Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh, RK Mathur held a meeting with a concerned officers on December 27 and assessed Covid preparedness in view of the surge of Covid-19 variant cases across the globe.

Advisor, Umang Narula; Additional Secretary, Health, Dr Iftakhar Ahmed Chaudhary; Director, Health Services, Dr Motup Dorje and DIG Ladakh Police, Sheikh Junaid Mehmood, were present in the meeting.

LG Mathur directed to activate all the isolation facilities and oxygen beds along with ICU for Covid-19 patients in Ladakh. He also directed to conduct Covid-19 testing, wherever required. He stated that the recently installed genome sequencer machine that has been certified for Covid-19 testing may be utilised and also instructed to conduct genome sequencing in positive cases to ascertain the Covid-19 variant. LG Mathur further directed that Covid-19 testing may be conducted at different Covid-19 labs, including DIHAR.

LG Mathur instructed that all the oxygen plants at various locations may be activated and oxygen cylinders may be sent to wherever required. He directed to provide wide publicity to Covid Appropriate Behaviour (CAB) and conduct an awareness drive for administering the precautionary dose to beneficiaries to ensure the saturation of Covid-19 vaccination in Ladakh.

He instructed that all essential medical items may be procured and directed that all the village surveillance committees/teams may be activated. He directed that Border Roads Organisation (BRO) may be instructed to take care of their labourers and also to ensure that their Covid-19 tests are conducted.

Director, Health Services, Dr Motup Dorje gave a detailed presentation on precautionary measures taken such as Covid-19 identified beds, including the availability of isolation beds, oxygen-supported isolation beds, ICU beds and ventilators; ambulances available, the number of tests being conducted to detect Covid-19 cases; availability of medicines; IT interventions, the capacity of oxygen plants at various health centres in Ladakh, etc.