‘No masks, no social distancing’: J&K records 30% increase in Covid 19 cases during last one week

Srinagar:  Alarm bells have started ringing after Jammu and Kashmir witnessed a 30 percent increase in the COVID-19 caseload in the last one week.

The Union Territory on Thursday recorded a total of 223 COVID-19 positive cases taking the toll of positive cases so far to 328783.

The valley has recorded more than 70 percent of the cases, while Jammu recorded 32 positive cases.

Srinagar and Baramulla are the two hotspots where 74 and 54 cases were recorded on Thursday, respectively.

Barely a week before, the total caseload of COVID-19 was 158 in Jammu and Kashmir on November 12.

Doctors said hospitals are again receiving cases of COVID-19 with a majority of them suffering from severe infections.

At Chest Diseases hospital, SKIMS Bemina, GMC Srinagar, and SKIMS Soura, the COVID-19 admissions have increased for the last one week.

“We have again started receiving patients who are infected with COVID-19. While the majority are currently under home isolation, those with severe infection are admitted in hospitals,” said a doctor at SKIMS, Soura.

Doctors Association of Kashmir (DAK) said the number of COVID admissions has increased five times over the last few days.

DAK said not only the elderly with underlying medical conditions, but young people are coming with severe disease and some of them are dying. “Most of these admitted patients are either unvaccinated or have received a single dose of Covid-19 vaccine,” the DAK said.

Experts blame the violation for an increase in COVID numbers. From public transport to government offices, people don’t follow the COVID-19 appropriate behavior.

Long queues of people can be seen  outside government offices particularly banks, and hospitals, 

Same scenes of violations are witnessed in public transport, bakers, and religious functions where people gather without caring for contracting the infection.

Doctors have asked people to follow COVID-appropriate behavior to avoid the early third wave in Kashmir.

“For the last one month, we have seen that there has been a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases.  Patients are mostly those who attended marriages, social and political gatherings. We are not sure if there is delta or any new variant currently and people need to wear masks and adhere to COVID-19 appropriate behavior to prevent further spread of the disease,” said Dr. Muhammad Salim Khan HOD Community medicine Government Medical College Srinagar.