After 12 days of hospitalisation, the first patient who tested positive for COVID-19 in Kashmir tested negative, even as the number of confirmed cases in Jammu and Kashmir climbed to 49 on Monday.
The patient who tested negative is a 67-year-old woman from Khanyar in downtown Srinagar. She was tested positive for COVID-19 on March 16 after her return from Saudi Arabia, and was admitted to Sheri-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) on March 18.
“The Srinagar woman, who became the first coronavirus case in Kashmir on March 18 tested negative on Sunday at Sheri-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar,” said a spokesperson of SKIMS.
The woman would be kept in quarantine for a period of 14 days and after that it would be decided whether to discharge her.
According to the daily Media Bulletin on COVID-19, out of 49 positive cases, two have recovered and two have died.
Till date, 11,644 travellers and persons who came in contact with suspected cases have been put under surveillance, which also include 355 persons in hospital quarantine.
The bulletin said 722 samples have been sent for testing of which 659 have tested as negative and reports of 15 others are awaited.