J&K saw a precipitous rise in COVID19 cases on Saturday, with government confirming 15 new patients in 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 33. Of these, 23 are in Kashmir. Principal Secretary J&K Government, Rohit Kansal, used Twitter to announce COVID19 cases emerging from J&K. In a series of tweets before and after a press briefing, Kansal updated about 15 cases. Of these, 10 were in Kashmir, while five were in Jammu. The first update came late Friday night. “As we end the day, two more positive cases confirmed. Both from Rajouri district,” he tweeted. Both the cases had no travel history but contact with already positive cases. While one of the cases was a family member of a confirmed case from Rajouri, announced on Thursday, the other had contact with a COVID19 positive case from Srinagar who died on 26 March. Saturday afternoon, Principal Secretary, while calling himself a harbinger of bad news, tweeted: “7 more positive cases in Srinagar today. 4 cases history of contact with already positive cases of religious congregation; other three – travel history outside J&K, contacts being traced”. Later in evening, J&K Government declared one more case in a press conference. “There are 28 cases of COVID19 in J&K,” principal secretary said while adding that 25 cases were active, two had recovered and one had passed away. Soon after, he wrote on his official handle, “Hardly do I finish my press briefing – 5 new positive cases – 3 in Jammu, 2 in Srinagar”. He said that all the positives were contacts of previously positive ones. “Jammu cases are asymptomatic,” he wrote adding that J&K had 33 cases in total at the end of the day. Dr S Saleem Khan, nodal officer for COVID19 at Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar, said nine cases had tested positive at Chest Diseases Hospital here. Dr Khan said one of the positive patients, in his early 50s, is critical. He is a resident of Tangmarg and has not reported any travel history outside Kashmir. He was admitted at SMHS Hospital and was shifted to CD Hospital after he tested positive for COVID19. The other patient, a 30 year old from Lasjan, had travelled to Kashmir from Jammu recently. Dr Khan said a couple from Srinagar was among the positive cases and had travelled to Srinagar from Mumbai. “They are in 30s,” he said. Three others aged between 20 and 30 years, he said, were from Hajin and had contact with a group of four from Bandipora who tested positive at Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences on 25 March. Another COVID19 case is a man aged 56 from Srinagar who had travelled to Srinagar from Delhi where he had arrived two weeks earlier from Indonesia. Another male from Budgam in his 30s, who had travelled from Delhi to Srinagar recently, also tested positive for the virus. One case had tested positive at the designated lab at SKIMS. The patient who tested positive at SKIMS hailed from Pulwama. A doctor working at SKIMS said the patient had travel history within India. In the past 24 hours, 15 new cases of COVID19 have come to fore in J&K, 10 in Kashmir and five in Jammu. Kashmir has the bulk of cases with 22 active ones and one death. Medical superintendent SKIMS, Dr Farooq Jan, said 52 patients were quarantined at the hospital and 11 patients were in isolation. He said six new samples had been taken for testing.
