By: Nadeem Nadu

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir reported 2964 fresh covid-19 cases while 53 more people succumbed to the virus in the last 24 hours, officials said on Tuesday.

They said 1145 of the fresh cases were confirmed from Jammu division and 1891 from Kashmir Valley, taking the total tally to 275822.

Also, they said, 33 persons succumbed to the pestilence in Jammu division and 20 in Kashmir Valley, taking the overall toll to 3662.

Providing district wise details, the officials said that Srinagar reported 487 cases, Baramulla 220, Budgam 266, Pulwama 169, Kupwara 91, Anantnag 223, Bandipora 85, Ganderbal 97, Kulgam 109, Shopian 72, Jammu 438, Udhampur 102, Rajouri 99, Doda 62, Kathua 117, Samba 84, Kishtwar 27, Poonch 58, Ramban 110 and Reasi 48.

A number of these cases were confirmed at SKIMS Soura and GMC Anantnag’s diagnostic laboratories.

The SKIMS cases include female (50) from Kehnusa Bandipora, female (20) from Kehnusa Bandipora, male (64) from Gundpora Bandipora, female (34) from Aloosa Bandipora, male (52) from Ustad Ghar Sgr, male (16) from Ustad Ghar Sgr, female (36) from IG office Sgr, male (41) from 28Bn CRPF Bemina Sgr, female (26) from Alochibagh Sgr, male (70) from Bemina Sgr, female (45) from Alamgiri Sgr, female (40) from Sakidafar Sgr, male (29) from Tral, female (29) from Nowshera Sgr, male (23) from Pattan, male (30) from Soura, male (48) from Chattabal Sgr, male (43) from Lalbazar, male (30) from Hazratbal Sgr, male (25) from Nowshera, male (60) from Eidgah, male (40) from Zakura, male (46) from Buchpora, female (14) from Anantnag, female (30) from Eidgah, male (37) from Lalbazar, female (75) from Tral, male (56) from Khaniyar, male (24) from Zoonimar, male (60) from Budgam, male (04) from Anantnag, female (30) from Nowshera, male (30) from Tral, female (30) from Nowshera,

The GMC cases include female (35) from Wanpoh, male (27) from Ganora, female (33) from Naibasti, female (19) from Kadipora, female (05) from Bhijbehara, female (37) from Bhijbehara, male (10) from Bhijbehara, female (38) from Bhijbehara, female (30) from GMC Anantnag, female (35) from Dialgam, male (42) from SK colony Anantnag, male (52) from Gopalpora, male (31) from Bakshi abad, male (30) from Lazibal, male (32) from Furrah, female (26) from Mominabad, female (32) from SK colony, female (50) from Sofigund Anantnag, female (22) from Mominabad, female (35) from Verinag, male (23) from Batagund Verinag, male (35) from Janglat mundi, male (32) from Shirpora, male (34) from Mominabad, male (17) from Brakpora Anantnag, male (60) from Sarnal Bala, male (45) from New Qazi Bagh, male (46) from Pehroo, male (32) from Shirpora, male (28) from Mominabad, female (28) from Khanbal, male (60) from Brakpora Anantnag, female (25) from Dialgam, male (64) from Muslimabad, male (70) from Anchidoora, male (18) from Gopalpora, female (35) from Gopalpora, female (16) from Pushwara, male (20) from Chanpora Sgr, male (25) from Achabal, male (34) ftom Dupatyar, male (48) from Hassanpora, male (52) from Veeri, female (80) (NA) from Nanil, male (50) (NA) from Nanil, female (38) (NA) from Nanil, female (16) (NA) from Veeri, female (50) (NA) from Veeri, male (32) (NA) from Veeri, male (45) (NA) from Bhijbehara, male (21) (NA) from RR Bahibagh, male (26) (NA) from Kokergund, female (12) (NA) from Kokergund, female (40) (NA) from Kokergund, male (35) (NA) from Kokergund, female (20) (NA) from Kokergund, male (13) (NA) from Kokergund, female (20) (NA) from Kokergund, female (75) (NA) from Kokergund, female (30) (NA) from Kokergund, female (12) (NA) from Kokergund and female (13) (NA) from Ashmuji.

