18 More Test Positive For Coronavirus, Death Toll Climbs to 9 in Jammu & Kashmir

Srinagar: Another coronavirus patient succumbed in Jammu and Kashmir, while 18 more tested positive on Thursday, taking the total number of cases to 793.

Among them, eight patients from three tertiary care hospitals and a doctor tested positive for coronavirus here, ringing alarm bells across the health community.

Six patients of the Bone & Joints Hospital in Srinagar tested positive on Thursday.

"These patients were admitted yesterday and many of them need to be quarantined. We are framing a list of contacts and will do the needful." Medical Superintendent of the hospital Dr Suhail said.

A doctor in the super speciality Shireen Bagh hospital and an attendant also tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday.

Meanwhile, a 32-year-old Covid patient belonging to Srinagar district succumbed late yesterday in the hospital.

Confirming the death of the patient, doctors said that the patient died last night and his test reports came positive after his death.

According to the doctors, the patient had no travel history but he had attended a relative who was admitted in the hospital with flu-like symptoms.

The victim is the ninth patient claimed by the dreaded virus in Jammu

& Kashmir.

In total 4 attendants, a patient and a doctor have tested positive for coronavirus from the hospital till now.

The hospital's Medical Superintendent Dr Shabir told News18 that they are taking only emergency patients since the first case was reported last week.

"We cannot close the hospital since many cancer patients and others who need emergency care have nowhere else to go."

The hospital has tested about 200 patients and attendants after the first positive case came to fore. 10 doctors have already been quarantined.

Meanwhile several doctors and paramedics have expressed concern over the spurt in Covid-19 cases from inpatients of hospital.

"It is the matter of concern and some mechanism shall be devised to screen patients before they are admitted to non-coronavirus hospitals. Who will treat the patients if the doctors keep falling sick?" said a concerned doctor on conditions of anonymity.

Out of total 9 deaths, 5 were tested positive after their death. The 18 new cases took the tally to 793 cases, out of which 449 are active and 335 have recovered.