Abid Bashir
Srinagar (NVI): A senior Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer in Jammu and Kashmir has been tested positive for novel coronavirus, forcing the UT administration to put all his contacts including top bureaucrats under quarantine.
This comes just a few days after the wife and son of an advisor to the J&K Lieutenant Governor were found Covid-19 positive.
According to sources, at least 15 bureaucrats including top officials have been put under quarantine, who had possibly come in contact with the infected IAS officer. The need to put 15 officers, majority of whom are from the Health and Medical Education Department, was felt as the IAS officer who tested positive for the Covid was present in a high-level meeting held in Srinagar last evening. The meeting was aimed to review the pandemic situation and the measures taken so far.
Sources said that at least 15 officers including some senior officials have been quarantined in Srinagar. “These persons were in contact with the officer during the meeting held in Srinagar,” they said. “Efforts are on to trace all other contacts of the IAS officer apart from those who were present in the meeting.” The IAS officer had left for Jammu from Srinagar after attending the meeting.
Divisional Commissioner Kashmir PK Pole told NVI that the administration is tracing all those who had “unsafe contact” with the officer. “There is no need to panic. Effective contact tracing is going on. All the primary and secondary contacts of the infected IAS officer will be traced and quarantined,” Pole said.
