Srinagar, April 28 : A medical shop owner who was also leading prayers at a mosque in Pulwama was among nineteen more persons who tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Kashmir Valley on Tuesday, taking the number of Covid-19 patients in J&K to 565.
Even though twenty samples came out to be positive in the last 24-hours, sources said that one among them, a resident of Shopian, was already Covid-19 patient and his re-test also turned out to be positive.
Official said that among them, 10 were confirmed at Viral Diagnostic Lab of SKIMS Soura and include five from Baramulla, four from Shopian including one retest and one from Kupwara.
Ten other cases were confirmed at the COVID-19 testing laboratory at Chest Disease hospital Dalgate and include eight from Anantnag district and two from Pulwama.
Regarding Anantnag cases, sources said include 35-year-old pregnant woman from Pushroo village who has now been shifted to SKIMS Bemina here.
The other cases include 9-year-old girl from Kutheir, 60-year-old and 27-year-old male besides 35-year-old woman from Shangus, 50-year-old X-ray technician of Anantnag and 38-year-old Nursing orderly of Nowgam, both working at SDH Shangus besides 58-year-old man from Nowgam.
CMO Anantnag Dr Mukhtar said that the colleagues of the positive cases have been moved to home quarantine for 14 days and their samples would be taken soon.
Shopian case including the one who was retested are two females—18-year-old and 65-year-old as well as two males—28-year-old and 65-year-old from Heerpora. With two fresh cases, Heerpora, a small village comprising around 1000 households, now has 51 COVID-19 patients even as a few among them have recovered.
Regarding Baramulla cases, sources said that they include two brothers—one 7-year-old and other 14-year-old— of Zandfaran Malpora, contacts of a previous patient (policeman), 33-year-old man from Kantbagh and an 8-year-old from Kakerhama besides 26-year-old policeman from Botengo Sopore who happen to be among patients seen by a doctor who later turned out to be Covid-19 patient.
“On contact tracing, 54 patients were found to have been seen by the doctor and only one among them (policeman) came out to be positive for the disease,” deputy commissioner Baramulla Dr G N Itoo told GNS. He said that there was no need to panic and people shall continue to maintain social distancing and take other measures as advised.
Meanwhile, days after Pulwama was declared Covid-19 free, the south Kashmir district on Tuesday reported two fresh novel coronavirus case and include a 48-year-old medical shop owner from Kakapora.
“He was also leading prayers at a mosque,” local Tehsildar Raqib Ahmad said.
Regarding another case, BMO Rajpora Dr Javid told GNS that an 18-year-old youth of Rahmoo village with a history of travel to New Delhi tested positive for the pestilence. He had been moved quarantine on April 14 soon after his arrival, the BMO said.
Regarding Kupwara, they said, he is a 65-year-old man from Gonipora Kupwara. According to the Deputy Commissioner Kupwara, he is a contact of an earlier positive and was already under quarantine. “Primary contacts being traced,” he added.
With these fresh cases, Bandipora now has 127 COVID-19 patients, highest in all districts, followed by Srinagar (86), Baramulla (72), Shopian (71), Anantnag (62), Kupwara (49), Jammu (26), Udhampur (20), Ganderbal (15), Budgam (14), Kulgam (6), Pulwama (5), Rajouri (4), Samba (4) while Kathua, Kishtwar, Ramban and Reasi districts have one case each.
According to the daily Media Bulletin on novel coronavirus (Covid-19), out of 565 positive cases, 381 are Active Positive, 176 have recovered and one more COVID-19 patient died today at Chest Disease Hospital, Srinagar taking the death toll to 08 in JK.
Furthermore, till date 68262 travellers and persons in contact with suspected cases have been enlisted for surveillance which includes 6364 persons in-home quarantine including facilities operated by government, 255 in Hospital Quarantine, 381 in hospital isolation and 9082 under home surveillance. Besides, 52172 persons have completed their surveillance period.
The Bulletin further said that out of 16619 test results available, 16054 samples have tested as negative till April 28.
Moreover, 12 more COVID-19 patients have recovered and discharged from various hospitals, 01 from Govt. Hospital Gandhi Nagar, Jammu and 11 from Chest Disease Hospital, Jammu. (GNS)