Continue testing through festive weekend: Udupi DC

Continue testing through festive weekend: Udupi DC

www.mangaloretoday.com

Udupi, October 25, 2020: It was a pleasant surprise for the 120-odd frontline warriors in the department of health and family welfare to see a motivational WhatsApp message on their screens. The message from G Jagadeesha, deputy commissioner, while wishing them happy Dasara, lauded their efforts in the last few months in combating Covid and urged them to keep the same resolve going into the festive season.

“It is due to the tireless efforts of these warriors that the district as on date has the least case fatality ratio of 0.83%,” Jagadeesha told. Increased testing in which the department plays a pivotal role has helped the district pull back the positivity rate that hovered around 25% around 45-days back to less than 10% as on date. “Presently, in some days it is as low as 6-7%,” Jagadeesha said, adding credit for both goes to the department staff.

“The message has been sent to each of these department staff by name and it has not been a mass broadcast message,” the DC said. “I value the service of every single individual who has put aside their personal commitment and holidays,” he said. This has resulted in Udupi seeing a steep decline in positivity and mortality since the past few days. The district has conducted the highest tests of 1.20lakh/million population, highest in Karnataka, he said.

The ultimate life of the entire exercise that involves testing, tracing, tracking, treating to IEC, which has taken the Covid surveillance to the next level compared to all other districts in the state is to save lives, Jagadeesha explained. If there is laxity in testing during this extended festival weekend, it will take the department as many, if not, more days to get things back on track. As a measure of solidarity, I too have stayed back here, Jagadeesha noted.

“With little more patience from all of us, we are going to achieve success. I hope the testing target given by the state will be met even during this long weekend. I expect to see at least 2,300 testing on all days for the next few days, which will substantially cut the chain of transmission,” the DC said in the message and hoped they will be with him.

Courtesy: Times of India