Srinagar- A prayer leader, a father-daughter duo were among eight persons who tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Saturday in Kashmir valley, raising the number of infected people across Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory to 341, officials said.
“No new cases from Jammu Division, 13 from Kashmir; Total positive cases now 341 (54 Jammu and 287 Kashmir). Further details in daily media bulletin,” government spokesperson Rohit Kansal Tweeted today.
Kashmir Observer had on Friday already reported five of the 13 cases confirmed by the government today.
With five more cases, Bandipora in north Kashmir has emerged the leading district in Covid-19 cases across the Valley. A 38-year-old cleric in the worst affected Gund Jehangir village of the district is among those infected by the dreaded disease. Four others, including a 64-year-old man are from Garoora, Gund Dacchan and Pethkoot villages. All of them have contracted infection from previous Covid-19 patients, reports said.
Two other cases are from Shangus Nowgam area of the Anantnag and include 60-year-old and his 35-year-old daughter-in-law.
The last case is from Beerwah Budgam, a 55-year-old man who is the uncle of a policeman who tested positive for the pathogen earlier this week.
From the time the first COVID-19 case was announced in J&K on March 09, it took about three weeks for the cases to reach 50-mark. It took the next five days to cross 100-mark, subsequent five days to cross 200-mark and few days to reach 300-mark.
Till date, the officially confirmed tally stands at 341—54 in Jammu and 287 in Kashmir. Five people have died due to the deadly infection in the J&K while 51—13 in Jammu and 38 in Kashmir divisions have recovered and discharged, leaving the active cases in Kashmir to 245 and 40 in Jammu.
Meanwhile, the media bulletin released by the J&K government said that 60419 travellers and persons in contact with suspected cases have been put under surveillance, including 6071 persons in home quarantine, 285 in hospital isolation, 252 in hospital quarantine and 25692 under home surveillance.
Besides, 28114 persons have completed their surveillance period. Moreover, 09 more Covid-19 patients have recovered and were discharged today from Chest Disease and SKIMS Soura here,” the bulletin said.
It said that out of 6937 test results available, 6596 samples have tested as negative till April 18, 2020.
In the advisory issued today, the government asked people to maintain a distance of 2 metre from others when going out for essential grocery shopping.
“If possible, sanitise the handles of shopping trolleys or baskets before shopping. Once home, wash your hands thoroughly and also after handling and storing your purchased products” the advisory reads.
Stressing on the need to avoid self-medication, the advisory urged people not to consume Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) medicine without medical advice as it may have adverse effects on health. HCQ is a prescription medicine and its sale is totally prohibited without a valid prescription by a doctor.
CMOs Told To Ensure Analysis Of Covid-19 Patients
Administration on Saturday asked the health department to ensure proper analysis of patients who have tested positive for coronavirus .
The Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Pandurang K Pole, today directed Chief Medical Officers to ensure proper analysis of every positive Covid-19 patient and trace everything about such patient while contact tracing, an official spokesperson said.
Pole said that analysis should include details about patients’ family, neighbors, relatives, daily routine, if having co-morbidity like diabetes, cardiac condition or is on dialysis or has any other health condition and other related information.
The Divisional Commissioner was supervising the online contact tracing, sampling and other guidelines for Covid-19 patients.
As per official spokesperson, Pole also directed concerned to wear protective gears while performing their duty in red zone areas and segregate high risk and low risk contacts.
“He also directed the concerned to record all information of positive as well as suspected cases accurately, in a prescribed format and submit it to the district level control rooms for further action,” the official spokesperson said.
“The Divisional Commissioner stressed medical officials to maintain inter departmental coordination while performing duties on ground during the current pandemic,” he added.
Officer on Special Duty (OSD), Owais Ahmad, CMO Srinagar, officers from Health & Medical Education and other concerned official were present in the meeting, while CMOs of other districts of the valley, along -with their teams participated in the meeting via video conferencing.
Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now
Be Part of Quality Journalism |
Quality journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce and despite all the hardships we still do it. Our reporters and editors are working overtime in Kashmir and beyond to cover what you care about, break big stories, and expose injustices that can change lives. Today more people are reading Kashmir Observer than ever, but only a handful are paying while advertising revenues are falling fast. |
| ACT NOW |
| MONTHLY | Rs 100 |  |
| YEARLY | Rs 1000 | |
| LIFETIME | Rs 10000 | |
