COVID-19-related fatalities rise to 20 in J-K with two deaths

A 70-year-old woman, who had tested COVID-19 positive, died at a hospital here on Thursday, while another woman, who passed away on Wednesday, also tested positive for the infection, taking the novel coronavirus-related death toll to 20 in the Union Territory, officials said.

The 70-year-old from Parisabad area of central Kashmir's Budgam district died around noon at the Chest Diseases Hospital here, they said.

The officials said the woman was initially admitted to the SMHS hospital on May 15, but after testing positive for the coronavirus, she was shifted to the Chest Diseases Hospital on May 18 as a case of COPD with restrictive lung disease and COVID Pneumonia.

She died at the intensive care unit of the hospital around noon after a sudden cardiac arrest, they said.

The other woman (80) from Bemina in Srinagar was admitted at the SMHS hospital with bilateral pneumonia and hypertension on May 19 and was kept in an isolation ward. She died on Wednesday evening, the officials said.

They said the woman's body was kept at the GMC Srinagar mortuary and her COVID-19 test report came on Thursday and it was positive.

With these deaths, the COVID-19-related death toll in Jammu and Kashmir has risen to 20, the officials said.