The divisional administration here has drafted a ‘Red Zone Management Plan’ as a part of which it will soon start conducting aggressive testing of people for Covid-19.
Senior government officials said the Red Zones, which are acluster of positive Covid-19 cases, have been identified for carrying out themass testing soon.
“As a part of the management plan, we will be conductingtesting of people within 300 meters of the area from the location of a positivecase,” said an official.
The official said health workers will conduct door-to-doorvisits to ensure that residents of the Red Zones are also provided sufficientnumber of facemasks.
“We have received abundant supply of facemasks for theirdistribution in the Red Zones. Our teams will start visiting an area as soon itis declared a Red Zone. We will also ensure that sanitisation drive of thesezones does not get delayed” the official said.
Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Pandurang Pole told GreaterKashmir that the Red Zone Management Plan was drafted for all the Red Zonesdeclared across the Valley so far.
“The management plan also focuses on how the unwanted inwardand outward movement of people in the Red Zones could be controlled,” saidPole.
The Div Com said apart from the enforcement, the ManagementPlan for the Red Zones has also formed a strategy to provide all basicfacilities to people living in these areas.
“A mechanism has been devised for ensuring that all RedZones continue to receive foodgrains and other essential services such asproper electricity and water supply,” Pole said.
Pole said the government was also planning to soon conduct adoor-to-door survey across summer capital Srinagar and winter capital Jammu toascertain the spread of Covid-19. “A mechanism has been devised for planning,conduct and supervision of this survey and initial work on it is underway,”Pole said.
As per the latest government data available, Srinagar has 15Red Zones while Baramulla with 14 such Zones figures at number 2, and Bandiporahas 12 such zones.
Shopian district has 8 Red Zones. Pulwama and Kupwara 7each, Kulgam 4, Ganderbal 2 and Budgam 7. As compared to the Valley, Jammudivision including Samba, Kishtwar, Udhampur and Rajouri has a total of 14 RedZones, the official data has stated.
Explaining the process involved in identification of the RedZones through Geographic Information System (GIS), an official said, afterreceiving the data of Covid-19 positive cases from Health Department, theaffected areas are located from satellite and GIS data.
“The exact location of the affected patient marked byGeo-tagging is known as center point from which 3 kilometers of area isdeclared as a containment zone,” the official said.
He said the buffer zones in rural areas are the localitiesfalling within 7 kilometers from the center point. For urban areas, 5 kms fromthe center point or the actual location of the positive case is declared asbuffer zone, he said.
“In containment and buffer zones there are restrictions ofpeople visiting their relatives and neighbours while as many of the Red Zoneshave complete restrictions,” the official said. The official said thedistance/area criteria for buffer and containment zone is being regularlyreviewed and will keep changing from time to time.