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28 cases of UK variant, new strains reported in Jammu
Additional check posts have been created at Lakhanpur, Samba, lower Munda en route the Kashmir national highway to test travellers
Intensifying its efforts against the spread of the pandemic, the Jammu and Kashmir government on Wednesday said that it was working on a five-pronged strategy to contain the contagion and that eight cases of the UK-Covid variant and other new strains had been detected in Jammu but none from Kashmir.
Briefing the media about the situation in the UT, financial commissioner, health and medical education, Atal Dulloo, who was accompanied by principal secretary Rohit Kansal said, “The situation is challenging but not out of control. The J&K administration has made ample preparations to meet the challenge and is working on a five-pronged strategy to restrict the spread of the virus.”
“Intense testing, including that of travellers and others suspects, is being done at a rapid pace, followed by containment process, which includes contact tracing and imposing restrictions,” he said, adding that unlike last year, people were being vaccinated against the virus.
“We have 13,400 active cases with a promising recovery rate of 89.6% and mortality rate of 1.38%. There are around 120 containment zones and effective mechanisms for contact tracing are in place. Three state-of-the-art Cobas-6800 machines for testing will be installed in premier health institutes shortly. There are around 600 Covid- dedicated ventilators across J&K, of which only 48 are occupied,” he said, adding that 6,000 Category-I Covid beds were available in hospitals, including 10,000 bulk oxygen cylinders and 3,500 medium-sized cylinders.
“The government is in the process of installing 36 oxygen generation plants, of which 23 will be made functional by the end of the week, which will help add 2,000 more oxygen beds,” he said, while assuring that there was no death of personal protective equipment (PPE) kits, N-95 masks and viral transport mediums (VTMs).
On the availability of vaccines, he said, “The department is continuously receiving batches of the vaccine, as per the requirement. At present, at least two lakh doses are available.”
Dulloo said around 17 lakh doses had been administered till date with 91,142 (74.56%) health care workers, 2,61,589 (77.51%) front line workers and 11,27,511 (36.76%) 45-year plus citizens already inoculated.
Additional check posts created: Kansal
Kansal said that additional check posts had been created at Lakhanpur, Samba, lower Munda en route the Kashmir national highway to test travellers besides at railway stations and airports.
He said the rate of testing in J&K is one of the best in the country and other facilities are also up international requirements and standards.
A massive drive was launched by the Jammu district administration for effective implementation of guidelines and standard operational procedures issued for containment of the pandemic. The district administration in Jammu, through additional district magistrates, tehsildars, and naib tehsildars in association with their police counterparts launched the drive.
