SRINAGAR: Secretary Health and Medical Education, Bhupinder Kumar, today convened a meeting to review the COVID-19 situation besides assessing the department’s preparedness for early detection, isolation, testing, and timely management of suspected and confirmed cases to contain an outbreak of Corona variants, in the wake of an alert issued by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The meeting was attended by all Head of Departments of Health and Medical Education Department besides others concerned.
Secretary, while discussing strategies to tackle the pandemic, emphasized the need of ensuring a strict vigil over the situation besides keeping ready the infrastructure and requisite supplies to tackle any such cases.
Secretary reviewed in detail the available infrastructure, machinery, and equipment including the status of testing capacity, availability of COVID essential diagnostics, COVID drugs, and Oxygen Generation Plants.
Secretary instructed the Principal Government Medical College Jammu and Government Medical College Srinagar to ensure genome sequencing machines are installed and operationalized immediately in both the Medical Colleges to perform genome sequencing of all COVID-positive cases.
He also asked the Managing Director, JKMSCL, to ensure that the COVID drugs and diagnostics are arranged in adequate quantities. He directed the HoDs of the Health and Medical Education Department to make an assessment of their requirements immediately and sent the requisition for procurement to JKMSCL.
Meanwhile, Secretary Health and Medical Education, Bhupinder Kumar, chaired the executive committee meeting of J&K AIDS Control Society.
Project Director, Jammu and Kashmir AIDS Control Society, Dr. Samir Mattoo, highlighted and discussed in detail various important issues regarding the subject.
Secretary directed for increasing HIV testing so that a maximum number of the estimated population living with HIV is screened and detected timely for providing necessary treatment. He directed the concerned to send a proposal to the National AIDS Control Organization for sanctioning more Targeted Interventions projects (NGOs) covering high-risk populations, especially those working with intravenous drug users, and also for the opening of more opioid substitution therapy centers across the UT to contain the menace of drug abuse.
He also instructed the Project Director to fill up all the existing approved vacancies as early as possible so that there is no hindrance in the implementation of the program.
Senior officers from the health department along with the officials of the AIDS Control Society were present at the meeting.
