A 65-year-old religious preacher who had tested positive for the coronavirus disease this week died in a Srinagar hospital early Thursday, the first Covid-19-linked death in Jammu and Kashmir.
A government official said the man died at Srinagar’s Chest Disease (CD) hospital.
Srinagar Mayor Junaid Azim Mattu confirmed the death on Twitter minutes later. “As we share the sad news of our first #Covid19 fatality, my heart goes out to the family of the deceased. We stand with you and share your grief,” he tweeted, reminding people that they need to cooperate to break the chain of the infection.
Before returning to Jammu and Kashmir recently, the religious preacher had extensively travelled in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Samba, Jammu, Srinagar and Sopore to participate in religious events.
Health officials who have been tracing the movements of Jammu and Kashmir’s 11 coronavirus patients have found that 5 of them had attended a religious event where the religious preacher was also present.
Four people, all of them from Bandipore district 30 km north of Srinagar, had tested positive on Wednesday.
After the 65-year-old man tested positive two days ago, authorities in Kashmir had placed a dozen doctors and paramedics who had examined him earlier, under quarantine. The colony where he stays in Srinagar was also sealed.