JK reports 866 fresh Covid-19 cases, 14 deaths
B.1.617.2 covid-19 variant ravaged through JK during second wave
Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir reported 866 new covid-19 cases while fourteen people succumbed to the virus during the last 24 hours, officials said on Saturday.
They said 265 of the cases were from Jammu Division and 601 from Kashmir Valley, taking the total infection count so far in J&K to 306638.
Regarding 14 fresh deaths, they said eight were reported from Jammu Division and six from Kashmir valley, taking the total fatality count to 4174.
Providing district-wise details, the officials said that Srinagar reported 164 cases, Baramulla 66, Budgam 71, Pulwama 71, Kupwara 68, Anantnag 51, Bandipora 34, Ganderbal 31, Kulgam 37, Shopian 8, Jammu 34, Udhampur 18, Rajouri 32, Doda 45, Kathua 12, Samba 20, Kishtwar 5, Poonch 29, Ramban 50 and Reasi 20.
Moreover, they said, 2153 more COVID-19 patients have recovered—707 from Jammu Division and 1446 from Kashmir. So far 286180 people have recovered, leaving the number of active positive cases to 16284—6022 in Jammu and 10262 in Kashmir.
Meanwhile, recent epidemiological studies have suggested the role of the new SARS-CoV-2 variants for ragging second COVID wave in India including Jammu and Kashmir.
The sudden increase in the number of COVID related deaths in UT of J&K especially in Jammu raised an alarm about the circulating variant of concern (B.1.617.2) in Jammu, which was proved right by the study, said Dr Shashi Sudhan Principle and Dean GMC Jammu.
Dr Sudhan further said that the COVID positive samples are routinely sent to Indian SARS CoV-2 Consortium of Genomics (INSACOG) for genomic sequencing and analysis of circulating COVID-19 viruses and several variants have been reported in Jammu.
“There is available information to suggest that the increased transmissibility and increased deaths in the month of May were linked to the variant of concern,” he said.
As per the recent data of Covid-19 Positives samples sent from Department of Microbiology, GMC Jammu to National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi, for genetic sequencing, 68.5% of the tested positive patients were reported to have variant of concern i.e. B.1.617.2, generally known as the double mutant and been classified as being “of concern” by the WHO.
The PMC further said that the mortality rate among patients admitted in the HDU of GMC, Jammu was 62.5% in those infected with the ‘variant of concern,’ with a very high number of young patients, indicating the higher public health implications of the variant.
Dr. Sharma further added that “among those patients admitted 58.4% were reported to have B.1.617.2 ( THE VARIANT OF CONCERN ); 22.47% were reported to have B.1 mutation, 6.74% were having B.1.1 mutant, 3.37% had B.1.617.1 variant while as 1.1% had B .1.1.7 the UK variant. Further, she added that 2.247% of admitted patients were reported to have no mutant at all.
KV News
