Reeling under immense pressure, from the last one month, officials belonging to all departments especially health, civil, police, have heaved a sigh of relief, when the dream moment of departing of last patient to his home come true.
The moment was cherished and petals of flowers were showered amid loud applause to express gratitude towards the hospital staff.
“It was an unprecedented battle, which we have fought against CORONA. Had we not contained the area immediately, it would have been a great havoc” said Deputy Commissioner, Vinay Bublani.
“War is not yet over, we have to remain vigilant even after conquering the battle,” said DC who relentlessly led the district team with immense vision during the harrowing ordeal.
Sharing his experiences as well as strategy planned and executed the DC said, “ it was the occasion of auction of liquor vends at Nawanshahr. I have just entered the venue and got a call from a senior functionary from state to immediately contain the area of a single village, from which a death of senior citizen reported with travel history of abroad. We immediately rushed to the venue with civil , police and health officials."
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Our young IAS officers, ADC (G) Aditya Uppal and SDM Banga, Gautam Jain were among the key strategists who started to seal village Pathlawa with the help of another young police officer, Navneet Singh Mahil, with in no time.
Now, the next problem was to instill the sense of confidence among the villagers and to supply them essential commodities. In this time, Deputy Registrar, Cooperative Jagjit Singh played a pivotal role by ensuring supply through Multipurpose Cooperative Society Banga.
As the more positive cases started surfacing, we had to contain total 15 villages adjacent to the Pathawa and Ladhana Jhikka by March 23, because in wake of increasing contact added Bublani.
Applauding the role of ADC Aditya Uppal, he said that he is the key player in getting the sampling of affected areas done with the help of Civil Surgeon Dr. Rajinder Bhatia and his dedicated team.
Initially, we had seven Rapid Response teams that were enhanced to 26 within a day. Our Rural Medical Officers working under Panchayat Depratment were included in these RR Teams and they worked well.
Now the next immediate step, we took, was to check all the foreign return residents.
District was divided into 25 sectors under five Child Development and Programme Officers and a total of 759 Anganwari workers and 25 Supervisors, who in turn did marvelous job by keeping them quarantine in their homes and pasted quarantine stickers outside their houses.
With the surveillance of these persons, we left no foreign return un-traced in the district.
In the mean time, a thorough screening of district was also conducted with the help of 530 ASHA workers. They screened 1.29 lakh houses individually to check whether anyone is symptomatic or not.
Now, three more survey rounds are also being conducted from today to ensure every house is COVID free.
Civil Surgeon Dr. Rajinder Bhatia added that initially the tests were focused on Pathlawa and adjacent areas but now we have extended it to all those whosoever contacts us through COVID Control Room Number 01823-227471 and our field staff.
Till day as many as 569 persons have been tested and 529 found negative besides re-sampling of 52 that is not included in this. Luckily, district has no more positive test since last positive case of March 26.
Now, after discharging of all patients from isolation wards, the RR Teams have been reorganized to 13 under the monitoring of SMOs.
Elaborating the role of District Control Room cum War Room that worked round the clock under the command of young PCS Officer Deepjot Kaur, Mr. Bublani said we got a number of calls on these eight lines’ Control Room and these calls were daily segregated and sent to the concerned SDMs.
Interestingly, two sub divisional magistrates, Jagdish Singh Johal and Jasbir Singh Balachaur were so cautious of the Pathlawa incident that they implemented the lockdown completely in their sub divisions and fortunately there were no case reported from these two sub divisions.
Deputy Commissioner while applauding the role of SMO Dr. Harwinder Singh said that the missionary zeal shown by his entire team was exemplary and unique. Every patient on his/her discharge especially thanked him and his team members for meeting their each and every demand with in no time besides counseling to boost their morale in isolation. This is the major reason behind the successful cure rate of all the 18 patients, added DC Vinay Bublani.
Especially expressing gratitude to the district police chief, SSP Alka Meena, Deputy Commissioner said that without her dedication and cooperation, it was not possible to keep the residents in their houses and to put in force the Curfew and other prohibitions during this lock down. As many as 1500 police personnel and 240 Volunteers are manning the Nakas and district very effectively.
DSPs Navneet Singh Mahal Banga, Jatinderjit Singh Balachaur and Harneel Singh were among the key strategists who used social media as a tool of coordination with all the village sarpanches by adding them in their whatsapp groups.
Applauding the positive and leading role of local MLA Angad Singh to work as a bridge between District Administration and Health Minister Punjab, for enough supply of testing and PPE kits, Mr. Bublani said that the young lawmaker has served the district in an effective way.
The Deputy Commissioner also lauded the role of the various NGOs and good Samaritans, who under the aegis of "Helping Hand SBS Nagar Police" had put in consistent, concerted and dedicated efforts to provide grocery, medicines and other necessities at the door step of the needy to mitigate their sufferings during the lock down under ‘No One Sleep Hungry’ Programme of district administration.
He especially thanked the Gurudwara Singh Sabha, Nawanshahr, which provided proper food for the patients quarantined in the isolation wards at the district civil hospital.