J&K reported 540 new cases of COVID19 on Wednesday, the total number of confirmed cases nearing 20,000 now.
A new record high number of COVID19 tests were carried out in J&K in the past 24 hours. As per information bulletin issued by J&K Government, 11,652 samples were tested in the UT. Of these, 540 were found positive for COVID19, while 11,112 samples tested negative. The number of recovered patients reached 11322 with 437 recoveries today.
The quantum of testing has been massively scaled up in J&K in the past few days. A health official said
mass sampling was being carried out in many organizations upon their requests.
J&K Government started rapid antigen testing of samples taken from people reporting respiratory symptoms at hospitals. As per an order issued by Health and Medical Education Department, patients waiting for surgeries, travelers at Lakhanpur and Jawahar Tunnel, cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI and Influenza-like Illness and symptomatic contacts of positive cases will undergo the fast antigen tests to assess their COVID19 status.
Health department said over 3000 samples were collected in the Kashmir division on Wednesday.
Today, 389 positives were from Kashmir division, the total number of cases in the division crossing 15,000 mark and reaching 15,201.
For the second time, Srinagar district’s cases were over 200. A health official said over 50 of these samples was from various security forces’ camps. Over 20 samples of people who had reported to hospitals with symptoms of COVID19 also tested positive, he said, while many pregnant women were also found to be infected with the virus.
Pulwama district had 67 cases added to its total, which stood at 1363 today. As per a health official in the district, the new cases included many security personnel from an Awantipora camp and many contacts of known cases from Pampore, Sambora, Chakoora, Pinglena and some other areas.
45 new cases were reported from Budgam. A Budgam health official said at least 10 defence personnel, four service providers, three travelers and many random samples from the district were among the new cases.
The number of cases from other districts were: Baramulla 20, Kulgam 15, Shopian 4, Anantnag 26 and Kupwara, Bandipora and Ganderbal 3 each.
In Jammu 151 cases were reported, the total cases in the division reaching 4218. Of today’s cases, 50 were among the travelers, J&K Government said.