SRINAGAR, OCTOBER 02, 2020:- Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education, Atal Dulloo today chaired a meeting to review the status of COVID-19 across Jammu and Kashmir at Civil Secretariat here.

The meeting was attended by Director National Health Mission (NHM), Bhupinder Kumar, Deputy Commissioners, CMOs of all the districts through video conferencing while as Director Health Services Kashmir, Samir Mattoo and other senior officials of health department attended the meeting in person.

Speaking during the meeting, Atal Dulloo impressed upon the officers to make public adopt the COVID appropriate behaviour strictly besides increasing the frequency of daily testing.

The Financial Commissioner further stressed upon the Deputy Commissioners and other officials to keep themselves prepared for the forthcoming winter season and festive season and ensure that the unlock 5.0 guidelines are strictly implemented.

Atal Dulloo directed the officers for constant monitoring of home isolation patients besides regular monitoring of health through phone in facility. He exhorted upon the officers to increase the frequency of calls to home isolation patients.

Underlining the need for effective strategy for containing the spread of virus, the Financial Commissioner asked the DCs to follow the strategy of constant surveillance, proper clinical management besides adopting other SOPs strictly.

Dulloo directed the DCs to constantly attend the training sessions with National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) teams regarding containment of virus and other strategies. He asked them to increase the contact tracing by forming teams at lower levels besides uploading the reports of tests conducted on ICMR portal.

The Financial Commissioner further asked the DCs that Govt. of India is starting Information Education and Communication (IEC) campaign regarding COVID-19 from 7th October, 2020 for sensitising the people regarding developing COVID appropriate behaviour. He impressed on the DCs that the campaign will mainly focus on informing people regarding use of wearing masks, maintaing social distance, hand hygiene and other measures for containing the virus.

Dulloo exhorted upon the DCs to utilise the services of PRI representatives, teachers, Asha Workers, Anganwadi workers and other frontline workers besides religious leaders for reaching out to the masses during IEC campaign.

During the course of meeting, Director NHM gave a detailed presentation regarding status of COVID-19 in Jammu and Kashmir.