At 158, Srinagar, Bandipora make up for nearly half of J&K’s Covid-19 cases

With 80 such cases, Bandipore has surpassed Srinagar as the district with highest Covid-19 patients in the northern region.

Two districts of the valley – Srinagar and Bandipora – constitute nearly half of the Covid-19 cases reported in Jammu and Kashmir.

HT File

With 80 such cases, Bandipore has surpassed Srinagar as the district with highest Covid-19 patients in the northern region comprising J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. Nuh in Haryana is now the third district with the maximum positive cases in the region.

While it’s not clear why the two Kashmir districts have the most number of cases, health experts believe it could be due to the lack of early detection and the cases related to Tablighi Jamaat. “The surveillance at airport in the early days or the cases of contact tracing going wrong or being ineffective could be the reason for the spike in the cases Srinagar and Bandipora,” said a senior officer who was privy to the government’s response in the initial days of cases being declared in J&K.

Srinagar has 78 positive cases with 60 active cases, as 17 patients have already recovered and one has died. Out of Bandipora’s 80 cases, 68 are active Covid-19 patients and 11 people have already recovered.

Most cases in Bandipora come from three red-zones – Hajin, Gund Jahagir and Bandipora. “Over that 1,000 people are under quarantine and we are collecting more samples,” sub-divisional magistrate Shahnawaz Bukhari told HT.