After affecting urban areas, the second wave of Covid-19 is now spreading fast in the rural areas of Kashmir.
The new challenge has forced the Union Territory (UT) administration to set up five-bedded Covid care centres at the panchayat level with at least one oxygen-supported bed. The persons needing isolation at these centres shall be identified by panchayats, medical staff or ASHA workers, while mobile testing vans will visit villages.
An official of the Health Department said about 70% of the new Covid-19 cases were coming from the rural areas of Kashmir in the last 10-days. “This was a shift from the earlier pattern that had seen urban Kashmir, majorly Srinagar district, and urban areas of other districts, reporting a major chunk of cases,” he said.
The official said accessibility is not easy in the rural areas as compared to the urban ones and people in rural areas are not only hesitant towards testing for Covid-19 but also show reluctance to go for vaccination.
“Many people don’t even seek medical advice when they develop symptoms. We have thus been trying to carry out testing in the rural areas extensively and have found a high positivity rate,” he added.
On Tuesday, out of 1,819 Covid-19 positive cases reported from Kashmir, 578 were from urban areas, 1,074 were from rural areas and 167 from semi-urban areas, official data reveals.
Dr Rouf Rather, who specialises in epidemiology and community medicine, says that the new trend was expected as earlier the effect of the pandemic in rural areas was late “by around two weeks” as compared to urban areas.
“The peak in the cases in rural areas does not sync with that of in the urban areas, and similarly, the decrease will also not sync,” he said.
Dr Rather said that although Srinagar was expected to hit a plateau by the end of May, it would take rural Kashmir another two to three weeks to reach a point where the cases are stable.
Deccan Herald is on WhatsApp Channels| Join now for Breaking News & Editor's Picks