May is turning out to be the deadliest month for Jammu and Kashmir in terms of Covid deaths and cases with healthcare infrastructure in the Union Territory (UT) overwhelmed due to the exponential increase in the coronavirus cases.
In just the first 16 days of this month, the UT recorded 867 deaths and 68,525 infections. Although there has been a drop in positive cases from a peak of over 5,400 last week to less than 4,000 now, the same can be attributed to the lesser number of tests conducted.
On May 7, J&K had reported the highest single-day spike of Covid-19 cases with 5,443 fresh infections coming out of 49,718 tests, a week later on May 14, the infections dropped to 3,027. But the number of tests had also fallen to 31,552. On May 16, the number of fresh infections rose to 4,141 from 36,716 tests.
However, while the number of fresh cases are declining due to the lesser number of tests conducted, the mortality rate has been on the rise. On May 7, while the UT reported 50 deaths, the number reached 60 a week later.
The low supply of oxygen and medicines as well as poor testing has marred Covid-19 management as Jammu and Kashmir sees an increasing number of deaths in the hospitals. Doctors said there were no oxygen facilities in the rural areas and the low supplies at hospitals in Srinagar and Jammu were a major worry.
Srinagar and Jammu districts have been hotspots of Covid-19 in the UT with the twin districts contributing nearly 85 thousand cases out of total 244608 and 1500 deaths out of 3149.
Dr Saleem Khan, head department of Social and Preventive Medicine at Government Medical College (GMC) said that he did not believe that the actual cases were reducing. “The low cases last week were due to low testing. Also, there were three official holidays prompting people to stay at home,” he said.
The vaccination drive in the UT, particularly in Kashmir valley has also lost momentum since the beginning of the month. Due to the shortage of jabs, majority of the vaccination centres in Srinagar remain shut for the last several days.
Amid the unprecedented surge in Covid, J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha had a series of meetings with senior officers where he sought district-wise feedback pertaining to testing, impact of corona curfew, hospital referral system, functionality of oxygen generation plants, availability of Covid dedicated beds and other issues.
Opposition Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad expressed concern over the high number of fatalities in J&K. Days after being nominated as the head of the party's Covid Task Force, he urged for immediate measures to save the loss of lives.
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