J&K LG directs officers to expedite Covid vaccination, contact tracing

In order to assess the effectiveness of containment measures, Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha on Friday chaired a COVID review meeting with all Deputy Commissioners, Superintendents of Police (SPs) and senior officials of the Jammu and Kashmir administration through video conferencing.

As per a release issued by Raj Bhavan, while taking a district-wise appraisal of the COVID situation, the Lt Governor took note of the decrease in positivity rate across the districts and called for sustained efforts to effectively implement the containment zone policy in order to ensure that a declining trend of the new infections is maintained.

"J & K UT continues to report a sustained slide in the positivity rate but we cannot afford to let our guard down now. All the districts should strictly implement the Containment Zone Policy and Contact Tracing. Along with public participation, doctors, and health workers, we should also involve civil society groups and religious leaders to speed up vaccination drive," Lt Governor said.

The Lt Governor outlined the collective responsibility of all stakeholders and urged the people to inculcate behavioural changes to make COVID appropriate behaviour part and parcel of their day-to-day life.

"The Civil administration and the Police have to put in extra effort to sensitize people about social distancing, wearing masks, and proactive testing in the containment zones. They should constitute joint teams to reach out to people in markets and other areas. COVID Care Centres in Panchayats should be effectively utilized. I urge everyone to adhere to COVID protocol to finally beat the COVID", he added.

Raj Bhavan said Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Medical Education Department, Atal Dulloo, briefed the chair about the district-wise analysis of COVID-19 situation, weekly new cases per million population, test positivity rate, contact tracing, bed occupancy, vaccination coverage, functional status of COVID Care Centres (CCC) at Panchayat level, and status of Vaccine availability.

It was also informed that the overall recovery rate in the UT as on date was 95.2 per cent while the positivity rate has dropped to 1.3 per cent in the last 24 hours.

"Further, 9 districts viz. Bandipora, Ganderbal, Shopian, Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Reasi, Udhampur, Kishtwar in the UT are in Green Category where the epidemic is being controlled through measures with limited and localized disruption to social and economic life," the release said.

While acknowledging the collective efforts of the administration and other stakeholders in containing the pandemic, the Lt Governor exhorted officers to ensure easy availability of basic amenities to the people, besides renewed thrust on achieving maximum vaccination coverage in the districts.

Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Advisor to Lt Governor; Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary; Dilbag Singh, DGP; Shaleen Kabra, Principal Secretary to the Government, Home Department; Shailendra Kumar, Principal Secretary to the Government, Public Works (R and B) Department; Nitishwar Kumar, Principal Secretary to the Lt Governor; Pandurang K Pole, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir; Vijay Kumar, IGP Kashmir; Raghav Langer, Divisional Commissioner Jammu; Choudhary Mohammad Yasin, Mission Director, NHM; Deputy Commissioners and SPs, attended the meeting, in person and through virtual mode.