All eligible college students, staffers to get first dose of COVID vaccine in July: Punjab govt

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Chandigarh: In an attempt to boost the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive in Punjab, the state government plans to launch a special campaign to inoculate all students above 18 years of age and staffers, both administrative and academic, at colleges.

For this purpose, the government would set up special camps at colleges of the state and inoculate all the eligible students and staffers with their first dose of the vaccine in July itself, the Punjab Health and Family Welfare department said.

Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan has asked officials concerned to appoint a team at the state as well as district levels for a weekly review of the Covid positivity data in order to sound an alert whenever the positivity rate rises anywhere in the state.

Further, she has asked the Principal Health Secretary, Hussan Lal, to appoint a nodal officer to ensure optimum utilisation of Covid-related health infrastructure in the state at the earliest.

Calling for aggressive contact tracing and testing to keep the virus surge under control, Mahajan has ordered the department to ensure complete accuracy in entering and updating the testing data on Cova mobile app by all the districts. 

The same must also be reflected in the daily Covid report, she added. She has further requested a report on the status of the availability of Fateh kits at the health and wellness centres, besides other healthcare institutions in the state.

Mahajan also instructed the PHSC to prepare a fleet of 270 ambulances, including those procured after 2017, and scrap the old ambulances, which were unfit for use. Stressing on the need for adequate health manpower, their proper training and requisite equipment to defeat the virus spread, she has asked for setting up of new health institutions, along with upgradation of existing health infrastructure at the earliest.

The Medical Education department has been instructed to ramp up the facilities at the PGI satellite centre in Sangrur and AIIMS in Bathinda to make them robust to tackle the likely third Covid wave. 

Lauding the department for inoculating more than six lakh people in a day during the mass vaccination drive held on Saturday, she instructed them to maintain the same pace for the upcoming days.