J&K crosses two lakh Covid cases, records highest toll

Jammu and Kashmir recorded 4,926 fresh Covid-19 cases on Thursday, taking the tally to 2,01,511 while 52 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 2,562.

The single-day record new positive cases came out of 47,401 tests conducted the previous day, the bulletin said. For the third consecutive day, J&K reported over 4,500 cases in a day and equalled its highest death toll due to Covid since the outbreak of pandemic in the northern region.

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The Union Territory (UT) has been witnessing a spurt in the cases since April 20 when daily cases breached the 2000 mark for the first time. Recording a steep rise, active cases in J&K have reached 41,666. In the first six days of this month, the active cases have increased by 13,307. The UT has also recorded 279 deaths in the first six days of May.

On Thursday, out of a total of 4,926 Covid cases reported in J&K, 3,241 cases were reported from Kashmir and 1,685 in the Jammu division. And of the 52 deaths recorded on Thursday, 37 were reported from the Jammu region and 15 from Kashmir.

Jammu and Kashmir is among the highest Covid-19 case density areas in the country which is over 16,000 cases per million of the population. According to the 2011 census, J&K’s population is 12.5 million.

The national average per million population so far is 15,148. With poor health infrastructure and climatic conditions, Valley also becomes one of the most high-risk zones for the coronavirus outbreak.

In the wake of health infrastructure being stretched due to rising cases, the UT administration and Chinar Corps of Army on Wednesday jointly operationalised a 250-bed Covid healthcare centre for civilians at Rangreth, Budgam.

Equipped with a 20-bed state-of-art ‘high dependency unit; and a 230-bed post-critical care ward, the facility augments government medical health infrastructure significantly, a defence spokesperson said.