Total cases 328; 274 in Kashmir, 54 in Jammu
Precious Kashmir News
Srinagar, Apr 17: Kashmir recorded its fourth COVID-19 death on Friday after a 70-year-old patient, who had tested positive for the infection, died at S K Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) hospital, Bemina here taking the total number of deaths due to the infection to five in the Union Territory of J&K.
Meanwhile, 14 new positive cases of COVID-19 all from Kashmir division were reported today, thus taking the total number of positive cases in  J&K to 328. The tally of positive cases in Kashmir has reached to 274, while in Jammu region 54 people have tested positive for this deadly virus.
Official sources said that the deceased patient had tested positive for the COVID-19 earlier this month. He was a resident of Sopore and had been admitted in the hospital about a week back.

It may be recalled that J&K had recorded first death due to COVID-19 on March 25, when a 65-year-old man from Hyderpora died due to the infection at Chest Disease Hospital. Then, on March 29, a 50-year-old man, a resident of Tangmarg, passed away at CD hospital.
Earlier this month, a 54-year-old Bandipora resident, who had tested positive for the infection, died at SMHS hospital. Later on April 8, a 61-year-old woman from Udhampur died at Government Medical College (GMC), Jammu.
According to the daily Media Bulletin on novel coronavirus (COVID-19), out of 328 positive cases, 281 are Active Positive, 42 have recovered and 5 have died.
Furthermore, till date 59205 travellers and persons in contact with suspected cases have been put under surveillance which include 7631 persons in home quarantine including facilities operated by government, 281 in Hospital Isolation, 260 in hospital Quarantine and 27366 under home surveillance. Besides, 23662 persons have completed their surveillance period.

Moreover 4 more COVID-19 patients have recovered and were discharged today from CD Hospital Jammu.

The Bulletin further said that out of 6438 test results available, 6110 samples have tested as negative till April 17, 2020.

Providing district-wise breakup, the Bulletin said that Srinagar has 78 positive cases wherein 65 are Active Positive, 12 recovered and 01 has died, Bandipora 75 positive cases with 63 Active Positive, 11 recovered and  01 died, Baramulla 42 positive cases with 40 Active Positive, and 01 died; Kupwara has 27 positive cases and all are active cases; Shopian has 17 positive with 15 Active Positive, 02 recovered; Ganderbal has 14 positive cases and all are Active Positive, Budgam 12 positive cases of which 09 are Active Positive with 03 recovered cases; Kulgam has 05 cases and all are Active Positive; Pulwama 03 positive cases with 02 Active Positive, 01 recovered and Anantnag district has 01 positive case who is Active Positive.

Similarly, Jammu has 26 positive cases of whom 22 are Active Positive and 04 have recovered, Udhampur 20 positive cases of which 14 are Active Positive, 05 recovered and 01 died, while as Rajouri had 03 positive cases and all have recovered; Samba district has 04 positive cases and all are Active Positive. Meanwhile, Kishtwar  has only 01 positive case who has recovered.

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

Terming COVID-19 as a highly contagious disease which can affect anyone, the advisory further said that for protection against this disease, people are requested to stay indoors, strictly implement social distancing measures and follow the rules of lockdown with utmost sincerity until 3rd May 2020.

People are advised to take basic precautions for personal hygiene; frequent hand washing with soap & water; observing coughing & sneezing etiquettes and wearing mask or face cover while moving out of their homes.

Similarly, avoid close contact with anyone that has fever and cough. “In case anyone develops fever, cough and difficulty in breathing, seek medical advice promptly. People should call on Covid-19 helpline No.s so that they can be provided correct medical advice and directed to the right health facility, if needed,” reads the advisory.

In case of any emergency people can avail free ambulance services 24×7 at their door steps by calling on toll free No. 108. Pregnant women and sick infants can avail free ambulance services by dialling toll free No. 102.

People can also call on toll free national helpline number 1075. J&K COVID-19 Helpline No.s 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 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19).

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

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

‘Need to see how virus behaves after lockdown’

KINS

Srinagar, Apr 17: Dr Parviz Koul, head of Pulmonary and internal medicine at Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Soura, on Friday said that battle against the COVID-19 is going to be a long haul and it is to be seen how Coronavirus behaves after lockdown.

