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| Awareness, surveillance, preparedness helping Kishtwar keep COVID-19 at bay | | |
KISHTWAR, MAY 15: The fight against Corona virus has brought into forefront a number of frontline unsung heroes who are fighting day and night to overcome the situation arising due to the pandemic. If the frontline health workers are our first line of defence, the society has learnt to respect many others like the sanitation workers, police personnel, media and many more who are contributing in their own way.
It is the toil and hard work of all the foot soldiers hailing from Health Department, Municipal Committees, Food and Civil Supplies, Labour Department who have stood like a wall along with District administration, that Kishtwar has managed to remain one of the few green districts in the country. The district administration woke up early to the danger posed by the deadly COVID-19 disease. Focus was given on awareness, contact tracing and containment, involving different wings of the Government. As the first advisory was issued by the Government of India about the Dos and Don’ts, the Deputy Commissioner Kishtwar Rajinder Singh Tara held a workshop of all District Officers to sensitize them about the Novel Coronavirus, its mode of infections, symptoms, precaution and preventions. The officers were asked to start the campaign for sensitizing and training their staff down the line in their offices.
The volunteers in the Red Cross Society and other NGOs, media persons, social media users, all were roped in to generate mass awareness about the disease. The citizens themselves turned into foot soldiers fighting to prevent the spread of disease in the district and the strategy worked. Drum beating and announcement by loudspeakers and mobile vans were used for awareness generation in religious places and rural areas. All the PRIs and religious leaders were also involved in sensitizing the public.
The second strategy followed was identification and screening of persons with foreign travel. 317 surveillance teams which included mostly the Anganwari Workers, ASHA workers and teachers were constituted in all the 13 blocks and a District level Surveillance Team were constituted to identify and inform the administration about the suspected persons with history of foreign travel.
All the entry points of the district were sealed with proper barricading and security deployment to further clamp down on intra and inter district movement. These included Thatri on Doda-Thatri-Kishtwar Axis, Ishtiyari on Paddar-Himachal Axis and the Chhatroo on Chhatroo-Sinthan-Anantnag Axis. At the Thatri entrance, medical officers were deputed to screen and register the person coming from the Doda.
As many as 60 quarantine centres with 2809 beds were set up with proper arrangement of sanitation, beds, toilets, water and electricity. Isolation ward was established at the District Hospital Kishtwar. Some private hotels, restaurants, Guest-houses, tourist buildings, hospitals of security forces, private and government buildings have also been readied to house the patients/suspects in near future. Sampling counters have also been established at the District Hospital Kishtwar for collection of samples for testing. As on date 1500 persons have been sampled which include 595 labourers and students.
Fogging, fumigation and spraying of disinfectants is being done at important public places such as Jamia mosque, DC office, Helipad, Banks and ATMs. Free Home delivery of essentials is being done. Free ration and masks were distributed to the inter-state migrants and vulnerable sections of society. Masks, hand sanitizers and the immunity boosters have also been distributed among the medical, police and other frontline workers. Labour Department has disbursed Rs 86.40 lakh to 4320 construction workers.
A number of workers and students of the district were stranded in different States like Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chhatisgarh, Uttar Pradesh etc. Specials efforts are being made by the district administration to reach out to the stranded persons and as on date about 3100 stranded persons have been facilitated..
To ensure proper surveillance to stop the spread of contagion, Swasthyanidhi teams are going door-to-door and tracing symptomatic and asymptomatic cases. All the government employees and the electors have been asked to install Aarogya setu app to track down COVID-19 electronically. As result of these efforts there are 20,272 Arogya setu App users in district, 45,992 families covering a population 2,11,652 out of 230696 souls(2011 census)have been covered so far under Swastha Nidhi health audit.
Containment strategy executed with clockwork precision, immaculate coordination and extreme efficiency helped in maintaining Kishtwar District as an infection free district and listed it among few fortunate districts of the country with no case of Coronavirus. The district is an example of how close coordination between public and administration can bear fruitful result. It is also a tribute to the foot soldiers of the district, in whichever Department they are working.
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