{"id":29755,"date":"2020-07-15T18:02:42","date_gmt":"2020-07-15T12:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmir.today\/?p=29755"},"modified":"2020-07-15T18:02:42","modified_gmt":"2020-07-15T12:32:42","slug":"covid-19-death-toll-in-kashmir-higher-than-reported-dak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=29755","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 death toll in Kashmir higher than reported: DAK"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><em>\u201cThe official count of Covid-19 deaths in the valley is an underestimate and only provides a snapshot of the true death toll virus has taken\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Srinagar<\/strong>: Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Wednesday said the actual number of Covid-19 deaths in Kashmir valley is higher than what is reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMany Covid-19 deaths go unreported in Kashmir,\u201d said DAK President and influenza expert Dr Nisar ul Hassan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe official count of Covid-19 deaths in the valley is an underestimate and only provides a snapshot of the true death toll virus has taken,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr Nisar said many people with Covid symptoms don\u2019t get tested for the virus because of the fear of stigma and quarantine of family members.<br \/>\u201cSocial stigma makes people hide their illness and keep them away from seeking health care,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr Nisar said people fear that if they die of Covid-19, they will not get the decent burial and few will come to their funeral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAs a result, people are choosing to die at home, unrecorded,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAnother apparent deterrent to testing is widespread conspiracy theories about the virus. People believe that Covid is a hoax and the virus is fabricated,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr Nisar said while elderly people have the highest rates for hospitalization and death, many are not tested for Covid in hospitals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOlder people don\u2019t develop typical Covid symptoms. In them, feeling weak or confused may be the only sign of having the infection,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhen patients lack classic signs, health professionals are less likely to think of the diagnosis. This means many patients die undiagnosed,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr Nisar said many Covid deaths are hidden among other diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMany patients with heart or lung disease die of Covid, but their death is attributed to their underlying condition,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr Nisar said more than 30 percent of the positive cases may be missed by the RT-PCR test which is used to identify people infected with Covid infection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cInappropriate sample collection, taking the sample too early or too late during infection and late processing of the sample can give rise to false negative results,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe official count of Covid-19 deaths in the valley is an underestimate and only provides a snapshot of the true death toll virus has taken\u201d Srinagar: Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Wednesday said the actual number of Covid-19 deaths in Kashmir valley is higher than what is reported. \u201cMany Covid-19 deaths go unreported in Kashmir,\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26755,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-union-territory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29755\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}