Commitment to containment : Dr Shashank’s targeted approach, intensive testing strategy helped Kishtwar to arrest covid spread

Kishtwar : Intensive testing and contact tracing has been widely agreed  as a key tool  to contain covid spread and it has also worked well in Kishtwar District. Dr Shashank Parihar, Nodal Officer, Mobile Sampling & Testing Block Kishtwar is among many covid warriors who did exemplary work with targeted approach and leading from the front. Dr Parihar has made best out of the mass and aggressive sampling and testing (both RAT and RT PCR) in the containment zones and at various places of Block Kishtwar which greatly helped in reducing both household and community transmission of Coronavirus.While sharing his experience, he said, “Besides the containment zones and other parts of the district, we also conducted COVID-19 tests of the people entering Kishtwar at Model Nakka Thathri, which greatly helped in preventing the situation from going out of hand.”  “With a dedicated team, we adopted a targeted approach for testing. Our major focus was containment areas and other routes and places with high possibility of transmission,” he explained.Talking about common hesitancy about testing, he said it is very simple and no one should be afraid of it. It involves taking a nasal and throat swab from the person and the test detects the spike protein and later it confirms negative and positive.

He urged the public to come voluntarily for COVID-19 testing to save themselves and their family from Coronavirus. The sudden spike in the cases in last month and now receding rate doesn’t mean that we will sit back carelessly. We are at the service of the public 24*7. Our mobile testing team reaches to every door step in every area where people feel reluctant to visit health centres.”All problems are rooted in our thinking, if we have a positive perspective we can overcome every situation and corona is just one of them” he said confidently.Sharing an instance of public resistance, the Doctor said that last year they came under attack from the villagers when he was leading a mobile testing team to a village in Chatroo for mass testing. “The locals pelted stones on us and totally refused to take COVID19 test forcing us to come back” he said adding “Next time we again went there  with full courage, talked to locals, cleared all their doubts about the testing and convinced them for voluntary testing. I felt very happy and took a big sigh of relief.”Talking about other challenges, he said during the working hours of COVID 19 testing we are fully geared up with PPE Kits, hand gloves, face masks and it becomes difficult to work with all this in hot weather. But all this does not matter when you are working to meet your target.”