 Early Times Report
JAMMU, Apr 30: Principal Secretary, Planning, Development & Monitoring and Information, Rohit Kansal, who is also the J&K Government Spokesperson, today said that the COVID 19 pandemic spread rate has significantly slowed down in Jammu and Kashmir, even as there is no room for complacency and the situation demands extra watchfulness.
“We continue to have a number of red zones and we need to be ever alert and watchful. Premature exuberance or celebration can cost us very dear”, Kansal told reporters here at a press conference.
He said the government will further strengthen the surveillance system and procedure. “We are conducting a 100% Health Audit for the entire J&K using Swasthya Nidhi App. and the process is likely to be completed within next few weeks. We are strongly encouraging the use of Aarogya Setu App. and so far, more than 8 lakh users have installed the App in the UT”, he informed. However, he called for continuing self-restraint and observance of discipline.
“Our current position may appear comfortable but let me remind you that we are dealing with an unpredictable and dangerous enemy” he said and observed that many neighbouring states have learnt the hard way when they have seen their cases show a sudden jump e.g. when many of their returning citizens tested positive.
We too have a number of students and labourers stranded outside the UT who have started returning back home. Stating that there is no that there is no room for complacency he added that adequate precautions are being taken while allowing them inside the UT.
Giving details about general control measures, he said as of this moment, the total number of cases in J&K is 614 of which the number of active cases is 390. 384 of these are in the Kashmir Division and 6 in the Jammu division.
“As you are already aware, there have been 216 recoveries which include young children and we also have had 8 unfortunate deaths. Further, he said over 50000 have completed the mandatory 28 days period of surveillance.
On the overall COVID situation, the UT has a good report card so far, he said.
He said UT is following an aggressive testing strategy and continue to be among the top few regions in the country in this regard. “While our testing capacity has expanded from 1 lab to 4 labs, the testing rate is now about 1500 per million, one of the highest in the country,” he informed.
“We have also been continuously ramping up our facilities- we started with less than 100 tests daily; a few days ago we broke the 1000 tests per day barrier, he said and added “Yesterday we conducted 1800 tests and We will shortly break the 2000 tests/day barrier”.
|
