E-Paper
200%rise in Covid cases in Jammu and Kashmir in past 10 days
Covid cases are slowly swelling in Jammu and Kashmir. There has been a 200 percent increase in Covid infections in the union territory in the past 10 days as compared to 10 days earlier.
Covid cases are slowly swelling in Jammu and Kashmir. There has been a 200 percent increase in Covid infections in the union territory in the past 10 days as compared to 10 days earlier.
From 97 overall cases in the union territory from June 5-14, the infections shot up to 304 from June 15-24, an analysis of daily official health data revealed. Three deaths were reported in the last 10 days while no death was witnessed before that for around two months.
“There is a mild increase in cases. The disease caused by the variant, which possibly is a variant of Omicron, is self-limiting with fever, sore throat and body aches and a person gets fine within a few days,” said Dr Mohammad Salim Khan, head of community medicine at government medical college, Srinagar and nodal officer for Covid.
What is worrying, however, is that the cases are increasing without any substantial increase in the testing rate.
The region conducted 97,897 tests from June 5-14 while 98,954 tests were done from June 15-24. The test positivity rate for the last 10 days has increased to 0.30% from 0.09% for 10 days before that.
Dr Khan, however, said that since the variant is not causing any severe disease, people are not going for testing.
“People aren’t much concerned as mostly it causes upper respiratory tract infection. That is why testing is less,” he said.
The doctor also said that there is no increase in hospitalisation rate. “The spike is there but there is no crisis situation,” he said.
However, he urged people to go for testing if there are any symptoms and wear masks in crowds. “It is always better to go for precautions,” he urged.
The authorities have also urged the elderly to go for the third vaccine dose against the disease.
“It is right time to take the precautionary dose for senior citizens as it boosts immunity and enhances protection against Covid,” said the Twitter handle of Covid-19 Control Room-Kashmir in a tweet early this week.
The third wave of Covid had peaked in January and ebbed by February-end. The active cases in the union territory reached 250 on June 24 of which 62 are in Kashmir and 158 in Jammu. So far, the UT has detected 4,54,677 cases, of which 4,755 people have succumbed.
