Trace, Test, Track, Treat policy

The Jammu and Kashmir government has issued fresh guidelines to deal with COVID-19 as the number of positive cases is on a rise in the union territory.

Terming it a medical strategy ‘4T' – trace, test, track and treat – the government has said that areas with a significant number of cases or where there is suspicion of cluster transmission will be declared as red zones based on an assessment by the deputy commissioner and chief medical officer with the advice of the SP.

The red zone will see a 100 per cent lockdown and it will be completely sealed. This would require an intelligent demarcation of boundaries using roads, natural barriers. There would be intensive testing of all contacts and those with symptoms. In addition, there would be random sampling testing in the red zones.

The only movement across the red zone boundaries would be for supplies, medical, grocery, vegetables, medical emergencies, fumigation, sanitation, enforcement, and survey personnel. All entry and exit points would be with red-zone passes, proper fumigation of vehicles, safety of personnel and safety tunnels.

The government says capacities for isolation, quarantine, and monitoring home quarantine would be raised. Three levels of COVID centres would be set up – COVID wellness centres for asymptomatic positive cases, COVID Health Centres for symptomatic positives needing slight medical care and COVID Hospitals for critical and intensive care.

The government says the total capacity of wellness and health centres would be around 5000 each in capital cities and 1000 each in other districts of J&K. The government says all contacts, which the government document has described as “high-value cases” having foreign travel would be tested on priority in the next few days. The “high-value cases” also include Tablighi Jamaat workers.

“As load increases, doctors will not have time to do contact tracing,” the document says asking the concerned Deputy Commissioner and the CMO to constitute separate teams for contact tracing so that doctors can handle medical load.