Srinagar May 01 (KNS): Hasnain Masoodi, MP Anantnag has cautioned the LG administration against any complacency in the war against Covid 19 pandemic.

In a statement issued to KNS, Masoodi has said that tall claims made by the administration as regards preparedness to take up the challenge and commitment to employ all tools to defeat the deadly pandemic do not match the situation on the ground.

Masoodi has voiced serious concern over the non-availability of important diagnostics kits like RT- PCR in some of the Hospitals and the alarming deficiency of such and other Covid combat components in almost all the Hospitals across south Kashmir.

The statement emphasises that“ Tracking, Tracing and Testing “ being of utmost importance in an overall strategy to fight the pandemic, the administration can ill afford to be complacent in providing diagnostic tools to our hard-pressed frontline warriors engaged in the battle against Covid -19 pandemic.

The statement adds that as per the available information administration has surprisingly fixed a target of 750 RAT and 750 RT-PCR tests per day for a population of 1.2 million in Anantnag district and like unrealistic targets in other districts; that as people in large numbers throng the Hospitals to have Covid tests done, it is becoming near impossible for Healthcare workers to restrict the tests to the fixed target, resulting in a shortage of kits.

Masoodi has asked the administration to be realistic in fixing per day targets and accordingly make available the diagnostic kits to the Hospitals in all the districts. 
He has also expressed concern over the non-availability of vaccines in most of the healthcare centres in the Anantnag and other three districts of south Kashmir.

The vaccination campaign, it is stated, resultantly has come to a halt in such areas. It is distressing that while millions of rupees are spent on advertisements through electronic and print media exhorting people to go for vaccinations when people queue up outside healthcare centres, they are sent back without vaccination.

Masoodi has also asked the administration to take notice of the lesser number of people turning up at Hospitals because of lockdown as compared to pre-lockdown days in last week and ensure that mobile teams are deputed to rural areas for on spot testing.

Alarming “positivity rate” - in some areas hovering between 25 to 35 per cent makes it more important to increase testing and cover areas away from healthcare facilities, it is stated, The statement laments that the administration has yet to assign a leadership role to a senior officer who can be approached with important inputs and grievances and can come up with convincing answers and instead the administration is resorting to patchwork.

Delay in the procurement of vaccines, now admitted by the government, according to the statement, is attributable to the absence of leadership and resultant lack of accountability.

He has demanded that in the battle against deadly epidemic leadership role be assigned to a senior officer, so that sense of accountability is inculcated and responsibility fixed for lapses, if any, in meeting the challenge. (KNS)