J&K witnessed a deluge of COVID19 positive cases on Wednesday. With 33 new cases, the toll jumped to 158, 30 new cases are from Kashmir division alone.
In Kashmir division, the two COVID19 testing labs – SKIMSand CD Hospital – reported 11 and 19 positive cases of the coronavirusinfection today. With 30 cases added today, the total positive cases detectedtill date in Kashmir reached to 125.
Three positive cases were reported from Jammu division.
Principal Secretary Information and Government Spokesman,Rohit Kansal, reported about another death in J&K due to Covid19 lateWednesday evening.
“61yr old female patient from Udhampur passed away at GMCJammu; tested positive for Corona; reported to be suffering from Arthritis andbedridden. Contacts being traced,” he tweeted.
With this, the total number of deaths in J&K has risento four.
Details of the positive cases reveal that many patients werecontacts of patients who have already tested positive for the viral infection,while many more had not reported any contact or travel history.
Five patients, residents of Srinagar and under quarantine atGulmarg tested positive today. The group, aged between 31 and 46 are currentlyadmitted at GMC Baramulla and had travelled to Nigeria, Dr Abdul Hamid Kathoo, principal of the GMC said.
From University campus Zakura, which is a quarantine centerfor contacts of COVID19 positive patients, 10 samples have tested positivetoday. All of these patients are residents of Srinagar district, Dr S SaleemKhan nodal officer COVID19 response at GMC Srinagar said.
Seven patients from Government Medical College (GMC) Anantnaghave also tested positive. These seven have reported history of travel toDelhi. While one of these patients is aresident of Kulgam, six others are from Shopian district, Dr Khan said.
Two other patients from Shopian district, admitted atDistrict Hospital Pulwama have also tested positive for COVID19. Neither of thetwo had reported any travel or contact history, he said.
Four other patients, hailing from Bandipora district havealso tested positive for COVID19. These, Dr. Farooq Jan medical superintendentSKIMS said, had history of contact with a COVID18 positive patient.
Dr Jan said two more patients, one each from districtKupwara and Baramulla also tested positive. While one of the patients, a 16year old had travelled from Delhi recently, the other, a 70 year old fromTangmarg has history of contact with a COVID19 positive person.
The district-wise toll of COVID19 positive patients todayis: Srinagar 15, Shopian 8, Bandipora 4, Baramulla 1, Kupwara 1, Kulgam 1.
Jammu had three reported cases of COVID19 today.
COVID19 toll in J&K has reached 158, a jump of 86 casesin the past five days. The steep rise in cases, Prof Parvaiz A Koul, headdepartment of internal and pulmonary medicine at SKIMS said, is ‘as expected.’He said exercising precautions and physical distancing can still help inreducing the ‘explosion’ of cases.
“Countries that have effectively tested and treated andimposed effective lock-downs have been able to keep the numbers low,” he said.He underlines cough and sneeze etiquette and hand hygiene in helping combatCOVID19.