Jammu, May 7: Gearing up to the challenge posed by coronavirus pandemic, Jammu and Kashmir Government has taken a combination of containment and mitigation measures to slow its spread by testing and treating patients, carrying out contact tracing, limiting travel, quarantining citizens and cancelling large gatherings.
The government spokesperson here said that it has up-scaled its sampling and testing capabilities significantly to reduce the spread and impact of the virus.
”Testing allows to identify the infected person, guiding them to medical treatment, their isolation and tracing and quarantining their contacts,” he said and added that the increased sampling and testing has become all the more important as the migrant workers and students belonging to the Union Territory were returning back to their home districts.
”Government is ensuring that every returnee gets tested before going back to their home district,” he further said and added that in Jammu division, the Health and Medical Education Department was leaving no stone unturned to ensure that all inward movement into the UT is sampled and tested.
In order to facilitate the testing, the Government has already established a testing lab at Microbiology department, GMC Jammu.
CMO Jammu, J P Singh said, ”around 1000 tests are being performed on a daily basis in Jammu Division alone for suspects for Novel Corona Virus .The department is using RT-PCR testing kits as a method of testing by taking a nasal/throat swab from a patient”.
He added that it involves extracting ribonucleic acid or RNA, which is the genetic material of the virus.
Apart from GMC, tests were also being conducted in IIIM Jammu and Army Command Hospital, Udhampur and more than 18000 tests have been conducted in Jammu division till date. Dr Lal Path Labs, Jammu has been approved by ICMR to perform the tests.
