PunjabChief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday directed the healthauthorities to start vaccination of teachers, non-teaching staff and studentsin 18-45 age group from all schools and colleges from June 21, to enableeducational institutions in the state to open safely.
TheChief Minister directed the department to ensure that all persons withco-morbidities as well as disabilities, and government employees, arevaccinated on priority. Staff in hospitality industry, parlours, serviceoutlets including shops, restaurants, gyms etc should also be vaccinated at theearliest, he said, at the Covid review meeting.
Judicialofficers and Lawyers should also be prioritized so that normal courtfunctioning can safely resume, directed Captain Amarinder, while asking thehealth department to reach out proactively to nursing mothers, who have beenclarified to be eligible for vaccination. Expressing concern over the gendergap in vaccination, he directed the health experts to identified the reasonsand rectify the situation.
TheChief Minister also ordered ward wise and village wise campaigns incities/towns/rural areas that saw higher positivity/ mortality, in order toprioritise them for vaccination.
Pointingout that Punjab was perhaps the only state in the country to have put in placea vaccination strategy for the 18-45 age group that prioritises the poor andthe vulnerable, the Chief Minister expressed happiness that almost 1 lakhco-morbid youth, and 3.5 lakh young construction and other workers, had beenvaccinated free of cost by the state government.
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Over 70,000 young familymembers of healthcare workers have been prioritised, while rehriwalas, busdrivers, shop workers and other deserving categories are also receivingvaccination from the state supplies, he noted.
HealthSecretary Hussan Lal disclosed that the number of Covishield doses received bythe state so far for the 18-45 age group stood at 5,86,000, of which 5,30,610had been used and the state a balance stock of 55,390. Covaxin doses receivedwere 150850, with 66040 utilised.