New Karimganj DC prioritises containing COVID-19, tackling flood situation in district
Silchar, May 26: Newly joined Deputy Commissioner of Karimganj District, Khageshwar Pegu has made his intentions clear- containing the ongoing wave of COVID-19 and tackling with flood, should there arise any situation, are his top priorities for now.
In his first formal interaction with the media on Tuesday, Pegu said the District administration is taking up a host of measures to prevent further spread of the disease by accelerating up health infrastructure and intensifying the vaccination drive.
He informed the press that along with ADC(Health) he is personally taking stock of the progress of construction of ICUs at the district Civil Hospital. "There is no denying the fact that Karimganj district requires ICU facilities immediately as there are no such facilities available now and the district is entirely dependent on Silchar Medical College and Hospital for treatment of serious cases amidst COVID-19. The concerned contractor has been instructed to wrap up the task at the earliest any how," he maintained.
The Deputy Commissioner informed about the steps taken by the District Administration in opening up of new COVID Care Centres and the plans on the anvil to set up model vaccination centres at Indoor Stadium with necessary facilities and other places across the district. Pegu said that the total positive cases as on Monday was 757 with recovery rate of 69.72% and death rate of 0.62%. One person succumbed to COVID-19 while 15 persons died due to co-morbidities with COVID-19 positivity in the second wave of the pandemic since March 1. He informed that that the positivity trend in the last 10 days has come down from 8% to 4.7% Pegu stated that altogether 93,129 RT-PCR and Rapid Antigen Tests were carried out with positivity rate of 2.75% since March 1 this year.
He also mentioned that the total numver of beds in the district is 360 with 35 oxygen beds. There are 91 patients in Karimganj COVID Hospital, four in District Jail and no patients at Badarpur Railway Hospital and MG Model Hospital. Apart from this, 20 railway coaches have been turned into isolation centres with a bed capacity of 320 with 40 oxygen support beds, he added.
Further, asked about the vaccination programme in the district, the Deputy Commissioner informed that 79,984 persons received the first jab and 21,404 completed the second dose so far with female outnumbering male residents within the district.
Talking on the preparatory measures to check flood under such grave circumstances, Pegu informed that based on the Revenue Circles, Task Force has been constituted to assess post-flood damages and to submit report within September so that repairing work can be carried out in the months of October and November itself.
He said the National Highway is in good shape however, there are some PWD roads that require some repairing for smooth transportation of essential commodities to the flood affected areas.
Seeking cooperation from the media fraternity and also from people of the district in the fight against COVID-19 and also in ensuring overall civic development, the Deputy Commissioner said that steps are being initiated in right earnest to clean the clogged drains to prevent water logging in the areas under the Karimganj Municipal Board. He added to mention that he would convene a meeting with the prominent citizens to chalk out ways to mitigate the problem of water logging in the town.
