IN J&K, CORONA CURFEW EXTENDED TILL MAY 17
Only essential services will be allowed; gathering for marriage functions reduced to 25 from the 50
The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Sunday extended till May 17 the curfew imposed across the union territory to curb the spread of coronavirus.
Only a few essential services would be allowed during the curfew, while the gathering permissible for marriages is reduced to 25 from the current 50 with effect from Sunday. These decisions were taken during a high-level meeting of the Covid task force chaired by lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha after a detailed assessment of the district-wise scenario.
JAMMU: The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Sunday extended till May 17 the curfew imposed across the union territory to curb the spread of coronavirus.
Only a few essential services would be allowed during the curfew, while the gathering permissible for marriages is reduced to 25 from the current 50 with effect from Sunday.
These decisions were taken during a high-level meeting of the Covid task force chaired by lieutenant governor (L-G) Manoj Sinha after a detailed assessment of the district-wise scenario and containment measures required to control the spread of the deadly virus.
It was informed in the meeting that 10 additional oxygen generation plants are coming up in J&K soon with the intervention of the central government. The L-G asked the concerned functionaries to prioritise the completion of all civil and other auxiliary works so that early functioning of these oxygen plants can be ensured.
Most of the big Covid care government hospitals in J&K now have their own oxygen generation plants.
In order to break the chain of the virus, it was decided that 50% of the staff in government departments would attend offices as per duty rosters and their movement would be strictly through passes during the curfew.
A decision was also taken to establish two more triage centres, one each in both the divisions to facilitate Covid patients.
While noting that early diagnosis of the infection has a better survival rate, the L-G asked the health department to intensify the testing so that affected patients can be identified and treated accordingly. He called for communication with the public for cooperation and further directed for focusing on vulnerable groups for testing and vaccination.
Conduct house-to-house screening, says L-G
He asked the divisional commissioners to conduct extensive exercise of house-to-house screening and Covid status verification for identifying the vulnerable population through dedicated teams at the local level.
Emphasising on optimum utilisation of technological interventions and reaching out to the people with medical facilities through tele-medicine, the L-G directed the officers concerned to ensure that tele-consultation facility is available for public in medical colleges and other tertiary care hospitals.
A comparative analysis was also done during the meeting to get a clear picture of the district-wise level of transmission rate registered during pre and post-corona curfew days. It was noted that the restrictions yielded some favourable results in containing the spread of virus, especially at the community level.
The police department was directed to ensure strict enforcement of restrictions in areas with a high number of positive cases.
Sinha also took an overview of the progress being made for establishing the 500-bed Covid facility, one each in Srinagar and Jammu by DRDO team, besides enhancing the capacity of Covid care facilities by the army.
Following the directions passed by the L-G in previous meetings on enhancing the bed capacity in J&K, Atal Dulloo, financial commissioner, health and medical education informed that oxygen-support beds are being increased in hospitals across the UT in a phased manner by prioritising the high-patient load hospitals.
He also gave a detailed overview of Covid situation in J&K including trends of daily cases, testing and positivity percentage, Covid testing capacities, case fatality rate, recovery rate, weekly cases per million population, districtwise level of transmission, tests done in the past seven days, age-wise death audit, contact tracing etc.
As many as 76,04,448 Covid tests have been performed in the UT with 3,000 tests per million population per day on an average.
During the meeting, participants also gave their valuable suggestions for effective Covid management in J&K.