Moreover, they said, 3623 more COVID-19 patients have recovered, 1426 from Jammu Division and 2197 from Kashmir Valley. There are 44918 active cases in J&K—18424 in Jammu and 26494 in Kashmir. (GNS)

New Delhi: India has registered 1,96,427 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, surging the cumulative tally to 2,69,48,874, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

It is for the first time since April 15 that the daily count is less than 2 lakh.

The death toll has risen by 3,511 to stand at 3,07,231 in the past 24 hours.

According to the Ministry, as many as 3,26,850 discharges were recorded during the same period, taking the total number of recoveries to 2,40,54,861.

Active cases rose by 1,33,934 and is being pegged at 25,86,782.

Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that a total of 33,25,94,176 samples have been tested so far for coronavirus. Out of this, 20.58.112 were tested in the past one day.

On the vaccination front, a total of 19,85,38,999 people have been administered COVID-19 jabs since January 16, with 24,30,236 people being inoculated since yesterday. (UNI)

Reviews Covid containment measures in Kathua, Samba

Jammu:  In order to get on the spot appraisal of medical facilities being extended to the people of Samba and Kathua Districts, Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha on Tuesday visited GMC Kathua, District Hospital & Covid Care Centre at Samba.

During his visits, the Lt Governor took a comprehensive review of the Covid containment measures in the respective districts.

The Lt Governor asked the health officials to ensure best healthcare facilities for the patients and directed the senior doctors to increase rounds in Covid-19 wards.

Ensure effective Covid Clinical Management and strict compliance of referral policy for hospitals, he added.

The Lt Governor, while interacting with doctors and other medical staff, reviewed ongoing steps taken by hospitals and directed them to prepare for future challenges. He emphasized on continuous training of nursing and paramedical staff working in the rural areas.

“It is our collective responsibility to ensure the availability of necessary medicare facilities, besides putting in best efforts to contain the spread of Corona virus and save precious lives through prompt response”, the Lt Governor told the officers.

While enquiring about the availability of ventilators, oxygen supported beds, human resources, functionality of oxygen generation plants, besides testing and vaccination drives in the respective districts, the Lt Governor directed the hospital authorities to increase the existing covid dedicated beds, besides augmenting oxygen availability in the hospitals within fixed timelines.

Scale up testing & vaccination with dedicated focus on vulnerable groups. Reach out to people with all Covid-19 related important information, the Lt Governor added.

He also enquired about the status of medical staff, availability of telemedicine services, distribution of covid management kits, mobile vaccination, and other initiatives taken by District Administrations for Covid mitigation.

Meanwhile, the Lt Governor reviewed the progress being made for developing new Medical infrastructure in the District Hospital to augment the medical facilities, besides reviewing the establishment of Panchayat level Covid Care facilities. He also inspected the under-construction New OPD Block at District Hospital Samba and directed for its timely completion.

Deputy Commissioner, Samba, Anuradha Gupta informed the Lt Governor that 101 Panchayats of district have established Covid Care Centres with 05 bed capacity, besides 100% achievement in HCW, and 98% of above 45 years age group has been achieved. 24×7 telemedicine services and covid control room have been established in DC office alongwith e-passes facility, she added.

On being informed about the dedicated oxygen pipelines connecting Covid dedicated beds at District Hospital, Samba, the Lt Governor directed for providing all the 100 beds in the hospital with dedicated oxygen pipes and set the timelines for the same.

At Kathua, Dr. Anjali Nadir Bhat, Principal GMC Kathua, gave the present status of Covid care infrastructure and availability of healthcare facilities at GMC Kathua.

