50-bedded quarantine centre; screening post set up on Srinagar-Leh NH in Kargil

With the strategically important 434-km Srinagar-LehNational Highway set to reopen later this month, authorities in this borderdistrict have set up a 50-bedded quarantine centre and a full-fledged screeningpost to counter the spread of Coronavirus, an official said on Thursday.

The quarantine centre has come up at Tourist Dak Bungalow atDrass, while the screening post with trained medical staff consisting ofdoctors and paramedics was made functional at Meenamarg on the highway, theofficial said.

   

The highway, considered as a lifeline for Ladakh, was closedfor vehicular traffic in December last year for winter but was cleared of snowin a record time by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) which was expecting itsreopening by March end.

However, the administration decided against allowing themovement of traffic ahead of schedule due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Ladakh on Thursday recorded another coronavirus positivecase — first in over a fortnight, taking the total number of cases in theregion to 14. Three patients have fully recovered from the infection.

Besides Meenamarg, three other checkpoints have also beenestablished at Khangral, Sanjak and Garkone to carry out the necessaryscreening of the pilgrims returning from Iran as well as locals and non-localscoming from Jammu, Srinagar, Delhi and other parts of the country entering thedistrict from Leh, the official said.

He said the district administration is committed to containthe spread of the deadly virus and a series of preventive measures includingthe establishment of entry points for necessary screening of travellers andensuring quarantine and isolation facilities have been taken in addition to thecomplete lockdown.

In the first instance, a 130 bed capacity quarantine centreand a 26-bedded isolation centre were set up at Government Polytechnic Collegeand GNM Nursing School Kurbathang to carry out the timely quarantine andsurveillance of the suspected cases,” the official said.

“Apart from these two locations, steps for establishmentof additional quarantine centres have been taken in all medical blocks of thedistrict and other private locations like hotels and resorts and with theresult there are presently 21 quarantine locations with a capacity of 786beds,” the official added.

To ensure round the clock provision of all medicare andother related facilities at the quarantine and isolation facilities and strictscreening of travellers at the entry points, 25 medical teams comprising ofwell trained doctors and paramedical staff have been deployed at the 21designated quarantine locations and isolation ward as well as the entry pointsat Khangral, Sanjak, Garkone and Meenamarg.

Presently, he said there are 137 people in these quarantinefacilities, all stable and asymptomatic while eight patients are in theisolation ward.

Out of these eight, two are positive cases who are stableand recovering well, he said, adding that 457 individuals are under homesurveillance, all of whom are stable and asymptomatic, while 57 patients havecompleted their quarantine period.

The number of total domestic travellers screened so farstands at 5166, he said.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

eight − six =