Coronavirus mutations responsible for spike in COVID cases in Jammu: Central team

A team of three doctors deployed by the Union Government to take stock of the situation amid surging Coronavirus cases in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir; especially in the Jammu region, will recommend the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in its report that there is a need to strengthen the containment strategy and overall health infrastructure.

The increase in the number of COVID-19 deaths in Jammu and Kashmir is due to multiple variants that have been identified in UK South, Africa and India, said Dr Mahesh Waghmare, Microbiology Department, NCDC Delhi while speaking exclusively to the Republic Media Network.

“Cases are on the surge throughout the country as well as in Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. There are various reasons for the same and variant change is one of the major reason for the surge. Severity of the new variants is causing deaths,” Dr Waghmare added.

Dr Pranay Verma, Joint Director, Epidemiology, National Center of Disease Control (NCDC), Delhi told Republic, “We visited the COVID-19 facility and met officials. Deaths are higher in Jammu as compared to Kashmir. There is a need to strengthen containment effort; though the increase is not sharp but needs improvement. Healthcare infrastructure here is facing load and Ground-level containment is needed, we will recommend it to Government of India”.

Dr Navneet Sharma, Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh said, “Beds being augmented; so does patients but we have to be prepared; We will recommend for more beds if there is a surge, we should be able to handle as Virus are known to mutate and we should be ready to tackle that.

They further advised intensifying the surveillance of the home isolated cases, so that patient is shifted to the hospital well in time when required. Earlier, the team, after arriving here on Sunday, visited GMC Jammu and had a threadbare discussion with the Doctors, besides visiting the isolation wards. On day two, the team visited District Samba and inspected the containment and micro containment zones & met with surveillance teams working at the grass-roots level, they held a virtual meeting with IDSP teams of 10 districts of the Jammu Division.