Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, May 27 : Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said here today that Jammu & Kashmir COVID situation is fully under control and emphasized that there was need for widespread public awareness, in order to avoid misgivings or misinformation which tend to create unwarranted anxiety.
After reviewing the current status in a one-and-half hour meeting, through video conference, with Deputy Commissioners and Chief Medical Officers of all the 20 districts of the Union Territory, Dr Jitendra Singh said, what is important is to understand and also make others understand that it is not a game of numbers and the natural cycle of Corona virus or its prognosis is not all about the numbers. Dismissing the contrary conclusions drawn in certain quarters, he said, we should rather feel satisfied that more and more number of positive cases are being detected every day, which is an indication that we are successfully accomplishing mass screening without missing any potential positive case that would have otherwise remained undetected and posed a risk.
At the same time, Dr Jitendra Singh said, this is also an indication of the number of tests per day having gone up which is today highest in the country compared to any other State or Union Territory and the point of common sense is that when more number of samples are sent for testing, obviously the number of positive or negative cases also goes up correspondingly. What is unfortunately lesser understood is that it is not the whole number as such, but the percentage or per million which is a more precise projection of statistics and that has continued to remain the same as it was about ten weeks ago, he added.
Dr Jitendra Singh further elaborated that most of the positive cases reported so far have been among the travelers returning from different parts of the country and their contact tracing has also been successful. He set aside apprehensions, if any, that the contacts were not getting traced and added that contact tracing takes time and does not happen instantly the moment a case is reported positive, which is something we need to explain to the common people.
Dr Jitendra Singh further explained that virtually all the deaths that have occurred so far were in persons suffering from co-morbidities or chronic underlying diseases and said that medical professionals should explain to others the difference between the death happening in a patient who may also be a Corona positive but the mortality is not because of Corona infection per se vis- a-vis death happening because of Corona infection per se.
Calling for urgent need for wide public awareness, Dr Jitendra Singh suggested holding of awareness camps and briefings, using the services of medical and scientific experts who are well versed in the subtle nuances of the Virus cycle. In this regard, he also requested for cooperation from media and other public information channels.
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