Kashmir Valley is in the grips of Wuhan Virus pandemic to the extent that Jammu and Kashmir is the 15th worst among the 28 states and eight union territories.
Jammu and Kashmir, which is a union territory now, recorded 1,137 cases last week out of which 969 emerged positive from Kashmir itself. Jammu, in contrast, had a mere 168 cases during these seven days.
This means that there were 5.5 times more cases in Kashmir than Jammu in this seven-day period. This sharp spike in fresh cases in various districts of Kashmir is worrisome.
A bird’s eye view on the total numbers reflect the general trend too: As many as 5,559 cases are in Kashmir compared to 1,534 in the Jammu region overall.
Kashmir thus has more cases than many more populated states in the country, for instance Punjab and Kerala have four and five times more population than the Valley’s 70 lakhs and have fared better in the pandemic.
Srinagar, the smallest district in the UT, spread over only 294 square kilometres, now has 874 cases, more than all other 19 districts. It is followed by Baramulla which has 806 cases, Kulgam 766 cases and Shopian 732 cases. Ganderbal district in Kashmir is the district with least number of cases at 90.
In the Jammu region, Doda has 74 cases, Reasi 40 and Kishtwar 27 cases. It thus has three districts with less than 100 cases.
In Sunday, there were 127 new cases in the UT, with 102 cases reported from Kashmir and 25 reported from various districts of the Jammu region. Of a total of 102 cases, eight (08) were classified as Travellers in Kashmir. On the other hand, 19 out of 25 new cases in the Jammu region were Travellers.
It bears mention here that the daily new cases in the UT are divided into two groups, Travellers and Others. A vast majority of new cases in Jammu over the last fortnight have been Travellers while as in Kashmir, very few have been put in this category.
The recovery rate in both Kashmir as also Jammu has been higher than at most other places nationwide. So far, 3,235 out of 5,559 cases reported from Kashmir have recovered. In Jammu, 1,081 out of 1,533 cases have recovered till date.
The mortality rate in Kashmir is far higher than that recorded in Jammu till date. There have been 94 deaths so far, with 83 of these recorded in Kashmir and 11 reported in Jammu. In Kashmir, 22 deaths have been reported from Srinagar alone.
