Over 20 persons have tested positive for COVID19 after attending a marriage ceremony in Srinagar’s Nowshara area, health department officials informed today.
Sources informed that after attending a marriage function, some of the family members of the bride and groom developed symptoms following which they were tested for COVID.
“So far over 20 members who have attended the function have tested positive. The exact number of infected persons will be ascertained after completing the contact tracing exercise of those who had attended the function,” said an official adding, “luckily both bride and groom are negative.”
The health department officials informed it is the first instance where many people who had attended a marriage function tested positive.
OSD, Directorate of Health Services Kashmir, Dr. Qazi Haroon said, “Our teams are on the job, contact tracing is going on.”
The incident has again brought to fore the importance of following Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs) and following the guidelines of social distancing, wearing mask and hand washing.
Experts have been warning of organizing marriage functions and large gatherings stating that these events could further aggravate the situation in Srinagar district which is the epicenter of the COVID in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Most of the times when the people assemble in the family function or marriage function, they think that they all are from the same family and there is no chance of COVID, as a result of which they lower the guard and there are incidents where people get infected,” said Dr. Salim Khan, nodal officer for COVID19 at GMC Srinagar.
“It is often repeated by health experts and doctors that whenever a person attends or participates in a function outside his house, they must maintain social distancing, wear masks and regular hand washing. Apart from this, if possible they should avoid unnecessary gatherings.”
Srinagar has been the worst hit by the COVID, the capital city has reported 7253 positive cases, of which 1412 are active now and 182 have died due to this viral illness.