The Jharkhand government has started preparations to tackle a possible third wave of Covid-19 later this year.
The health department rolled out an intensive vaccination campaign on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from June 4 across all the 260 blocks of the state to dispel vaccine hesitancy reported from certain areas, is going for mass recruitment of doctors and paramedics and planning to conduct surveys of district, sub-divisional and community health centres through private consultants to find out infrastructure shortcomings in an effort to be not caught off-guard by another wave.
“The intensive vaccination campaign will be held on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays across all the blocks and panchayats of the districts. This would be apart from the routine work at the selected vaccination centres. We have drawn up a plan to involve local MLAs, MPs, traditional village heads, panchayat heads, religious leaders, prominent persons and social workers in each block, who will be vaccinated during the three days, to encourage others to take vaccination without any hesitation,” said state health nodal officer Siddharth Tripathy.
From Monday to Thursday, self-help and local groups would be mobilising villagers to go for vaccination.
“We have set a target of administering 1.5 lakh vaccines (4.5 lakh in three days) daily as part of the intensive campaign. The campaign will continue throughout June,” said Tripathy.
The step was taken after reports emerged that people in a few pockets in the state were reluctant to take vaccine due to rumours and vaccination teams were turned away by villagers in the last few days.
“We have won over villagers in areas where our vaccination team members faced resistance. We hope to motivate people to turn out in large numbers during the campaign. All civil surgeons have also been directed to ensure sitting arrangement for senior citizens at vaccine centres while adhering to Covid protocols,” Tripathy said.
As of Thursday, the state has 107,950 vaccine doses for the 45 and above age group and only 55,530 doses for those aged between 18 and 44 years.
On Thursday, the health department sent a proposal to the personnel and finance department for urgent recruitment of 360 doctors. After clearance from these two departments, a notification would be sent to the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) and the process of recruitment is expected to be completed in July.
In addition, the state unit of the National Health Mission (NHM) will be recruiting 800 paramedical staff, 280 specialist doctors and 79 medical officers on contractual basis and interviews will be conducted soon.
“The step has been taken to boost manpower at all health centres especially in Sadar and sub-divisional hospitals before the third wave of Covid,” said a source in the human resources wing of the NHM.
The health department will also be hiring a private consultant to conduct a survey in all the district (Sadar) and sub-divisional hospitals and community health centres to find out infrastructure shortcomings.
“The consultants would be conduction a survey on all aspects of infrastructure — physical (building, facilities), medical (bed, operation theatre, etc.) and human resources. Letters have been sent to all deputy commissioners to conduct a prima facie survey of these health centres to avoid duplicity. Based on the survey, the government will plan for improvement on all fronts,” said Tripathy.
On Thursday, Jharkhand registered 10 deaths due to Covid taking the total casualties to 5,021. The state also recorded 427 new cases taking the active caseload to 7,537.
State health minister Banna Gupta launched a dedicated helpline 6203709250 in Ranchi on Friday for providing information on mucormycosis.
An online training session of over two lakh health workers along with civil surgeons of all 24 districts was organised by the NHM on mucormycosis, multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) and other health ailments at Ranchi on Friday.
