MUZAFFARABAD: Five more persons tested positive for Covid-19 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) over the past 24 hours, pushing the region’s tally to 33, an official said on Thursday.

Mohammad Tariq Shaheen from the AJK ministry of health told Dawn that four of the new cases had surfaced in Sudhnoti district and one in Poonch district.

Of those in Sudhnoti, two were the family members (son and teenaged grandson) and the other two were acquaintances of a 66-year-old patient who had tested positive on April 1 on his return from a religious congregation in Punjab. His spouse had also got infected three days ago, Mr Shaheen said.

Mr Shaheen said the fifth Covid-19 patient, a 50 years old man, was from Abbaspur subdivision of Poonch district. He was related to an elderly person who had died of the disease in Lahore.

The Punjab government had buried him in Lahore instead of dispatching his body to his native area in a bid to prevent spread of disease there, Mr Shaheen said.

He told that a total of 631 samples had so far been collected for screening and results of 583 had been received, of which 33 had tested positive. It may be mentioned here that AJK’s first Covid-19 patient, who had tested positive on his return from Iran via Taftan border, also belonged to Sudhnoti district.

Early this month he was relieved from a hospital from Mirpur after full recovery. The remaining 32 patients were under treatment in different hospitals.

Giving district wise break up of patients, Mr Shaheen said 12 of them belonged to Bhimber, nine to Mirpur, seven to Sudhnoti, three to Poonch and two to Kotli.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2020