Assam to expedite vaccination through vulnerability mapping in villages

GUWAHATI:

Vulnerability mapping will be done in the block areas of Assam to earmark priority vaccine areas to bring people from rural areas under vaccination coverage.

During a stock-taking meeting on the present COVID situation in the state, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma observed that since the positive cases were slowly drifting towards smaller towns, municipal areas and rural areas, there must be concerted efforts on the part of the deputy commissioners to do the vulnerability mapping based on the positive cases in block areas.

"The deputy commissioners thereafter must earmark priority vaccine areas to bring people strictly from the rural areas under vaccination coverage. This strategy will help the districts to reverse the spread of the pandemic to the rural and tea garden areas," Sarma said.

During the video conference, he asked the deputy commissioners to back their COVID testing policies with an aggressive vaccination strategy to sustain the decline of positive cases in the state.

The chief minister asked the deputy commissioners to achieve total saturation in vaccinating the people in their respective districts.

He also asked them to prepare district-specific strategies to achieve 100 per cent inoculation as he assured them of an adequate supply of vaccine doses in the coming days.

The chief minister further asked the deputy commissioners to vaccinate all Anganwadi workers and helpers on an urgent basis. "This would help in saving other vulnerable sections like specially-abled persons, children and lactating mothers who might get the infections from them," he said.

It may be noted that the positive cases in the state in line with the national average over the last few days showed a gradual decline. In this backdrop, Sarma asked the deputy commissioners and superintendents of police not to lower their guard and maintain strict adherence to several restrictions to sustain the downslide of the positive cases. 

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