J&K saw 346 new cases of COVID19 on Tuesday, an infant, many children and doctors are among the new cases. The total in the UT has reached 11173.
Among the 346 cases, 290 were reported from the Kashmir division.
These included 256 contacts of known cases. 11 healthcare workers, including seven doctors working in various hospitals of Kashmir tested positive today. A 6-month old baby from Srinagar also tested positive while many other children, elderly and those with co-morbidities already admitted in hospitals were also reported to be positive.
Srinagar district contributed the most. There were 127 confirmed cases of COVID19 from the district today, only one of these was a traveler. At least 52 of these were those who had reported to the hospitals on their own owing to symptoms, a health official said. The others that tested positive from Srinagar were 8 from a police establishment and 10 more from two security forces establishments.
The total number of cases reported from Srinagar reached 1933 of which 1357 are yet to recover.
In Anantnag district, 58 new cases came to fore. These included three pregnant women and contacts of known cases. Three service providers have also tested positive from the district today.
Pulwama had 39 cases, Budgam 14, Bandipora 16, Shopian 11, Baramulla 11 Kyulgam 7, Ganderbal 4, Kupwara 3. In Jammu division, the 56 cases reported today included 42 travelers.
The COVID19 curve in J&K has remained on a sharp rise, the fresh cases bellowing the total number of cases to reach 11173. After SMHS Hospital, today SKIMS Soura ordered vacating a building to accommodate the growing number of COVID19 patients here. An order issued by HoD Hospital administration late last night has initiated vacating of attendant Sarai II located right outside the hospital. The Sarai is a living space for attendants of patients from far-flung areas. The space will be utilized for accommodating COVID19 patients.
Dr Farooq Jan said the hospital is witnessing a growing rush of COVID19 patients and mildly symptomatic cases will be admitted at the Sarai.
As per an order issued by Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, a cap has been put on the number of samples being sent from districts here. As per this order Srinagar, Kupwara and Budgam can take and send 400 samples each per day. Bandipora, Pulwama, Baramulla and Anantnag can send 300 samples each per day. Shopian can send 200 samples and Ganderbal 200.
These samples, a health official said, will include samples from security establishments in the district. “Earlier, security establishments would send the samples directly, now they have to route it through the CMO of the district,” the official said. He said the arrangement has been put in place to have burden based sampling from the districts as well as to ensure equal distribution across various suspected target groups.
Many districts, such as Srinagar and Baramulla have recorded a very steep graph of COVID19 in the past three weeks.