Rajasthan government urged the Centre to launch a vaccination drive covering adolescents above 12 years as several countries have already been vaccinating much younger children.
Expressing concern over the increasing cases of COVID-19 in the state, the Rajasthan Council of Ministers on Wednesday emphasized on achieving 100 per cent vaccination. "The number of patients have more than doubled in a week. Currently, there are around 69,000 active cases in the state," Health Secretary Ashutosh AT Pednekar said during a virtual meeting headed by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.
Officials informed the ministers that the positivity rate has been on the rise for the last few weeks and it has doubled from 7.61 per cent to 15.52 per cent in a week. In order to check this, the ministers stressed on focused sampling and strict enforcement of COVID-19 appropriate behaviour.
In a statement, the Rajasthan government urged the Centre to launch a vaccination drive covering adolescents above 12 years as several countries have already been vaccinating much younger children. It stated that the move to inoculate adolescents on priority was necessary as a sizeable population of children in India suffer from malnutrition.
Health Minister Parsadi Lal Meena said, "The state is fully prepared to tackle the third wave. He said 94.4 per cent citizens above 18 years have received the first dose while 78 per cent people are fully vaccinated. Also, 56.5 percent of adolescent girls have been administered the first dose," he said, adding that the state fares better than the national average.
Meanwhile, Rajasthan's Budget Session is scheduled to begin on February 9. "It will be an unprecedented budget," Cabinet Minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas told reporters after the meeting.
With PTI Inputs