Director SKIMS, A G Ahanger Sunday said the situation was “grim” in Kashmir and next two weeks would provide a clear picture whether the community transmission of coronavirus has started. “Situation is very scary. Next two weeks will decide whether COVID19 has entered into community transmission phase in J&K,” he said. The Director said the lockdown has helped to contain the coronavirus spread. Regarding functioning of a testing laboratory in SKIMS, the Director said they were upgrading their resources to scale up the testing facility to 1000 tests per day.“No one in the world knew about this disease. It caught everyone off guard. SKIMS was the first institute to start Covid19 tests, then GMC and other institutions followed,” said the Director. “We are getting more machines and increasing testing capacity. We now conduct 150 tests a day. Some days ago we conducted 176 tests in a day. We are increasing our capacity to 200 tests this week and by next week we are increasing it to 300 tests a week. By the end of this month, we are increasing it to 1,000 tests a day.”He said: “we have come up with 10-day duty roaster for doctors and it will be followed by 20 days of administrative quarantine for them. They don’t visit their families or friends during the quarantine period. Then another batch of doctors replaces them. This is how we cycle goes on.” He said there was complete synergy between government and doctors. “The job of administration is to give orders and provide the required support. Our job is to fight the disease. The administration is providing funds and equipment. They are exploring and employing all resources to channelize the equipment and machinery for health institutions,” said the Director.
He said protective gears were prioritized for medical staff according to their engagements in hospital.
