Taking serious note of the surging new variants of COVID-19 in other countries, Manipur Health Minister Dr Sapam Ranjan Singh on Thursday appealed to the people of the state to strictly adhere to COVID-19 Appropriate Behaviour.
Ranjan stated this during the annual project meeting on COVID-19 Vaccination held on Thursday at Hotel Classic Grande, Chingmeirong in Imphal East. The programme was organised by the Church's Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA) that plays a crucial role in COVID-19 vaccination delivery in interior parts of the state.
Addressing the function as chief guest, Ranjan said that COVID-19 vaccination can help combat the pandemic but in view of the rising of positive cases in other countries, people should strictly adhere to COVID-19 Appropriate Behaviour even if there is a case of few infections.
"Luckily, there was no active case of COVID-19 in the state till yesterday and no new case was also detected. But people should not be in a relaxed mood but rather, they should focus on following CAB so that the state does not face another phase of pandemic," he cautioned while explaining about the rapid surge of COVID-19 in other countries.
Stating about the significance of health schemes like PMJAY, CMHT (Chief Ministergi Hakshel Gi Tengbang), he appealed to the people of the state to extend their best effort in spreading the benefit of the schemes so that the benefits can reached to the remotest corner of the state.
He expressed his gratitude to CASA for their proactive role in vaccinating COVID-19 in hill areas in the state where vaccination rate was too low due to vaccine hesitation.
State Mission Director, State Health Society, National Health Mission, Dr Somorjit Ningombam said that even in India four cases of the new variants of COVID-19 were detected. People should be vigilant, alert and take proper precautionary measures, he advised.
He said that the state government will send samples of the new COVID-19 cases for genome sequencing in West Bengal. Anyone who is still yet to get vaccinated with the complete doses of COVID-19 should administer it at earliest as vaccinated persons are safer than unvaccinated persons, he added.
It may be mentioned that according to reports of CASA published in their magazine, CASA's vaccination target population in Manipur from February 1 to December 14, 2022 was 57,202. Out of these, the overall achievement is 38,772.
The program was also attended by director of Health Services, Dr Sasheekumar Mangang; director of Family Welfare Service, Dr Dihe Mao and general secretary of Manipur Baptist Church, Dr K Losii Mao as guests of honour.
