Covid Surge in cases, experts for SOPs
The Jammu and Kashmir on Monday reported 67 fresh COVID-19 cases that pushed its infection tally to 4,54,865, officials here said.
Of the fresh cases, 47 were reported from the Jammu division of the union territory and 20 from the Kashmir Valley, they said.
The death toll due to COVID-19 remained unchanged at 4,756, they added.
The number of active cases in Jammu and Kashmir stands at 359. So far, 4,49,750 people have recovered from the viral disease, the officials said.
Meanwhile, infectious diseases expert in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday asked people in the union territory to follow Covid appropriate behaviour in the wake of the rise in coronavirus cases.
“The rising numbers call for adoption of measures like use of masks and frequent hand washing in exercise of abundant caution for prevention of the spread of respiratory viruses in general and SARS CoV2 in particular,” Director, SKIMS, Professor Parvaiz A Koul said in a statement.
He, however, said there was no need to panic as the situation was not worrisome.
“The situation is not worrisome as the positivity rate so far is not that high. Hence, there is no need to panic but lowering guard and paying no heed to Covid guidelines can degenerate the situation,” he added.
Kaul advised people to exercise caution in the face of recent reports of increased number of COVID-19 cases from various parts of the country.
He said modeling studies from credible institutes like the IHME, University of Washington do not predict any fresh Covid wave in the immediate future for the region of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.
“However, exercising caution is clearly beneficial so that we avoid any upsurge in the cases. The positivity rate among the tested samples is not high and the authorities are keeping a close watch on the situation,” he said.
The number of daily positive cases as well as active cases has been on the rise in Jammu and Kashmir for the past two weeks. The number of active Covid cases, which had fallen to 60 two weeks ago, crossed 300 on Sunday.
