Srinagar: A 72-year-old man became the sixth COVID-19 fatality in Jammu and Kashmir even as 42 new cases of novel coronavirus were confirmed on Saturday in the Kashmir Valley, the biggest one day spike since the outbreak.
Among the fresh cases include two pregnant women besides mother and her two minor sons as well as three policemen.
The spike is attributed to increase in the number of tests as J&K broke 1000 test barrier on Saturday with the number of people tested rising to 1071.
“Finally J&K breaks the 1000 test barrier- 1071 samples tested in the last 24 hours. But that also means more positives,” Principal Secretary Information and government spokesman Rohit Kansal tweeted.
Officials sources said of the among 42 cases, 28 were confirmed at Viral Diagnostic Lab of SKIMS Soura and include seven from Bandipora, three from Shopian as many as from Baramulla and one from Kupwara district.
The bulk of the cases—28—were confirmed at the COVID-19 testing laboratory at Chest Disease hospital Dalgate and include 23 from Anantnag district and five from Srinagar. While these cases have pushed the J&K COVID-19 tally to 496, 116 were confirmed in the last four days alone.
The weekend started with the “unfortunate” death of a septuagenarian patient from Qazipora Tangmarg in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
He died at SKIMS hospital Bemina here, making it the fifth death in Kashmir and overall 6th fatality due to the novel coronavirus in J&K.
The elderly, they said, had tested positive for the dreaded disease earlier this month and admitted to the hospital on April 13 with underlying ailments such as pneumonia, hypertension and other “comorbidities.”
According to Dr Shafa A Deva, Medical Superintendent SKIMS Bemina the patient was admitted to the high dependency unit on 13th of this month. “He was pneumonia, hypertensive, AF and BCH patient and was shifted to ICU yesterday where he passed away today,” the doctor said.
Regarding 23 fresh cases from Anantnag five of them belong to a single family from Kulail—30-year-old female, 60-year-old woman, 30-year-old man, 35-year-old male and 60-year-old male— besides 39-year-old woman, her two sons— aged 4 and 7-years-old. Both pregnant women are also from Anantnag—30-year-old from Mukhdampora and 26-year-old from Nowgam. The other cases from the southern Kashmir district include 8-year-old girl from Kanilwan, 10 persons from Kharpora—six females (aged 15, 16, 18, 40, 48, and 60) and four males—aged 19, 52, 62 and 65—while one person—46-year-old man is from Pushroo.
Regarding seven cases from Bandipora, sources said, they include four males—aged 23, 31, 43 and 80—and three females—aged 15, 32 and 60. Being contacts of previous patients, four of them are from Naidkhai, two from Gund Kaiser and one from Gund Jahangir, informed CMO Bandipora Dr Tajamul Hussain.
Five cases were reported from Srinagar after break of more than a week and they include two residents of Bemina—60-year-old man and 55-year-old female besides one each from Takanwaripora, Nishat and Gulab Bagh.
The Shopian cases are from Heerpora, a small village comprising around 1000 households and include 65-year-old and 40-year-old women besides 19-year-old male. With these cases, Heerpora now has 48 COVID-19 patients even as a few among them have recovered.
Baramulla district’s three cases are policemen—two of them aged 40-years each from Malpora Sheeri. They are uncles of a previous patient, also a policeman. The duo is posted at District Police Lines Baramulla while the third case is 50-year-old, a resident of Takiya Sultan and is posted in DIG office Baramulla.
Deputy Commissioner Baramulla Dr GN Itoo said that samples of all other policemen posted at DPL (photo section) as well as DIG office have returned negative and “there was no need to panic.” “They all were already in quarantine,” he said.
The last case was reported from Kupwara, a 50-year-old male who is a healthcare worker from Ganipora, Handwara.
“One health care worker from Gonipora earlier deployed at COVID Hospital Kupwara has tested positive today. The patient is already under isolation and primary contacts are being shifted to quarantine for sampling. All other samples for today including those from Red Zone Anderhama have tested negative. Total Active Cases for Kupwara stand at 38 now,” deputy commissioner tweeted.
According to CMO Kupwara, Dr Kounser Amin two persons, including the first COVID-19 patient from Anderhama Muqam-e-Shahwali, have recovered and were discharged.
Meanwhile, according to officials, out of the positive cases, 378 are Active Positive, 112 have recovered and while six patients died so far.
Furthermore, till date 66343 travellers and persons in contact with suspected cases have been enlisted for surveillance which includes 6324 persons in-home quarantine including facilities operated by government, 263 in Hospital Quarantine, 376 in hospital isolation and 10974 under home surveillance. Besides, 48400 persons have completed their surveillance period.
Officials said that out of 12835 test results available, 12341 samples have tested as negative till April 25.
Moreover, 03 more COVID-19 patients have recovered and discharged, 01 from SKIMS Soura and 02 from CD Hospital Jammu. (With inputs from GNS)
DISTRICT WIDE CASES
Bandipora:115
Srinagar: 84
Shopian: 63
Baramulla: 55
Kupwara- 46
Anantnag-38
Jammu-26
Udhampur-20
Ganderbal-14
Budgam-14
Kulgam-6
Rajouri-4
Samba-4
Pulwama-3
Kathua, Kishtwar and Ramban districts have one case each.
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 | |
