Six dead in 2 days; active cases shoot up: Winters bring Covid woes back to Kashmir

Covid-19 may have been in a relatively dormant state in Jammu and Kashmir for the better part of October however as winters have started to settle in, J&K has yet again reported a surge in active cases and deaths caused by the virus.

During the month of October, the Union Territory reported only 10 deaths due to Covid-19 however in the last two days, six Covid-19 deaths were reported in J&K and alarmingly all of them took place in Kashmir.

J&K recorded 4 Covid-19 deaths and 98 positive cases — 84 in Kashmir and 14 in the Jammu division on November 1. A day later J&K saw two more fatalities in Kashmir due to Covid-19. The day recorded  110 new cases — 92 from Kashmir and 18 from the Jammu division.

On November 3, J&K reported 99 Covid cases of which 81 were from Kashmir alone. Though, no fatalities were reported on November 3 and 4.

As for the active cases, they have again started to increase in Jammu and Kashmir especially in Kashmir. Positive cases have increased from 800 to 981 in the last 15 days.

As per the official data, the total number of active cases in Jammu and Kashmir were 800 including 673 from the Kashmir division and 127 from the Jammu division on October 20

However, in the last 15 days, the active cases have increased from 800 to 981 in J&K which includes 860 in the Kashmir division to 121 in the Jammu division.

As per the data, active cases have increased in Kashmir from 673 to 860 while in the Jammu division the cases have decreased from 127 to 121 in the same period.

In the Jammu division, the Jammu district has the highest 45 active cases while in Kashmir, Srinagar has the highest 476 active cases.

Meanwhile, the Union Health Ministry has asked three states/UTs including Jammu and Kashmir to undertake a review of the rising COVID-19 case numbers and weekly positivity rates and enhance testing.

Ahuja Additional Secretary of the Union Health Ministry in a letter to Additional Chief Secretary of Health, J&K had said that the Union Territory has shown an approximately 61 per cent increase in weekly new cases.

“1,354 cases were reported in the week of October 25-31 as against 843 cases in the week of October 18-24,” she said.

“The weekly positivity is less than 1 per cent, but there has been a 67 per cent increase in positivity in the last two weeks as from 0.3 per cent in the week of October 18-24 to 0.5 per cent in the week of October 25-31,” Ahuja said.

“Kathua is a district of concern due to the high quantum of cases and positivity over 2.5 per cent. Besides, there is a need to increase testing in J&K,” she said.