Book shops open bringing relief for students
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 29: Jammu today reported five more recoveries of COVID-19 positive patients, three of whom were doctors-two from ASCOMS Sidhra and another from GMC Jammu-reducing Corona cases in the region to just 10 while the Union Territory of Ladakh also reported one more recovery leaving five active cases.
Jammu region had total of 58 Corona cases. With five more patients being treated successfully today and discharged from two different hospitals, number of cured patients has reached 47. With one death, now there were just 10 COVID positive patients left in the entire region.
As per the Medical Bulletin released by the UT Government this evening, there were now three each Corona patients in Jammu and Udhampur districts and one each in Rajouri, Kathua, Ramban and Reasi districts.
While no Corona positive case been reported from Doda, Kishtwar and Poonch districts, Samba had become Corona-free yesterday after its all four patients were discharged from the hospital.
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Of five patients treated and allowed to go home today, three were doctors including wife of the first doctor who had become Corona positive in Jammu region, a faculty member in the Government Medical College Jammu who hailed from Channi Himmat locality. His wife is also a doctor. Two other doctors were discharged from ASCOMS, both of whom were prominent Gastroenterologists including a woman.
The ASCOMS doctors and a staffer had become Corona positive while attending a patient of Lower Roop Nagar, who has also tested negative once and will be discharged only after he tests negative once again. The ASCOMS staffer has also tested negative once.
With today’s discharge of GMC doctor’s wife, his mother was still left in the hospital while his father and servant have already been cured and sent home.
Two other patients who were discharged today from the Chest Diseases Hospital Bakshi Nagar were Tablighi Jamaat activists hailing from Uttar Pradesh and were sent to a religious place at Sunjwan on the outskirts of Jammu where they were putting up when tested positive for COVID-19.
Chest Diseases Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Rajeshwar Sharma said now only six patients were admitted in the hospital and condition of all of them was stable.
Meanwhile, a female patient from Chushot Yokma village of Leh district in the Union Territory of Ladakh was also discharged today from the hospital after testing negative twice for COVID-19.
Her discharge was announced by Health Department’s Nodal Officer Dr Tashi Motup.
Ladakh UT had total of 22 patients and with one more recovery, 17 of them have now been treated and discharged leaving only five active cases-two in Leh district and three in Kargil.
Meanwhile, books and stationery shops opened for five hours here today as the administration started allowing controlled business activities in various districts after more than a month-long closure due to the lockdown aimed at preventing the Coronavirus disease.
The shops, dealing in books and stationery items, opened at Pacca Danga and other parts of the city around 10 am and continued with their operations till 2 pm, facilitating students who have already been promoted to the next classes, the officials said.
On April 7, the administration announced mass promotion for the students affiliated with the Board of School Education up to Class 9 and Class 11 across Jammu region but the students could not buy their course books for the next academic session due to the lockdown.
Though the administration and the private schools have started online classes to kick-start the academic session for the students, the slow speed of mobile internet, which is running at 2G speed after its restoration, has proved a big hurdle for the students who complained of not being able to download the content at this speed.
The opening of the book and stationery shops came as a big relief to the students and their parents who were seen collecting the class books though maintaining the social distancing norms.
People said the student community has suffered immense loss in view of the closure of all educational institutions in the wake of the lockdown and slow speed of the internet.
“At least the students can get their books now,” they said and demanded free transportation of books and other material from outside Union Territory markets for smooth running of their shops.
Daleep Kumar, a local resident, welcomed the opening of these shops and said a large section of the students do not have access to the internet and were facing hardships to pursue their education.
“This is a good decision taken by the administration for the welfare of the student community. The lockdown forced the schools to go for online classes but lack of internet or slow speed was playing the spoilsport. It will benefit the students in the coming days,” he said.
The authorities in various other districts in the region including Udhampur, Kishtwar and Poonch also allowed limited operation of isolated shops with a request to the customers to maintain social distancing and use face masks while venturing out of their homes.
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