Sofi Anayat
Baramulla, July 23: Amid the growing speculation that migrants from different regions are entering the district without proper screening, Deputy Commissioner Baramulla Dr G N Itoo today said that a proper mechanism has been formulated wherein every person including migrants and other travellers coming from outside the valley are being screened/quarantined for COVID-19. He said that public health shall not be compromised at any cost adding that various measures have been taken to control the spread of infection.
DC made these remarks during press briefing convened by him in this regard.
Dr Itoo reiterated that administration will strictly implement all the related SOPs and guidelines for mitigating the risk of infection and said that any kind of laxity won’t be now tolerated in the larger public interest. He said that strict action shall be taken against those violating advisories which especially include using face masks and maintaining social distancing.
DC said that district administration has taken some serious initiatives for controlling the spread of Coronavirus but these methods wouldn’t yield any positive result without the cooperation of general public. He said that the second phase of lockdown has been imposed in view of growing number of COVID-19 positive cases from the past few days.
DC further informed that so far about 27000 tests have been conducted in the district among which 1710 positive cases have been reported. About 948 patients have recovered from the virus thereby leaving only 705 active cases besides 57 deaths that have been reported in the district.
Dr Itoo further informed that about 93 shops have so far been sealed for violating the prescribed guidelines. He said that an amount of Rs 60000 was realized as fine besides some workshops that were also sealed by the authorities.
Meanwhile, DC said that special arrangements have been put in place in view of forthcoming festival of Eid-ul-Adha wherein all essential commodities shall be facilitated in a convenient manner. He also said that sufficient stock of cattle and poultry birds have been arranged so that people may not face any inconvenience.
Appealing people to cooperate with the administration at this critical juncture, DC stressed to follow SOPs and guidelines especially using face masks adding that about 6 lakh masks were distributed by the administration. He also urged upon the vulnerable persons including senior citizens, pregnant women and others having some kind of ailment, not to come outside unnecessarily so that they can safeguard themselves from the virus. Moreover, DC said that a massive awareness campaign has been launched in red zones and hotspot areas so that people are educated about different measures that needs to be taken to avert any kind of eventuality.(KNS)