5 Srinagar doctors test positive for coronavirus, Jammu and Kashmir tally climbs to 1,188

Five doctors tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Kashmir on Sunday.

Of these five doctors, three are from the ENT department of Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital in Srinagar, an orthopaedic surgeon from SKIMS Bemina and a dentist from Government Dental College in Srinagar.

Four of the five doctors who tested positive reportedly treated a Covid-19 positive patient in Srinagar, who died on Sunday.

“Five doctors tested positive. Four of them had treated a 29-year-old woman who died of complications yesterday [Sunday]. It is likely they may have contracted the infection from her,” said Dr Naveed Nazir, head of the pulmonology department at Chest Disease (CD) hospital.

The 29-year-old female from Habba Kadal locality of Srinagar died at CD hospital on Sunday — taking the coronavirus-related death toll to 13.

She was earlier operated in SMHS hospital by ENT surgeons for Ludwig’s Angina (submandibular abscess) and mediastinitis. However, she developed septic shock and was shifted to the ICU. Later, it was found that she had also contracted Covid-19.

With five doctors testing positive, the total number of cases of coronavirus in Jammu and Kashmir has now reached 1,188. So far 13 doctors, three nurses, have tested positive for novel coronavirus.