With 105 new cases, coronavirus cases in Jammu & Kashmir mount to 2446

The COVID-19 cases in Jammu and Kashmir continue to spread rapidly and on Sunday 105 more people tested positive for the deadly virus in the Union Territory (UT) taking the total tally to 2446.

Out of the total cases reported today, 90 cases have been reported from Kashmir division while the remaining 15 are from Jammu division. District Anantnag recorded the highest number of cases on Sunday with 24 positive cases. Anantnag continues to be the epicenter of the coronavirus spread in J&K. The southern district has 338 positive cases followed by neighboring Kulgam with 294 and Srinagar with 280.

The positive cases on Sunday include a commissioner secretary rank officer after which five top ranking IAS officers, several officials of civil administration and health department went for self-quarantine.

According to the daily Media Bulletin, out of 2446 positive cases, 1491 are active cases, 927 have recovered and 28 have died.

J&K has been witnessing a spike in COVID-19 cases in the past 10-days. The UT recorded the highest single-day spike of 177 new cases on Saturday. From 500 cases on April 28 to 1000 cases on May 15, it took J&K 17 days to double its COVID-19 cases. However, in the last two weeks there has been a substantial rise in positive cases.

While the first case was reported on March 9, the first 1000 patients took 80 days to accumulate. J&K government says the rise in cases is due to intensive testing.

Jammu and Kashmir is among the highest COVID-19 case density areas in the country which is nearly 200 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 135. With poor health infrastructure and climatic conditions, the Valley also is one of the most high-risk zones for the coronavirus outbreak.

The COVID-19-necessitated lockdown in J&K has been extended till June 8 by the UT government on Sunday.