MUZAFFARABAD: A senior civil servant was among 13 persons who tested positive for Covid-19 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, pushing the region’s tally to 240, a cabinet member said.

Of the new cases, nine were from Muzaffarabad which has of late been the hit hard by the viral disease, three were from Bagh and and one was from Poonch, Information Technology Minister Dr Mustafa Bashir Abbasi, who is also spokesperson for the government, said.

Mr Abbasi said the victims in Muzaffarabad, who have been isolated in hospitals, included Additional Secretary Home Masoodur Rehman and his three sons.

Mr Rehman, who was promoted to grade 20 only last week, had been very active member of the official team working out measures and policies for the containment of the pandemic in AJK.

“That’s why we have been repeatedly calling upon the public to practice precautionary measures zealously as the only remedy to the disease,” Mr Abbasi said.

The minister said that more than 6,500 people have been tested for Covid-19 across AJK so far and 240 of them had turned out positive.

Of the victims, a total of six - five from Muzaffarabad alone - died while 159 had recovered so far, he said, adding another five were likely to be released on Sunday.

Mr Abbasi said the coronavirus testing capacity in AJK had been enhanced and on Saturday around 250 tests had been conducted in three labs, including 127 in AIMS Muzaffarabad. “We will soon scale up the number of daily tests to 500,” he said.

He asserted that the government was providing free treatment and medicines to Covid-19 patients and random sampling was also being conducted in urban and rural areas.—Tariq Naqash