Rajouri: The COVID-19 cases witnessed a sudden surge in Rajouri and Poonch districts with 74 cases registered during the last 24 hours after which the management of Government Medical College and Hospital (GMC&H) Rajouri cancelled the leaves of the healthcare workers and other staff.
Of the 74 cases, 45 were reported from Poonch and 29 from Rajouri.
Among the 45 cases in Poonch, 13 are travellers, and the positivity rate remaining 3 percent.
The number of active cases in Poonch is 125.
The 29 cases in Rajouri is the highest single-day spike in a month.
Among these cases, 10 are from Manjakote block, nine from Darhal, one each from Kalakote and Nowshera, and seven from Sunderbani.
Meanwhile, the management of GMC&H Rajouri ordered the cancellation of leaves of staff till further orders.
“Given the sudden upsurge in COVID cases, any kind of leaves, except maternity leaves and leaves taken given extreme medical exigencies, are cancelled and all employees should resume their duties,” Principal GMC Rajouri, Dr Ghulam Ali Shah ordered. “Further, the winter vacation of faculty members stands cancelled and all the faculty members on vacation should resume their duties.”
Meanwhile, two officers of Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Services (JKAS) tested positive for coronavirus infection during random sampling conducted in government offices in Rajouri whereas 14 of the 18 students of GMC Rajouri who had tested positive for the infection on Monday in Rapid Antigen Tests have tested negative in the RT-PCR sampling procedure.
Officials said that mobile teams of the Health Department started surprise and random sampling in government offices across the Rajouri district during which some government employees got tested positive.