Srinagar: Since the past two and a half weeks, Jammu and Kashmir has been witnessing a steady rise in COVID-19 deaths, with more fatalities being reported in this period than the first three months of the pandemic.
Till June 17, in the first three months of the virus outbreak, only 64 people had died in J&K with or of COVID-19, according to official records. But then, 67 Covid-19 patients have died in the two weeks since June 18, taking the death toll in J&K to 127.
The majority of the 127 deaths have taken place in Kashmir (113). On the other hand, Jammu has recorded 14 such deaths in the past two weeks. On Thursday, as many as 10 deaths were reported in a single day, the highest spike in 24 hours.
“Now more severe cases and more symptomatic cases are coming to hospitals,” said Dr Salim Khan, the nodal officer for COVID-19, GMC Srinagar as eight deaths took place on Saturday.
“Deaths are increasing as more severe cases reporting in the hospitals,” says Dr. Naveed Nazir Shah, head of Chest Disease Hospital Srinagar, which is designated Covid-19 hospital. He said most of the people who die are admitted cases, who turn positive. “In few cases some were detected positive after death,” he added.
Health authorities insist that the majority of the people who died in the first three months of the virus outbreak, had multiple underlying co-morbidities before contracting getting infected. However, among the dead, there were 13 patients between the age group of 18 to 45 years and a 15-day-old baby.
Srinagar district has reported 30 COVID-19 deaths, the highest in any district in J&K. While Baramulla district has reported 22 deaths, Kulgam, 16; Shopian,13; Anantnag, 10; Budgam,9; Jammu, 8; Kupwara,7; Pulwama, 4; Doda, 2; one each in Ganderbal, Udhampur, Bandipora, Poonch, Rajouri, and Kathua.
Experts also attribute the sudden rise in deaths to youths going out of their homes without taking basic precautions.
“They don’t wear masks or maintain social distancing. Unfortunately, in most of the cases these young men have become carriers of the infection to their homes, where our elderly contract the virus, develop symptoms and subsequently die,” said a doctor.
In some cases, it has been seen that even doctors don’t use masks. “If doctors are not wearing masks, if private clinicians are not using them, they should be held accountable for it. This is more criminal when doctors do it,” says a senior faculty member of the government medical college Srinagar.
If the data provided by the government is analysed, things appear to have started changing since June 7, when 620 positive cases were reported including 37 from Jammu and 583 from Kashmir. That day two persons from Kashmir died of Covid-19 taking the toll to 41.
With inputs from Outlook