Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) Friday pressed into service 15 mechanized decontamination machines and special teams for decontamination of Eidgah in downtown here after the locality was declared COVID19 red zone last week. Decontamination of the red zones was started on April 9. Srinagar Mayor JunaidMattu said the disinfectants were sprayed on the roads, lanes and by-lanes using different types of machines. “Small machines were also used in decontamination of residential and commercial premises,” he said. He said the Corporation has decided to decontaminate one red zone every day as a preventive measure to break the chain of coronavirus transmission. A special chemical, Quaternary Ammonium Chloride, recommended by experts, is being used to fumigate and sterilize the locality. Mattu said all international standard procedure recommended by experts were being adopted while carrying the fumigation. The SMC teams carried on sterilization and fumigation of residential houses, commercial and non-commercial structures. Even vehicles parked in or outside residential and commercial structures were sprayed with the chemicals. The SMC Secretary, Akbar Sofi, who heads the decontamination operations, said the decontamination process at red zones was all together different from other sterilization and sanitation process. “To disinfect red zone is a challenge in terms of keeping various factors in view. We ensure not an inch remains out of process. We carried extensive drive in Eidgah for its decontamination,” he said. He said the strategy during entire process remains the same as defined and explained under the standard operation procedure. He said objective of the plan was to break the chain of transmission and reduce chances of presence of infection in locality. He said all teams engaged into this service were highly trained and the Corporation has provided them all necessary and precautionary equipment to ensure they do not contract infection. Fourteen localities have been declared red zones in Srinagar after several persons from these areas were declared COVID19 positive. Besides Chattabal and Eidgah, the decontamination process was also carried at Lal Bazaar. With a sharp increase in number of COVID19 cases, number of red zones has increased to 45 in Kashmir. The J&K government on Friday said total number of COVID19 cases in the Union Territory have risen to 207 with 23 more persons testing positive today. The disease has claimed four lives — one in Jammu and three in Kashmir. The SMC also carried out sterilization and fumigation drive at Tengpora where a patient was tested positive for COVID19. The Commission also installed and commissioned a decontamination tunnel at Kashmir Nursing Home (KNH) here on Friday. Earlier, the tunnels were installed and commissioned at Chest Disease, LalaDed, SKIMS Bemina, SMHS and SKIMS Hospitals.
