Jammu & Kashmir administration gears up to fight against novel coronavirus outbreak

Jammu and Kashmir's administration is keeping an eye on all suspected cases of Corona Virus and steps are being taken to keep the disease at bay. Ensuring that the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is in a state of alert, Principal Secretary, Planning and Monitoring and Information, Rohit kansal said the surveillance for this virus has been increased ever since the first advisory was issued by the Government of India on 2nd February 2020.

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He informed that "so far a total of 201 individuals have been contacted in Jammu and Kashmir. These include individuals who either had a travel history to countries such as China, South Korea, Iran, Thailand, Italy, South East Asia, etc or came in contact with persons who had traveled to these countries. 21 suspected cases have been tested to date and no positive case has been reported so far across J&K".

Kansal urged the public not to panic and assured that the entire administrative machinery which includes the health machinery has been activated and is in a state of full alert. All the facilities are put in place as required, he added.

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"100 percent self-declaration at the airports of Jammu and Srinagar will start from tomorrow to trace any such traveler having travel history to the infected countries. Further, checkpoints for passengers traveling by road have been set up at Lakhanpur and Lower Munda (Zig) to identify individuals with travel history to these countries", he added.

He further informed that dedicated 24x7 Data Control Centres have been established at Srinagar and Jammu to receive the information of travelers coming from the affected countries and to receive information from the Government of India to further transmit the same to the districts for their tracing at the earliest, Kansal said, adding that all suspected cases are being managed through the defined protocols.

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"We want to assure everybody that there is absolutely no cause of panic. All the required protocols and steps are being taken. Doctors, health specialists administrative officers of health departments are reaching out to everybody through mass media informing people at large of the various respiratory hygiene, cough and sneeze etiquette, hand hygiene steps that are needed to be taken. The department will continue to engage with everybody on these issues", Kansal maintained.

Responding to a question by the media person, Bhupinder Kumar Mission Director NHM informed that an adequate number of facilities have been raised both in Jammu and Srinagar as well as district-level including quarantine and isolation facilities, ICUs with dedicated ventilators have also been set up.

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