J&K saw 808 Covid-19 deaths in first half of May

As many as 63 people lost their lives to Covid-19 while 3,677 fresh infections took Jammu and Kashmir’s toll to 3,090 and cumulative count of cases to 2, 40,467 in the last 24 hours, health officials said on Saturday

As many as 63 people lost their lives to Covid-19 while 3,677 fresh infections took Jammu and Kashmir’s toll to 3,090 and cumulative count of cases to 2, 40,467 in the last 24 hours, health officials said on Saturday.

Healthcare workers wearing PPE suits carry syringes towards a Covid-19 vaccination centre in Jammu on Saturday. (PTI)

Of the 63 deaths in UT, 37 were reported in Jammu division and 26 in Kashmir.

Of the new cases, 1,949 are from Kashmir while 1,728 are from Jammu, besides 31 travellers.

May is turning out to be the worst month for Jammu and Kashmir in terms of Covid cases and deaths as the monthly infections have reached 64,384 and fatalities 808 on Saturday. The number of patients who have recovered from the disease this month so far is 40,461.

Officials said with 621 cases, Jammu had the highest number of new infections, followed by 404 in Srinagar district, 390 in Pulwama, 262 in Budgam and 250 in Rajouri.

The number of active cases has reached 51,475, officials said. Most of these cases have been added after February 9 when the UT had the lowest active case tally of 593.

Dr Nisar Ahmad Shah, professor of medicine, gastroenterology, Government Medical College, Srinagar, said that besides the respiratory issues Covid is known to cause a variety of gastroenterological problems like dyspepsia, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, oesophageal, gastric and duodenal ulcers, hepatitis and pancreatitis like illness.

“All these problems are self limiting and need only symptomatic treatment,” he said. “Besides Covid is known to cause anxiety symptoms; but it is Covid itself and not anxiety which causes gastroenterological symptoms,” Dr Nisar Ah Shah stated.

Officials said that some 4,140 patients have recovered from the disease, including 3,054 from Kashmir and 1,086 from Jammu. As many as 1,85,902 people have recovered so far, taking the recovery rate to 77.30% against around 98% in the first fortnight of February. The officials said that 33,539 tests were conducted in the past 24 hours taking overall tests to 7.88 million.

Dr Nisar also cleared the misconception regarding the risk to patients suffering from gastroenterological problems and said that those having gastroenterology problems are not at any additional risk of superadded infection.

As most doctors recommend paracetamol for mild Covid related symptoms, Dr Nisar asked for limited intake of paracetamol. “A normal individual can take up to 2 gms (4 tablets of 500mg tablets) per day without any problems whereas those having liver problems and severe renal problems need caution,” he said.

Srinagar and Jammu districts have together contributed about one lakh cases and 1,468 deaths in all. The Jammu district has taken over as the one with the highest number of 802 fatalities followed by Srinagar with 666 deaths. The administration on Saturday extended the Covid lockdown by another week across the UT.

“The corona curfew imposed in all 20 districts of J&K till 7am on Monday, May 17 is extended further till 7am on Monday, May 24. The curfew will be strict and only a few essential services will be allowed,” a government spokesman said.