Anantnag: Even as the Covid-19 onslaught continues in Kashmir valley, the cases now having crossed the 30k mark, Shopian and Kulgam districts in south Kashmir are showing how to get a handle on the novel coronavirus.
In the last one month, since August 3 to be precise, the ten districts in Kashmir valley have recorded about 13,000 new cases of the novel coronavirus, with an average of 1,300 cases per district.
“Shopian and Kulgam districts, though, have registered only 257 and 438 cases during this time,” a senior official privy to the Covid-19 records in Kashmir valley said.
“On August 3 the cases in Shopian district were 1,474, which now stand at 1,731, while as in Kulgam the cases have gone from 1,523 to 1,961,” he informed.
The official said that a comparison with other districts reveals how well the twin districts are doing. “Srinagar since August 3 has recorded 4,303 new cases and the other two districts in south Kashmir, Pulwama and Anantnag, have registered 1,119 and 1,042 fresh positive cases during this time,” he said.
Even Ganderbal district, smallest in Kashmir valley in terms of population, has witnessed around 1,100 cases during the past month. The number in the central Kashmir district has jumped from 490 to 1,578.
Shopian and Kulgam districts have also shown great progress in controlling the death rates, with only 5 people dying of Covid-19 in Shopian district and 8 in Kulgam district during the past month.
“During the same period, 93 people have died in Srinagar, 33 in Pulwama district and 26 in Anantnag district,” the official said, adding that while comparisons cannot be made between Srinagar and these districts, given the population difference, the twin districts are doing much better than Anantnag and Pulwama in the region.
The two districts have also been doing pretty well vis-à-vis the recoveries of the people infected with the virus. As of now Shopian district has only 97 active cases while Kulgam district has 141.
“There is a huge gap between these two districts and the other two (Anantnag and Pulwama) in the region in this regard as well. The active cases in Anantnag today are 566 and in Pulwama the number is 453 — way higher than Shopian and Kulgam,” the official said.

Suhail A Shah