Nowgam in Anantnag sees 5 cases in a day

On April 14, a 41-year-old man from this south Kashmir village was reported positive for coronavirus.

He had no travel history and even denied contact with any of the positive cases.

The man had no symptoms for the infection either.

However, to be doubly sure the health officials decided to randomly take his sample without putting him in the quarantine facility.

“What we later learned he had met a positive case though briefly and contracted the infection,” a health official said.

The man was immediately isolated and is presently undergoing treatment.

All his contacts were identified and put in different quarantine centers.

Two persons including an elderly woman turned positive for infection only a few days later.

Today, as we write, five more have tested positive for coronavirus in the area, taking the total number of infected persons to 8.

The village of 2500 households and a population of 15000souls has now emerged as one of the COVID19 hotspots in Kashmir

“All the positive cases reported from our medical district are from this village in Shangus area,” CMO Anantnag Dr Mukhtar Ahmad told the Greater Kashmir.

He said all of them are contacts of the first positive case.

“The family members of that case, however, are so far negative for the infection,” CMO said.

“This is worrisome,” said a medic, who is part of the team monitoring the situation in this village.

“The community transmission has already happened here. Now our priority is to stop the further spread of the virus,” he said.

CMO informed that they have taken almost 2000 samples from the village after it was designated as a red zone.

“Till now we have got the reports of the samples sent till Saturday,” he said.

On Sunday, he said 41 and today 54 villagers were tested and their reports are awaited.

“Many of the positive contacts had shared a hookah traditionally known as Jajeer with the first positive case,” a medic disclosed.