“So far Kashmir has been able to contain the deadly novel Coronavirus and lockdown has played a great role to prevent the spread of the disease, but real situation would be clear once the lockdown is over,”Dr Koul told KINS.

He said that wearing mask is very important at this juncture. “There is a unanimous consensus that everybody should wear a mask. A person will be benefited for sure, if he or she wears a mask,” he said.

He said that a commoner should not get perturbed or be forced to buy masks worth RS 20 every day. “Anybody can wear a mask and re-use it after washing it properly with soap or a detergent and then air-dry the same. If a person has five masks, after five days, he or she can re-use them after proper wash,” he said.

“Health experts, doctors and even para-medics too have been given five N-95 masks and directions for use are same which is to re-use the one after every five days after washing it properly.”

Asked about in which stage of Covid-19 Kashmir had entered at present, Dr Koul, who is an expert in pulmonary medicine, Rheumatology, and infectious diseases, said that so far Kashmir has been able to contain the spread of Covid-19.

“And that’s because of the lockdown. It’s a country wide lockdown and so far we have been able to contain the spread of the virus. But once the lockdown would end, we will get the real picture of the virus. We will have to closely watch the dynamics of the virus as to which way it will go once the lockdown is over,” Dr Koul said.

To a query, if things would be normal after May 3, he said that the fight against Covid-19 is not so easy. “May God prove me wrong, but we are preparing for a long haul. It is not going to end tomorrow,” he said.

On whether there is any evidence of community transmission in Kashmir, Dr Koul said that there have been some cases who don’t have travel history or have either forgotten whether they had got in touch with some contacts of Covid- positive cases. “This signifies there is a community transmission, but it is not that gory yet. As I stated, we need to see which way virus would behave after lockdown, we would also be able to judge whether there is a community transmission,” he said.

He, however, said that the health care officials were more vulnerable to getting exposed to the virus. “I have seen many doctors have died after catching the virus across the globe. Even in United States, there is a shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). They are getting it from wherever it is possible and yet there is a shortage. In Kashmir, we too have limited PPEs, but there is a global shortage and we can’t complain about it,” he said. (KINS)

Working on rapid testing capabilities, vaccine development, says Health Ministry

United News of India

New Delhi, Apr 17: The Group of Ministers on COVID-19 on Friday reviewed the testing strategy and availability of testing kits across the country along with the strategy for hotspots and cluster management and was informed that all districts have been asked to prepare and strengthen their contingency plans to combat COVID-19.

The 12th meeting of GoM on COVID-19, which met at Nirman Bhawan here, under the chairmanship of Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, was informed that 170 districts were put in the red zone (hotspots) with 123 districts with large outbreaks and 47 districts with clusters.

There were 207 non-hotspot districts with clusters and 353 districts which were placed in green zone as they were non-infected.

If no case was reported in past 14 days then the red zone district would be placed under orange zone and no further case was reported in next 14 days then that district would come under green zone.

The GoM had detailed deliberation on containment and management of COVID-19 and discussed the actions taken so far, current status of social distancing measures as a preventive strategy and the stringent actions taken by the Centre as well as the States to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Dr Harsh Vardhan directed that there should not be any dilution of quality and standards in manufacturing of PPEs, masks, ventilators and other equipments. He also suggested that stringent punishment may be placed for the manufacturers in case of any deviation from the quality standards/protocols while manufacturing the PPEs, masks and Ventilators.

Also discussed were several other measures about strengthening capacity of states including devoting adequate resources for creating dedicated COVID-19 hospitals, equipping the medical institutes with PPEs, ventilators and other essential equipment in detail. States have been asked to identify COVID-19 centres/hospitals according to already laid guidelines.

‘Working on rapid testing capabilities, vaccine development’

Meanwhile, Joint Secretary Health Ministry Lav Agarwal on Thursday said that the government is extensively working towards enhancing testing capabilities for COVID-19 and working on developing rapid and precise testing kits which can give result in 30 minutes.

The government with CSIR and other agencies is working to increase testing capacity so that testing is done in an accurate manner with innovative pooling strategies to reduce the test result time.

He said that work is also being done on viral sequencing and vaccine development.

The country is working with global partners so that effective vaccines can be developed and efforts are being done to speed up these processes.

Agarwal added that it is also important to work on development of effective drugs; as there is no proven drug now.

Our traditional knowledge in boosting immunity is also being taken into account, as part of a multi-pronged effort, he added.