J&K admin constituted CMG to monitor Covid-19

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir administration has constituted a crisis management group (CMG) to monitor and contain the rapid spread of Covid-19 disease during its second wave. The five member CMG will consist of chief secretary as chairman, and the finance commissioners of the departments of finance, health, home and the Public works (PWD) as its members. The personal secretary to the lieutenant governor (LG) of the Union Territory will be a special invitee, said an official statement released by the LG’s office.

The CMG will meet daily, and more often if necessary. It will interact with other officers and medical specialists with the purpose to take all necessary measures to contain the disease, the statement added. LG Manoj Sinha formed the group at a time when the UT recorded 47 deaths including 30 in Jammu and 17 in Kashmir on Saturday – the highest single-day death toll due to Covid-19 this year.

The UT on Saturday recorded its biggest single-day spike of 3,832 fresh Covid-19 cases, taking the infection tally to 179,915, while a record number of fatalities in the 24-hour-period raised the pandemic toll to 2,330, officials said.

A 84-hour lockdown was imposed in 11 districts of Srinagar, Anantnag, Baramulla, Budgam, Kulgam, Pulwama, Ganderbal, Jammu, Kathua, Reasi and Udhampur beginning 7 pm on Thursday. In the rest of the nine districts — Bandipora, Kupwara, Shopian, Rajouri, Poonch, Samba, Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban — the lockdown came into effect at 7 pm on Friday.

However, the government on Saturday announced the extension of the lockdown in four districts — Jammu and three others in the valley — till Thursday morning, the officials said. He said the curfew at night will continue in all municipal /urban local body limits of all the 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir.

The first of the group’s five major responsibilities is to review UT’s rapidly evolving Covid-19 situation in terms of cases, testing rates, positivity, mortality, recovery, hospital occupancy and other parameters. The panel is also responsible for reviewing the requirement and availability of oxygen and medicines at all health institutions apart from taking other immediate measures to prevent and control the infection while managing resources.

Among the other two important tasks; the CMG will have to monitor the vaccine rollout and fine tune vaccination strategies to ensure speedy and complete coverage at the earliest while taking any other steps required to meet the overall goal of controlling the spread of the disease, the statement added. (HT)