Teams to take samples of 50,000 persons within a week
Focus on service providers, business units, Govt offices
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Aug 26: To curb the spread of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), the Jammu district administration has started sampling and testing through Rapid Antigen Testing (RAT) technique on a large scale to cover all the vulnerable clusters like service providers, business establishments, Government offices and banks.
The initiative, first of its kind in any district of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, has been launched through multiple dedicated teams and over 50,000 persons would be covered within a short span of one week. Similar exercise would be launched in Rajouri and Udhampur districts within next few days and thereafter strategy in respect of rest of the districts will be chalked out.
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Two days back, Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam issued directions for preparation of a strategic plan to sweep-clean district of Jammu, Udhampur and Rajouri of all positive cases through a massive testing exercise with focus on red zones and other areas which have higher incidence of COVID-19 cases.
In the light of these directions, the Deputy Commissioner Jammu Sushma Chauhan, after detailed deliberations with all the concerned agencies, has started sampling and testing across the district through Rapid Antigen Testing (RAT) technique during which more than 50,000 persons in the identified vulnerable clusters would be covered within a short span of one week.
The testing schedule has also been notified for the information of the persons in the vulnerable clusters like service providers, business establishments, Government employees and banks etc and the Block Medical Officers (BMOs)/Urban Health Centres (UHCs) will serve as nodal units for sampling and testing of the designated target zones.
The purpose of this exercise is to identify and isolate the asymptomatic COVID-19 positive persons amongst the target population. The Tehsildars and SHOs of the concerned Police Stations will ensure strict perimeter control and no inward/outward movement in the targeted areas will be permitted while as Assistant Commissioner Revenue and Sub-Divisional Magistrates along with Sub-Divisional Police Officers will have overall supervision in their respective jurisdictions.
The Chief Medical Officer Jammu has been asked to ensure deployment of medical teams for sampling along with sufficient availability of Rapid Antigen Testing kits. Moreover, the Tehsildars will make necessary arrangements for stationing of health teams at different locations by providing necessary logistical support, read a detailed order issued by Sushma Chauhan, Chairperson of District Disaster Management Authority and District Magistrate Jammu.
As per the order, Senior Superintendent of Police has been asked to ensure sufficient deployment of police force well in advance at targeted zones to facilitate the sampling and testing in a smooth manner and the persons trying to create nuisance/disrupt the testing process will be apprehended so that entire exercise is carried out unhindered.
Among the areas which have been identified for testing and sampling of people are Jewel Chowk, Chand Nagar, Gumat Markets, Bus Stand, New Plot, market near High Court, Janipur, Kachi Chawni, Bantalab, Parade, Link Road, Purani Mandi, Patel Bazar, Raj Tilak Road, Pacca Danga, Lakhdata Bazar, Kanak Mandi, Rajinder Bazar, Jain Bazar, Wave Mall, Palm Island Mall etc.
Similarly, the offices of Chief Engineers of PWD, PDD, PHE, Mechanical Engineering Depar-tment, Project Construction Corporation, Irrigation and Flood Control, offices of Directors of Rural Develo-pment, Floriculture, Social Welfare, Education, Accounts and Treasuries, Industries and Commerce, SICOP, SIDCO, JK Cements, JMC, JDA, RTO etc are among the Government establishments which will be covered under the drive.
When contacted, District Magistrate Jammu said, “a comprehensive schedule of testing has been issued which envisages testing of all offices, markets, public places, showrooms and malls in the entire district and the entire process will be completed within one week”, adding “464 branches of different banks will also be covered during the drive keeping in view the foot-fall of the people”.
She disclosed that 90 teams have been constituted for carrying out this exercise in all the tehsils of Jammu district and today 36 medical testing teams were deployed at 12 market areas of Jammu city which conducted more than 200 tests.
In response to a question, she said, “the results of test through RAT technique are available within 15 minutes and all those persons who will be detected COVID-19 positive will be isolated so as to prevent them from mixing with other people”.
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