Leading chest disease specialist and head, Government Chest Disease Hospital, Srinagar, Dr Naveed Nazir Shah today said that all the COVID-19 positive patients admitted at the hospital were responding well to the treatment.
Speaking on the coronavirus pandemic preparedness at the hospital, Dr Nazir said that Government has been taking every possible step to cater to the load of patients and reach out to the areas—declared as red zones and conduct testing for the suspects.
He informed that there were 19 COVID-19 positive patients admitted at the hospital and all were responding well to the treatment. He said that doctors and paramedics—working at the hospital round the clock were doing their best to make a difference amid this severe health crisis.
“We have seen that there is a general trend that we mostly get the positive cases who have been the contacts of already positive cases,” he said.
Regarding quarantine facilities, Dr Nazir said “we have established testing as well as quarantine facilities in hospitals including at CD hospital.” He said that like rest of the world, Kashmir too is grappling with coronavirus pandemic and people must take all precautionary measures to keep the virus away.
He shared that patients are recovering and some of them will be discharged soon, after following a proper protocol. He informed that the second consecutive test report of first patient admitted in Chest Disease Hospital Srinagar for Covid-19 was also reported as negative.
He said that on Thursday, the first test of this patient was found negative and today for re-confirmation, once more the sample of this patient admitted at CD Hospital was collected and report again was found negative. He said that the patient was in hospital quarantine from past 15 days and today his 3rd test was found negative.
“We have patients coming, some of them reported positive but at the same time patients are recovering too and we must pray for the health of all in such pandemic,” he said.
Dr Nazir appreciated the role of its Microbiology Department, saying that they have been working tirelessly ever since the COVID-19 outbreak.
“So far we have collected 450 samples,” he said. “Some of these samples were collected by us while as many samples came from GMC, its associated hospitals, district COVID-19 hospitals and some samples we have collected from army hospital too,” he added.
Take Precautions
The renowned chest specialist—who is also in-charge of COVID-19 pandemic at the hospital, urged people to take all the necessary precautions. He urged people to follow administrative and health Advisories in letter and spirit.
He also appealed people to reveal their travel history and thus ensure safety of all. “People should come clean on their travel history,” he said. “Early detection helps us to put the person in isolation facilities and thus there won’t be exponential spread of the virus.”
He said that people have an essential role to play in slowing the spread of the coronavirus. He said that small changes in personal behavior can buy time—slowing the outbreak, preventing hospitals from becoming overwhelmed and reducing cases until scientists develop treatments. In his practical advice, Dr Naveed urged public to protect themselves and their community from the deadly virus.
On hospital supplies, he said that there were sufficient supplies available with the hospital. Meanwhile he also lauded the role of NGOs—who are coming forward to help the administration, especially health sector workers amid COVID-19 crisis.
“Some of the NGOs are doing remarkable job by working closely and helping out the needy in such crisis.”
Dr Naveed lauded the role of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) for installing and operationalizing its first decontamination and sanitation tunnel at the hospital. He said that it would contain the spread of coronavirus pandemic.
The decontamination and sanitization tunnel, manufactured and commissioned by the SMC, was installed at the entry of the Chest Diseases Hospital, a designated COVID-19 hospital here yesterday.
Reveal Travel History
Pertinently, the Jammu and Kashmir administration has declared the coronavirus infection an epidemic and said any person who refuses to follow orders on prevention or treatment of the disease would be dealt under the law.
Earlier, while announcing the regulations under the Jammu and Kashmir Epidemic Diseases (COVID-19) Regulations, 2020, issued by the Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education Department, Atal Dulloo in a four-page notification said that such people would be dealt strictly.
It may be recalled here that the Jammu and Kashmir administration constituted various coordination teams to ensure movement of essential goods and services, and address difficulties amid the lockdown over the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education, Atal Dulloo will be the in-charge of the coordination. The Commissioner Secretary Labour and Employment shall coordinate labour issues, including problems of daily-wage labourers of Jammu and Kashmir currently under lockdown in other parts of the country. The Secretary, Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction would look after coordination of essential supplies and logistic chains.
Completing administrative quarantine
The Jammu and Kashmir Government has kept robust facilities available for hundreds of persons—who are kept under administrative quarantine. So far hundreds of persons have been discharged after completing two-week quarantine period in Srinagar.
These hundreds of persons belonging to different districts of Kashmir were entrusted to their respective district headquarters in SRTC buses, which the Srinagar administration had arranged for them. Srinagar residents in the group were all ferried home or entrusted to their families.
The group was under thorough medical supervision throughout their quarantine period and was discharged after clearance from the doctors.
It is notable that there were around 1900 persons who have been put under administrative quarantine in Srinagar after their return mostly from overseas countries.
Shifting of overseas-return persons into quarantine facilities was part of Srinagar administration’s elaborate preventive measures put in place to contain spread of the COVID-19 disease after March 18 when the first positive case was reported in the district.
