J&K set for COVID explosion as active caseload doubles in 7 days
The highly mutant Omicron strain has allegedly led to surge in Covid19 infections as the Jammu and Kashmir recorded over 500 fresh cases, which is highest number past six months. Moreover, 1 fresh fatality has pushed the death toll to 4534.
With the spurt in cases fresh the active case load has swelled to 2,492, which is more than double since last week, as on December 31, there 1337 active cases in the UT.
In fresh cases, two more IAS officers, few doctors in both Jammu and Kashmir and 12 employees in Agriculture complex at Talab-Tillo tested positive today, as the health authorities focussing on containment zones, probable hotspots, markets and offices have initiated the random sampling across the UT.
As per sources, few more employees in civil secretariat have tested positive today as well.
Meanwhile to take stock of the emerging Covid situation in J&K, the MoS PMO Dr. Jitendra Singh will be holding a virtual meeting with top officers of the UT administration as well officials of the health and medical education on Saturday.
Meanwhile four new Mirco containment zones in Jammu and two in the Kathua district were declared by respective administrations on Saturday.
Out of the fresh cases, 288 were from the Jammu division and 254 from the Kashmir division of the union territory. Jammu district recorded 176 cases, the highest, across the UT. Since the inception of New Year, the winter capital has seen a massive surge, as 573 fresh cases were reported in past one week, while three lives were lost to Covid. Jammu region has seen over three fold rise in active cases from 422 on December 31, to 1318 today.
Meanwhile amidst Third Wave concerns, health authorities in Jammu have resorted to aggressive sampling. The health authorities have conducted close to 30K tests conducted this week (17% more than last week) with one-third share of RTPCR. This week total of 29,410 test were conducted including 9528 RTPCR tests
In past one week the Kashmir region has seen 925 fresh cases, with Srinagar district accounting for most number of cases. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 cases in cold desert Ladakh have shown an upward trend recently with the region registering a total of 186 cases in the last seven days with two deaths. The Covid-19 situation in Ladakh started to worsen after the region in late December started to register cases in twin districts –Leh and Kargil. The region reported a total of 186 cases in the last seven days which include166 in Leh and 20 in Kargil besides two deaths in Leh district, taking the toll of active cases to 269 in the region. The positivity rate in the region has witnessed a sharp spike and went up to 1.2 percent on January 06 while the district-wise break up is 0.98 percent in Kargil and 1.25 percent in Leh, reveal the figures.
There are 2,492 active cases in J&K, while the number of recovered patients has reached 3,36,284.
Meanwhile, in the wake of rising cases, the Government Medical College Jammu has ordered suspension of all offline classes of MBBS students and other Para Medical Classes.
Meanwhile, additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Health & Medical Education (H&ME), Vivek Bharadwaj on Friday e-inaugurated three Real-Time Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) labs for Kashmir division. The RT-PCR labs have been inaugurated for JLNM Hospital Srinagar, District Hospital Ganderbal and District Hospital Pulwama.
While inaugurating the labs, the ACS said that these labs will contribute significantly in Covid-19 management and mitigation of the virus at these places besides increasing the testing capacities. “Initially the labs can conduct 200 RT-PCR tests per day which can be increased later on. However, in pool run, the maximum number of test can be 500 per day in each lab,” he said.
In view of the recent surge in covid -19 cases and to review the preparedness of dedicated covid hospitals, Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Raghav Langer today visited DRDO hospital Bhagwati Nagar and reviewed its functioning at a meeting with the concerned officers. The Divisional Commissioner held a detailed review of the facilities, issues pertaining to medical oxygen, status of water, power supply, status of roads, staff strength etc.
Pertinently, the Government has dedicated DRDO Hospital as a facility for Covid patients and foreigner travellers tested positive are being admitted here. It was informed that at present there are 54 patients under treatment in the Hospital. The Div Com directed the District administration Jammu to establish isolation facilities for travellers. It was further informed that the hospital has sufficient staff strength and 47 doctors have been deployed in the DRDO after a spike in cases.
Officials of DRDO, Medical Superintendent and Executive Engineer MED were also directed to do a test run with full load i.e. all 125 ventilators functioning simultaneously to check for any pressure drop.
