Srinagar, Mar 25
Amid Coronavirus threat, the Lt Governor G C Murmu Wednesday appealed the returnees of foreign countries not to hide their travel history.
Murmu said, “We all are aware of the COVID-19 threat and despite of that there are some persons including students who are hiding their travel history.”
“Those who are hiding their travel history are not only disadvantage for them but to the whole society,” he said.
Murmu appealed the people to stay inside their homes that will help the administration to break the chain of Coronavirus.
“In order to prevent the spread of Virus, The J&K administrations have taken several steps like suspension of interstate bus services, established of isolation wards,” he said.
“The J&K administration is also screening all person coming from outside and have created many quarantine centers where the suspected COVID-19 persons are being monitored,” Murmu said.
He said that the government has also imposed section-144 to stop gathering of people. “I request the people of J&K to adhere the government orders. In this fight we need to observe complete lock-down as our PM Narendra Modi said.”
Murmu said, “This is a not a time to panic but to take precautionary measures. Moreover, the J&K administration will avail all essential goods and commodities like Ration, Vegetables, Milk and medicines.” “I have ordered all Deputy Commissioners and divisional commissioners to make these essential things available. I have also directed them to stock ration of two month for the people of J&K,” he said. Lt Governor also said that there was no need to worry about electricity and water, “Administration is trying its level best to make all these available.” Meanwhile, the Srinagar control room established for coordinating measures to contain spread of the coronavirus infection has received complaints about over 400 persons who have returned from outside countries in the recent past but have hidden their travel histories. These complaints have been received during this past week after the first positive case of the district surfaced on March 18. Of these over 200 have been verified and found to be true so far after surveillance teams traced the persons these complaints were about. Of the latter around 150 persons with recent travel histories to outside countries have been shifted into quarantine. Investigations and verifications have revealed that these persons have returned from different countries which among others include Italy, Iran, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Hungary, Taiwan, Malaysia and Kazakhstan. The remaining 50-odd persons were found to have had national travel histories and were put under home quarantine whereas the remaining number of the total number of complaints received are under process of tracking. It should be noted that a well-equipped control room with a robust mechanism for coordination and tracing of suspected cases has been established in the district. It includes an elaborate mechanism of surveillance with over 50 teams constituted as part of it assisting it in tracing suspected cases. In addition to a full-fledged infrastructural set-up which includes IT-enabled apparatus and mechanism the control room is manned with a dedicated team of IT and healthcare professionals. It operates under the supervision of the Additional Deputy Commissioner Masrat Hashim who has been designated as the nodal officer for it. It should be noted that a total of around 1750 persons with recent travel histories to outside countries have been put under quarantine in 40 out of 90 facilities set up so far in the district.
