Abid Bashir
Srinagar, Apr 20: Director Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Soura Dr A G Ahanger Tuesday said that Covid samples from Kashmir are being sent to New Delhi and Pune testing facilities but there has been “no change” in the Covid strain that existed in the Valley last year. He, however, said the teh Covid cases have shown a “tremendous surge” in the past over two months.
“We have been sending the Covid samples of patients to New Delhi and Pune laboratories for testing. There has been no change in the Covid strain that existed in Kashmir last year so far,” Ahanger said in reply to a query during a press conference in Srinagar.
Earlier, briefing the media men about the present situation at the SKIMS Soura tertiary care hospital, Director SKIMS said there are 260 beds specifically for the Covid patients at SKIMS.
“Level 3 care is available at the SKIMS and Infectious Diseases Block (IDB) is dealing with it,” he said, adding surgeries that can wait are being delayed for some time.
He said that from the 1900 liters of oxygen availability at one point of time at SKIMS, the hospital has 3250 liters of oxygen per minute. “Besides this, we are enhancing the oxygen facilities in the coming months and with that we will be having additional 1250 liters of oxygen availability per minute,” he said. “The only issue we are facing is non-availability of injection Remedisvir.”
He said that so far four lakh plus RTPCR tests have been done at SKIMS and 22000 patients have been treated. “Till mid-January 2021, Covid figures were negligible as only 15 to 20 patients were admitted in the hospital. Since the past two and half months, there has been a tremendous surge in cases. At present 156 covid patients are admitted in the hospital of which two are on invasive ventilation and four non-invasive ventilation. In the past 24 hours, there has been no death,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion, Principal Government Medical College Srinagar, said that primarily SMHS deals with the non-Covid patients but still 232 beds have been kept for the Covid patients. “We usually refer the Covid patients to Chest Diseases hospital, which is a designated hospital where oxygen facility is also available,” she said, adding that at SMHS there is adequate supply of oxygen available and today 300 Remesvir injections were procured as well. “However, we are all geared up to deal with any exigency,” she said.
Present on the occasion, Director Health Services Kashmir Mushtaq Ahmed appealed to people to go for vaccination. “All myths about vaccination are false and fake. Vaccination is the only way to stay away from the ICU,” he said.
Echoing similar views, Deputy Commissioner Srinagar Aijaz Asad also urged people to go for vaccination stating that the habitations where people got jabs showed less positive rate and severity in cases. “At the same time, wearing a mask and following the Covid protocol should be treated as a punishment. This is a preventive measure and people have to fight this pandemic with active support of the government,” he said.
