70% fatalities in J&K recorded in last one month

SRINAGAR:: Jammu and Kashmir has been witnessing a surge in Covid-19 deaths with more than 70% fatalities in the past 30 days alone.

An analysis of the Covid-19 data reveals that between June 7 and July 6, 99 people succumbed to the disease in Jammu and Kashmir out of the total 138. In contrast, 39 infected people died between March 26 and June 6, which is a period of around two and a half months.

As many as 5,208 cases (60%) of the total 8,675 infections were also reported in the last 30 days.

The Union territory reported its first cases on March 9 and since then 8,675 persons have tested positive with Kashmir contributing for majority of the 6,866 cases. Of these, 138 people have died—124 in Kashmir and 14 in Jammu. Also, 5,314 patients were discharged with the recovery rate hovering above 60%.

“Majority of patients who died were elderly and most of them had co-morbid conditions. We recorded negligible cases where the deaths were exclusively due to Covid-19. The virus mostly aggravated the condition of people with other health conditions,” said Dr Naveed Nazir Shah, head of chest medicine at Chest Diseases Hospital in Srinagar.

The overall death rate in the UT is 1.59% and in the past 30 days it has been 1.90%.

“Fatalities are increasing as more severe cases are coming. It can be an indicator of the actual number of cases in the community,” Dr Shah said.

Dr Shah said increase in number of deaths and cases is a nationwide phenomenon. However, he expressed concern over people not taking precautions since the restrictions were eased following the unlock. “Roads and parks are of full of people who are without masks and not following any social distancing,” he said.

In July so far, the daily death count has not gone below 4. On July 2, the UT recorded the highest death count after 10 people died followed by eight fatalities on July 4.

›Majority of patients who died were elderly and most of them had co-morbid conditions.

DR NAVEED NAZIR SHAH, head of chest medicine at Srinagar’s Chest Diseases Hospital