Jalandhar, March 19: To intensify the vaccination drive in the district, District Administration Jalandhar has started vaccination at all 49 government healthcare institutions with immediate effect.
Participating in a Covid-19 review meeting chaired by Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday, Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori apprised the CM of steps being taken in Jalandhar to check the virus spread.
The deputy commissioner stated a total of 94 session sites (49 government and 45 private-run locations) have been made functional with a capacity of administering 9400 doses daily. The 49 government facilities include 9 rural community health centers, 2 sub-divisional health centers, 28 primary and mini primary health centers, and 10 urban sites.
The deputy commissioner further added that as many as 5000 samples were being collected per day, and a total of 5300 samples were taken on Thursday. A total of 24992 samples were taken in the last seven days adding he said that Jalandhar has done maximum sampling in the state at a rate of 306,680 tests for per million populations. Mr. Thori further mentioned that the contact tracing ratio of the district stood at 18.6 with 100 percent sampling in micro containment zones.
The deputy commissioner mentioned that the spike in the caseload was due to a high positive percentage in Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT), which stands at 13 percent of the total tests conducted. He added that the high positivity rate of RATs is leading to a spike in fresh cases. He stated that the case fatality rate (CFR) was under control as the district was ranked 10th in the state with 3.17 percent of CFR and would be kept under check further.
Pointing out at the vaccination drive, the deputy commissioner said that so far 10619 healthcare workers, 12393 frontline workers, 3696 beneficiaries between the age group 45 and 59 with co-morbidities, and 16090 senior citizens have been inoculated in the district.
While giving details about the enforcement drive, the Deputy Commissioner said that as many as 2372 people have been challaned for not wearing masks and a penalty of Rs. 23,72,000 was imposed on them in the last seven days. Alongside, a strict vigil was being maintained over the social gatherings to keep it under check.