Of one-lakh returnees in J&K, 799 tested positive since May 1

JAMMU: Of the nearly 1 lakh returnees to Jammu and Kashmir, over 800 have tested positive for coronavirus since May 1, said Bhupinder Kumar, nodal officer of the Union territory on Friday.

The administration had made Covid-19 testing mandatory for those returning to the Union territory which has helped combat the spread of the infection, the official said.

Principal secretary, information, and government spokesperson Rohit Kansal said that the J&K administration has been able to combat the pandemic in better ways than some of the bigger and resourceful states.

“In order to control the spread of the disease, the administration had intensified testing and despite constraints, it provided better facilities in the shortest possible time,” he said.

The principal secretary added that the administration got its labs accredited, roped in other hospitals, entered into an agreement with ICMR accredited private labs and also went ahead with pool testing to maximise its capacity.

“We also accorded attention to robust contact tracing and aggressive testing that included red zones and containment areas,” he said. “When the stranded residents started returning in the UT, we made Covid-19 testing mandatory for all. It helped us detect and isolate positive patients. Given that most of them were asymptomatic, had they not been tested they would have continued undetected and potentially infected a large number of people,” said Kansal.