Agencies:

COVID-19 | Mother son duo among 18 casualties

Jammu
October 7, 2020

With 738 people testing positive for COVID-19 in J&K today, the cases crossed 80,000 slab and reached 80,476. With 18 more deaths attributed to the infection here, the fatality rose to 1,289.

The fatalities reported today by the Government include a mother son duo from Dalgate admitted at SMHS Hospital. The female, 75 year old, was admitted to the hospital on 02 October, a day after she had tested positive. Her family was tested subsequently and her son, aged 34, was found positive and admitted on 03 October.

While the female was hypertensive and had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, her son was not reported to have any co-morbidity. �The mother lost life on 05 October and the son on 06 October,� a doctor said.

It is the third case of two family members in a family losing life to COVID-19 in Kashmir. In May, a father son duo from Srinagar lost life to COVID19. In July, an elderly couple from Habba Kadal died of COVID-19 at Chest Diseases (CD) Hospital.

The other deaths reported today from Srinagar district include a 54 year old male from Balochipora, Srinagar admitted at SKIMS Soura and a 75 year old male from Alochi Bagh Srinagar admitted at CD Hospital.

An 80 year old male from Safapora Ganderbal and an 82 year old male from Handwara Kupwara also succumbed to the viral respiratory disease today. They were admitted at SMHS Hospital and SKIMS Soura respectively.

In Jammu division, 9 deaths were reported today.

The positive cases reported today were a slight increase from the number of cases reported on 05 October.

After over a month, the number of new cases reported from Kashmir division was more than the number of cases reported from Jammu division. While 448 cases came to fore in Kashmir division, in Jammu, 290 new cases were confirmed.

Dr. Qazi Haroon, OSD Directorate of Health Services Kashmir said 146 people that tested positive today in Kashmir were exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19. He said that these people had been tested mostly with Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT). He said a total of 246 people tested positive using RAT today across districts of Kashmir division. �Over 8000 RAT were carried out on 06 October,� he said.

Till date, he said, 21,548 people have been found positive with RAT. �It has been a game changer in detecting infections and increased our testing pace tremendously,� he said. RAT is being extensively used by J&K for testing samples of people in departments, offices and educational institutes.
Dr. Haroon said 111 random samples tested positive today in Kashmir.

An official said over 100 contacts of known cases traced through field surveillance teams tested positive today. In addition, he said, nearly 40 defence personnel were also found infected with coronavirus.

In Srinagar district, 183 people were reported positive today while Pulwama had 55 cases, the second highest in Kashmir division. The cases in other districts of Kashmir today were: Budgam 46, Baramulla 37, Kupwara 42, Anantnag 22, Bandipora 30, Ganderbal 20, Kulgam 4 and Shopian 9.