The Deputy Commissioner (DC) Pulwama, Baseer Ul Haq Chowdhary today briefed media about the Covid management and mitigation measures put in place by the district for combating the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic. Giving details, the DC informed that the positivity rate of Covid cases has declined and in last week average 150 to 160 patients have been admitted in the hospital while as recovery rate of district has increased to 250-300 patients per day. He said because of covid kits, being regularly distributed among Covid Patients, monitoring of these patients has become easy for health officials. Choudhry informed that there are about 2400 active Covid-19 cases in the district adding that the surveillance in all Containment zones has been intensified with the number of surveillance teams increased from 285 to 315 for monitoring the situation in a better way especially in the cluster areas.With regard to the ongoing vaccination process, the DC said that door to door vaccination has been started in the containment zones to cover all eligible persons .He said vaccination centers have been established across the district to cover the rest of the targeted population particularly Vendors, Shopkeepers and other high risk groups.To strengthen Covid care in rural areas Covid Care Centers (CCCs) with capacity of 5 beds have been made functional at 190 panchayats and these CCCs are equipped with all requisite equipment and medical facilities for people who have not sufficient isolation facilities at home, he added.The DC appealed people to get vaccinated at an earliest and advised them not to pay heed to the rumours circulated on social media by unscrupulous elements regarding safety and efficacy of the vaccine.He urged people to strictly follow the Covid SOPs and guidelines so that spread of this disease is curtailed and life is brought back on normal track.