Covid-19 continues to wreak havoc in Jammu and Kashmir

4,141 fresh cases, 50 deaths reported in 24 hours

With 4,141 fresh infections and 59 deaths, Covid-19 continues to wreak havoc in Jammu and Kashmir, despite a marginal drop in the daily coronavirus figures.

The drop in cases detected can be attributed to the fewer tests conducted as only 36,716 tests were conducted on Saturday against over 47,000 tests being conducted daily a week before. On May 7, J&K had reported the highest single-day spike of Covid-19 cases with 5,443 fresh infections and 50 deaths recorded.

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Though the number of positive cases have seen a dip since due to the less number of tests conducted, the deaths have on an average hovered between 60 to 65 daily. Of the 59 deaths in J&K today, 32 were reported in Jammu division and 27 in Kashmir and of the new cases, 2,451 were detected in Kashmir and 1,690 from Jammu.

The Union territory (UT) has logged 3,149 fatalities and 2,44,608 cases so far. May has proved to be the worst month for J&K in terms of Covid cases and deaths as the monthly infections reached 68,525 and fatalities to 867. According to the daily media bulletin, 3,934 patients recovered from the disease on Sunday.

The Covid-19 surge has been significantly high in rural areas in almost the entire J&K, a result of which 16 districts today reported more than 100 cases. While cases in Srinagar have come down from more than 1,100 at the start of this month to over 400 now, other districts of the Valley are showing a surge now. The lockdown imposed on April 29 has now been extended till May 24.

Jammu and Kashmir is among the highest Covid-19 case density areas in the country which is over 19,500 cases per million of the population. According to the 2011 census, J&K’s population is 1.25 crore.

The national average per million population so far is over 17,750. With poor health infrastructure and climatic conditions Valley also becomes one of the most high-risk zones for the coronavirus outbreak.

The coronavirus outbreak was reported in Jammu and Kashmir on 7 March 2020, when two persons tested positive for the deadly infection. The peak of the first wave was September 12 when 1698 positive cases were reported.