Srinagar: Amid rise in COVID cases in various parts of country including a slight increase in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, Director SKIMS Prof. Parvaiz A. Koul today advised people not to panic and follow COVID Appropriate Behavior saying it is critical to contain further spread of the infection.
“The situation is not worrisome as the positivity rate so far is not that high and hence there is no need to panic, but lowering guard and paying no heed to COVID guidelines can degenerate the situation,” Prof Koul said.
Elaborating, he said the rising numbers call for adoption of measures like use of masks and frequent hand washing in exercise of abundant caution for prevention of the spread of respiratory viruses in general and SARS CoV2 in particular.
He said modelling studies from credible institutes like the IHME, University of Washington do not predict any fresh COVID wave in the immediate future for the region of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.
“However exercising caution is clearly beneficial so that we avoid any upsurge in the cases. The positivity rate among the tested samples is not high and the authorities are keeping a close watch on situation. Since there are areas globally as also in the country, where sporadic increase of cases is reported, it would be prudent to stay alert without any panic. We need not be complacent but at the same time, panic should not creep in,” he said.