A sixty-five-year-old man, who was associated with Tablighi Jamaat -- a group which focusses on urging Muslims to return to practising their faith -- died at Chest Disease (CD) hospital Dalgate, Srinagar, days after he was diagnosed with the novel Coronavirus.
The man, who breathed his last in the early hours of Thursday, had a medical history of illness with Sugar, hypertension and obesity. Government spokesperson Rohit Kansal said four others who were in contact with him have also tested for the deadly virus. “This is sad news. This is first death due to Coronavirus in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
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Doctors at the chest disease hospital said the patient had a medical history of prolonged illness with diabetes, hypertension, obesity.
The patient number 2 had returned from New Delhi, UP, and Jammu recently after being part of a ‘Tablighi Jamaat’ attended by people from Indonesia and Malaysia.
At least eight people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the Kashmir Valley, while the tally in the entire J&K has gone up to 11. Three cases were reported from Jammu earlier this month.
Authorities in Kashmir have expressed apprehensions that the cases could be more than reported in the Valley as a significant number of people appeared to have concealed their travel history.
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As per a government bulletin on Wednesday in Jammu and Kashmir, as many as 5,124 travellers and people who came in contact with suspected and positive cases have been put under surveillance.
Among them, 3,061 are in-home quarantine (including facilities operated by the government), 80 in hospital quarantine and 1,477 in-home surveillance.
Restrictions on movement imposed in Kashmir to prevent the spread of coronavirus were tightened on Wednesday.
