Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Monday said hospitals in Kashmir were witnessing a surge in “severe cases of COVID -19” lately.
“A few weeks ago, we had drop in number of severe cases, but over the last few days hospitals are seeing increase in number of seriously-ill Covid-19 patients, much like we saw last spring,” DAK President and influenza expert, Dr Nisar ul Hassan said in a statement this afternoon.
He said that patients “in large numbers are coming to hospitals with severe bilateral pneumonia requiring oxygen, some needing intensive care and the support of ventilators to help them survive the respiratory distress” adding the beds at the hospitals “are full, oxygen points are occupied and we don’t have space in intensive care units.”
The DAK President said that patients with bad lungs were reporting to the hospitals where it is “difficult to salvage them”.
“Not only the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions, but young people are coming with severe disease and some of them are dying,” the DAK President said.
He said the number is “expected to rise further in coming days as there are still massive numbers of people in the population who are susceptible to the virus.”
He further said the virus had “once again become dangerous and is behaving aggressively which gives us to understand whether a mutated strain has sneaked into the valley because of huge tourist influx or we are dealing with an indigenous mutant”.
Dr Nisar also partly blamed people for their complacency for resurgence of cases in the valley saying people no longer regard pandemic as a risk and have thrown caution to the wind.
Many people don’t wear masks and they don’t care for social distancing even as huge gatherings are seen in gardens and public functions, he said.
Dr Nisar said that the accelerated transmission of COVID-19 within the next few weeks would not be surprising considering the lackadaisical approach by most people towards the pandemic.
While urging people to adhere to health guidelines to avoid a catastrophic slipup, the DAK President said it is vitally important to ramp up the vaccination process and vaccinate as many people as possible that too quickly to break the chain of virus transmission.