Srinagar: A Commissioner Secretary ranked officer has tested positive for novel Coronavirus last night in Jammu and Kashmir, and as a result, many senior officials are self-quarantining.
Reports quoting official sources said that the IAS officer’s test returned positive late last night, only a few hours after he participated in a high-level meeting attended among others by a Financial Commissioner, a Principal Secretary, a senior officer in the Disaster Management Authority and officials in the Health and Medical Education Department. Besides them, the meeting was attended by Principal GMC, Managing Director of a concerned organization, a Director, a Microbiologist, an Epidemiologist besides others.
The swap sample of the officer was taken at the airport and the reports returned after the meeting was over, they said. In fact, sources said, most of the officers who participated in the meeting had reached home.
“I had just finished my dinner when I received the call that I need to be in quarantine after the development,” one of the officers who had attended the meeting said. He, however, said that all those who are attending any official meeting are taking due precautions such as wearing masks and maintaining social distancing.
Sources said that if anyone among them shows immediate symptoms, they would be tested immediately.
Meanwhile, sources said that besides the officer’s, test reports of four other persons, taken on the same date at the airport, have returned the positive for the virus, taking the number of covid-19 patients in J&K to 2356 for now. “The number is bound to increase as many samples have already tested positive in last 12 hours and many reports are under process at several laboratories,” the sources added. (with inputs from GNS)
