Shadow Correspondent
Jammu, Apr, 09
Amid outbreak of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, former Minister and senior Congress leader Raman Bhalla on Thursday continued distribution of essential items among the needy persons in various parts of the Gandhi Nagar constituency. In this regard,Bhalla today distributed food items among needy families at Rajiv Nagar Mazdoor Basti .Prominent among those who accompanied Bhalla include Block President Jatinder Singh Chib, Panch Gagan Bral, Panch Harvinder Kour, Distt general Secretary DCC Aman Bawa, Iqbal singh, Diwan Chand, Paras Ram, Kalla Ram, Bunty Pardaan beside others. Speaking on the occasion, Bhalla said that Govt should immediately start conducting rapid antibody based blood test for COVID19 on people living in clusters, in large migration gatherings and evacuee’s centres, where a large number of positive cases are arising. The rapid anti-body test is most suitable to detect whether the disease is spreading in the area or not as it gives quick results. Bhalla said that everyone in the society has to play its due role in breaking the chain of deadly Covid-19 pandemic. He demanded upgrading Quarantine Facilities, Isolation Centers, Testing and Tracing of COVID- 19 patients, enhance availability of PPEs, Masks, Surgical goods, Medicines and Medical Equipments
Bhalla demanded suitable buildings close to hospitals should be taken for quarantine and Isolation Centers for the COVID -19 suspects. He said that door to door testing of people residing in Red Zones must be conducted in strict manner so that chain of COVID-19 virus would be broken. He urged the people to inform the administration in case they know any foreign traveller who has recently arrived from abroad in their neighbourhood, family, friend and social circle, in the larger interest of public. Bhalla also demanded putting in suitable number of ventilators and other medical equipment in hospitals required for treatment of COVID-19 patients.
Govt must ensure that there is no shortage of medicines and triple layer masks in J&K and testing of suspected coronavirus patients being done by the doctors as per the health guidelines. Bhalla also demanded proper facilities be made available at quarantine facilities for shifting of suspected cases. He demanded officials to put in their best efforts to prevent the spread of the virus and urged them to intensify efforts to find anyone who might have come in contact with the suspected cases. He said that proper guidelines need to be followed while dealing with the evolving corona virus situation. He stressed on sanitatization and fumigation particularly in the Red zone area. To pick them up we need to expand testing. If we don’t expand testing, how can we say there is no community spread,” he said .Mass testing is important as that would determine the actual burden of community transmission and would allow us to implement informed containment strategies. With the availability of rapid tests, health authorities should conduct mass testing of hotspots and random sampling of other areas to know the actual magnitude of the problem,” said Bhalla.
