J&K saw a precipitous rise in COVID19 cases on Saturday, with government confirming 15 new patients in 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 33. Of these, 23 are in Kashmir.
Principal Secretary J&K Government, Rohit Kansal, usedTwitter to announce COVID19 cases emerging from J&K. In a series of tweetsbefore and after a press briefing, Kansal updated about 15 cases. Of these, 10were in Kashmir, while five were in Jammu.
The first update came late Friday night. “As we end the day,two more positive cases confirmed. Both from Rajouri district,” he tweeted.Both the cases had no travel history but contact with already positive cases.While one of the cases was a family member of a confirmed case from Rajouri,announced on Thursday, the other had contact with a COVID19 positive case fromSrinagar who died on 26 March.
Saturday afternoon, Principal Secretary, while callinghimself a harbinger of bad news, tweeted: “7 more positive cases in Srinagartoday. 4 cases history of contact with already positive cases of religiouscongregation; other three – travel history outside J&K, contacts beingtraced”.
Later in evening, J&K Government declared one more casein a press conference. “There are 28 cases of COVID19 in J&K,” principalsecretary said while adding that 25 cases were active, two had recovered andone had passed away.
Soon after, he wrote on his official handle, “Hardly do Ifinish my press briefing – 5 new positive cases – 3 in Jammu, 2 in Srinagar”.He said that all the positives were contacts of previously positive ones.”Jammu cases are asymptomatic,” he wrote adding that J&K had 33 cases intotal at the end of the day.
Dr S Saleem Khan, nodal officer for COVID19 at GovernmentMedical College (GMC) Srinagar, said nine cases had tested positive at ChestDiseases Hospital here.
Dr Khan said one of the positive patients, in his early 50s,is critical. He is a resident of Tangmarg and has not reported any travelhistory outside Kashmir. He was admitted at SMHS Hospital and was shifted to CDHospital after he tested positive for COVID19. The other patient, a 30 year oldfrom Lasjan, had travelled to Kashmir from Jammu recently.
Dr Khan said a couple from Srinagar was among the positivecases and had travelled to Srinagar from Mumbai. “They are in 30s,” he said.Three others aged between 20 and 30 years, he said, were from Hajin and hadcontact with a group of four from Bandipora who tested positive atSher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences on 25 March.
Another COVID19 case is a man aged 56 from Srinagar who hadtravelled to Srinagar from Delhi where he had arrived two weeks earlier fromIndonesia. Another male from Budgam in his 30s, who had travelled from Delhi toSrinagar recently, also tested positive for the virus.
One case had tested positive at the designated lab at SKIMS.The patient who tested positive at SKIMS hailed from Pulwama. A doctor workingat SKIMS said the patient had travel history within India.
In the past 24 hours, 15 new cases of COVID19 have come tofore in J&K, 10 in Kashmir and five in Jammu. Kashmir has the bulk of caseswith 22 active ones and one death.
Medical superintendent SKIMS, Dr Farooq Jan, said 52patients were quarantined at the hospital and 11 patients were in isolation. Hesaid six new samples had been taken for testing.
Government said a “massive contact tracing” exercise wasunderway to detect as many as possible coronavirus cases. “This may cause someinconvenience but we need your cooperation,” he said. Dr S Saleem Khan saidnumber of suspected cases was expected to rise with growing network ofcontacts. “It is a tedious but very important exercise,” he said.