The Deputy Commissioner (DC) Bandipora, Dr Owais Ahmad on Tuesday briefed media about the Covid situation in the district and appealed the people to continue to follow Covid Appropriate Behaviour (CAB) besides urging the un-vaccinated persons to get vaccinated at earliest. Dr Owais said the pandemic is not over yet and any carelessness can lead us in trouble again. He said there are only two ways to fight the pandemic including adopting CAB and vaccination. He urged people to continue to follow CAB by using masks, maintaining social distance and ensuring personal hygiene especially during the holy Days of Eid-e-Milad (SAW) and marriage functions.He especially stressed upon the students who are attending offline classes to strictly adopt CAB while attending classes for their own safety.The DC said adequate arrangements have been put in place at major shrines and masjids to ensure SOPs are followed.
He sought the cooperation of the general public especially Imams and Masjid Committee members to sensitize devotees about pandemic and motivate them to adopt CAB including wearing of face masks while entering masjids. He urged the officers to ensure the vendors outside shrines also follow social distancing norms strictly. He said that the vaccination process is going on in full swing and appealed to the unvaccinated people to get vaccinated at earliest. He said the Covid-19 situation is improving gradually and recovery rate is improving owing to extensive testing in containment zones and vaccination drives launched at a large scale in the district.Giving details, Dr Owais said the positivity rate is gradually decreasing and there are only 24 active positive cases as on date in the district. He said the administration is closely monitoring these areas and taking appropriate measures to check the spread. The DC said the extensive testing has helped the administration to keep check on the spread of the virus as immediate measures as per the given SOPs are taken. He said 3.90 lac tests have been conducted so far and the positivity rate has been 0.4 to 0.2 percent.