J&K’s daily Covid-19 cases breach 4,000-mark

Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday reported 4,650 fresh Covid-19 cases, the highest single-day tally of infections in the Union Territory (UT) since the pandemic began raging across countries last year.

As many as 37 deaths were also reported during the day pushing the death toll to 2,458. Tuesday’s tally of positive cases also eclipsed the previous record of 3,832 new infections in a day recorded on May 1. Last year's all-time high in J&K was 1,698 daily positive cases on September 12.

The fresh jump in cases has taken J&K’s active caseload to 37302. In the first four days of this month, the UT has reported 17,786 fresh cases and 175 deaths related to Covid-19.

The test positivity rate, which is considered a crucial metric to gauge the spread of an infection in a region, has also shot up sharply over the past few weeks. Five out of every 100 people tested have been found positive in J&K from April 15-30, depicting the widespread infection here.

Also read: Covid-19: An ICU doctor in Mumbai battles depleting resources

J&K witnessed an increase of nearly 1000% in active Covid cases in April rising from 2,874 cases in the beginning to 28,359 on April 30. J&K also reported 289 deaths in April, of which over 160 fatalities were reported in just last week of the month.

Experts say cases have escalated in a big way in the last two weeks or so and the situation is very serious. They attributed the rise in infections in the UT to poor adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour such as masking and social distancing, and to potential impacts of the mutant variants of the coronavirus.

“Mutant variants are definitely one of the main factors behind the current surge across India and J&K can’t be isolated from it,” a senior doctor at tertiary-care SKIMS hospital in Srinagar told DH.