Anantnag: Apart from being the worst affected district in terms of number of Covid-19 cases, Srinagar district has also the slowest recovery rate of patients among the ten districts of Kashmir valley. Anantnag district in south Kashmir has the highest recovery rate.
Baramulla district in north Kashmir has the highest death rate, while Pulwama in south Kashmir has the lowest death rate in Kashmir, thus far.
A senior official in the administration here told Kashmir Reader that Srinagar has as of now a recovery rate of 39 percent, which is 11 percent less than that of Pulwama district, which has a recovery rate of 50 percent — the second-lowest in Kashmir.
“It is way below the national average of recoveries, which stands between 61 percent and 63 percent,” the official said.
Srinagar district has witnessed a recent upsurge in the number of cases, with its tally already beyond the 4k mark. Only 1,583 people have recovered in the district so far. The active cases currently stand at 2,331.
“The recent upsurge may be the reason for the low recovery rate. Most of the other districts, like Anantnag with a recovery rate of 68 percent, have recently witnessed a dip in fresh cases and the ones detected earlier have more or less recovered,” the official said.
Anantnag district has only 353 active cases as of now, from among a total of 1,176 cases detected. Most of the patients have recovered.
Among the other districts, only Budgam in central Kashmir has a low recovery rate at 54 percent, while the others Baramulla (65 percent), Kulgam (67 percent) Shopian (64 percent), Kupwara (65 percent) and Bandipora (64 percent) are showing good recoveries among the infected.
Baramulla district is, however, a worry as far as the death rate is concerned.
“With 63 deaths among the overall 1,772 infected people, Baramulla has a death rate of 3 percent. It is way more than the next worst affected, Srinagar, with a death rate of 2 percent, even though Srinagar has the highest number of people who have succumbed (88),” the senior official said.
He added that even the national average of death rate among the infected stands at only 2.2 percent.
“This aspect of the infection will only be clarified after a proper assessment of ages, co-morbidities among the deceased, and other factors. We cannot speculate on the subject as of now,” the official said.
Pulwama district in south Kashmir, despite having the second-lowest recovery rate, has also the lowest death rate across Kashmir valley at 1.3 percent.
“Only 17 people among the 1,219 infected have succumbed in Pulwama district,” the official said, “which vindicates my earlier statement regarding the need of a proper assessment of the vitals of the deceased persons.”
The rest of the districts in Kashmir valley have a death rate lower than the national average, with Kulgam at 1.7 percent, Shopian 1.4 percent, Anantnag 1.7 percent, Kupwara 1.6 percent, Budgam 1.9 percent, Bandipora 1.4 percent, and Ganderbal 1.7 percent.

Suhail A Shah