NL CORRESPONDENT
Srinagar, Apr 20: The Jammu Kashmir Administration has been all along maintaining silence over an important aspect of its fight against the Corona virus at the ground level as no information has been shared on number of daily tests conducted, its capacity of testing, type of tests, number of labs with the testing facilities and criteria adopted for test sampling in the Union Territory.
In official daily bulletin in the past, some oblique references were made in isolation of its relativity with the issue. The issue of testing, sampling and availability of test kits has already raised controversy in the media. Questions are being asked why not to share the information as these indicators are directly related to the real situation and its likely gravity in coming days.
However, the Professor and Head, Department of Microbiology at Government Medical College Jammu, Dr. Shashi, informed in an official communiqué , “We have started aggressive testing at our diagnostic lab. and currently we have 200 tests per day and Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RTPCR) technology is being used for diagnosis as a front line test,” she said.
Meanwhile, as per the official bulletin, 14 fresh cases, all from Kashmir division tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday raising the toll of cases tested positive so far to 368 in J&K.
With these 14 fresh cases testing positive from Kashmir on Monday, the number of positive cases in Jammu and Kashmir has surged to 368.
Three Covid infected women were today sent home after they were fully recovered at Gandhi Nagar Jammu Hospital.
Out of these 368 cases testing positive for novel coronavirus in Jammu Kashmir so far, 313 are from Kashmir and 55 are from Jammu.
292 cases are active, while as 71 have recovered and 5 persons have died so far.
Taking to social media micro blogging site twitter government spokesperson Rohit Kansal wrote, “Update from J&K 14 new cases reported. All from Kashmir. Total number of cases now 368. Jammu-55 and Kashmir-313. Detailed bulletin follows @diprjk @HealthMedicalE”.
9 out of 14 samples testing positive were tested in SKIMS, 7 from Bandipora and 2 from Kupwara.
Out of the rest of the 5 cases testing positive in CD Hospital laboratory on Monday, are all from Anantnag.
In a statement, the government said that 15 new patients had recovered from the Covid-19 disease and were discharged with seven patients from the government medical college in Baramulla, six from SKIMS, Srinagar and two from Chest Diseases Hospital, Srinagar.
At least 91 cases have been reported from Bandipora, 79 in Srinagar, 44 in Baramulla, 33 in Kupwara, 26 in Jammu, 22 in Shopian, 20 in Udhampur, 14 in Ganderbal, 13 in Budgam and in single digits in the rest of the districts.
While Jammu had recorded its first positive case on March 9, Kashmir's first Covid-19 positive case was reported on March 18.
So far, 71 patients -58 in Kashmir and 13 in Jammu– have recovered from the disease while five people have died.
The government statement said that till date, 61,774 people have enlisted for observation with 6,463 in Home Quarantine (including facilities operated by the government.), 292 are in hospital isolation and 229 in hospital quarantine. The statement also informed that the surveillance of 34,670 people had been completed while 20,115 people are currently under home surveillance.
