With 55 New Cases in 24 Hours, J&K Sees Highest Jump in Infection, Most Patients Returned Home Recently

Jammu and Kashmir witnessed the highest jump in COVID-19 cases on Tuesday with 55 people testing positive for the virus in the last 24 hours.

Of the new cases, 42 are from Kashmir and 13 from Jammu region. With this, the total tally of coronavirus cases touched 934 – 469 of them being active.

As many as 28 patients also recovered from the infection on Tuesday. So far, 10 persons have lost their lives to the virus. Of them, six had co-morbid conditions.

SKIMS Medical Superintendent Dr Farooq A Jan said the new cases were reported from samples who had come back to Kashmir over the past few days.

The most number of cases (27) were registered in Kulgam district on Tuesday. As many as 10 cases were reported today from the Gonipora area of Kupwara district which has recently emerged as new hotspot of the virus with 35 cases.

Anantnag, which has seen the highest number of cases so far at 114, registered four new COVID-19 patients. A woman from Anantnag, admitted in the gastroenterology section of SKIMS for the last one month is one of the fresh cases of infection.

After the woman’s report was received, the hospital administration swung into action and collected samples of all her contacts, including doctors and other staff.

Two dozen medics and paramedics were reportedly sent to quarantine till last reports came in. SKIMS Srinagar is the third tertiary care hospital in Kashmir where patients have been reportedly contracted the infection.

The superspeciality hospital of Shreenbagh in Srinagar has already reported 13 such cases, including a doctor and three nurses.

Bone and Joints Hospital, Srinagar, also found six of its patients positive for the virus. Soon after, protests were held by paramedical staff of Shreenbagh demanding closure of the hospital.

With talks of easing of lockdown curbs underway, experts warned of the large number of asymptomatic cases in the union territory.

According to data from the state’s Health and Medical Education Department, 57.6 per cent of the total COVID-19 cases are in the age group of 16 to 45 years.

The young and asymptomatic people pose a threat of spreading the infection rapidly as they are most mobile, said Dr Saleem Khan, Head of Department of community medicine at the Government Medical College, Srinagar.