Deputy Commissioner Kathua, Rahul Yadav also apprised the Lt Governor about the covid control measures taken by the administration to contain the spread of corona virus in the district.

He informed that a total of 213 Covid Care Centres have been established at Panchayats; around 1137 patients have been facilitated with tele-medicine facilities, besides 1849 covid kits were distributed.

It was further informed that 70% vaccination of above 45 years age group has been achieved, besides 98% healthcare and frontline workers have been covered.

Emphasizing on vaccinating all the population falling under the targeted age groups, the Lt Governor directed the DC to ramp up the vaccination drive with dedicated focus on rural areas.

Earlier, the Lt Governor visited Covid Care facility at Bhargava College in Samba, took assessment of the additional healthcare facilities being augmented in the district and arrangements being made there for treatment of Covid patients.

Rohit Kansal, Principal Secretary, Power Development Department & Information Department; Nitishwar Kumar, Principal Secretary to Lt Governor; Hirdesh Kumar, Commissioner/Secretary to the Government, Transport Department; Mukesh Singh, ADGP, Jammu; Sushma Chauhan, Administrative Secretary, Higher Education Department; Dr. Raghav Langer, Divisional Commissioner, Jammu; Dr. Renu Sharma Director Health Services Jammu; and other concerned officers accompanied the Lt Governor during the visits.

By: Nasir Azam

Srinagar: Amid surfacing of black fungus cases in Jammu & Kashmir, the Centre has allotted 50 vials of Amphotericin-B, a drug widely being administered to the patients showing symptoms of the fungal disease, to the Union Territory.

Documents reveal that the Union Ministry for Chemicals and Fertilizers has allocated 50 vials out of 19420 vials to J&K UT. The allocation to the States and Union Territories was made on Monday.

So far, two confirmed cases of black fungus cases have been reported from Government Medical College Jammu while one suspected case is being treated at Government Dental College, Srinagar.

Principal GMC Jammu, Dr Shashi Sudan said that a 56-year-old male patient admitted at the health institution has been detected with black fungus.

Earlier, a 40-year-old patient from Poonch, who was infected with black fungus, died at GMC Jammu on Friday.

Head of Chest Disease Hospital, Dr Naveed Nazir Shah on Sunday said that one case of the fungal infection was “successfully operated” last year while another “strong suspect” is admitted at Government Dental College Srinagar.

It is pertinent to mention that J&K government on Monday declared mucormycosis, commonly called black fungus an ‘epidemic’. The J&K Epidemic Diseases (Mucormycosis) Regulations make it mandatory for all government and private health institutions to report suspected and confirmed cases to the health department. (KNO)

By: Jahangeer Ganaie

Srinagar:As Jammu and Kashmir continued to record a spike in Covid cases, the Union Territory has reported another case of Mucormycosis, popularly known as black fungus at GMC Jammu, officials said on Tuesday.

Principal GMC Jammu Dr Shashi Sudan said that a 56 year-old male admitted at GMC has been detected with black fungus.

Earlier, a 40-year-old male from Poonch was detected with deadly epidemic, however, he died the next day after he was detected with black fungus. (KNO)

By: Jahangeer Ganaie

Srinagar:The work on Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) hospital is going on with full speed in Jammu division while officials said that the hospital would be functional in next 10 days.

Top health officials said that around 80 percent work has been completed already while work on the pending part is going on in full swing and it is expected to be completed in next one week while the hospital will be functional in next 10 days.

Dr Sanju Gupta Sudan Medical officer Jammu Municipal Corporation said that such a facility in Jammu division was the need of the hour and it will greatly help the locals.

She said that the sanitization part has been assigned to the Municipal Corporation and they are working on it.

She said that 80 percent work has been already done and hopefully within 10 days the hospital will be functional.

“We will try to beautify it so that people coming here won’t feel depressed and feel mentally comfortable,” she said.

The DRDO has started construction of two 500 bed hospitals one each in Jammu and Kashmir.

