Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) Monday claimed that the hospitals in Kashmir were witnessing a surge in severe cases of COVID-19 infection.
A statement of DAK issued here quoted DAK President DrNisar-ul-Hassan as saying that a few weeks ago, there was a drop in the number of severe cases, but over the last few days, hospitals were seeing increase in the number of seriously-ill COVID-19 patients, much like see last spring.
“Patients in large numbers are coming to the hospitals with severe bilateral pneumonia requiring oxygen, some needing intensive care and the support of ventilators to help them survive the respiratory distress. Our beds are full, oxygen points are occupied and we don’t have space in the intensive care units,” he said. “Patients are coming with bad lungs when it is difficult to salvage them. Not only the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions, but young people are coming with severe disease and some of them are dying.”
Dr Hassan said that the rising number of cases over the past two weeks was now starting to reflect in rising number of hospitalisations.
“The number is expected to rise further in the coming days as there are still a massive number of people in the population susceptible to the virus,” he said. “The virus has once again become dangerous and is behaving aggressively which gives us to understand whether a mutated strain has sneaked into Kashmir because of the huge tourist influx or we are dealing with an indigenous mutant.” Dr Hassan said that another reason for resurgence of cases in Kashmir was because of public complacency.
“People no longer regard pandemic as a risk and have thrown caution to the wind. Many people don’t wear masks and don’t care about social distancing. Huge gatherings are seen in gardens and public functions. Accelerated transmission of COVID-19 within the next few weeks will not be surprising considering the lackadaisical approach by most people towards the pandemic,” he said. “People must continue to adhere to the health guidelines to avoid catastrophic slipup. And, it is vitally important to ramp up the vaccination process and vaccinate as many people as possible that too quickly to break the chain of virus transmission.”