Kashmir: 48 people who came in contact with COVID-19 patient put in quarantine

Forty-eight people, who had come in contact with the first coronavirus fatality in Kashmir, are in quarantine and authorities are in touch with the states visited by the man to track those who may have been infected by him, an official said on Thursday.

The 65-year-old man, hailing from Hyderpora area of the city here, died on Thursday morning -- becoming the first fatality in Jammu and Kashmir due to coronavirus.

Four of his contacts in the valley – all from north Kashmir's Bandipora district -- also tested positive on Wednesday.

"The person attended religious gatherings in New Delhi, Deoband (in Uttar Pradesh), Jammu, Samba, Sopore and then he came back here (Srinagar) and was admitted to a chest diseases hospital where he expired," Director, Health Services, Kashmir, Samir Matoo told PTI.

Matoo said "naturally" the person must have come in contact with a lot of people at the places he travelled to.

He said the health department has tracked the people of the valley the infected person had come in contact with and all of them have been put in quarantine and were under surveillance.

"We have tracked these 48 persons and they have been put in quarantine," he said.

Asked if the man can be called a "super-spreader" for likely infecting several others, the director said: "See, there is no description as such for a super-spreader, but he has visited so many places, so he has been spreading it (infection) also."

Matoo said the health department is in touch with the authorities in other places visited by him to enable the tracking of people who would have come in contact with him.

"We do not know the number of people he has come in contact with outside Jammu and Kashmir but we are in touch with the authorities there," he said.