The Government further informed that the main focus of the authorities has been the tracing of foreign travelers, participants of religious gatherings as well as contact persons of these and so far 98% cases of these have been traced which indicates that the administration is on right path in dealing with the emerging situation.
Furthermore the aggressive testing strategy, contact tracing and tracking of suspect cases has been very effective in J&K and it has gained high degree of success in it so far by which it is considered among the 4-5 highest testing regions of the country besides 78% asymptomatic cases have also been tracked which determines the aggressive testing strategy of the administration.
Notably J&K has been among the first to start testing locally having expanded its testing labs from 1 to 5 labs with testing capacity of existing labs being expanded on daily basis which will support in aggressive testing strategy of the Government.
The Government also informed that 7729 persons are under home quarantine (including facilities operated by govt.); while as 28912 persons are under home surveillance till date.To deal with the situation, the Government of UT of J&K put restrictions from 4 March onwards much earlier than most of other states/UTs.
The Government marked 77 Red Zones (12 in Jammu/ 65 in Kashmir) for containing the virus and tracking the suspects at the earliest. The government also established effective screening mechanism at Lakhanpur (only entry point to the UT from rest of India) and over 5000 have been quarantined in lots.
Capacity Building in Healthcare System
On the healthcare front, the administration has taken several steps to deal with the emerging situation arising due to COVID-19. So far the government has established 16 standalone/dedicated COVID hospitals in the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir besides isolation beds (including ICU’s) have been increased for 1525 to 2596 with further process of addition going on.
The Government has also setup 1938 hospital care beds as well as 24,926 non-hospital quarantine beds. Furthermore the administration has approached railway authorities as well as Army for support in building dedicated COVID facilities at Jammu and Srinagar of 500 beds.
Stocks of safety equipments, ventilators, testing kits are being procured to enhance the capacity in order to deal with any untoward situation which may arise due to CPVID-19.
