Jammu, Mar 28 (PTI) As the number of coronavirus cases rose to 33 in Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Secretary B V R Subrahmanyam on Saturday appealed to people not to panic.

“The 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,” Subrahmanyam said in a message to the people.

He said the latest five positive cases -- two in Srinagar and three in Jammu - are all contacts of people who have tested COVID-19 positive and are asymptomatic which would have never been known for up to two weeks and would have infected hundreds subsequently.

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

The medical capacities, response mechanism and other parameters are being ramped up, he said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)