MUBASHAR NAQVI
MUZAFFARABAD The AJK government has constituted health committees in all 204 union councils of the state to immediately compile the data foreign returned citizens and pilgrims to prevent the transmission of Covid-19. In this regard a high-level meeting presided over by Chief Secretary Mathar Niaz Rana here on Sunday, decided to collect all relevant data of the 26,500 persons including pilgrims who recently returned to the state from different foreign countries. These health committees would comprise of more than 3500 Lady Health Workers, Vaccinators of EPI and National Health Program, Secretary of each union councils, revenue officer and representative of police. These committees would not only compile the data but also transfer the suspects to the nearest quarantine centers and isolation wards. Moreover, these committees are bound to submit their daily progress report to the District Coordination Committee and Central Committee. Central Committee would keep close liaison with the immigration officials of Pakistan to collect the AJK based foreign returned persons and share with the concerned district coordination committees for further investigations. Meanwhile, Corona Alert Control Room has been established at IT Board office to maintain the digital record of all the government’s coronavirus response activities. The Corona Alert Control Room would also maintain the digital data of the foreign returns citizens and pilgrims district-wise. Meanwhile it is reported that on the directives of Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan, a Monitoring Cell has been setup at Prime Minister House here on Sunday to observe the ongoing situation and government agencies performance in combating the coronavirus in the region. The Prime Minister has also directed to connect the monitoring cell with all the divisional and district administration through video-link system to keep eye on day to day operations of the government institutions. The Prime Minister would be in direct and regular contact with the highofficials throughout the state to monitor the progress on daily basis. On other side, Chairman Nation Disaster Management Authority Lt. General Muhammad Afzal, on Prime Minister Farooq Haider’s demand, announced to establish corona-virus test laboratories in Mirpur and Poonch divisions as well. NDMA would also provide 1500 N95 masks to the AJK. Sindh government had also announced to give 33000 face masks to the state. Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan has expressed profound gratitude to Chairman NDMA and other federal institutions for extending all out support to the liberated territory in its war against deadly coronavirus. He also expressed gratitude to the people of the state for following the government directives and supporting it in crisis situation. The Prime Minister assured that government would leave no stone unturned for the safety of the lives of its citizens. Meanwhile, Prime Minister has appealed overseas Kashmiris settled in UK, Europe, North America and other countries to avoid unnecessary travel to AJK. He said we already have one positive case, which has travel history and due to him we had to quarantine all the areas.
