434 patients discharged from hospitals, 24832 recover till date  

Precious Kashmir News
Jammu, Aug 23: As many as 666 more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday thus taking the total number of positive cases in the Union Territory to 32647, officials said.
They said, of the fresh cases 540 tested positive in Kashmir and 126 in Jammu.  Moreover, 434 more COVID-19 patients recovered and were discharged from various hospitals, 109 from Jammu and 325 from Kashmir.

According to the daily Media Bulletin on novel Corona virus (Covid-19), out of 32647 positive cases, 7198 are Active Positive, 24832 have recovered and 617 have died; 47 in Jammu division and 570 in Kashmir division.

The Bulletin further said that out of 868594 test results available, 835947  samples have been tested as negative till August 23, 2020.

Additionally, till date 432406 travelers and persons in contact with suspected cases have been enlisted for observation which included 42950 persons in home quarantine including facilities operated by government, 7198 in isolation and 42280 under home surveillance. Besides, 339361 persons have completed their surveillance period.

Providing district-wise breakup, the Bulletin said that Srinagar has 8075 positive cases (including 258 cases reported today) with 1366 Active Positive, 6514 recovered (including 136 cases recovered today), 195 deaths; Baramulla has 2640 positive cases (including 34 cases reported today) with 584 Active Positive, 1960 recovered (including 10 cases reported today), 96 deaths; Pulwama reported 2315 positive cases (including 37 cases reported today) with 428 active positive cases, 1844 recovered (including 46 cases recovered today), 43 deaths; Kulgam has 1839 positive cases (including 27 cases reported today) with 243 Active Positive, 1565 recoveries (including 10 cases recovered today), 31 deaths; Shopian has 1625 positive cases (including 03 cases reported today) with 105 Active Positive, 1493 recovered (including 05 cases recovered today), 27 deaths; Anantnag district has 2088 positive cases (including 47 cases reported today) with 464 Active Positive, 1579 recovered (including 12 cases recovered today), 45 deaths;  Budgam has 2129 positive cases (including 40 cases reported today) with 579 Active Positive and 1497 recovered (including 27 cases recovered today), 53 deaths; Kupwara has 1814 positive cases (including 34 cases reported today) with 550 Active Positive, 1223 recovered (including 15 cases recovered today), 41 deaths; Bandipora has 1821 positive cases (including 27 cases reported today) with 808 Active Positive, 990 recovered (including 54 cases recovered today), 23 deaths and  Ganderbal has 1181 positive cases (including 33 cases reported today) with 600 active positive cases, 565 recoveries (including 10 cases reported today) and 16 deaths.

Similarly, Jammu has 2322 positive cases (including 60 cases reported today) with 620 active positive cases, 1670 recoveries (including 71 cases recovered today), 32 deaths; Rajouri has 820 positive cases (including 12 cases reported today) with 76 active positive cases, 741 recovered, 03 deaths; Ramban has 636 positive cases (including 02 cases reported today) with 26 active positive, 609 recoveries (including 01 case recovered today), 01 death; Kathua has 730 positive cases (including 12 cases reported today) with 119 Active positive, 610 recovered (including 16 cases recovered today), 01 death; Udhampur has 712 positive cases (including 07 cases reported today) with 92 active positive cases, 618 recovered (including 05 cases recovered today), 02 deaths; Samba has 631 positive cases (including 15 cases reported today) with 198 Active Positive, 431 recoveries, 02 deaths; Doda has 370 positive cases (including 02 cases reported today) with 59 active positive cases, 309 recoveries (including 01 case recovered today), 02 deaths; Poonch has 352 positive cases (including 09 cases reported today) with 60 active positive, 289 recoveries (including 13 cases recovered today), 03 deaths; Reasi has 356 positive cases (including 07 cases reported today) with 201 active positive, 155 recoveries (including 02 cases recovered today) and Kishtwar has 191 positive cases with 20 active positive cases and 170 recoveries and 01 death .

According to the bulletin, of the total 32647 positive cases in J&K 5924 have been reported as travelers while 26723 as others.

The Bulletin said that the breakup represents districts from which the patients have been traced or are ordinarily residing.

