79 pregnant women contract COVID-19, experts indicate to community transmission

Rifat Mohidin

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 6

In the 35 cases of pregnant women who have contracted the COVID-19 virus across ten districts in Kashmir, the source of the virus is unknown, raising an alarm and a hint by the experts towards community transmission.

In total, 79 pregnant women have been detected positive for COVID-19 in Kashmir, which has already claimed at least 30 lives in the UT. On Friday, seven pregnant women tested positive across Kashmir.

Most of the cases have come from in south Kashmir’s district Anantnag which has 20 cases.

Srinagar is the only district with just three cases.

In Ganderbal, nine pregnant women have been tested positive for the virus while in Kulgam, seven women have tested positive, and 10 and nine in Baramulla and Kupwara districts, respectively.

Experts say while there is no specific reason for the contraction of the virus among the pregnant women but they indicate towards community transmission.

“There’s no specific reason. It simply indicates community transmission,” said Dr Salim Khan, Nodal Officer for COVID-19 and head of the Department of the Social and Preventive Medicine (SPM), Government Medical College, Srinagar.

Another health official told The Tribune that the testing of pregnant women was prioritised in sensitive zones.

“In order to check the community spread of COVID pregnant women testing was prioritised and the ASHA workers were activated to identify them, especially in the red zones,” the official said.

He said that the majority of such cases reported from district Anantnag.

The rise in the number of cases has created a cause of concern among pregnant women who need to visit hospitals for the treatment.

“For other treatment once can stay at home but we need to visit hospitals, we don’t know what to do, it’s a scary situation,” said Shahida, a Srinagar resident who is in the eighth month of her pregnancy.

On Thursday alone, 12 pregnant women across Kashmir tested positive for the virus.

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