Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday recorded two deaths and 1,148 Covid cases, witnessing an increase of 62% than the previous day, an official health bulletin said.
In comparison to January 1, when just 169 cases were detected, the surge is about 600%.
Kashmir health officials informed that five cases of Omicron variant have been found in the Valley. The patients, whose samples were taken in December, have already recovered, they added.
“Of the five, two are locals while three are tourists from outside,” said Dr. Talat Jabeen, epidemiologist and state surveillance officer, IDSP.
She said of the two locals, one was a man from south Kashmir’s Shopian while another was a woman from north Kashmir’s Baramulla.
“Both have recovered. The man had a travel history to Dubai and his contacts are negative, while we are working on the woman’s history,” she added.
The Baramulla case was a pregnant woman from the tehsil of Uri.
“One case of a pregnant woman has been detected as Omicron whose report after genome sequencing has come today. She has already turned negative as her sample was taken last month,” said the chief medical officer of Baramulla, Dr. Syed Mirji Indrabi.
He said that she had no travel history. “She used to visit the local hospital which is frequented by travelers, particularly security forces,” he said. “We are testing her contacts,” he added.
Last month, three Omicron cases were detected in the Jammu division.
The union territory is witnessing a steep rise in infections for the past week.
As many as 706 cases were detected on Monday, 687 cases on Sunday, 655 cases on January 8, 542 on January 7, 349 cases on January 6, and 418 cases on January 5.
The first four days of January had registered daily cases ranging between 165 and 199 while in December, the union territory had reported 143 average cases daily.
This is the first time after June 10 that the UT has witnessed infections above 1,100.
Of the total cases on Tuesday, 640 infections and two deaths were reported in the Jammu division while Kashmir valley saw 508 cases.
Jammu division’s Jammu district reported the highest 301 cases followed by 77 in Udhampur and 71 in Reasi.
Kashmir valley saw 256 cases in Srinagar followed by 94 in Baramulla and 59 in Budgam.
Jammu district has the highest number of active cases at 1,674 followed by Srinagar and Baramulla districts with 1,140 and 365 such cases, respectively.
The number of patients who were cured in the UT was 360 with active cases reaching 4,810.
The government’s daily health bulletin also said that 90,634 vaccine doses were administered in the UT.
The number of people who have recovered reached 3,37,150, pushing the recovery rate to 97.29%. Since the pandemic started, the total cases in J&K have mounted to 3,46,506 and the death toll has reached 4,546.
Officials said that 54,679 tests were conducted in the past 24 hours in the UT.
Meanwhile, the authorities of the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura, have canceled the winter vacation of its faculty members.
The Government Medical College, Srinagar, has suspended theory classes of MBBS and BSc courses. However, online teaching and clinical postings will continue as per the roster.
