Senior IAS officer in Jammu and Kashmir tests positive for Covid-19, hospitalised

A senior officer in Jammu and Kashmir tested positive for coronavirus disease Covid-19 on Saturday. This comes a few days after the wife and son of an advisor to the Lieutenant Governor contracted Covid-19.

The officer has been hospitalised at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Narayana super-specialty hospital in Kakryal in Reasi district on Sunday morning.

The IAS officer, who came back from Srinagar on Saturday, had attended a high-level meeting in Jammu that was chaired by a top bureaucrat, a financial commissioner, a principal secretary, a senior bureaucrat in the disaster management authority and officials from health and medical education department, said a top bureaucrat on the condition of anonymity.

While the senior IAS officer, who is holding rank of commissioner secretary, was hospitalised at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Narayana super-specialty hospital in Kakryal in Reasi district on Sunday morning, top bureaucrats have been either sent to hotel or home quarantines and their samples are being taken, he added.

A senior official from government medical college and hospital, who attended the meeting said, “I have gone into home quarantine as soon as I came to know that the IAS official has tested positive.”

The sample of the senior IAS officer was taken for testing last evening after he came back to Jammu from Srinagar.

The meeting was held around 4.30 pm on Saturday as a pre-cursor to discuss lifting of lockdown restrictions in the union territory from June 8.

“Other senior officials include a divisional commissioner, heads of health and medical education department, principal of GMC Jammu, directors of national health mission, health services, medical supplies corporation, microbiologist and epidemiologist,” said the official.

A senior doctor said, “The senior IAS officer, who had given his sample for Covid-19 test, should not have attended the meeting. He behaved carelessly and has put others into risk.”

When contacted, authorities concerned refused to comment on the entire issue.