COVID helplines

Government of Jammu and Kashmir established COVID helplines for the benefit of common people so that in case of any emergency arising out of the illness they can have the contacts with the health department without any delay.

Recently J&K Chief Secretary reviewed the preparedness of different wings of the health department to combat the Omicron variant and he has asked NHM to widely publicize the COVID help lines and UT/Divisional/District-level emergency contact numbers for assistance including tele-consultations through bulk messages and proper advertisement, besides promoting medical interactions with medical experts on both electronic and social media. The Department was also asked to create visual content in vernaculars on COVID good practices for circulation among the general public.

He directed ramping up of testing facilities in Jammu and Kashmir to conduct over 2 lakh daily tests in the coming days while maintaining the contact tracing ratio at 1:15.

He  impressed upon the Health Department to circulate treatment SOPs for minor children and train the pediatrics staff accordingly, besides ensuring the availability of the best treatment and facilities including suitable ventilators and related machinery to this age category which has hitherto remained less affected from COVID-19.

Although the Omicron variant is spreading very fast, most of the patients have to go for home isolation and can recover without any hospitalization. The government of Jammu and Kashmir in the recent past has accelerated the vaccination process and have also increased the testing facilities across J&K.