Swachh Bharat Mission and Health and Sanitation Departments of Jammu and Srinagar Municipal Corporations, he said that both the Corporationsshould pro-actively take the vaccination drive forward by enlisting maximum community participation.
Dr Jitendra Singh said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in his interaction with state and district officials yesterday emphasised that continuous efforts are being made to increase the supply of Covid-19 vaccines on a very large scale and the Health Ministry is streamlining the same. All the States and UTs will get a schedule of the next 15 days, so that they can prioritise the vaccination drive in each district.
Calling upon Elected Representatives to make Vaccination Programme a Jan-Andolan, Dr Jitendra Singh underlined the need for Special Camps in collaboration with Municipal Corporations. He also emphasised that along with Medical and Administrative measures, Community Management of COVID is equally important and urged the Community Leaders to create awareness about unnecessary hoarding of essential drugs and oxygen.
Dr Jitendra Singh called upon the Elected Representatives to instil confidence building measures among the common man and reiterated that “Precaution, Not Panic” is the main mantra to fight this pandemic. He also urged them to undertake special awareness campaigns particularly in remote and far-flung areas about the COVID protocols and the need for early vaccination to defeat COVID-19. The Minister said, people should also be made aware that COVID treatment is very much covered under Centre’s Ayushman Bharat Yojana.
Dr Jitendra Singh said that he is in regular touch with the Union Health Ministry, LG and seniorofficials of Jammu and Kashmir and taking all measures to augment COVID infrastructure and support in the UT. He said apart from Jammu and Srinagar DRDO COVID Care Centres, efforts are for more such centres in Chenani, Rajouri and other areas. The Minister said that private hospitals will also be roped in within a couple of days to earmark some beds for Covid care as per Disaster Management Act.
Dwelling on the need for Telemedicine facility, Dr Jitendra Singh said the facility is being revived in a big way for free consultation from home. He said, guidelines already exist for empanelment of recognised doctors across India for tele-consultation of patients on a shift wise basis. He also disapproved the practice of indiscriminate referrals of patients to GMC, Jammu and Srinagar and emphasised that mild and asymptomatic patients can follow protocol prescriptions and treat themselves at home isolation.
It may be recalled that Dr Jitendra Singh yesterday dispatched separate consignments of COVID related material for the two capital cities of Jammu and Srinagar respectivelycarrying separate kits containing face masks, sanitizers and other accessories. The earlier consignments of COVID related material arranged by him were sent to all the six districts of his Lok Sabha constituency of Udhampur-Kathua-Doda.