While the tally of COVID19 continued to rise and reached 26949 with 536 new cases today, the number of active cases remained stable due to a high number of patients recovering from the infection.
Today 779 patients were declared recovered in J&K, the total of such patients reaching 19309. From 23 July till date, the number of active cases in J&K has remained between 7100 and 7600, barring a rare drift to 7800. The stable number of active cases is due to the high number of patients recovering and declared COVID19 negative and the daily rise in new positive cases remaining linear, ranging between 450 and 600, with a few days of exceptionally high numbers.
A health official said the flat line of active cases has prevented worsening of the crisis in hospitals which are reeling under shortage of staff and infrastructure to manage the epidemic. “It has been more than 20 days that we have not been seeing a spike in the number of active cases as the number of new cases is somewhat similar to the number of cases recovering,” the official said. He said that if the number of new cases outnumbers the number of recovered cases in a day, it could prove catastrophic as hospitals will have no spaces to accommodate these patients. “Moreover, we are already in doldrums given the shortage of oxygen beds,” he said.
The official urged that the Government put in expedited steps to increase the number of oxygen beds in hospitals to prepare for the future. “We still don’t know what is coming. Cases may decrease or increase and it depends on so many poorly understood factors,” he said.
On Thursday, Kashmir division had 438 cases confirmed while Jammu division had 98 new cases.
In Kashmir, the new cases included 79 people arriving from outside, including many non-locals. In addition, over 50 samples from various security camps tested positive today, a health official said. The official said that 14 service providers who had been randomly sampled from various red zones in Kashmir tested positive. However, the major proportion of cases was among people who were symptomatic and had been tested upon directions. 113 of such people were found infected today in Kashmir. Moreover, 14 people who had sought testing on their own were also positive for the viral infection.
The official said 18 positives were reported among randomly taken samples in red zones. This did not include service providers, he said.
In a major concern, 13 more healthcare workers were found infected today, including four doctors. 11 pregnant women also tested positive.
Among the districts, Srinagar had the highest number of cases, as has been the trend. Today, 144 new positives were added to the tally of the district which has reached 6577. 32 of the new cases were sampled upon their arrival from outside, J&K Information bulletin on COVID19 said. The new cases were scattered across areas in the city.
The reading of cases from other districts were as: Baramulla 42, Pulwama 27, Kulgam 14, Shopian 8, Anantnag 16, Budgam 36, Kupwara 46, Bandipora 54, Ganderbal 41.
In Jammu division, 45 out of the 98 cases were sampled upon arrival from outside. Jammu district had 49 new cases, the highest in the division.