Jammu becomes first district in UT to register over 1000 Covid-19 deaths

SRINAGAR: Jammu has become the first district in the UT to register over 1000 deaths due to Covid-19 and a majority of these fatalities have taken place in May alone.

Second-worst district, Jammu has recorded 49395 cases of Covid till May 27 since the outbreak last year. Srinagar, on the other hand, has 63825 cases, which are the highest in the UT.

However, the mortality rate in Jammu is higher than Srinagar or any other district of J&K.

The district crossed 1000 casualty figure on May 26 and now the figure stands at 1013. Of the 1013 deaths, Jammu recorded 535 deaths in 27 days of May.

Since the outbreak of Covid last year till April-end this year, Jammu had recorded only 478 deaths as compared to 536 in Srinagar.

However, the district witnessed a high mortality rate this month and crossed the 1000 figure mark.

The Srinagar district, which was ahead of Jammu in Covid-deaths till April-end, recorded 219 deaths in May so far. Jammu district’s mortality rate in May has been more than double when compared to Srinagar.

Principal of Government Medical College (GMC) Jammu Dr Shashi Sudhan Sharma told The New Indian Express that 20 percent of patients brought to their hospital this month were “brought dead”. “It indicates that the patients were taking the virus lightly. And when their situation deteriorated, they only visited the hospital and died within 12 hours of their hospitalization,” she said.

She further says that very sick patients were brought to the hospital and despite undergoing treatment for three months, many of them were still not able to breathe without oxygen support. “There has been irreversible lung damage among the patients”.

She further said the variant of concern (B.1.617) has been detected in Jammu and it is more transmissible and has more mortality rate.

“We are also sending the samples for genome study routinely to find the variant,” she said, adding that unfortunately patients come to hospitals late and by the time they are being hospitalized, the virus has damaged their vital parts.

After a surge in Covid deaths, the health department directed senior faculty members of hospitals to make frequent rounds of wards, where Covid patients are admitted so that patients are properly looked after and treated. (AGENCY)