Uptick in COVID spread; 1966 new cases, 5 deaths in J&K

Srinagar: J&K recorded 1966 fresh cases on Thursday, the highest single-day case increase since the end of May 2020. A rise in deaths was also reported today and five people were reported to have died due to the Virus.

The fast spread of cases in J&K pushed the case tally up to 1966 on Thursday. In the past nine days, J&K has been witnessing a steep rise in cases, the trend reflective of Omicron variant spread. Today’s has been the highest single-day case in the past seven months and two weeks.

Of the new positive cases, 889 were from the Jammu division and 1077 were from the Kashmir division. In the past 10 days, the number of cases in J&K has increased from 178 to 1966, a 10-fold rise.

Prof S Saleem Khan, Head Department of Social and Preventive Medicine at GMC Srinagar said the ongoing wave of COVID19 was the steepest recorded during the pandemic period. He said that in the first wave, it took 78 days for the cases to increase from 100 to 1000. In the second wave, he said, J&K took 25 days for its cases to increase from 100 to 1000. “Currently, this Third Wave has a considerably shorter time for case multiplication and the number increased from 100 to 1000 in just 13 days,” he said. This, Prof Khan said, was due to a high Reproductive Number of the circulating variant. “One person is infecting at least four other people, that too within a very short span of time. Such ways, the spread and rise of cases is very rapid,” he said.

The number of patients succumbing to COVID19 in the past 24 hours also increased and was reported to be five. This is the highest number of deaths attributed to SARS-CoV2 in J&K since 16 December. Of the casualties, two took place in the Jammu division while three deaths were reported from the Kashmir division.

J&K Government on Thursday started an update on bed occupancy in view of the case increase. The official bulletin on COVID19 said that only 261 hospital beds were occupied – 5.4 per cent of the 4794 available in Level I and Level II of the healthcare system designated for COVID19.

In the past 24 hours, 71,800 tests were carried out, one of the highest single-day samples processed in the UT. The positive percentage of samples increased to 2.7.

Today, district Srinagar recorded 416 cases while district Jammu had 434 cases. Widespread infection in district Baramulla was reported with 311 cases. District Budgam had 159 cases today, Udhampur 136, Reasi 107 and a high number of cases were recorded from all other districts except Shopian, Ganderbal and Ramban.