Amid rise in Covid-19 cases in various parts of the country including a slight increase in J-K, Director SKIMS Prof Parvaiz A Koul on Monday asked the people not to panic and stated that following Covid Appropriate Behaviour is important to contain further spread of the infection.

Prof Koul, in a statement, issued to a local news agency, Kashmir News Service (KNS), said that the situation is not worrisome as the positivity rate so far is not that high and hence, there is no need to panic, but lowering guard and paying no heed to Covid guidelines can degenerate the situation.

He advised people to exercise caution in the face of recent reports of increased number of COVID cases from various parts of the country.

“The rising numbers call for adoption of measures like use of masks and frequent hand washing in exercise of abundant caution for prevention of the spread of respiratory viruses in general and SARS CoV2 in particular,” he added.

He further said: “Modelling studies from credible institutes like the IHME, University of Washington do not predict any fresh COVID wave in the immediate future for the region of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.”

“However exercising caution is clearly beneficial so that we avoid any upsurge in the cases. The positivity rate among the tested samples is not high and the authorities are keeping a close watch on situation,” he said.

He added that since there are areas globally as also in the country, where sporadic increase of cases is reported, it would be prudent to stay alert without any panic. “We need not be complacent but at the same time, panic should not creep in.” (KNS)