Srinagar, Jan 24: The summer capital has borne the brunt of COVID-19 recording highest 890 deaths since outbreak of the pandemic in Kashmir.
Official data reveals that in Srinagar COVID related deaths recorded so far stand at 890. Baramulla has recorded 293 deaths, Budgam 224 deaths, Pulwama 198, Kupwara 171, Anantnag 212, Bandipora 111, Ganderbal 82, Kulgam 118, and Shopian 59 respectively.
Officials said the current bed occupancy percentage in COVID-19 dedicated hospitals falling under Category-I in Srinagar reached 28.77 percent. Srinagar has five hospitals falling under this category with 1014 bed capacity with oxygen support earmarked.
Currently, the bed occupancy is highest at the Chest Diseases Hospital. It is followed by Kashmir Nursing Home with 51.22 percent occupancy, reveals official data.
The DRDO COVID hospital Srinagar comes with the highest number of beds 375 with oxygen support out of which 99 beds are currently occupied as on Monday evening. SMHS Hospital has 211 beds out of which 48 beds are currently occupied. SKIMS Bemina has bed capacity of 210 out of which 67 occupied. Out of 106 beds, 46 are occupied at SKIMS Soura.
On Monday, Srinagar reported 963 positive cases while 415 people completed home isolation.
On Monday, Batamaloo block reported the highest number of positive cases of 437, followed by Zadibal block 217, Hazratbal block 53, Khanyar block 133 and SR Gunj block 123 respectively.
Confirming the data, spokesperson of Directorate of Health Services Kashmir, Dr Mir Mushtaq said that all these figures add to the fact that people should not take the COVID virus lightly.
“We have time and again reiterated that there is no need to take this virus lightly, every day we are witnessing deaths, even if Omicron is mild there is no need to lower our guard as we don’t know how many it will infect. People are dying due to COVID and it’s a reality,” he said.
“People who are taking it lightly and aren’t following COVID Appropriate Behavior and transmitting the viruses to others which includes vulnerable people can prove dangerous,” he said adding that even when people are saying that it is mild, there are dozens of patients who are on oxygen so people shouldn’t remain complacent at this stage,” he said.
Appealing to people to make a collective effort to defeat the pandemic, he said “We can save ourselves only by following SoPs, wearing face masks, ideally double face masks, and maintaining good physical distance especially at public places.”
Amid a spike in COVID-19 cases, the number of active micro-containment zones in Srinagar district has increased recently.