With the death of one COVID-19 positive patient, Baseer ul Haq Choudhary, District Magistrate, Kargil issued an order regarding containment of the Kargil town area on July 25.
 
The containment zone comprising of the town area is hereby notified with a map with immediate effect. Along with the Containment zone, Goma Kargil, Baroo, Poyen, Shilikchey, Bagh-e Khomeini, and Andoo have been notified as Buffer Zones.
 
The order states that the objective of notification of this Containment/Buffer Zone(s) is to stop transmission of COVID-19.
 
BMO Kargil was directed to divide the whole of Containment Zone into sectors for the ASHAs, Anganwadi Workers, and ANMs who will be performing active house-to-house surveillance daily to identify persons with COVID-19 symptoms. Also, he was asked to conduct contact tracing of the patients immediately and submit the list to the office of the Chairman District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) and District Magistrate (DM) Kargil immediately.
 
 For the supply of essential/non-essential commodities within the Containment Zone, a committee of the officers comprising the Tehsildar Kargil (Mob No: 9622745236) as the Chairman with the Block Medical Officer, Kargil (Mob No: 9419887842), Naib Tehsildar, Kargil (Mob No: 9419818866) and S.H.O. Kargil (Mob No: 6005327100) as members has been constituted.
 
The committee has been directed to maintain close coordination with the Nodal Officer, Essential Supplies (ACD) Kargil for essential supplies, Accounts Officer to DC Kargil for medicines and Control Room DC Office Kargil for any kind of demand and supply of essential/non-essential commodities in the Containment Zone as well as in the Buffer Zones on the numbers of the Control Room DC Office: 01985-232263 as well as In-charge Control Room, Habib 9419176827 and Bashir 9797915202.
 
The order further reads that surveillance activities including active surveillance of containment zone and passive surveillance of buffer zones, rapid antigen test of all high-risk contacts and symptomatic suspects, and RTPCR of all rapid antigen-positive cases shall be strictly followed in the Containment Zone.
 
According to the order, surveillance activities including review of ILI/SARI cases reported in the last 14 days by the District Health officials to identify any missed case of COVID-19 in the community and enhanced passive surveillance for ILI and SARI cases in the Buffer Zone through the existing Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) are to be strictly followed in the Buffer Zones.
 
In case of any identified case of ILI/SARI, the sample should be collected and sent to the designated laboratories for testing COVID-19.
 
All health facilities in the Buffer Zones will be listed as a part of the mapping exercise. All such facilities both in Government and private sector (including clinics) shall report all suspect cases of COVID-19 on daily basis in the prescribed format already circulated to the Control Room, reads the order.
 
Measures such as personal hygiene, hand hygiene, and social distancing shall be enhanced through enhanced IEC activities in the buffer zones.
 
The order reads that all the offices (both Government and Private) within the Containment Zone shall remain closed till further orders. All the officers who have been assigned duties shall keep themselves prepared as per the guidelines and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) issued by the Administration of Union Territory, Ladakh.