E-Paper
J&K saw 53% increase in Covid-19 cases in March
Majority of the increase this month has taken place in Kashmir which contributed to 2,379 of the total 2, 972 cases till March 26.
Covid-19 cases in Jammu and Kashmir have already increased by 53% this month as compared to February.
As many as 2,972 people got infected with the virus from March 1 to 26, as against 1,935 total cases in February – which was the lowest monthly total since June 2020. As against 21 deaths in February, March has already recorded 27 deaths so far.
Majority of the increase this month has taken place in Kashmir which contributed to 2,379 of the total 2, 972 cases till March 26. The most affected district in the new wave is again capital Srinagar which has 767 active cases of the Kashmir’s total 1, 269 active cases.
“The increase in cases is there but it is not a sharp increase like in Maharashtra. Nevertheless our Covid-19 facilities and infrastructure are intact and we are ready for everything,” said director health, Kashmir, Mushtaq Ahmad Rather.
The overall active cases in Jammu and Kashmir have doubled in March to reach 1,681 on March 26 from 823 by the end of February. The UT had hit its lowest active cases since May 2020 to reach 593 on February 9.
The UT has witnessed a sharp increase in fresh cases in the second half of March. From 1, 293 Covid-19 cases in the first half, the 11 days of the second half contributed 1,679 cases.
For the past 10 days, the daily fresh Covid-19 cases have remained above 100, hovering between 126 and 210, while the lowest daily count this year was on February 8 when just 43 cases had been reported.
Rather said that the health authorities and administration have increased vigilance so that Covid-19 SOPs are followed.
As summer capital Srinagar is witnessing a steep increase in Covid-19 cases, the district administration is not only imposing fines on people but also subjecting them to Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) if caught without masks in public.
“People have become lenient in taking preventive measures such as wearing masks, observing social distancing and hand hygiene. We need cooperation from people to control this second wave,” said Rather.
When the pandemic began in mid-March last year, the infections had increased gradually from 55 Covid-19 cases in March last year to 5,051 cases in June and peaked to 37, 372 in September. The cases then began to decline with 19, 619 in October, 10,747 in December and plunged to the lowest of 1,935 cases in February 2021 after which the second wave hit the state.
The total Covid-19 cases in the UT have reached to 1, 29,413 till March 26 while the death is 1984 with 1252 of the fatalities in Kashmir only.
As many as 1, 25,748 people have recovered in the UT till March 26 taking the recovery rate to 97.16%.
