Jammu, May 13: Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Baseer Ahmad Khan on Wednesday convened a meeting via video conference to review the Management of COVID-19 and status of Labourers / Students and other residents of the Jammu and Kashmir arriving from outside and the arrangements being put in place for them.
Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Pandurang K Pole, all Deputy Commissioners of Kashmir Division, Director SKIMS, Principal GMC Srinagar, Director Health Services Kashmir, Director, Airport Authority Srinagar, Principal SKIMS Medical College Bemina joined the meeting via video conference.
At the outset, the Advisor sought the feedback from all the Deputy Commissioners regarding the people/residents of J&K who are arriving from outside the UT and the facilities being arranged for them by the concerned District Administrations, their testing and sampling, arrangement done in administrative quarantine, status of additional quarantine facilities, status of Red Zones and other issues related to Covid-19 pandemic.
Deputy Commissioner Kulgam apprised the Advisor that additional wellness Centers at Government Degree College and Eklavya Model School have been set up to provide better facilities to the labourers who are expected to arrive in the next 15 days.
The Deputy Commissioners, Anantnag, Shopian, Pulwama and Budgam also presented the status of the arrival of Laborers/ Students from outside J&K. They apprised the meeting that as on date they have an adequate capacity of Administrative quarantine and also future influx of 15 days can be well adjusted.
The Deputy Commissioner, Ganderbal apprised the Advisor that a separate facility of 150 beds has also been created besides the Administrative quarantine facility of 1350 beds in the District.
The Deputy Commissioner, Baramulla also briefed the meeting and said that with the detection of fresh Covid positive cases, additional 17 Red zones have been categorised in the District.
The Advisor directed all the Deputy Commissioners to present their requisition of the VTM kits to the Director Health Services, Kashmir which the Director will provide at the earliest.
Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar informed the Advisor that the District has Administrative quarantine capacity of 6000 and also expected influx of 15000 persons from outside the J&K in next 15 days.
The Advisor directed Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar to create the additional quarantine facilities and asked the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir to fix the quota of samples to be tested for each District in correspondence to the quantum of influx and the capacities thereof.
Mr. Baseer Khan said that 30 thousand mattresses and bed sheets are being sent to the Div Com Kashmir who will further ensure its distribution as per the requirement of the Districts. He also asked the concerned authorities to increase the testing capacity, so that people can be sent to home quarantine, hence, reducing the stress on administrative quarantine.
The Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir apprised the meeting that screening booths and dedicated help lines/ control rooms have been created in each Super Specialty Hospitals with the due publicity in print and electronic media.
The Advisor asked the DCs to focus on strategic sampling in consultation with the Health Department and the Medical institutions with focus on 100% sampling and testing in Red zone areas.
Divisional Commissioner Kashmir requested the Advisor for his intervention for immediate release of funds to the health institutions so that these institutions do not face any difficulty in smooth functioning particularly testing for Covid-19. The Advisor assured that the issue shall be brought to the notice of Lieutenant Governor for its immediate redressal.
The Advisor said that all the hospitals should complement and supplement each other in tune with the SOP devised. It was also enjoined upon all the HODs that the frontline staff and the other workers should be taken due care of and all the safety equipment be provided to them.
The Advisor further directed Deputy Commissioner Budgam to conduct the inspection of Srinagar Airport along with the Director Airports Srinagar and to submit a report regarding the placement of SOPs and other facilities and measures in place which will cater to the air travelers when the flights resume.