The 500 bed Covid hospital is being constructed at State land near Amarnath Yatri Niwas Bhagwati Nagar Jammu.

The hospital will have 500 isolation beds with oxygen support including 125 fully equipped ICU beds. (KNO)

Srinagar: As many as 946 people were fined while 186 others were arrested during the last 24 hours for violating COVID curfew and other guidelines imposed to curtail the spread of the infection in Kashmir valley.

A Police spokesperson on Tuesday said that continuing its efforts to curb the outbreak of a second wave of Coronavirus, J&K Police have enhanced its efforts to sensitise the masses about controlling the highly contagious COVID-19.

“Police have also enhanced the efforts to implement the COVID-19 guidelines/SOPs/restrictions strictly in the valley,” he said, adding slew of measures including restrictions under section 144 CrPc, have been put into place to contain the spread of the infection.

“During the last 24 hours, police arrested 186 persons, lodged 98 FIRs and also realized a fine to the tune of Rs 1,23,120 from 946 people for violating the guidelines/rules in Kashmir valley,” he said.

He said the special drive against the violators of Covid-19 guidelines/rules would continue in all the districts of Kashmir to ensure that people adhere to SOPs/ guidelines envisaged by government to curb COVID-19 pandemic.

“Community members are once again requested to cooperate with the Police in containing the spread of Coronavirus by following the SOPs/ guidelines/ protocols for the safety of the people. The special drive shall continue throughout the districts of Kashmir Valley to strengthen the safety measures,” he added.

Jammu: Union Home Secretary, Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Tuesday chaired a high-level meeting to review the management of the COVID-19 pandemic across all Union territories.

Chief Secretary, Jammu & Kashmir B V R Subrahmanyam, Chief Secretaries of all Union territories, and Union Secretaries of the concerned departments participated in the meeting.

The Union Home Secretary cautioned the UTs on the successive surges and asked them to remain vigilant to the situation. Advising the UTs to learn from their experiences, the Home Secretary asked them to keep pace with testing and vaccination rates, besides enforcing COVID appropriate behaviour and strengthening the medical infrastructure.

At the outset, Union Secretary, Health and Family Welfare gave a presentation on prevailing situation in the UTs. It was mentioned that J&K is performing reasonably well in mitigating the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic with 3,946 cases per million population being reported over the last two weeks and 62 deaths per million during the same period.

Giving a brief of the measures being taken in J&K to contain the spread of COVID, the Chief Secretary informed that the Government has enhanced both testing and vaccination capacities. “The early detection of infection has allowed for timely medical intervention, whereas vaccination was found to reduce the severity of disease in patients – both strategies have been successful in restricting COVID-related fatalities in the UT”, he added. Currently, Jammu and Kashmir is among the leading regions in the country in vaccination of above 45 years age group having vaccinated 66% of its eligible population which is well above the national average of 32%. Within J&K, 4 districts- Ganderbal, Jammu, Samba, and Shopian, have achieved100% coverage in this category, while the remaining continue with promising progress. To pace up vaccination in the 18-45 age category, it was requested that Jammu and Kashmir be provided with a sustained supply of vaccines in the coming months.

Further, the Chief Secretary informed that through the Government’s timely response, the daily number of COVID cases has reduced from an all-time high of 5500 to 2200 in two weeks. The same period also witnessed a reduction in the case positivity rate from 13% to 6.2%. It was highlighted that the districts having higher vaccination rates reported lower positivity rates, thus establishing a correlation between vaccination and success of containment measures.

Underscoring the shift of disease’s catchment area, the Chief Secretary pointed out that in Jammu and Kashmir more cases are now being reported from rural than urban areas, adding that such cases are as high as 55% and 60% in Jammu and Kashmir divisions, respectively.

