Srinagar, Mar 30: (GNS) Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Tuesday said only one percent of the population in Jammu and Kashmir (JK) has been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 so far.

“That means most of the people are still susceptible to Covid-19 infection,” said DAK President and influenza expert Dr. Nisar ul Hassan in a handout issued to GNS.

“As per the vaccination data from Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, JK has administered the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine to 6,34,953 people as of March 30, 2021. The figure represents 5 percent of JK’s 1.25 crore population. Full vaccination (both doses) has been given to 1, 42,895 people which represent 1 percent of the population.”

“We need to vaccinate around 70 percent of the population to bring an end to the ongoing public health crisis,” DAK President said.

“When enough people are vaccinated, the virus can’t find any host to survive, replicate and move on.”

“This is how pandemic will subside,” he said.

“But with the current vaccination rate, it will take years to a decade to reach the goal.”

“Vaccine hesitancy is a cause of major concern,” Dr. Nisar said.

“People are not coming forward for the vaccine. Misinformation and wrong perceptions about the vaccine are keeping people away from the vaccine.”

“Another reason why the goal can’t be achieved is that children who constitute a huge proportion of the population are not vaccinated,” he said.

“There are around 4.8 million children in JK who cannot be vaccinated.”

“Vaccine is the only way to stop the pandemic,” Dr. Nisar said.

“In order to get back to normal, we need enough people to get vaccinated.”

“The sooner we get more people vaccinated, the sooner we start reliving our lives,” he said.

“The best way to circumvent Covid-19 variants is to continue to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible.”

“If we leave a large number of the population unimmunized, we will not be able to break the chain of infection and pandemics will linger on. And, we will continue to have fresh waves of Covid-19 infection,” said Dr. Nisar. (GNS)