Take every measure to restrict COVID-19 spread: CS to health officers

Srinagar, Jun 25: Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta Saturday stressed upon the health officers to take every measure to restrict the spread of covid-19 here in the UT. He asked them to intensify the tracing, testing and inoculation of precautionary dose to people especially to those with comorbid conditions.
He made these remarks in a high level meeting of health officers to review the Covid-19 scenario in the UT in view of rising cases in some States of the country.
The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary, Health and Medical Education; Director SKIMS; Mission Director, NHM, DG Health & Family Welfare; Director Health, Kashmir/Jammu; Principals of GMCs, State Surveillance Officers, Jammu/Kashmir and Chief Medical Officers.
Several officers including Jammu based officers participated in the meeting through video conferencing.
Dr Mehta impressed upon the officers to adopt prescribed level of random testing of those traveling from outside. He directed the health authorities to issue the advisories to people so that the people remains safe and cautious. He asked them to encourage people to adhere to the Covid-19 protocols.
He advised them to remain vigilant and use social and other media to create awareness among people so that no rumor mongering occurs. He asked them to create digital health records of patients visiting hospitals and integrate the same with Rapid Assessment System (RAS) for quality feedback of public.
The Chief Secretary also maintained that the health infrastructure of the UT was upgraded to a larger extent during past few years. He reminded them it is for this reason that in the past the UT faced no major problem dealing with the pandemic. He suggested them to work for promotion of medical tourism here as the UT is set to establish medical cities in both the divisions here.
The MD, NHM briefed the CS about the current scenario of the Covid-19 in the UT. He gave out that there is no major reason of concern for the people. He revealed that the health infrastructure available throughout J&K including isolation beds, oxygen supply and medicines are enough to deal with any situation and J&K faced no uneven occupancy of beds in recent times.
It was further made out that the positivity rate in J&K in the past 24 hours is just 0.5% as compared to 1.2% at national level. It was stated that the overall recovery rate of patients in J&K is 98.9% as compared to 98.6% at the national level. It was also mentioned that the infections are less severe than in the past due to full vaccination of the whole population of J&K.
It was said that gene sequencing of hospitalized cases and assessment of bed occupancy is monitored continuously. Further the testing of travelers and checking their vaccination certificates would also be carried out to weed out chances of spread of the infection, the meeting was informed.
During the meeting suggestions from participants were taken and the preparations made at their end were also taken note of. It was ascertained during the meeting that there is no threat currently but following of precautions like wearing face masks and frequent hand washing needs to be adopted strictly to be safe and avoid any loss of life.