Advisor Bhatnagar chairs COVID-19 review meet

Asks for aggressive testing of co-morbid persons, pregnant ladies, red zone areas

 

Srinagar:  Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, today emphasized the need of aggressive testing of co-morbid persons, red zone areas besides strict enforcement of restrictions in containment zones to contain the spread of COVID-19 virus in Jammu and Kashmir.

Advisor, while chairing a high level review meeting regarding COVID-19 pandemic, asked the Deputy Commissioners to launch an aggressive testing campaign in red zone areas with focus on co-morbid persons and pregnant ladies besides ensuring increase in target sampling of COVID positive contact cases for early detection.

The meeting was attended by Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education, Atal Dulloo, Principal Secretary, Housing and Urban Development, Dheeraj Gupta, representatives of Directorate of  Health Services, Kashmir, and other concerned officials while as all the Deputy Commissioners, Mission Director, National Health Mission, Director Health Services, Jammu and all the CMOs participated in the meeting through video conferencing.

Advisor asked the DCs to augment the healthcare facilities in their respective districts so that the people who develop symptoms can be picked up early without developing any severe problem. He also stressed upon the concerned officials that contact tracing and surveillance should be increased so that the chain of transmission is reduced and broken. He urged upon them to fast pace the on-spot sample collection in red zone areas besides increasing the contact tracing of positive cases.

Advisor asked the Deputy Commissioners to encourage people for self reporting and testing in case of any symptoms. “Encourage local population to visit flu clinics and fever clinics in case of any symptoms," Advisor Bhatnagar exhorted upon them.

Advisor Bhatnagar also asked the officials to use the services of ASHA Workers and Multi-purpose workers aggressively for contact tracing besides mobile testing vans should also be deployed to maximize the reach of testing.

Advisor Bhatnagar asked the officials to properly maintain the normal patient care in the hospitals besides general health services should be provided efficiently in all health centers. He also asked the officials to conduct regular mobile camps in far flung areas so that the public can be provided health care facilities at their doorsteps.

Speaking in the meeting, Financial Commissioner advised the DCs and other concerned to make use of Swasthya Nidhi Application in best possible manner for efficient data collection related to COVID-19. He also stressed upon them to follow proper admission policy while dealing with COVID positive patients besides asking them to refer symptomatic patients to hospitals only while asymptomatic patients should be kept in COVID care centres. He asked the DCs to put in place a proper mechanism for strict enforcement of restrictions in containment zones besides strict adherence to other advisories and SOPs.

Principal Secretary, Housing and Urban Development while speaking in the meeting suggested using the data of Swasthya Nidhi Application for contact tracing and sampling. He added that through this application, samples can be collected from booth level of Assembly Segments with details of co-morbid as well as symptomatic cases.

Mission Director NHM gave a detailed presentation on the status of COVID-19 pandemic in Jammu and Kashmir. He informed the meeting that 35036 tests per million population have been done in the UT which is better than the national level of 9105 tests per million.