Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Baseer Ahmad Khan today convened a meeting of divisional administration and health officials here regarding the administrative and medical aspects for management of Covid-19.The Advisor laid emphasis on strict adherence to the guidelines issued by the Government of India and Department of Health. He asked to make the wearing of face masks and observation of social distancing norms mandatory.The meeting was attended by Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, P.K Pole; all Deputy Commissioners of Kashmir Division; Director, SKIMS; Director Health Services Kashmir; Director, Airport Authority, Srinagar; Principal Government Medical College, Srinagar; Principal SKIMS Medical College Bemina; Medical Superintendents of B&J Hospital, Super Speciality Hospital, Lalla Ded Hospital and GB Pant Hospital.Most of the officers participated in the meeting through Video Conferencing.The Advisor asked the officers about the Standing Operating Procedures (SOPs) to be observed for the gradual unlocking process to be taken in hand subsequently. He took stock of the preparations made by the divisional administration regarding this process and directed to show utmost seriousness in taking all the measures required as per the guidelines and local requirements.He advised the officers to look into the needs of people in view of the picking up of the agricultural and horticulture activities here. He asked them to create awareness among rural population so that they take the precautionary measures while working in their farms and orchards.Advisor Baseer Khan also asked the officers to put in place proper deterrence mechanism so that no laxity is observed among the people in observing the guidelines. He enquired from the officers about the requisite facilities with respect to hospital and administrative quarantine, testing and allied facilities necessary for tackling the pandemic. He advised them to look into the need for improvements, if any, for meeting the future demands taking into consideration the gradual unlocking process and coming of people back to home.
The Advisor further directed them to provide medical and other facilities to the patients with comorbid conditions, elderly people and pregnant ladies. He asked them to provide every amenity to people living in Red and Containment zones.The Divisional Commissioner, on the occasion, informed the Advisor that facilities put in place are satisfactory to tackle any future eventuality. He further informed that more than 10000 beds are available in Hospitals, wellness centres and Covid centres for the patients out of which only 1300 are occupied currently.He informed the meeting that proper SOPs and guidelines are being framed to open business activities as per the guidelines. Testing of service providers like vendors, bakers, grocery store owners and others is going on and persons with negative results would only be allowed to operate their businesses, he added.The Deputy Commissioners informed the meeting that people are compounded for violating the guidelines and tracing of all the contacts of positive cases are done on war footing basis. They informed the meeting that awareness among the masses is created using social and mainstream media, services of community elders and religious leaders. They also put forth their specific needs and suggestions before the Advisor for consideration.The participating health officers gave their inputs regarding the containment of this infection in view of unlocking measures to be taken in future. They informed the Advisor about the measures that have already been taken and are in pipeline to fight this pandemic successfully. It was given in the meeting that J&K UT is among the top in the country for testing the travellers, contacts of covid patients and suspected individuals.The airport authorities informed that all the measures of segregation of arrival and departure flights are observed. They informed that rush of passengers is out rightly avoided at the Srinagar airport. They also informed that sanitisation of premises and social distancing norms are also observed strictly.They informed that about 1100-1200 passengers arrive and nearly 1000 of them depart each day for which the airport is kept open for almost 12 hours daily.