GUWAHATI, June 16: Assam will take resort to vulnerability mapping in the block areas to earmark priority vaccine areas to bring maximum people from rural areas under vaccination coverage.
Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, during a stock-taking meeting on the present COVID situation in the state, 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.
Asking deputy commissioners to achieve total saturation in vaccinating the people in their respective districts, the chief minister further told the deputy commissioners to back their COVID testing policies with aggressive vaccination strategy to sustain the decline of positive cases in the state.
“Prepare district-specific strategies to achieve 100 per cent inoculation,” he said, assuring them with 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 priority basis. “This would help in saving other vulnerable sections like specially-abled persons, children and lactating mothers who might get the infections from them.
It may be noted that the positive cases in the state in line with the national average over the last few days showed gradual decline.
In this backdrop, Sarma asked the deputy commissioners and superintendents of police not to lower their guard but keep adhering to the COVID restrictions to sustain the downslide of the positive cases.