SRINAGAR: Village Weyan of district Bandipora has become the first village of the country, where entire population above 18 years has been vaccinated. This national record is attributed to ‘J&K Model’ under which the administration decided to reach out to the people, instead of people coming to the vaccination centre.
Dr Bashir Ahmed Khan, Chief Medical Officer, Bandipora said due to difficult terrain the vaccinators had to walk around 18 kilometers on foot to reach this village. “Entire population above 18 years were vaccinated, with total 362 beneficiaries. It is pertinent to mention here that the people of the village go to the upper reaches along with cattle during summer so it was important to reach out to them before they move out,” Dr. Bashir Further observed. State Immunization Officer Dr Shahid Hussain said maximum number of session sites in a day with well-coordinated vaccination efforts is also paying the dividend.
“We have also worked out prior micro planning and execution at each session site and involved Police and Media in crowd management and awareness. We have constituted in every district a dedicated team of health care workers, who were ready to work even during holidays and weekends. Coordination between various departments, like Utilization of services of teachers and Booth Level Officers as verifiers and their training by Directorate of Health and Family Welfare as another key feature of J&K model,”
Dr Shahid Hussain said. Dr Shahid observed that despite having difficult terrain (Shopian, Ganderbal) and poor mobile connectivity, the teams were relentless to vaccinate far reaching corners of the district and deploying influencers such as religious leaders, local elders to counter vaccine hesitancy among people.
