On May 17, the government medical college of Jammu, the main tertiary care hospital in the district, received a terse letter from the health department underlining the need for “corrective measures” to reduce deaths among Covid-19 patients.
“It is desirable that the senior faculty members of the concerned departments of your institution be directed to increase their presence by making frequent rounds of wards, where the COVID positive patients are admitted, so that such patients are properly looked after and treated, which will help us in reducing the mortality also,” stated the letter issued by Atal Dulloo, financial commissioner in the health and medical education department.
In the second-wave of Covid-19 in Jammu and Kashmir, the administration is facing a peculiar challenge: high mortality among Covid-19 patients in the Jammu division.
Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 until March 31 this year, the mortality rate in Jammu was lower at 1.38% compared…