Renowned Pulmonologist and Head of Department Chest Disease Hospital Dr Naveed Nazir Shah Sunday said Coronavirus is reality and people have to live with it. "Precaution is the only remedy to this lethal infection. Till we develop a vaccine, we have to face and confront this virus. Keeping aloof yourself from others is the best way to deal with this virus," he said.In an exclusive chat with News Agency KNT, Dr Naveed said that as the time will pass, people will develop immunity against this virus and that will limit the fatalities. "There may be a large number of people who might have got infected with this infection and recovered on their own without knowing about it," he said adding most of the patients in Valley are asymptomatic."All over the world, the mortality rate is over 3% while in Kashmir it is 1%. We have witnessed 25 deaths so for because of this infection and currently there are some 2500 infected patients. When we will go for massive testing, mortality rate will come down. The deaths occured here were due to comorbidities. Patients besides being Covid-19 infected died of other causes. Only one patient died of Coronavirus symptoms so for who was the resident of Hawal Srinagar," Dr Naveed Nazir Shah said.
While responding to a question, Dr Naveed said said the death rate in some countries like Italy was higher because patients were of higher age group. "What we have seen so for in Kashmir that majority of the patients infected with this disease are from lower age group. In first phase, there were patients from higher age group that were infected and most of them were either affiliated with Tableegi Jamat or had retured back from Umrah pilgrimage. The scenario is different now, most of the patients are young now."Dr Naveed who is Nodal Officer for Coronavirus said lockdown is not a permanent feature and it will go once the time passes. "Lockdown helped us in limiting the rate of infection. Earlier cases were only those having travel history but some locals who were not having any travel history got infected because they didn't take lockdown seriously and mingled with people freely," he said and added that people should obey health and administrative advisories even after the lockdown is relaxed and take extreme precautions."To check infection, we must wash hands, use mask, maintain social distance and avoid unnecessary gathering. This infection has no cure as of now and till a vaccine is found only precautions can limit its spread " Dr Naveed said.He said there are 83 Covid-19 patients admitted at CD Hospital and one is from Kargil. "No Covid-19 patient is right now on ventilator and all are stable," he said. (KNT)