Srinagar: A 72-year-old man became the sixth COVID-19 fatality in Jammu and Kashmir where 42 new cases of novel coronavirus, all from Kashmir, were confirmed on Saturday, the biggest one day spike since the outbreak started.
Among the fresh cases include two pregnant women besides mother and her two minor sons.
The government attributed the increase in the positive cases to the testing of over 1000 samples in last 24-hours, the first time since the coming of the novel coronavirus.
“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.
Official sources said of the 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. The cases have pushed the J&K COVID-19 tally to 496, 116 of which were confirmed in the last four days alone.
The weekend started with the 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 sixth 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.”
“He was admitted to the high dependency unit. He had pneumonia, was hypertensive,” Dr Shafa A Deva, Medical Superintendent SKIMS Bemina told The Kashmir Monitor. “He was shifted to ICU yesterday where he died,” the doctor said.
Regarding 23 fresh cases from Anantnag, a senior doctor said that five of them belong to a single family from Kulail including two females (30 and 60-year-old) and three males (ages 30, 35 and 60).
Besides, another woman, 39, and her two sons, aged 4 and 7, too are from Kulail.
Two pregnant women from Anantnag—30-year-old from Mukhdampora and 26-year-old from Nowgam too are among those tested positive. The other cases from the southern Kashmir district include 8-year-old female 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, CMO Bandipora Dr Tajamul Hussain said.
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 areas.
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.
In Baramulla, three news cases are policemen—two of them aged 40-years-old each from Malpora Sheeri who are uncle of a previous patient, also a cop. 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 told GNS 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.
CMO Kupwara Dr Kounser Amin said that two persons including the first COVID-19 patient from Anderhama Muqam-e-Shahwali have recovered and were discharged.
With these fresh cases, Bandipora now has 115 COVID-19 patients, highest in all districts, followed by 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) while Kathua, Kishtwar and Ramban districts have one case each.
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. (GNS inputs)
