Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 5

Days after the Kapurthala administration began an initiative to reach out to the differently abled, the Jalandhar district administration on Monday announced that it will be reaching out to the differently abled and bed-ridden at their homes to vaccinate them against Covid-19.

The administration is learnt to have taken lists of the pensioners and Unique Disability ID (UDID) card holders from the Department of Social Security and the mobile vaccination teams will soon start visiting them for vaccination at their doorstep.

Alternatively, Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori said such beneficiaries could even seek inoculation facilities at their doorstep by dialling control room number 0181-2224417. Thori said the registration process would be carried out for a week and vaccination would begin when there would be sufficient numbers of registration.

A dedicated mobile team would be deployed to provide these facilities near their home, adding persons with only genuine mobility issues would be covered by the team, he added. Wherever possible, at least 10 disabled persons would be brought to a common location as one vial has 10 doses.

The DC said the specially abled persons are the integral part of society and the administration would leave no stone unturned to serve them amid this unprecedented health crisis. He appealed to all such persons to get themselves inocilated by registering through this number so that the Covid-19 doses could be administered to them near their homes.

Notably, at vaccination camps for the disability sector being held by the NGO Channan Association, 1,250 persons with disablities as well as care givers had been vaccinated so far. But the recent announcement will allow the disabled to get jabs just by registering through the helpline.

Disability activist and president of the Channan Association, Amarjit Singh Anand, said: “It is a huge relief and welcome step. Not every PwD could afford to get to the vaccination centre by themselves. The helpline is going to make things very easy. I am thankful for the district administration for taking the initiative.”

The Tribune had highlighted the plight of PWDs in a new report in these pages on June 20. While out of 18,000 people with disabilities (PwDs) in the district, only 750, had been vaccinated at four camps until June 20, these had been organised by non-governmental organisations (NGOs).