SRINAGAR: Leading chest disease specialist and head, Government Chest Disease Hospital, Srinagar, Dr Naveed Nazir Shah today said that all the COVID-19 positive patients admitted at the hospital were responding well to the treatment.
Speaking on the coronavirus pandemic preparedness at the hospital, Dr Nazir said that Government has been taking every possible step to cater to the load of patients and reach out to the areas—declared as red zones and conduct testing for the suspects.
He informed that there were 19 COVID-19 positive patients admitted at the hospital and all were responding well to the treatment. He said that doctors and paramedics—working at the hospital round the clock were doing their best to make a difference amid this severe health crisis.
“We have seen that there is a general trend that we mostly get the positive cases who have been the contacts of already positive cases,” he said.
Regarding quarantine facilities, Dr Nazir said “we have established testing as well as quarantine facilities in hospitals including at CD hospital.” He said that like rest of the world, Kashmir too is grappling with coronavirus pandemic and people must take all precautionary measures to keep the virus away.
He shared that patients are recovering and some of them will be discharged soon, after following a proper protocol. He informed that the second consecutive test report of first patient admitted in Chest Disease Hospital Srinagar for Covid-19 was also reported as negative.
He said that on Thursday, the first test of this patient was found negative and today for re-confirmation, once more the sample of this patient admitted at CD Hospital was collected and report again was found negative. He said that the patient was in hospital quarantine from past 15 days and today his 3rd test was found negative.
“We have patients coming, some of them reported positive but at the same time patients are recovering too and we must pray for the health of all in such pandemic,” he said.
Dr Nazir appreciated the role of its Microbiology Department, saying that they have been working tirelessly ever since the COVID-19 outbreak.
“So far we have collected 450 samples,” he said. “Some of these samples were collected by us while as many samples came from GMC, its associated hospitals, district COVID-19 hospitals and some samples we have collected from army hospital too,” he added.
The renowned chest specialist—who is also in-charge of COVID-19 pandemic at the hospital, urged people to take all the necessary precautions. He urged people to follow administrative and health Advisories in letter and spirit.
He also appealed people to reveal their travel history and thus ensure safety of all. “People should come clean on their travel history,” he said. “Early detection helps us to put the person in isolation facilities and thus there won’t be exponential spread of the virus.”
