Major setback to fight against Corona averted
Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Apr 15 : A 6-year-old girl was among 18 persons who tested positive for coronavirus today in Kashmir, taking the number of COVID-19 patients to 246 in the Valley.
With this, J&K’s total patients of Coronavirus have reached 300.
Eight among the fresh cases in Kashmir are from Ganderbal, three each from Bandipora and Srinagar besides two each from Baramulla and Kupwara districts.
The eight from Ganderbal are contacts of a previous COVID-19 patient and all of them are also residents of Guzhama village. They include three men aged 25, 28 and 35 and a 15-year old boy and two women 20 and 48 years old and two girls 11-year-old and 17-years-old.
A 6-year-old girl from Nawakadal area of Srinagar, originally a resident of Vilgam Kupwara, tested positive today. She had come in contact with a COVID-19 positive man from Chattabal area. The two others include 48-year-old woman and her 25-year-old daughter.
Three people who tested positive from Bandipora district are a 25-year-old and 45-year-old men and 38-year-old woman, all residents of Gundjahangir who are contacts of previous COVID-19 patient.
Those from Kupwara include 18-year-old and 25-year-old men, both are residents of Muqam-e-Shahwali and contacts of a previous COVID-19 positive patient. They were asymptomatic and administration is now tracing their contacts.
Those who tested positive in Baramulla district are two men – 36-year-old and 44-year-old from Sopore. One of them has travel history to Nizamuddin, New Delhi while other is a contact of a previous patient.
Meanwhile, a 10-year-old boy from Eidgah Srinagar and three other COVID-19 patients were discharged from SKIMS today. “All four were tested negative multiple times at SKIMS and were discharged today,” Dr Farooq Ahmad Jan, Medical Superintendent SKIMS said. He added that three others include 23-year-old and 24-year-old men from S K Bala Bandipora while third one is a 34-year-old from Soibugh Budgam. So far, 36 persons have recovered in J&K and have been discharged.
And a beggar, who recently died outside Chest Disease Hospital Srinagar, tested negative for coronavirus. The deaf and dumb beggar’s body was recovered near Chest Disease Hospital, one of the COVID-19 hospitals.
And the lockdown across Kashmir continued for the 27th day today with authorities acting tough against the violators of Government orders issued to prevent spread of Coronavirus.
Police and paramilitary troopers were deployed on roads and they had erected concertina wire to block the roads to prevent movement of people and vehicles.
And with the intervention of Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam a major setback to the fight against coronavirus was averted as two testing laboratories of Government Medical College Srinagar and SKIMS Srinagar were running out of RNA separator kits.
The Government had ordered 5000 kits for the two laboratories and they were airlifted from New Delhi to Jammu on April 12 instead of Srinagar. As both the laboratories were running out of RNA separator kits, an alarm was raised by the health officials and administration.
As the matter was brought to the notice of Chief Secretary, he immediately ordered airlifting of the kits to Srinagar. Last evening, 4000 kits were airlifted to Srinagar from Jammu and crisis was averted.
An official said that if the kits would not have reached Srinagar on time, the testing for Coronavirus could have been hampered. “It would have been major setback to fight against Corona”, he said.
Sources said that investigation has been ordered by the Government and the officer responsible for this has been identified. However, so far no action has been taken against him. The officer is posted in New Delhi and is responsible for receiving medical supplies and dispatching it to Jammu and Kashmir.
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