Chief Secretary reviews public health response to COVID 19

Srinagar, Oct 30: The Chief Secretary, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta Saturday chaired a meeting to review the public health response to COVID-19 and asked the divisional and district administrations to ensure coverage of 5 lakh people who have completed the mandatory interregnum period and are due to receive the subsequent dose with second COVID vaccination jab within a week.
Administrative Secretaries of Health & Medical Education, Revenue, General Administration, besides Divisional Commissioners Kashmir/ Jammu, Inspectors General of Police, Kashmir/ Jammu, all Deputy Commissioners, all District Superintendents of Police along with MD, National Health Mission, Director, Family Welfare, and other concerned officers participated in the meeting.
The Chief Secretary emphasised on early culmination of COVID vaccination drives to ensure safety of local population once the economy is fully opened with resumption of all economic activities, reopening of schools, and large scale tourism activities.
The Health and Medical Education Department was asked to ensure regular supply of vaccines to the districts, besides enhancing their testing facilities for early detection of COVID infections and emerging hotspots.
The Chief Secretary impressed upon the district administration, Srinagar to remain vigilant to any surge in cases and focus intensively on daily testing of vulnerable population in consonance to the trajectory of infections. “Special focus is to be laid on early testing and isolation of symptomatic patients having influenza like infections (ILIs) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARIs) due to the sudden change in season” he added.
Dr. Mehta further underscored the need for strict enforcement of the COVID appropriate behaviour (CAB) and COVID SOPs and protocols, besides directing the enforcement agencies to strictly implement the established protocols and levy penalties on defaulters. He also directed continuation of the COVID dedicated IEC campaign to raise awareness regarding DOs and Don’ts for keeping the disease at bay.