The bulletin has informed the people that, the best way to protect themselves from COVID-19 is by maintaining physical distance of at least 2 meter from others, frequently cleaning hands with an alcohol based hand sanitizer or washing them with soap and water and following good respiratory etiquette and hygiene.

As a measure for social distancing in public places and workplaces wearing a face cover is compulsory.

The bulletin again explained that early detection of COVID-19 can prevent the spread of disease so we need to be responsible for the well-being of ourselves and everyone around us. “Not disclosing symptoms could put life of individuals and their families at risk. In case of symptoms like fever, cough and difficulty in breathing report early. Do not fear, call COVID-19 helpline numbers and seek medical advice”.

Advisory has further exhorted upon the people not to step out of home, unless absolutely necessary. “If you have to move out for unavoidable reasons, ensure that you wear a mask and practice social distancing, personal hygiene and frequent hand washing with soap and water.”

In case of any emergency people can avail free ambulance services 24×7 at their doorsteps by calling on toll-free number 108 while as pregnant women and sick infants can avail free ambulance services by dialing toll-free number 102.

People can also call on toll-free national helpline number 1075; J&K COVID-19 Helpline Numbers 0191- 2549676 (UT level Cell), 0191-2520982, 0191-2674444, 0191-2674115 (For Jammu Division), 0194-2440283 & 0194-2430581 (For Kashmir Division) for support, guidance, and response to health-related queries on Novel Corona virus Disease (COVID-19).

The bulletin has informed that the Directorate of Indian Systems of Medicine, J&K is distributing AYUSH Medicines having immunity boosting, immuno-modulator, anti-oxidant, rejuvenator, anti-stress, metabolism regulator, anti-allergic, anti-pyretic, anti-tussive, bronchodilator, etc properties during the COVID-19 pandemic. The department so far has provided medicine to 8.18 lakh people that include various frontline workers, senior citizens, PRIs, police/paramilitary personals and general masses. Moreover, preventive measures and Yoga therapies are also being advised to the people to take care of lifestyle/mental disorders so that physical and mental health is ensued during this pandemic.

Public is advised to strictly follow the advisories issued by the government from time to time and rely only on the information released by the government through the daily media bulletin to print and electronic media.

People are also advised to refrain from spreading rumours and pay no heed to them at the same time.

New Delhi, Aug 23: The country’s COVID-19 case tally crossed the 30 lakh-mark on Sunday, as 69,239 fresh cases were recorded in the past 24 hours, while the constantly increasing number of recoveries pushed the recovery rate to nearly 75 per cent.

As per the Union Health Ministry, the total number of cases now stands at 30,44,940, which includes 7,07,668 active ones.

The total recovery reached 22,80,566 in numbers and 74.90 in percentage.

The Ministry said that India’s total recoveries now exceed the total active cases by nearly 16 lakh (1,572,898). The average daily number of recoveries climbed upwards from 15,018 (between July 1 to 7, 2020) to 60,557, during the week of August 19-13, 2020.

The constantly increasing recoveries has also resulted in gradually falling mortality rate, which currently stands at 1.86 per cent, making the country’s Case Fatality Rate (CFR), one of the lowest globally as 912 more patients died from the virus in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 56,706.

However, Senior pharmacist Bashir Ahmad Magray lost the battle against COVID-19 pandemic in Anantnag district of south Kashmir as life remained affected for the third consecutive day in the district where the district administration has imposed a three-day lockdown from Friday in view of the surge in COVID-19 positive cases during the past few days. Srinagar is the worst affected district in J&K in terms of causalities with 194 deaths due to COVID-19 while the number of positive cases has also swelled with 7821 people testing positive for the infection so far.

The most prominent newspaper of Meghalaya ‘The Shillong Times’ had to shut its office and suspend printing of papers after three of its non journalists tested positive for Coronavirus.

‘The entire Shillong Times staff was ferried to a sample collection centre where they spent nine hours from 2-30 pm to 11-30 pm to give samples and collect reports….at about the same time the DC signed the order declaring ST building containment zone. That meant nobody was allowed to enter or go out of the building,’ proprietor of the paper Padmashree Manosh Chowdhury told UNI on phone.

