In last fortnight, almost seven thousand cases were added to Jammu and Kashmir’s covid-19 tally. The virus also claimed more than a hundred precious lives during the time. The fatality count was 159 on July 10 and now hastens to near 300. Amid the surge, the administration has returned to strict lockdown across the Kashmir in a bid to contain the spread of the ravaging pathogen. The situation seems grim but losing hope could prove more fatal. Among all the districts, Srinagar has remained the worst hit, topping the list in terms of cases as well as the deaths attributed to the covid-19. In the middle of it, deputy commissioner Srinagar has come up with an assuring statement that “the institutional efforts are on, uninterrupted since March to contain Covid-19 spread and for backup we’ve created 3,000 bed capacity, adding 2,000 more soon.”
It is always good to be prepared and the case in point to emulate would be that of New Delhi. The Union Territory once surpassed Mumbai as the Indian city with the highest number of novel coronovirus cases. It recorded in excess of 2,000 cases daily for more than five weeks in June and July. At one time, the local government apprehended caseload would cross 5 lakh by the end of July and there were fears of the healthcare system being overwhelmed by the surging virus. Since then, the government there ramped up testing and bolstered the medical infrastructure. The measures seem to have paid off as there has been an appreciable fall in the daily caseload in the two weeks.
New Delhi has done many right things since the covid-19 pandemic started and augmented infrastructure when going was tough. It showed that tough goes going when going gets tough. New Delhi has dedicated more than 15,000 beds in hospitals to COVID patients and increased critical care facilities. It also put in place a home quarantine system for patients with mild symptoms and asymptomatic carriers of the microbe. People recovering at home were given oximeters to help them monitor any dip in oxygen levels and their condition is monitored. These are significant interventions and should be emulated for better healthcare facilities in Jammu and Kashmir along with increasing testing. The J&K government recently released a considerable amount of funds to both health institutions and the deputy commissioners under SDRF and same should be utilized to augment infrastructure that helps to protect lives against the virus.
