Srinagar: An 18-year-old from Handwara area in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district died at SMHS hospital here due to Covid-19, officials said on Monday. The teenager is the youngest among the 63 persons who have succumbed to the virus in Jammu and Kashmir so far.
The teenager, who was admitted to the hospital as a “medico-legal case” with a serious head injury, died at 3 a.m., medical superintendent SMHS hospital, Dr Nazir Choudhary, Hospital sources said.
However, as per reports, the boy was attacked and beaten to pulp by some unknown person on June 11, after which he was shifted to district hospital Handwara in an injured condition. “As his condition deteriorated, he was shifted to SMHS Srinagar for advanced treatment”, hospital sources said.
However his samples were taken on June 13 at SMHS for Covid-19 investigation which turned out to be positive on Sunday evening.
The death has put a question mark on the safety measures being followed at different hospitals of Kashmir.
“He was a healthy young man with no symptoms. He was brutally attacked by some assailants and left seriously injured with head and multiple injuries. Wherefrom he contracted the infection? It has to be the hospitals where he was kept,” said some of his friends and the claim of the friends was substantiated by some local doctors too.
Chairman Block Development Council Mawer, Tahir Ahmad too has expressed apprehensions about the death.
“How can a person believe when there is lapse in this system? At one government lab a person is being shown positive and on another government lab same test comes negative. Moreover 25 samples were taken on 29th May from Terina Mawer, the result of only 9 tests came and rest of 16 persons are still waiting for results,” he told KNS.
It may be recalled here that police has registered a case about assault on the youth under FIR No.FIR. No. 59/20 under section 307, 452, 323 and have arrested four persons in this regard.
Meanwhile, in the second fatality of the day, a 62-year-old man from Chadoora area of central Kashmir’s Budgam district passed away at SMHS Hospital, the officials said.
They said the man was admitted at the hospital on Sunday with sepsis and bilateral pneumonia (infection of both lungs).
His sample for COVID-19 returned as positive and the patient passed away on Monday, the officials said.
Meanwhile, an 80-year-old man from south Kashmir district of Shopian also succumbed to the Covid-19 on Monday.
With these three deaths, the number of fatalities in Jammu and Kashmir has risen to 63.
