J&K to have dedicated cemetery ground for Covid-19 fatalities

To stop any untoward incident, the government of Jammu and Kashmir said on Wednesday that every district in the UT will have a dedicated cemetery or a cremation grounds for Covid-19 fatalities.

Chief Secretary, B V R Subrahmanyam while taking stock of efforts toward mitigating Covid-19 threat, directed Deputy Commissioners to adopt liberal release policy at administrative quarantine centres. He added that if the quarantined persons test negative, as per existing Standard Operating Procedure, they can be sent to ‘home quarantine’ immediately.

The Chief Secretary urged Deputy Commissioners to notify cemetery/ cremation grounds exclusively for Covid victims so as to prevent any untoward incidence regarding their last rituals. He directed Divisional Commissioners, Jammu and Kashmir to undertake quality audits of administrative quarantine centres in respective provinces and suggest measures for improvement.

Regarding exit policy for de-notification of red, containment zones, Chief Secretary instructed for allowing partial de-notification, if no new case is reported for 21 continuous days under existing protocol. “This will be followed by intensive/ sentinel testing and if still no case is reported, then the zone will be de-notified after 30 days”, he added. To capture samples of increased number of travelers in coming days, Chief Secretary asked the concerned District Commissioners to enhance sampling capacities at all entry points including two airports and four railway stations. MD, NHM was directed to simultaneously enhance testing capacity. The step came after number of incidents reported in Jammu when locals objected to conduct last rites of Covid victims in same cremation ground and govt faced criticism from all sides for not notifying dedicated land for Covid fatalities.