Amid new variant threat, Govt orders resumption of DRDO hospital, recalls staff

HC Judge, 12 more employees test +ve in J&K, Ladakh

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU/SRINAGAR/LEH, Nov 29: Amidst growing threat of new COVID variant Omicron, the Government today ordered resumption of 500-bed DRDO Hospital at Bhagwati Nagar here and recalled some of the staff even as a High Court Judge was among 28 persons who tested positive for COVID-19 in Jammu region while one death and 122 new cases were reported from Kashmir.
COVID cases also continue to surge in the Union Territory of Ladakh where 34 more persons tested positive for pathogen including 32 in Leh district, 12 of them Government employees.
A High Court Judge today tested positive for COVID-19 here after which his contacts were also tested for the virus.
The Government has ordered resumption of 500 bedded DRDO hospital at Bhagwati Nagar here which was set up during second COVID wave but was shut as cases started receding.
GMC Jammu Principal Dr Shashi Sudhan Sharma told the Excelsior that the DRDO hospital has been made operational as a precautionary measure and they have also recalled some of the staff.
“More staff will be sought as per requirement,” she said.
Asserting that there was no threat from new variant as of now, Dr Sharma, however, said the people strictly need to observe COVID Appropriate Behaviour including maintenance of social gathering and wearing masks etc.
Among 28 new COVID positive cases in Jammu region, 15 were reported from Jammu district, four Reasi, three Doda and two each in Rajouri, Kishtwar and Poonch districts while rest of the districts didn’t report any fresh cases.
Twenty persons recovered from the virus leaving number of active positive cases in Jammu region to 281.
In the UT of Ladakh, 34 fresh cases of COVID-19 were reported today—32 in Leh district and two in Kargil.
Out of 32 cases in Leh, 12 were Government officials. This has taken total number of Government employees who have tested positive during last three days to 44.
Active positive cases in Ladakh now stood at 269 including 246 in Leh district and 22 in Kargil.
Corona count in Ladakh has reached 21528. Among them, 21047 have recovered from the virus while there have been 213 casualties—155 in Leh and 58 in Kargil.
Meanwhile, Kashmir today reported 122 fresh cases of COVID-19.
One person succumbed to the viral infection today taking the death toll in J&K to 4476 persons including 2291 in Kashmir.
Those who tested positive include 48 from Srinagar, 23 from Baramulla, 16 from Budgam, 4 from Pulwama, 6 from Kupwara, 2 from Anantnag, 14 from Bandipora, 7 from Ganderbal, 1 from Kulgam and 1 from Shopian.
The number of cases in Kashmir division has reached to 211,665 including 208,029 recoveries and 2,291 deaths.
The number of active cases in Jammu and Kashmir are 1,626 including 1,345 from Kashmir division.
With 181 more recoveries, the tally of total recoveries in Jammu and Kashmir has reached 330,579 which is 98.18 percent of the total cases.