J&K CS appeals for calm, says aggressive testing resulting in detections

As the number of coronavirus cases rose to 33 in Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Secretary B V R Subrahmanyam on Saturday appealed to people not to panic. "The J&K government has undertaken an aggressive testing campaign to detect COVID-19 positive cases as a result of which there is an increase in the number," Subrahmanyam said in a message to the people.

He said the latest five positive cases -- two in Srinagar and three in Jammu - are all contacts of people who have tested COVID-19 positive and are asymptomatic which would have never been known for up to two weeks and would have infected hundreds subsequently. The chief secretary said the testing rate in J&K is over 10 percent of those under surveillance which is higher than states like Kerala. The medical capacities, response mechanism, and other parameters are being ramped up, he said.