Whole area is not under quarantine but declared as Red Zone: CMO Bandipora
Yasmeen Manzoor
Srinagar,
April 21(KNB): Bandipora district administration has started carrying
out Rapid Antigen Tests for mass screening
after it emerged as one of the worst hit localities across the whole
valley, with as many as 91 positive cases of novel Coronavirus followed
by Srinagar with 79.
Of
the total 368 positive cases of deadly Covid-19 across union territory
of Jammu and Kashmir, as many as 98 confirmed
positive cases were detected in Bandipora district with 41 cases in
Gundjangeer village alone, making it one of the COVID-19 hotspot area
in the district.
Following the constant rise in the positive cases, the administration has started rapid door to door tests in the whole
district while 12618 contact persons have been traced so far and put under quarantine.
Earlier, the district also reported the death of one positive COVID-19 patient, from tehsil Hajin on April 07, taking
the total death toll across the valley to five.
While
talking to Kashmir News Bureau on phone, Chief Medical Officer (CMO)
Bandipora, Dr.Tajamul revealed that all the
91 confirmed positive cases in the district are well stable, he said,
“All the confirmed positive cases from the whole district are not
community transmission but are the close contacts of corona affected
persons detected out during surveillance, fortunately
all the 91 positive cases till date are stable.”
When
asked if entire area is in quarantine, he replied, “The whole area is
not under quarantine but the entire area
has been declared Red Zone as per Standard operating procedures(SOP) so
as to trace the maximum number of close contacts of the affected ones.”
Door to door rapid IGB, IGM Antigen antibody immunity tests are being conducted and so far 12618 close contacts of the
affected one have been traced by the assigned 73 surveillance team, he said.
In
a response to a query regarding the quarantine centres setup in the
district he said, “we have developed 70 to 80
bedded low risk isolation centre with all facilities at Sundarbani
Maternity hospital and have deployed doctors , paramedics and all the
respective staff there, till date 9 positive patients have been admitted
there and all are stable.”
He
further said, “I am proud of my team who work very hard day and night
to trace the maximum no of affected persons
and their close contacts and I am sure with the team support and hard
work we will soon make the Bandipora district free of this deadly
virus.”
When
Kashmir News Bureau contacted Divisional Commissioner Bandipora, Shabaz
Mirza he said, “We have imposed complete
restrictions on the movement of people and after receiving Rapid
Antigen Test (RAT) kits, the medical staff have also started conducting
the tests at the doorstep of the people in the Red Zones.”
“The close contact traces of the affected ones have been traced and hopefully everything will be stabilized in few days,” he
further added(KNB)
