In J&K, daily cases down by over 50% in two weeks
JAMMU: The Union home secretary, Ajay Kumar Bhalla, on Tuesday chaired a high-level meeting to review the management of the Covid-19 pandemic across all union territories.
Chief secretary, Jammu & Kashmir, B V R Subrahmanyam, also participated in the meeting.
The Union home secretary cautioned the UTs on the successive surges and asked them to remain vigilant to the situation. Advising the UTs to learn from their experiences, the home secretary asked them to keep pace with testing and vaccination rates, besides enforcing Covidappropriate behaviour and strengthening the medical infrastructure. At the outset, Union secretary, health and family welfare, gave a presentation on the prevailing situation in the UTs.
With 3,946 cases per million population being reported over the last two weeks and 62 deaths per million during the same period, it was mentioned that J&K was performing reasonably well in mitigating the second wave of the pandemic.
On the measures being taken in J&K to contain the spread, the chief secretary said both testing and vaccination capacities had been enhanced: “The early detection of infection has allowed for timely medical intervention, whereas vaccination was found to reduce the severity of disease in patients.”
Currently, Jammu and Kashmir is among the leading regions in the country in vaccination of above 45 years age group having vaccinated 66% of its eligible population, which is well above the national average of 32%. Within J&K, four districts— Ganderbal, Jammu, Samba, and Shopian—achieved 100% vaccine coverage in the same age category.
Sharp dip in positivity rate, says chief secy
Further, the chief secretary informed that the daily number of cases had reduced from an alltime high of 5,500 to 2,200 in two weeks.
The same period also witnessed a reduction in the case positivity rate from 13% to 6.2%.
It was highlighted that the districts having higher vaccination rates reported lower positivity rates.
Regarding augmentation of medical infrastructure, it was informed that the government had recently adopted a strategy to establish 5-bed Covid-care facilities with at least one oxygen bed at approximately 4,000 panchayats to provide immediate care.
Additionally, 33,000 medical kits have been distributed to patients in home isolation.
The twin 500-bed temporary hospitals being established by the Defence Research and Development Organisation will commence operations at Jammu from May 26, and at Srinagar from July 1, said officials.