Jammu and Kashmir: Corona curfew extended till May 17  

The curfew will be strictexcept for a few essential services.Further, the gathering permissible for marriages has been reduced to 25 only w.e.f. May9. 

These decisions were taken during a high-level meeting of Covid Task Force chaired byLieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha after a detailed assessment of the district-wise Covidscenario and containment measures required to control the spread of the deadly virus. 

The meeting was informed that 10 additional Oxygen generation plants are coming up inJ&K soon with the intervention of the Central Government.

The Lt Governor asked theconcerned functionaries to prioritize the completion of all civil and other auxiliary worksso that early functioning of these oxygen plants can be ensured. 

Most of the big Covid care Government hospitals in J&K now have their own oxygengeneration plants. 

The upcoming oxygen plants will add to the capacity of oxygenavailability in the UT, observed the Lt Governor.In order to break the transmission chain of the virus, it was decided that 50 % of staff inGovernment departments would attend offices as per duty rosters and their movementwould be strictly through passes during the Corona Curfew.

Decision was also taken to establish two more Triage centres, one each in both thedivisions to facilitate Covid patients.

While noting that early diagnosis of the infection has a better survival rate, the Lt Governor asked the Health Department to intensify the testing so that affected patientscan be identified and treated accordingly.

He called for communication with the publicfor cooperation and further directed for focusing on vulnerable groups for testing andvaccination.

 The Lt Governor asked the Divisional Commissioners to conduct extensive exercise ofhouse to house screening and Covid-19 status verification for identifying the vulnerablepopulation through dedicated teams at the local level.

Emphasizing on optimum utilization of technological interventions and reaching out tothe people with medical facilities through Tele-medicine, the Lt Governor directed theconcerned officers to ensure that Tele-medicine facility is available for public in MedicalColleges and other tertiary care hospitals and asked them to spread awareness regardingthe availability of doctors for Telemedicine facility along with their contact numbers.

 A comparative analysis was also done during the meeting to get a clear picture of theDistrict-wise level of Transmission rate registered during pre-Corona Curfew andCorona curfew days. 

It was noted that the restrictions have yielded some favourableresults in containing the spread of Coronavirus, especially at the community level.

The police department was directed to ensure strict enforcement of restrictions in areaswith a high number of positive cases. 

The Lt Governor also took an overview of the progress being made for establishing the500-bedded Covid facility, one each in Srinagar and Jammu by DRDO team, besidesenhancing the capacity of Covid care facilities by the Army. 

Following the directions passed by the Lt Governor in previous meetings on enhancingthe bed capacity in J&K, Atal Dulloo, Financial Commissioner, Health and MedicalEducation informed that oxygen support beds are being increased in the Hospitals acrossthe UT, in a phased manner by prioritizing the high patient load hospitals. 

He also gave a detailed overview of Covid situation in J&K including Trends of dailycases, testing & positivity percentage; Covid testing capacities; case fatality rate;recovery rate; weekly cases per million population; District wise level of transmission;Tests done in last 7 days; Age-wise Deaths Audit; Contact tracing etc.It was informed that a total of 76,04,448 COVID tests have been performed in the UTwith 3000 Tests per million population per day on an average. 

During the meeting, participants also gave their valuable suggestions for effective Covidmanagement in the UT.BVR Subrahmanyam, Chief Secretary; Dilbag Singh, DGP; Arun Kumar Mehta,Financial Commissioner, Finance Department; Shaleen Kabra, Principal Secretary to theGovernment, Home Department; Nitishwar Kumar, Principal Secretary to the LtGovernor; Mukesh Singh, ADGP; Pandurang K Pole, Divisional Commissioner,Kashmir; Vijay Kumar, IGP Kashmir; Dr. Raghav Langer, Divisional Commissioner Jammu; and Choudhary Mohammad Yasin, Mission Director, NHM participated in themeeting, in person, and through virtual mode.