Reports about shortage of beds and oxygen cylinders caused alarm among people at various places
By Bunty Mahajan
Jammu: The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday reported 4,926 new cases of COVID-19 including 3,241 from Kashmir and 1,685 from Jammu division.It also reported 52 COVID related deaths including 34 in Jammu division and 18 in Kashmir till 5 pm.
With this, the J&K had a total number of 2,01,511 COVID positive cases including 1,57,283 recoveries. A total of 2,562 people have died of COVID in the UT so far.The continued spike in COVID related deaths and positive cases raised concern among people about the shortage of beds and oxygen cylinders at various places across Jammu division. In Jammu city, photographs were seen circulating on social media about COVID patients sitting outside CD Hospital with oxygen cylinders due to non-availability of beds.
In REASI district, local people led by Municipal Council chairman and some Councillors held demonstration against administration’s decision to shift some oxygen cylinders from government run district hospital to a private hospital near Katra. The protest continued for nearly two hours with demonstrators questioning the shifting of oxygen cylinders from a government run hospital to a private hospital.
Sensing trouble, the administration finally shifted back the oxygen cylinders to the district hospital.
The UT government, however, said that the Central government was continuously monitoring the evolving COVID situation in the UT and providing all the necessary support in effectively containing the spread of virus infection and better clinical management of positive cases.
To dispel apprehensions about the availability of beds, it also released details of the total number of beds for Covid related cases in each hospital across the division with details as to how many of them were still vacant.
