Two, including doctor, test COVID-19 positive in Jammu, total cases reach 50

Two persons, including a doctor, tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Jammu on Tuesday, taking the number of cases in the division in Jammu and Kashmir to 50 on Tuesday, officials said.

Both of them are employees of a private hospital and they had come in contact with a woman who was admitted there and later tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, they said.

The officials said after the woman tested positive, samples were taken from all those persons who had come in contact with her.

Two of the samples, including that of a doctor, came positive, taking the number of COVID-19 cases in the Jammu region to 50, they said.

The officials said while a 61-year-old woman, hailing from Udhampur in the Jammu division, had died of the deadly virus, nine others have recovered.

Jammu accounted for the highest 23 cases followed by Udhampur 19, Samba (four), Rajouri (three) and Kishtwar (one), they said.

Director for Health Services in Jammu Renu Sharma said the health department is enhancing testing capacity to effectively combat the pandemic and had set up sample collection centres across Jammu division.

"We have received guidelines from the central government that machines used for detecting Tuberculosis using Cartridge Based Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (CB-NAAT) can be used for testing coronavirus with certain modifications and calibrations," she said.

Sharma said that the government is also exploring the possibility of expanding testing capacity to the New Medical Colleges of Jammu.

"Besides private labs have also expressed their desire to start testing for the coronavirus and that process will be approved after proper approval from the quarters concerned," she said.

Sharma said they have already increased the COVID-19 testing centres to the Government Medical College, Jammu, the Command Hospital Udhampur and the IIM Jammu.

The department is also stepping up quarantine and isolation facilities for COVID-19 suspects, she said.

"The government has taken possession of Vaishnavi Dham, Kalika Dham, Saraswati Dham and they will be converted into Level 1 or Level 2 isolation facilities if the need arises," the officer said.

She said that they had written to the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board which had agreed to provide the dhams for converting them into isolation centres.

Sharma said the government has roped in private hospitals and nursing homes to augment the isolation facilities across Jammu division.