J&K: 808 succumbed to virus in first half of May
SRINAGAR: As many as 63 people lost their lives to Covid-19 while 3,677 fresh infections took Jammu and Kashmir’s toll to 3,090 and cumulative count of cases to 2, 40,467 in the last 24 hours, health officials said on Saturday.
Of the 63 deaths in UT, 37 were reported in Jammu division and 26 in Kashmir.
Of the new cases, 1,949 are from Kashmir while 1,728 are from Jammu, besides 31 travellers.
May is turning out to be the worst month for Jammu and Kashmir in terms of Covid cases and deaths as the monthly infections have reached 64,384 and fatalities 808 on Saturday. The number of patients who have recovered from the disease this month so far is 40,461.
Officials said with 621 cases, Jammu had the highest number of new infections, followed by 404 in Srinagar district, 390 in Pulwama, 262 in Budgam and 250 in Rajouri.
The number of active cases has reached 51,475, officials said. Most of these cases have been added after February 9 when the UT had the lowest active case tally of 593.
Doctor speak
Dr Nisar Ahmad Shah, professor of medicine, gastroenterology, Government Medical College, Srinagar, said that besides the respiratory issues Covid is known to cause a variety of gastroenterological problems like dyspepsia, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, oesophageal, gastric and duodenal ulcers, hepatitis and pancreatitis like illness. “All these problems are self limiting and need only symptomatic treatment,” he said. “Besides Covid is known to cause anxiety symptoms; but it is Covid itself and not anxiety which causes gastroenterological symptoms,” Dr Nisar Ah Shah stated. Dr Nisar also cleared the misconception regarding the risk to
patients suffering from gastroenterological problems and said that those having gastroenterology problems are not at any additional risk of superadded infection. As most doctors recommend paracetamol for mild symptoms, Dr Nisar asked for limited intake of paracetamol. “A normal individual can take up to 2 gms (4 tablets of 500mg
tablets) per day without any problems whereas those having liver problems and severe renal problems need caution,” he said. Srinagar and Jammu districts have together contributed about one lakh cases and 1,468 deaths in all. The Jammu has taken over as the one with the highest number of 802 fatalities followed by Srinagar with 666 deaths.