Regarding augmentation of medical infrastructure and facilities in the Union territory, it was informed that the Government has recently adopted a strategy to establish 5-bedded COVID care facilities with at least 1 oxygen supported bed at approximately 4000 Panchayats to provide immediate medical care to the COVID patients who can then be referred to higher-level facilities in case of emergency. Additionally, 33000 COVID care medical kits have been distributed for usage by patients in home isolation.

It was announced that the twin 500-bedded temporary hospitals being established by the Defence Research and Development Organization will commence operations at Jammu from tomorrow and at Srinagar from 1st July, thereby greatly reinforcing COVID dedicated medical infrastructure in the Union territory. The Chief Secretary requested that to establish continuous oxygen supply to these facilities, two dedicated oxygen tankers for these hospitals be provided to Jammu and Kashmir.

It was further requested that considering the rural spread of the disease, two 250-bedded DRDO designed hospitals be additionally approved for peripheral districts.

The Union Home Secretary lauded the efforts of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir in mitigating the spread of COVID infections especially the rollout of targeted vaccination drives. He assured full support and coordination with regard to vaccines and assistance with medical facilities, and asserted greater indulgence with well-performing States and Union territories.

Takes stock of Covid patient care at SKIMS Bemina, SMHS

Srinagar: Divisional Commissioner (Div Com) Kashmir Pandurang K. Pole Tuesday visited SKIMS Medical College Hospital, Bemina and SMHS Hospital, GMC Srinagar to take on the spot stock of health facilities being provided to the Covid patients in these tertiary care hospitals.

During the visit, the Div Com inspected various Covid designated wards and enquired from the patients about the services being provided to them in these hospitals. He also noticed several shortcomings which were directed to be looked upon at the earliest by the concerned Medical Superintendents.

He instructed the Medical Superintendents to ensure quality care to the patients and also emphasized on rational use of drugs and optimal Oxygen supply to the critically ill patients.

On spot instructions were given for managing the oxygen outlets as per guidelines and as per guidance given in the capacity building training. Distribution of Oxygen cylinders should be facilitated in wards with the help of hospital Security Personal or other law enforcing agencies.

He also stressed upon only one attendant per patient should be allowed to enter the Covid ward after wearing proper PPE kit and strictly adhering to Covid appropriate behaviour and  following infection control measures.

It was pointed out that maintenance of inpatient records along with notes/entries of senior consultants must be checked upon by the concerned nodal officers of these hospitals on a daily basis.

Later, the Div Com chaired a review meeting regarding the Covid-19 mitigation activities in the Kashmir division at Divisional Covid-19 Control Room Kashmir.

The meeting was attended by Medical Superintendents and Nodal officers of Tertiary care hospitals of Kashmir along with Director Health Services Kashmir. The meeting was also attended by Incharge and various senior level officers of Divisional Covid Control Room Kashmir.

The Div Com reviewed the progress achieved in controlling the second wave of Covid-19. During the meeting he stressed upon the optimal usage of RT PCR tests at all these tertiary care hospital laboratories and ensure timely reporting of these tests to the general public.

He also directed the nodal officers that people who wish to travel outside state/ country may be advised to go for RT PCR testing at government designated private labs in order to ease the burden on these over stretched laboratories.

The Div Com stressed upon further augmentation of oxygen supported bed capacity in these hospitals in order to deliver the quality health care to the patients at these tertiary care hospitals. He also directed the concerned officers to ensure oxygen audit in their hospitals. A clear direction was given to Nodal Officers of these hospitals to conduct a mock drill of installed firefighting equipment at their hospitals so that they shall be ready for any untoward mishap.

Regarding BLACK FUNGUS (Mucormycosis) Divisional Commissioner Kashmir directed all Nodal Officers of tertiary care hospitals as well as Director Health Services Kashmir to notify all the suspected and confirmed cases of this disease to the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) on daily basis and provide hassle free treatment to these patients at all levels.

During the meeting the Div Com expressed his satisfaction over the streamlining of the patient referral system and also re-emphasized the need for a correct, robust and efficient referral system in place.