Srinagar: The Health department in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday said it will conduct tests for contacts of top bureaucrat, who tested positive for Coronavirus a day ago, after five days of quarantine and only if they show symptoms.
Nodal officer for Covid-19 testing in Jammu division Dr ADS Manhas told Kashmir Reader that most of officials who had come in contacts with the bureaucrat are asymptomatic.
The health department has asked them to stay in strict home quarantine for 14 days, he said.
“We will take their swab samples after completing five days in quarantine from the day of contact with the Covid-19 positive bureaucrat. We are going by the protocol so that there is an optimal use of resources,” Dr Manhas said.
He said the crew of the flight from Srinagar to
Jammu in which the senior IAS officer was on board was also sent to quarantine.
“We will test them also after five days. The passengers of that flight have already been sampled and were under administrative quarantine,” Dr Manhas said.
According to sources, eighty-six persons including many top IAS/KAS officers, some of them in the ranks of Principal/Commissioner Secretaries, were identified as contacts of the Covid-19 positive bureaucrat and were sent for home quarantine.
“Around 45 of the contacts have been identified in Jammu and 41 in Kashmir including Principal Secretary, Commissioner/ Secretary rank officers among others besides family members of some of the officers. All of them have been asked to stay in home quarantine,” said a health official.
The bureaucrat is presently in the isolation ward of Narayana Hospital at Kakryal in Katra.

Manzoor ul-Hassan