Jammu, Appealing people not to panic because of the spurt in positive Covid-19 cases, J&K Chief Secretary, B.V.R. Subrahmanyam said on Saturday that aggressive testing has led to the discovery of more number of cases.

Addressing the panic and fear that has followed the sudden spurt in the number of positive cases which rose to 33 on Saturday against 18 till Friday, the Chief Secretary said in a statement, "J&K Government has undertaken an aggressive testing campaign to detect COVID-19 positive cases as a result of which there is an increase in the number.

"The latest five positive cases on Saturday, 2 in Srinagar and 3 in Jammu are all contacts of prior positive cases and are asymptomatic which would have never been known for up to 2 weeks and would have infected 100s subsequently."

He said the testing rate in J&K is over 10 per cent of those under surveillance which is higher than states like Kerala.

He said medical capacities, response mechanism and other parameters are being quietly ramped up.

Hoping that J&K would overcome the crisis, the Chief Secretary complimented the frontline health workers, field administration and volunteers who are resolutely fighting on the ground to defeat the pandemic.