Advisor Bhatnagar reviews COVID management strategies for effective containment of virus across J&K

JAMMU, MAY 19: Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar today stressed that it is important to efficiently manage the monitoring and treatment of COVID patients from home isolation through the public healthcare system right up to the tertiary care stage.

The Advisor stated this while chairing a meeting of senior officers and doctors through video conferencing to review COVID-19 Containment and treatment Management in urban, semi urban, rural and tribal populated areas of Jammu and Kashmir and future strategies for management of the Pandemic including preparation required for the future.

“There should be clear responsibility, accountability and follow up at each stage and we must improve contact tracing, identification of symptomatic patients so that there is targeted testing and timely isolation and treatment”, Advisor Bhatnagar said.

The Advisor also emphasized on effectively enforcing the Corona curfew to reduce spread.

Advisor Bhatnagar while highlighting that door-to-door survey is being conducted in Jammu division to trace symptomatic patients, asked the Divisional Commissioner Kashmir to consider a similar exercise .

He also directed all Deputy Commissioners and Chief Medical Officers to improve the functioning of Covid control rooms in their respective districts so that home isolated COVID positive patients are contacted regularly and can be monitored and given medical care as well as teleconsultation.

Advisor Bhatnagar further directed the officers that the facilities at District Hospitals Community Health Centers (CHCs), triage centers and PHCs should be upgraded and made effective so that appropriate level of patient care is provided depending on the severity of the disease there itself and referrals to tertiary hospitals be done on need basis.

He also called upon all the Principals of GMCs, Directors of Health Services Jammu/Kashmir to ensure that treatment protocols are followed with proper delineation of responsibility and accountability so that best outcomes are achieved.

He complimented them for the outstanding work being done by them during the pandemic and said that the second wave has presented new challenges.

Earlier, Financial Commissioner Health and Medical Education, Atal Dulloo gave a detailed presentation over COVID-19 Containment and Management in peri-urban, rural and tribal population across the Union Territory.

He informed the meeting that a gradual ingress of Covid-19 infection is now being seen in peri-urban, rural and tribal Population, so it is important to ensure that community-based services and primary level health infrastructure in these areas are well-equipped to manage the situation.