Jammu and Kashmir on Monday clocked the lowest daily Covid case total in four weeks with 2,237 fresh infections. It also registered 45 coronavirus-related deaths.
The overall death toll in the UT has reached 3,609 and the total cases 2, 72,858. Officials said that 36,272 tests were conducted in the past 24 hours, a reduction of 20% against the average 45,000 daily tests carried out in the week. The overall number of tests has reached 8.27 million. However, a similar number of tests (36,700) eight days ago, had returned positive for 4,100 persons.
The number of patients who were cured in the UT on Monday was 3,999, including 2,509 from Kashmir and 1,490 from Jammu. The overall number of people who recovered reached 2, 23,619, pushing the recovery rate to 81.95%.
Of the 45 deaths in the UT, 29 were reported in Jammu division and 16 in Kashmir. Of the new cases, 1,383 are from Kashmir while 854 are from Jammu, while 16 are travellers.
Covid cases have reached peak levels in May, touching 96,775 cases and fatalities 1,327 on Monday. The number of patients who have recovered from the disease this month so far is 78,178. Officials said with 441 cases, Jammu had the highest number of new infections, followed by 309 in Srinagar district, 204 in Kupwara and 169 in Kulgam. The number of active cases stands at 45,630.
Dr Sanjeev Kumar Digra, professor, department of paediatrics, SMGS Hospital, Jammu said irrespective of the hype over the third wave, young children have always been at risk of contracting the infection.
“As more of the population is infected with the virus, young children become more vulnerable. Thus, the onus of protecting children is on adults. If they religiously follow Covid-appropriate behaviour, they can ensure that the infection does not reach their kids at home,” he said.
Dr Sanjeev said Covid symptoms in children include fever, throat pain, cold, cough, dysentery. “In the second wave, it has been observed that children also tend to develop rashes and redness in eyes. If a child is suffering from high grade fever for four to five days, is not eating well, starts vomiting, not breathing naturally, has bluish discolouration of body parts, has sunken eyes or dry lips, and his/ her oxygen saturation level dips below 94, one must immediately consult a doctor,” he said.
Srinagar and Jammu districts have together contributed to about 1.10 lakh cases and 1,713 deaths of the total. The Jammu district has the highest number of 976 fatalities followed by Srinagar with 737 deaths.
