Dharamshala: With one more person having tested COVID-19 positive today, the total number of coronavirus infected persons has gone up to 16 in Una district. To control the spread of the deadly virus, the administration has launched an intensive drive to get all the contacts of the Corona positive persons tested.
Complete curfew has been imposed in Kamali village of Gram panchayat Ram Nagar under Gagret Sub-Division, Kuthera Karela, Sidh Chalehar, Ladoli and Katauhar Khurd panchayats of Amb Sub-Division and Chowki Manyar of Bangana Sub-Division and no relaxation in curfew will be given in these areas. People have been asked to stay in their homes.
Giving details of the steps being taken in the district Sandeep Kumar, deputy commissioner disclosed, “with one more patient found to be Corona positive, Raipur Jaswan panchayat of Amb Sub-Division had been sealed till further orders. All essential items including ration would be supplied door to door in this panchayat. He told a total of 79 samples were examined at Tanda Medical College, out of which one was found positive and five needed to be repeated. He added that persons entering the district would be kept in the buffer quarantine centres for 14 days.
“Doctors of Una district will now be able to collect samples of Corona virus suspects without Personal Protection Equipment kits (PPE), without coming in open as the district has got one swab collection window mobile van. But they would have to wear masks and gloves,” said Dr Raman Kumar Sharma, the chief medical officer.
All vehicles including goods, ambulance etc. entering Una district are being sanitized. Officials of State Transport Department have been sanitizing vehicles at RTO Barrier at Mehatpur to make them Corona virus free.
Giving details about the COVID-19 status in the Kangra district, deputy commissioner Rakesh Prajapati said that on Saturday out of a total of 18 cases of Corona suspects of Kangra district sent for testing at Tanda Medical college, 17 were found negative while one would be retested. As many as 48 samples had been sent for examination on Saturday, reports of these samples were still awaited.
He said that the District Administration was taking effective steps to control the spread of Covid-19 in Kangra. People had been advised to stay at home as far as possible and come out only when it was urgently needed during curfew relaxation. “Cooperation of all citizens was necessary to beat this virus. Steps were being taken to ease woes of people and medicines and essential items were being delivered at their door steps,” he added.
Rakesh Prajapati said that online curfew passes were being issued only after thorough verification. “If any person was found entering the district taking jungle or khudd (Revult) routes would be quarantined for 28 days immediately and an FIR would be lodged against such violators,” he added.
“Active case finding teams did a door to door visit across the district and where cases of flu, cough, cold etc. were found in high numbers, steps are being taken to collect samples in those areas to avoid Corona spread. Health Department had prepared a plan to deal it with effectively,” said Prajapati.
Arvind Sharma is an award winning bi-lingual journalist with more than 20 years of experience.
He has worked with Divya Himachal, Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhasker, Vir Partap, Ajit and PTI.
In 2010, he was conferred the Himachal Kesri journalism award. He reports on the Tibetan Government in Exile, politics, sports, tourism and other topics. He lives in Dharamshala.
