E-Paper
56 people succumb to virus, 3,614 more test positive in J&K
At 500 fatalities, May has logged the highest number deaths in the UT since pandemic began; in September last year when the first wave had peaked, as many as 478 persons had lost their lives to the virus
As many as 56 people lost their lives to Covid-19 and 3,614 fresh infections were reported in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, taking the overall death toll to 2,782 and total cases to over 2.2 lakh.
So far, 500 people have died of the disease this month in the UT, making it the highest monthly death toll since the pandemic began in March last year. In September last year when the first wave had peaked, as many as 478 persons had lost their lives to the virus.
Of the 56 deaths in the UT, 39 were reported in Jammu division and 17 in Kashmir. The month of April so far has recorded the highest monthly case tally of 45,123 infections besides 289 deaths this year as against 4,519 cases and 37 deaths in March.
Of the new cases, 2,118 are from Kashmir while 1,496 are from Jammu, besides 75 travellers.
“Wearing masks below the chin doesn’t serve its purpose, venturing out unnecessarily is affecting the management and containment of virus. The public needs to understand that efforts are being made to break the chain of transmission of coronavirus and there is no need to create panic,” said Dr Khurshid Ahmad Bhat, consultant, endocrinologist at Super Speciality Hospital in Srinagar.
“More and more people should come forward to get vaccinated. Besides, repeated testing after an asymptomatic person has recovered is also not required,” he added.
Officials said with 701 cases, Srinagar had the highest number of new infections, followed by 658 in Jammu district, 343 in Budgam, 254 in Kulgam and 187 in Kupwara.
The number of active cases has reached 49,951, officials said. Most of these cases have been added after February 9 when the UT had the lowest active case tally of 593.
Dr Khurshid cautioned that venturing out unnecessarily will assist the spread of virus. “During the first wave of Covid, there was fear among people and they avoided going out which is why the cases were less. But now people have been moving out freely without fear or concern of getting infected which has resulted in increased number of cases, morbidity and deaths,” he added.
Nearly 2,855 patients recovered on Monday, including 1,785 from Kashmir and 1,070 from Jammu.
As many as 1,67,813 people have recovered so far, taking the recovery rate to 76.08% against 98% in the first fortnight of February. Over 7.7 million tests have been conducted in the UT so far.
