Srinagar (NVI): Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor, GC Murmu today reviewed preparedness and arrangements for dealing with coronavirus outbreak in the Union Territory while directing the administration to reach out to masses, identify vulnerable age groups, and augment a robust healthcare facility on priority.
An official spokesman said that while speaking at a high-level meeting at Raj Bhavan here, the LG said that COVID-19 was a “novel virus” and it demanded “novel interventions”. He urged the administration to work in close coordination and bring the mortality rate to its minimum.
“Fighting COVID-19 is a long-drawn-out battle. We all must gear up and fight it scientifically,” the LG said. “There shouldn’t be any lapse from the administration whatsoever, besides the concerned Deputy Commissioners should do profiling of the vulnerable areas and try to reach out to the affected people on priority,” he added.
Lauding Srinagar administration for putting a robust mechanism in place for fighting COVID-19 outbreak, Murmu directed all the districts to ensure safety and security for the people while urging the concerned District Magistrates to lend all necessary and possible support to the needy people in their areas.
He urged people to cooperate and follow the health advisories in letter and spirit to minimise the spread of the virus. He urged them to take special care of vulnerable age groups like elderly, children and people with existing illnesses. He also assured them that there would be no shortage of essential commodities or any service and asked them to maintain social distance as a precautionary measure to stop the spread of the virus.
Reviewing the arrangements for Kashmir division, the LG lauded the efforts of frontline health workers, security forces and the staff of essential services and appealed to the general public to complement the efforts of the government and cooperate in breaking the chain.
Apart from this, Murmu also urged the divisional administration to begin aggressive profiling of vulnerable age groups in the communities, saying that people above the age group of 60 should be profiled and their medical history should be tallied by a team of experts. He also assured the locals that all necessary measures are in place to prevent the spread of the infection. However they should cooperate and come forward for getting screened, he added.
“Testing capacity should be accelerated and people above the age group of 60 should be screened and if any healthcare issue is seen they should be immediately provided healthcare facilities,” he said. “There shouldn’t be any lapse from the health department on this,” he added.
Also present at the review meeting, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Pandurang K Pole gave an overall view of the COVID-19 preparedness, saying that divisional administration was building robust capacities for contact tracing & sampling. He said that 8,211 samples have been collected so far, besides 7,410 contacts traced and 351 positive cases recorded. He said that Pulwama is the least affected district while Bandipora has the highest number of cases.
The meeting was also informed that separate teams trained at 58 medical blocks for contact tracing and sampling have been constituted. 423 Lab technicians (LTs) and 80 paramedics have been trained for sampling purposes.
“Each district is having capacity for mobile sampling and besides that sampling kiosks have been established in all the district headquarters,” Pole said. “So far 3938 RNA extraction kits have been procured,” he added.
The meeting was further informed that there are 84 containment zones, including 37 (Red Zones), 45 (Orange zones), 02 (Green zones) across Kashmir division. The officials informed the chair that there is a nearly 10,000 bed capacity for the COVID-19 patients.
Till date, 64,089 travellers and persons in contact with suspected cases have been enlisted for surveillance which includes 5806 persons in home quarantine including facilities operated by government, 252 in Hospital Quarantine, 310 in hospital isolation and 15376 under home surveillance. Besides, 42340 persons have completed their surveillance period, according to an official statement.
Apart from this, the Lieutenant Governor said that clear guidelines and SOP should be adopted to deal with coronavirus-related biomedical waste. He directed concerned Deputy Commissioners to adopt guidelines for handling, treatment and safe disposal of biomedical waste generated during treatment, diagnosis and quarantine of patients confirmed or suspected to have the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
The LG also directed the administration, especially heads of the tertiary care healthcare institutions and Director Health Services, Kashmir, to protect the healthcare workers. He said that healthcare workers are at risk from handling Covid-19 patients and people in quarantine centres.
He said that medical experts and specialists should send out warnings to the masses on mishandling of biomedical waste. He added that discarded masks, gloves and tissues could be potential sources for the spread of this highly contagious virus.
Among others present at the meeting were Advisors to the LG- Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar and Baseer Ahmad Khan; Chief Secretary, BVR Subhramanyam; Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar, Shahid Iqbal Choudhary and Director, SKIMS, Dr AG Ahnagar.
