Jammu, Apr 2 (IANS): Eight more have tested positive in J&K on Wednesday taking the tally of Covid-19 patients to 70 in the union territory.

Figures released by the J&K Information Department said the cases include 53 from Kashmir and 17 from Jammu have tested positive so far.

Three positive patients have been cured while two have succumbed to the dreaded virus in Kashmir.

This leaves the number of active cases in Kashmir at 48 and 17 in the Jammu division.

The third positive patient who recovered in Srinagar's chest diseases hospital is still to be taken out of isolation because the attending doctors have said the patient had tested negative once, but can only be declared as having completely recovered after he tests negative twice in 24 hours as per the protocol.

Test results in four cases are awaited.

A total of 1,084 samples were collected for testing out of which 1,010 have tested negative.

As many as 17,677 persons were enlisted for observation out of whom 10,694 were kept under quarantine at home, 65 cases were put in isolation while 622 were put under hospital quarantine.

A total of 2187 persons have completed surveillance while 4,109 are still under home quarantine, the official statistics released here said.