Nearly 1,800 COVID19 patients have been discharged from COVID Care Centres here with nearly 1,000 of them discharged during the last 10 days.
This was informed in a meeting convened here to review the COVID19 containment measures and patient-care in care centres for corona patients in Srinagar.
The meeting held under the chairmanship of Chairman District Disaster Management Authority Srinagar, Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, also reviewed the capacities and facilities in COVID Care Centres, efforts to reach out to and provide medical care to asymptomatic COVID19 patients quarantined at home, contact tracing, sampling, up scaling of public outreach efforts, information dissemination and other related measures.
Ongoing measures taken in the wake of sharp spike in COVID19 cases two weeks after unlock period beginning on June 13 were also reviewed. Over 4,000 COVID cases were reported in a month of easing restrictions on commercial and business operations in the district, said an official statement, adding it necessitated notification of more containment zones and re-imposing restrictions.
The meeting was informed that administration established 4,000-bedded Care Centres at various locations during the lockdown period equipped with required medical support. These Centres have so far discharged around 1,800 COVID19 patients, 988 patients were discharged during last 10 days.
It was informed that pursuant to change in quarantine policy as notified last week, 640 of 711 new cases were home-quarantined while remaining were admitted to hospitals.
The meeting was informed that the IVRS Call Centre established earlier in the district contacts recovered COVID19 affected persons regularly.
The statement said the Care Centres established in the district were being equipped for handling symptomatic patients. “Also another 1200-bedded facility is being created in outskirts of city,” it said.
Choudhary who is Deputy Commissioner (DC) Srinagar directed strict compliance to mandatory SOPs for home-quarantine including availability of space, downloading of Aarogyasetu app, provision of oximeters, visit of reach-out teams, regular calls, medical advice and other basic requirements.
It was informed that more than 80,000 persons have been sampled or tested for COVID19 in Srinagar. It was informed that of 5,590 positives which also include more than 1,300 belonging to other districts, around 3,000 have already recovered. The meeting decided to continue focus on qualitative sampling for early tracing of cases.
Chief Medical Officer and Zonal Medical Officers were asked to further activate teams for house-hold level counseling, visiting vulnerable areas and community outreach.
Assistant Commissioner Development was directed for widespread public awareness and participation in mitigation efforts in rural areas. It was informed that funds have been provided to Panchayats on this account. Experts from SPM department of Government Medical College presented details for next phase of public outreach campaign.
Deputy Commissioner (Excise), Ghulam Jeelani Zargar, who is the designated nodal officer of DDMA for COVID Care Centers briefed the meeting about the status of facilities and further plan of upgradation to meeting the ICMR requirements for symptomatic patients in case of continued surge in cases.
Discussion was also held for effective coordination between hospitals, health department and nodal officers for different assignments, and control rooms.