Hospitals in Kashmir are witnessing a dip in severely sick COVID19 patients – a trend which is getting reflected in the number of deaths as well.
The number of COVID deaths in both Jammu and Kashmir division dropped to seven on Saturday while 635 new cases were reported from across the Union territory.
Three COVID deaths were reported from Jammu, while Kashmir saw four people succumbing to respiratory viral disease including three from Srinagar district.
Those who died of COVID in Kashmir included 65-year-old woman from Kanikadal, Srinagar; 70-year-old man from Zakura, Srinagar; 87-year-old man from Gojwara, Srinagar and 65-year-old woman from Boniyar area of Baramulla. With the seven deaths, the toll due to COVID19 in J&K rose to 1,335.
A health official said during the past five days, 65 people have succumbed to COVID19 in J&K, which was a drop from the number of deaths in the five days preceding October 5, when the COVID deaths recorded were 71.
“The drop has been consistently low in Kashmir where only 20 deaths have taken place in the past five days,” he said.
Officials from different designated COVID19 hospitals in Srinagar said they have been receiving lesser number of severely sick COVID patients. “This is the reason for fall in the death rate,” said a senior administrator at a hospital.
The number of new cases has also seen a drop in both the divisions, although the fall is more in Jammu where only 235 cases were reported today.
In Kashmir, 400 new cases were recorded today, including 153 symptomatic cases. Among the randomly taken samples that are being tested with rapid Antigen Test kits, 83 persons tested positive for coronavirus, said the official.
A total of 253 RAT samples were found positive today of 9,600 samples tested, said Dr Qazi Haroon, OSD Directorate of Health Services Kashmir.
Srinagar recorded 173 new cases while the number of cases reported from other districts were 50 in Budgam, 36 in Baramulla, 20 in Pulwama, 44 in Kupwara, 22 in Anantnag, 11 in Bandipora, 35 in Ganderbal, five in Kulgam and four in Shopian. In district Jammu, 109 cases were reported today.
The number of recovered cases of COVID19 crossed 70,000 today and reached 70,955 while 976 patients who had tested positive in the past, tested negative today after retesting.
Another health official said patients are retested 10 days after their initial positive test. “Irrespective of symptoms, we are retesting people,” the official said.
He said retesting was being ensured in people who were put under home isolation owing to being asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic.