COVID-19: Jammu and Kashmir issues SOP for red zones
A day after releasing a medical strategy for mitigating the spread of coronavirus in Jammu and Kashmir, the administration Tuesday issued the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for areas classified as ‘red zones’ in the Union Territory.
As per the SOP, a 100 per cent lockdown will be enforced in these red zones with “no outward/inward” movement allowed.
There will be only “one opening” to the red zone, manned by a “naka party and a magistrate”. The SOP also states that the only movement across the red zone boundaries will be for supplies – medical, groceries, vegetables – medical emergencies, fumigation, sanction, and enforcement and survey personnel.
The SOP defines a red zone as “an area with significant number of cases or where there is suspicion of cluster transmission, based on assessment by DC & CMO with advice of the SP”. The surrounding areas of the red ones will be designated buffer zones. Currently, there are 55 red zones in the Kashmir province, with 80 per cent of the caseload and 12 in Jammu.
The entire red zone will be under surveillance and the people will be contacted periodically for re-checking symptoms. Additionally, “there will be 100 per cent survey and screening of all persons in the red zone,” the SOP notes.
Detailed health screening of all contacts “within 300 meters” will be carried out and then geo-mapped.
The SOP calls for a system of passes for essential services or emergencies to be set up, alongside dedicated control rooms and dedicated officers to ensure provision of essential commodities while taking necessary precaution and using protective gear.
All common areas within the red zone to be fumigated twice a day and all ambulances, duty, supply vehicles entering and leaving the red zone will also be fumigated.
Meanwhile, for handling medical emergencies, “a medical team shall be placed in the adjoining buffer zone to cater to any medical emergencies that might arise.”
In case of medical emergencies that require hospitalisation, “the same shall be certified by the concerned block medical officer and the patient along with one attendant only should be duly red stated and then shifted in the ambulance for treatment.”
For non-covid medical treatment, Deputy Commissioners have been asked to make “parallel arrangements” in select locations particularly for issues such as dialysis and pregnancies.
Stating that “no lawlessness be tolerated” with regard to medical staff, the SOP directs making vehicles and protective gear available for all medical staff. It also directs use of electronic and social media to publicise all important information and “announcements through PA systems on Dos and Donts” in order to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
