SRINAGAR In occupied Kashmir, a 65- year-old man infected with the coronavirus died at Chest Disease (CD) Hospital Dalgate, Srinagar in the early hours of Thursday. Officials told media men that Muhammad Ashraf, a resident of Hyderpora area of Srnagar was first recorded victim of coronavirus in occupied Kashmir. Government spokesperson Rohit Kansal said, “This is sad news. This is first death due to Coronavirus in Jammu and Kashmir.” He said four others who were in contact with him have also tested for the deadly virus. Doctors at the chest disease hospital said the patient had a medical history of prolonged illness with diabetes, hypertension, obesity. The victim had returned after visiting New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu recently after being pa rt o f a ‘Tablighi Jamaat’ also attended by people from Indonesia and Malaysia. As of now, eight persons have tested positive for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Kashmir Valley while the tally of such patients in the entire occupied territory has gone up to 11. In occupied Kashmir, a team of Jammu and Kashmir Social Youth Forum and Darul Khair Baitul Maal visited many areas of Islamabad district and distributed masks and sanitizers among the general public to prevent them from Coronavirus. The workers from the two forums appealed to the public to follow the instructions of health advisers and stay indoors. JKSYF delegation was led by its Chairman Umar Adil Dar, and it was comprised Zubair Mir, Basit Sofi, Amir Ahmed, Nihal Ahmed, Sheezan Gulzar and Musaib. Umar Adil Dar appealed to the well-off people and all social, religious and political organizations to rise to the occasion and help the poor and needy people. Meanwhile, Umar Aadil Dar expressed serious concern over the continued detention of political prisoners languishing in different jails in Kashmir and in India and urged international human rights organisations including the UN Human Rights Council, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to take serious notice of the plight of the Kashmiri detainees and impress upon Modi government to release them forthwith. In occupied Kashmir, there is acute shortage of life saving ventilators at a time when coronavirus is spreading in the territory. So far, one person has died of the coronavirus while several others have testing positive for the disease. There are around 100 ventilators available in various hospitals across occupied Kashmir and 33 of them have been kept for the COVID-19 patients. The Soura Institute of Medical Sciences Srinagar, Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial (JLNM) Hospital Srinagar and Chest Diseases Hospital Srinagar which have been designated as COVID-19 hospitals have 3, 3 and 10 ventilators respectively. A senior official who is part of the COVID-19 team of occupied Kashmir said that they needed at least 500 ventilators to deal with the rush of the coronavirus patients in the territory.—KMS
