Umang Narula, Advisor, Ladakh Wednesday chaired the first meeting of Crisis Management Group (CMG) of Ladakh, here today. The meeting was attended by Rigzin Sampheal, Commissioner/ Secretary Health and Medical Education; Saugat Biswas, Divisional Commissioner Ladakh; Satish Khandare, IGP Ladakh; Major General VM Chandran; GOC Leh Sub Area, Deepam Seth, IG ITBP and Dr Phuntsog Angchuk, Director Health. Senior officers from the armed forces and Intelligence agencies also participated in the meeting. The Commissioner Secretary Health gave a brief overview of the current situation of COVID in Ladakh and stated that a total of 10 cases of COVID-19 are cured till date and only four positive cases are under treatment now. It was informed that home quarantined people are being monitored strictly through the surveillance teams of health workers in both the districts. Besides this monitoring is also being done through community channels and the village Nambardars are reporting the same on a daily basis through the respective Sub Divisional Magistrates. Training of the field functionaries on surveillance, contact tracing and stigma mitigation is being conducted throughout the Union Territory. An in-depth assessment was made of the existing and emerging situation, arising from COVID-19 in the UT, so that advance action plans could be prepared to deal with all contingencies. Advisor appreciated all officials particularly the health professionals of the UT administration who are working round the clock in dealing with COVID. He said that timely containment of hotspot areas and intensive testing has proved beneficial in containing the spread of the virus. The Commissioner Secretary Health also informed that two designated COVID hospitals, at Mahabodhi Karuna Charitable Hospital Leh and at GNM School Kurbathang, Kargil are functional and fully geared to handle any corona cases. The Advisor stressed upon pooling of resources of all agencies to deal with the crisis. It was also decided that army will provide 25 ex-servicemen volunteers with basic medical experience to augment the health care human resources of UT administration.
