With 24 new cases, count reaches 184

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, April 9

Covid positive cases in Kashmir continued an upward trend on Thursday after 24 persons were tested positive for the virus, a development that causes the Union Territory’s infection tally to climb to 184, with four deaths.

The fresh cases include 11 family members of a person of Gund Jahangir village of north Kashmir’s Bandipora district who died of the infection on Monday.

“24 more positive cases in Kashmir. Total 184 — 32 in Jammu, 152 in Kashmir. All are contacts. A result of aggressive testing,” said government spokesperson Rohit Kansal.

Kansal said out of the 2,649 samples tested for Covid, 2,465 had tested negative and 184 were positive.

“174 are active cases, including 146 in Kashmir and 28 in Jammu. Four persons have died and six have recovered from the disease,” he said.

A majority of the positive cases are from north Kashmir, with eight from Baramulla’s Tangmarg area and 12 from Gund Jahangir area of Bandipora district. Kulgam, Anantnag, Kupwara, and Srinagar districts have reported one positive case each.

At least 43,798 travellers and persons in contact with suspected cases have been put under surveillance, which include 8,157 persons in home quarantine, 478 in hospital quarantine, 174 in hospital isolation and 25,975 under home surveillance.

Kansal said 9,010 people had completed their 28-day surveillance period.

No case in Jammu

No fresh positive case was reported from the Jammu region today. A total of 32 persons have tested positive in the region, out of which a woman lost her life at the GMC, Jammu, last evening. Three persons have recovered so far.

Yesterday, four more Tablighis and their contacts, including three from the Sunjuwan area of Jammu city, who were in quarantine at a religious place, tested positive. Meanwhile, the authorities have virtually sealed Sunjuwan, Bathandi, Sarwal and Janipura areas of Jammu after a spike in positive cases.

In Udhampur, 12 high-risk contacts and two doctors were among 27 persons who have been shifted to quarantine centres after they came in contact with a woman who died of Covid on Wednesday. The woman was cremated following the standard operating protocol (SOP) by the administration and the police with proper personal protection equipment (PPE).

DC ‘misbehaves’, doctors go on strike

• Doctors at Hajin in Bandipora district, which has also reported many Covid positive cases in Kashmir, went on a strike on Thursday after Deputy Commissioner Shahbaz Mirza allegedly misbehaved with and abused one of their senior colleagues over phone.
• Dr Muzafar Zargar, Medical Officer at Community Health Centre, Hajin, said Mirza had misbehaved with the staff for the second time in the past one week. “Our strike will continue til the government assures us of action against the DC,” Zargar said.
• Meanwhile, the DC said, “We have resolved the issue.”