Amid spike in COVID19 cases, SMC intensifies fumigation drive

Amid the spike in COVID19 cases, Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) Saturday intensified fumigation drive in several localities of the summer capital Srinagar.

The decision to undertake intensified sterilization oflocalities was taken by SMC Commissioner Gazanfar Ali after holding meetingwith officials and experts via virtual mode.

   

Beginning with Rangreth area, special teams of SMC equippedwith modern tools used special chemicals to disinfect the locality and itsadjacent areas.

The SMC pressed into service 14 mechanized decontaminationvehicles and special teams for decontamination of Rangreth, said an official.

The teams carried on sterilization and fumigation ofresidential houses and commercial and non-commercial structures. Even vehiclesparked in or outside residential and commercial structures were sprayed withthe chemicals.

“The residents as well as offices situated in localityextended their cooperation,” said the Commissioner.

He said Corporation also used latest technology in workingout the plan for decontamination of the area. “The SMC GIS team worked onmapping routes for carrying decontamination and sanitization drive. We are nowmonitoring these drives both on-site and off-site,” the Commissioner said.

SMC Secretary, Akbar Sofi said the process to disinfectpublic places, hospitals, quarantine homes, roads, streets and other placeswill continue on daily basis with special focus on the red zones.

“We choose Rangreth area in view of several positive casesreported from there. We used Quaternary Ammonium Chloride, a 5th generationchemical in disinfection process. When it comes to safeguarding lives of ourpeople, we will not stay back,” he said.

He said teams have been asked to adhere to due standardprocedure while carrying the process to disinfect the areas. “We adoptinternational SoPs to ensure we get success in what we are doing for people andat the same time the SMC staffers engaged in process does not get infected,” hesaid.

He said with the rise in COVID19 cases, the SMC hasintensified its operations to ensure the coronavirus infection does not spread.

Around 18 localities have been declared red zones inSrinagar after several persons from these areas were tested positive forCOVID19.

On 1 May this year, four districts including Srinagar weredeclared as COVID19 red zones in Jammu and Kashmir while 12 other districtswere confirmed as orange zones and rest of the four as green zones.

The Centre has allowed the administration of states andUnion Territories (UTs) to classify additional districts as red or orangezones. However, states and UTs are not allowed to lower the zone classificationof a district.

Leave a Reply

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

seventeen − one =