MUZAFFARABAD, April 10: The AJK President Sardar Masood Khan on Friday said that the timely precautionary measures of the state government had helped a lot in containing infectious novel coronavirus in the Azad territory.
He said this during a visit to Covid-19 Information Control Room here, where he was given a briefing on various measures taken to prevent the spread of the pandemic in Azad Kashmir.
On this occasion, Sardar Masood Khan said that on the whole the people of Azad Kashmir exercising courage, patience and discipline, have been cooperating with the government and the administration because they realize that the pandemic can be overcome only by preventive measures.
“The more the people will demonstrate sense of responsibility, the sooner we will succeed in overcoming the pandemic,” he added.
He asserted that this was an encouraging development that the Covid-19 has not claimed any human life in the liberated territory so far, and by the grace of Allah, majority of the people infected with the disease were out of danger now.
Appreciating the excellent performance of coronavirus information control room, he greeted Minister for Information Technology Mustafa Bashir Abbasi, Secretary Midhat Shehzad and Director General Dr Khalid Rafiq, and said that the establishment of the control room immediate after the outbreak of coronavirus, collection of real time data, and establishing of web portal will certainly contribute a lot to the efforts to control this infectious disease.
He lauded joint efforts of health department, the World Health Organization and the administration to contain the spread of pandemic through web portal.
The AJK president directed the officials of the health department to identify some proper place for the screening and treatment of coronavirus patients by various hospitals of Paksitan and Punjab with the help of tele-health and tele-medicine technology. The technology board should ensure provision of necessary technology in this regard, he added.
The state president hailed the spirit of information technology students of different public sector universities, for extending voluntary services to the IT department.
Earlier in the briefing, Sardar Masood Khan was told that a total number of 34 patients, one in Muzaffarabad, three in Poonch, seven in Sadhnoti, two in Kotli, nine in Mirpur, and 12 in Bhimber have been reported in Azad Kashmir. Besides, a total of 642 suspected cases have been tested, and at present 159 people had been quarantined. One of the patients has recovered.
The state minister Dr. Mustafa basher said that our physicians, nurses and paramedical staff were fighting on the frontline against the coronavirus, and they needed encouragement from the government and appreciation from the people. Various teams of lady health workers, with the cooperation of police, revenue department and information technology board, were visiting door to door in all the ten districts of the territory to collect the data regarding coronavirus. We are trying to link Leepa valley and Neelum valley with the hospitals of Muzaffarabad through the telehealth system on an experimental basis shortly, he added.
