Rajasthan government will consider importing Covid-19 vaccines to ensure that residents of the state are inoculated against the virus at the earliest, said Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday.
Gehlot also stressed the need to accelerate the pace of the vaccination to curb the spread of the virus and reduce the fatality rate. He was speaking at a high-level meeting held to review the Covid-19 situation in Rajasthan.
The CM said all options should be considered to ensure the availability of vaccines in the state.
He also said that till a large number of people are not vaccinated against the coronavirus, the spread of the infection cannot be controlled.
He also directed officials to conduct special campaigns to generate awareness about the vaccination drive in rural areas as the infection surges in rural areas.
"Health machinery should be fully activated in rural areas to prevent its spread and provide immediate treatment to those infected," said Gehlot.
To generate awareness, he said, maximum participation of all state government personnel and panchayat level representatives should be ensured.
"It is too late by the time people from villages arrive in cities for treatment. In such a situation, a door-to-door survey and distribution of medicine kits should be carried out," he said.
"This will enable timely examination of symptomatic patients and it will be easier to save lives by providing medicines at the initial stage of the infection," he added.
Gehlot said experts are also anticipating a third wave of Covid-19 that could be more deadly. It is feared that it will affect children more.
"In view of this, infrastructure should be strengthened in children's hospitals. Intensive care facilities like NICU and PICU, etc., should be strengthened in these hospitals," he said.
State health minister Raghu Sharma suggested setting up oxygen plants at children's hospitals too, to prepare the state for the potential third wave of the pandemic.
The CM earlier urged the Centre to distribute oxygen and medicines to states on the basis of the number of Covid-19 patients.
Rajasthan recorded 160 Covid-19 fatalities and 17,987 fresh cases on Saturday that pushed the death toll to 5,506 and the infection tally to 7,38,786, according to an official report.
With inputs from agencies.
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