Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir witnessed the highest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases on Wednesday as test reports of at least 33 more persons returned positive for the disease.
It pushed the total number of COVID-19 patients in J&K to 158–128 in Kashmir and 30 in Jammu.
“Thirty-three new cases were detected today. Out of this, 30 were in the Kashmir division and three in the Jammu division,” Principal Secretary Information and government spokesman Rohit Kansal said.
Among the fresh cases, 11 tests were confirmed at SKIMS Soura, 19 at Chest Disease (CD) hospital and three at Jammu.
A senior doctor said that reports of over 100 samples, received from JLNM hospital Rainawari, District Hospital Pulwama and GMC Anantnag were tested at CD laboratory.
“19 of them came out to be positive,” the doctor said.
Among the samples of 19 persons tested at CD, the doctor said four are from Chattabal and Safakadal areas, and five are from Eidgah in Srinagar while others are from the south Kashmir’s districts of Shopian (8), Pulwama (1) and Kulgam (1).
Regarding five Eidgah cases, sources said all of them are from a single-family. They include 56-year-old man, his 54-year-old wife, and their three children—two daughters in early 20s and 28-year-old son. They have no travel history and are said to be contacts of a 10-year-old who contracted disease last month by hugging a COVID-19 patient.
Regarding four other cases, they include 32-year-old and 46-year-old men from Safakadal, both have travel history to Nigeria, and two residents of Chattabal—60 year-old male and his 56-year-old wife who do not have any travel history to affected countries but are contacts of the previous COVID-19 patient.
Others include eight persons from Shopian who have travel history to Maharashtra and New Delhi (with Tableeghi Jamaat) while one 26-year-old is from Kulgam.
The 11 who tested positive at SKIMS are said to be residents of Srinagar (5), Baramulla (1), Bandipora (4) and Kupwara (1).
Regarding four patients from Bandipora, they, sources said, have a history of contact with previous patients and are aged 16, 38, 30 and 36 years old.
Five patients from Srinagar are said to have travel history to Nigeria and they are aged 33, 35, 31, 41 and 46 years old respectively.
One patient is from Tangmarg and he is said to be around 70 years and contact of the previous COVID-19 patient.
The other patient is a 16-year-old from Kupwara who had returned from Nizamuddin New Delhi.
With these fresh cases, the number of COVID-19 patients in J&K has gone up 158. Among them, 152 are active cases—124 in Kashmir and 27 In Jammu. While four patients in J&K—one in Kashmir and 3 in Jammu—have been discharged, three patients, all from Valley have died of the disease.
Two patients were discharged from SKIMS hospital after recovering from the disease, the officials said
According to the daily Media Bulletin on novel coronavirus (Covid-19), government said 40336 travellers and persons in contact with suspected cases have been put under surveillance which include 8494 persons in home quarantine including facilities operated by government, 518 in Hospital Quarantine, 130 in hospital isolation and 23364 under home surveillance. Besides, 7830 persons have completed their 28-day surveillance period.
The Bulletin further said that till date 2269 samples have been sent for testing of which 2116 have tested as negative, and 14 reports are awaited till April 08.
The Bulletin urged the general public to stay indoors, strictly implement social distancing measures, disclose recent travel history to COVID-19 affected countries and report any contact with positive cases voluntarily. (With inputs from GNS)
