J&K: COVID-19 control room emerges as nerve center for containment, surveillance efforts

The divisional COVID-19 control room established by the Jammu and Kashmir government to monitor the spread of the novel Coronavirus has emerged as a nerve center for coordinating the efforts ranging from tracking patients and contacts to monitoring red zones and answering people from all over the country.

Authorities here have divided this ‘control room’ into a number of sections that are looking after call centre, contact tracing, coordination of sampling, monitoring quarantine facilities across the division, red zone surveillance, coordination with districts for essential supplies, etc.

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24X7 call center

The call center that works 24X7 has been set up with dedicated helpline numbers to ensure that people get accurate information, support, counselling and response to health-related queries on novel coronavirus infectious disease, said Deputy Director, Health Services (and incharge 24X7 call center) Dr. Jehanzaib.

“The sampling capacity of each district has been increased by imparting training to 58 block-level sampling teams and the samples so collected are transported to respective labs for processing and testing,” said Dr. Talat Jabeen Gani.

In order to decontaminate Red zones, another doctor working in the team said the surveillance of red zones is an important aspect of monitoring the disease and timely reporting of any suspected case. "The village-level teams visit every household in the Red zone not only to look after the health of all individuals, but also to create awareness about the COVID 19," the doctor said.

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COVID-19 cases

Meanwhile, 15 from Bandipora district of north Kashmir who had tested positive for COVID-19 have been discharged from different hospitals in Srinagar so far. Bandipora district has recorded 91 positive cases so far out of which 15 patients have recovered while one died on April 7.

Pertinently, 14 new COVID-19 cases were detected in Kashmir on Monday taking the J&K tally to 368. There are now 313 cases in the Valley while Jammu has reported 55 so far, government spokesperson Rohit Kansal tweeted.

(PTI Photo for representation)

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