Meanwhile, the West Bengal Government decided to reopen Hotels, resorts, homestays and tourism related establishments in Darjeeling hills.

“Probable date to open the hotels, resorts, homestay is 7th September, 2020 in GTA areas as decided in the meeting by Darjeeling Hotel Owners Association and Himalayan Transport Coordination Committee,” an official statement said.

The Puducherry administration in a bid to manage Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) patients with minor symptoms or asymptomatic in home isolation has partnered with two non-profit organisations to develop a technology platform for running a home isolation monitoring and counselling service as 412 people were tested positive for the novel coronavirus and eight died in the union territory in the last 24 hours.

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy inaugurated first Rotary Plasma Bank in Telangana.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 8,01,147 samples were tested in the past 24 hours, bringing the total tests to 3,52,92,220.

The case tally climbed to 6,71,942 in the worst-affected state of Maharashtra, while Tamil Nadu registered 3,79,385 cases and the figure stood at 3,53,111 in Andhra Pradesh.

The death toll rose to 22,312 in Maharashtra, 6,517 in Tamil Nadu and 3,282 in Andhra Pradesh.

India globally stands at the third spot in terms of infections and fourth in fatalities and registered the first case and death on January 31 and March 13, respectively.

New Delhi, Aug 23: All is not well even among those who are not yet tested Covid-19 positive.
Thankfully, the vast majority of us have escaped the pandemic thus far and it is something to rejoice in, despite the pain on seeing others fall around us.
But, according to Health experts, even if only a small percentage of us get this virus, 100 per cent of us are psychologically affected by it. The experts underlined that as with the virus, so many hinges on making an early intervention in cases that can turn serious.
A particular category, highlighted by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Nimhans) are the “worried well,” who are healthy persons with such fears of falling sick as can grow to disable.
The ‘revelation’ from Nimhans came amid country becoming the third nation in the world to register three million Covid-19 infections, going past the grim milestone on Saturday when nearing 70,500 fresh cases were recorded, the highest single-day count so far with 917 deaths.

New Delhi, Aug 23: Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said “test, track, treat” was the government’s strategy to move forward, and listed the progress stage of various vaccine candidates, adding that some of them could be available in the first quarter of 2021.
In an interview to the Hindustan Times, Vardhan talked about the current COVID-19 situation in the country, and provided details on the government’s vaccine procurement plans.
On Thursday, India’s Covid-19 caseload went past 28 lakh with a record single-day spike of 69,652 infections, according to the Union Health Ministry data. Asked about when infections are projected to peak across India, following a fall in fresh cases, the Health Minister said that it was difficult to predict that.
India being a large country, he said the outbreak was heterogeneous in different states with respect to their vulnerability, the maturity of outbreak, and the number of confirmed cases.
He said the outbreak was likely to peak at different points in cities and states, and the variety in implementation measures, including the proportion of people taking preventive measures, played a role in this. He said these factors made it difficult to say when a drop in new cases would take place.
Various experts across the duration of the outbreak, have said that a vaccine is direly needed for the world to go back to some normality in its operations. Asked about when a vaccine would be ready for use in India, Vardhan said that vaccine trials against Covid-19 were being fast-tracked globally.
He said the efficacy of India-made vaccines would be known by the year-end, upon completion of trials. Adding that the Oxford vaccine produced by Serum Institute of India was already being produced on a parallel end, he said this would reduce the time needed to market it.
The Health Minister said that the other two vaccines would require at least a month extra for production, and phased introduction in the market. He pointed out that if the vaccine trial results were successful, it could be “ready to use” by the first quarter of 2021.
Developed by Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical firm Bharat Biotech, the human trials of ‘COVAXIN’ had started two weeks back and could be available by the end of 2020, Vardhan said.
He said the Serum Institute of India had informed that it was ready to begin human trials in India this month and was hoping to have the AstraZeneca vaccine available by the year-end. The ZyCoV-D from Zydus Cadila could complete its clinical trials in a few months too, he added.
Last week, the European Union agreed to buy at least 300 million doses of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine in its first such advance purchase deal. As other countries move towards similar advance procurement deals, Harsh Vardhan was asked to comment on India’s plans for the same.