J&K crosses 800 mark with 30 fresh infections
NUMBERS ADD UP All new cases from Kashmir; 20 more patients recover
SRINAGAR/JAMMU: Thirty more people tested positive for Covid-19 in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday, taking the total number of cases in the Union territory to 823, officials said.
All fresh infections were reported from Kashmir— Baramulla , Srinagar, Budgam, Kulgam and Ganderbal districts— where the tally has risen to 755.
Officials said 29 more patients have recovered and were discharged from various hospitals, including one in Jammu and 28 in Kashmir division. So far, 364 patients—310 in Kashmir and 54 in Jammu—have recovered from the disease.
Of the total 450 active cases, 437 are in Kashmir while 13 are in Jammu. Nine people have died so far in the UT.
Till date, 88,067 people have been put under observation—18,477 in home quarantine, 450 in hospital isolation, 186 in hospital quarantine, 8,724 in home surveillance .
FIRST COVID CASE AT CIVIL SECRETARIAT
A few days after opening, the civil secretariat in Srinagar has recorded its first Covid-19 case after an employee tested positive for the disease, officials said on Friday. The employee, a resident of the Safapora area in Ganderbal district, was found positive on Wednesday. Officials said he had been visiting his brother who was admitted at a hospital, which has reported some coronavirus cases.
Srinagar deputy commissioner Shahid Iqbal Chaudhary said an entire floor of the civil secretariat was cleared and disinfected.
“Secretariat in Srinagar is functional, everything normal. I’ve just returned from there. One positive case was found, particular floor cleared/disinfected, due protocols followed. Clarified after wrong media reports,” Chaudhary tweeted.
After the development, an officer of the finance department and some other employees have put themselves under self-quarantine.
ADMN SCALES UP TESTING FACILITIES
The Jammu and Kashmir administration has scaled up sampling and testing facilities, with over 3,000 samples and 1.000 tests on a daily basis, an official spokesperson said. The administration has taken a combination of containment and mitigation measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 by carrying out contact tracing, limiting travel and quarantining citizens.
The increased sampling and testing has become all the more important as the migrant workers and students belonging to the UT are returning back to their home districts, the spokesperson said.
The administration is ensuring that every person who returns from other states gets tested before going back to their home district, the official said.
Special sample collection centres have been set up in Lakhanpur in Kathua, Thandi khui in Samba, Tikri in Udhampur, one in Doda. All migrant labourers and truck drivers are being tested at Lakhanpur, the spokesperson said.
SPECIAL TRAINS TO BRING BACK STRANDED J&K RESIDENTS
The Jammu and Kashmir administration is arranging special trains for its residents stranded across the country due to the lockdown. The administration will bear the cost of the tickets, even as 30,000 people have so far returned to the UT with proper regulation, officials said on Friday. “Arrangements are being made for their arrival in an orderly manner while adhering to the norms of social distancing and undertaking testing,” said an official spokesperson.