SRINAGAR: The new patients who turned positive on Friday are from Srinagar city. Two of them are a couple who returned from Umrah on March 13. They belong to the same group of Umrah pilgrims from which two had earlier turned positive after tests including the first infection.

Two other two are different and unrelated, albeit from the same belt. Reports said they had travel history within India – one had gone to Delhi and another spent some time in Haryana.

SMHS laboratory

“Our laboratory is running almost with full capacity,” Dr M Salim Khan, the spokesman for the GMC run Associated Hospitals said. “Today we collected 60 samples and the results will be available by Saturday noon.”

So far, the Covid-19 testing laboratory in the Chest Disease Hospital has carried out 150 tests ever since it started operations on March 14. “A set of samples takes four hours but we have to test these samples for H1N1 as well,” Dr Khan said. The laboratory can handle 100 tests in 24 hours, at the maximum.

Coronavirus: Are We Ready?

By now, the Chest Disease Hospital that has been designated as the Covid-19 Hospital has admitted 45 patients including those who have tested positive. In order to ensure that the patients do not get infections, the authorities on Friday shifted 25 of them to the Kashmir Nursing Home on the Gupkar Road.

The JLNM Hospital

In the last few days, the protocol that has emerged in Covid-19 management is that the families and contacts of the patients who turn positive are being shifted to the Jawahar Lal Nehru Memorial Hospital in Rainawari. This 111-bed hospital is run by the Directorate of Health Services.

Right now, the hospital has 30 patients admitted in the quarantine ward and two patients – both minor brothers, are in the isolation ward. “We have started getting the contacts of the four patients who were tested positive today,” Dr Bilquis Shah said on phone. “We are waiting for the results of 12 samples that we had sent on Thursday. Now we will be collecting the fresh samples of the new suspects and send them to the laboratory for quick testing so that we are able to manage the load better”. Since the contacts and the families of the positive cases were reporting to the hospital, the actual count was not immediately known.

The two minor brothers who tested positive on Thursday are sable, the doctors said. “They are asymptomatic both have tested positive,” one doctor said. Their mother, who is also in the quarantine ward, is taking care of them.

The SKIMS 

At the SKIMS, medical superintendent, Dr Farooq A Jan said they admitted nine new patients and took their samples for the tests, the results of which will be available on Saturday. “Yesterday, we had taken 21 samples and their results have come. They are all negative,” Dr Jan said.

Right now, the hospital’s Coronavirus section has 42 patients admitted in the quarantine facility and another 14 in the isolation ward. These include positive cases as well. Two patients completed the mandatory 14 days stay in the hospital, tested negative and were discharged, Jan added.

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