Atal Dulloo for effective implementation of 5-pronged strategy to fight Covid
Jammu: With an aim to tackle the recent upsurge of Covid 19, Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education, Atal Dulloo today impressed upon the officers for effective implementation of the 5-pronged strategy in J&K which includes testing, containment, isolation & treatment, Covid appropriate behaviour and vaccination.
He made these remarks during a review meeting at Civil Secretariat here to analyse district wise Covid-19 scenario and the implementation of 5-pronged strategy to tackle the upsurge.
The FC directed the concerned officers to expedite the testing and vaccination drive, study the increase of the test positivity rate and take remedial measures accordingly.
“We have to gear up all our efforts at all levels, only then we will be able to tackle the surge of cases. Testing has to be increased significantly at all designated facilities and bring down the test positivity rate in each district. All the testing facilities have to make sure that the set targets are met on daily basis” he said, adding that installation of oxygen generation plants needs to be expedited which would augment the oxygen supply of our hospitals.
He directed the officers that there should be no delay in the result of RT-PCR tests and directed the GMCs to make sure that they do perform 2000 tests each daily.
Calling for an increase in the pace of vaccination, Atal Dulloo directed the officers to make all the necessary arrangements to accelerate the vaccination drive to the population. He said that by vaccinating more people, we will be better equipped to fight the disease, adding that they have an adequate supply of vaccines in all districts.
Regarding the containment strategy, the FC said that restrictions in the 127 containment zones have to be implemented fully, adding that testing in containment zones has to be increased significantly. He also said that the number of contacts traced for every positive case should be increased to 20.
Regarding the treatment of home isolation patients, the FC directed that they should be monitored regularly and necessary instructions passed to them. He directed the district authorities to fully activate their control rooms and periodical calls should be made to the home isolation patients on regular basis.
About the upgradation of Covid facilities at the Dedicated Covid Health Centres (Category II) and Covid Care Centres (Category III), he directed the Deputy Commissioners to visit every facility and make sure that these facilities are in a state of preparedness to handle any emergency.
“We can’t lower our guard under any circumstances. We have to make sure that our Category II and III facilities are ready in all respects,” he said.
Emphasising the need for strict compliance of Covid appropriate behaviour, the FC asked the DCs to take strict action against the violators and increase enforcement drives in their districts which would go a long way to prevent disease transmission, besides making a fervent appeal to people to go back to the basics and follow the norms of social distancing, maintaining personal hygiene and wearing masks.
Elaborating about the facilities, Dulloo said the facilities available with the department are satisfactory with 3 state of the art Cobas-6800 testing machines to be installed in our premier health institutes shortly. He gave out that there are some 600 Covid dedicated ventilators around J&K with only 48 occupied currently. He said that 6000 category-I covid beds are available with the hospitals including 10000 bulk oxygen cylinders and 3500 medium sized cylinders. He gave out that government is in a process of installing 36 oxygen generation plants with 23 to be made functional at the end of the week that will help in adding 2000 more oxygen beds to our kitty.
The meeting was attended by MD NHM, Choudhary Mohammad Yasin, Director General Family Welfare, MCH and Immunisation, Dr Saleem-ur-Rehman, Director Health Services Jammu, Dr Renu Sharma, Principal Government Medical College Jammu, Dr Shashi Sudhan Sharma, MD JKMSCL, Dr Yashpal Sharma, State Drug Controller, Lokita Khajuria, DG Planning (H&ME), Satvir Kour Sudan, Surveillance Medical Officer (WHO), Dr Ravinder Pal Singh and Deputy Director Planning (H&ME) Aman Kumar Dogra.
Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Pandurang Kondbarao Pole, Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Dr Raghav Langer, , Director SKIMS, A G Ahanger, Director Health Services Kashmir, Dr Mushtaq Ahmad Rather, Principal Government Medical College Srinagar, Samia Rashid, Principals of New Medical Colleges, Deputy Commissioners of districts and other officers attended the meeting through video conferencing.