Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed a spike in Covid cases during past few days. The rise in cases is such that at present every 5th person in the UT is infected with the virus, RTPCR results have shown.
J&K has already added over 40,000 new cases to its tally in May while 443 deaths have taken place. J&K Government’s official data on the pandemic shows that from May 1 to 9, 384480 COVID19 tests were carried out. Of these, 40849 samples were found positive for SARS-CoV2. The positive percentage of these samples, taken from across the 20 districts of the two divisions, is roughly 11 percent.
The tests, as per the Government, are carried out both on RT-PCR equipment as well as Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) Kits.
However, when data from RT-PCR conducting labs is analysed, the positive percentage jumps to over 20 percent. As per figures of GMC Srinagar, on 09 May 342 out of 1492 samples – __ percent were found positive, 08 May, 255 out of 1183 – 21 percent were positive; on 07 May 302 out 1692 – 18 percent positive; on 06 May 368 out of 1479 were positive – 24 percent; on 05 May, out of the 1240 samples tested, 248 were found positive – 20.3 percent. Further, on 04 May, there were 1084 samples tested of which 284 – 26.2 percent positive; 03 May, 361 out of 1275 samples were found positive – 28.3 percent ; 02 May, 491 samples, out of 1398 tested were found positive – 35 percent.
By these numbers, at least every 5th person whose sample is tested on RT PCR is found infected with COVID19. A senior medico at SKIMS Soura said a similar trend had been seen with the samples being tested at that lab. He however said numbers could not be shared.
