Anantnag: As the overall tally of Covid-19 positive cases in Jammu and Kashmir nears the ten-thousand mark, the number of cases in the most severely hit districts of south Kashmir–Kulgam and Shopian–are also nearing the 1k mark.
Kulgam is the worst affected in south Kashmir with a total of 930 cases thus far. Shopian district has had 873 cases of the virus. Only Srinagar (1451 cases) and Baramulla (1214 cases) districts are ahead of Kulgam.
The cases from Anantnag and Pulwama take the overall number of positive cases in south Kashmir to 3160, which amounts to more than 30 percent of the overall number of cases in entire Jammu and Kashmir.
Administrative officials in the affected districts maintain that the higher number of cases is because of aggressive contact tracing and testing by the district administrations.
“We have been very aggressive with both contact tracing as well as testing here in Kulgam district,” a senior official in the district administration said, adding that the scenario could have been worse had the administration not taken adequate measures to track down and isolate contacts of positive patients well in time.
Officials in Shopian district, where the numbers have recently spiked after a brief lull, have the same thing to say.
Another category that the south Kashmir region has a 30 percent share in is the number of deaths across Jammu and Kashmir attributed to Covid-19.
The region, in total, has witnessed 47 deaths so far out of the cumulative 154 deaths in the Union Territory. Kulgam district tops this list as well with 18 deaths, Shopian comes second with 15, Anantnag third with 12 deaths and Pulwama district fourth with 5 deaths.
“We have some villages which otherwise fall within the jurisdiction of Anantnag district but were attributed to Kulgam district while testing was being done. Some deaths have occurred in these areas taking our death toll to the highest in the region,” the official from Kulgam said.
Interestingly, recent travellers (people who came back to their homes from other parts of the country) form only 11 percent of the total positive cases in south Kashmir.
“There are only 362 travellers among the tally of 3160 positive cases in south Kashmir,” an official citing official records told Kashmir Reader, adding that only Kulgam district has Covid-19 positive cases of travellers in three figures.
Kulgam district, as per records, has 233 travellers among its positive cases.
“In Shopian the number is way lower at 30. Anantnag and Pulwama have 51 and 48 travellers in the positive list,” the official said, adding that the infection might be already in the community transmission stage.

Suhail A Shah