Anantnag: In the 30 days since November 12, a total of 7,681 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded in Kashmir valley, of which the major chunk, 3,261 cases, came from Srinagar district.
“This amounts to 42 percent of the total cases, as it was last month,” an official privy to the records told Kashmir Reader. “While other districts are showing some promise, the virus has been relentless in Srinagar district,” he said.
Same is the case with the number of deaths of Covid-19 patients. A total of 112 patients have succumbed since November 12 across the ten districts of Kashmir valley, 46 of them in Srinagar. This is 42 percent of the number of fatalities.
Srinagar fares no better even in the number of active Covid-19 cases. Of the total 2,512 active cases in Kashmir at the moment, 1,138 of them are in Srinagar.
“The rest of the nine districts share the other 1,374 active cases, with an average of 152 cases per district,” the official said.
How worse off Srinagar district is in the fight against the pandemic can be gauged by the reports from the two other districts, Anantnag and Baramulla, that have more or less the same population as Srinagar.
Anantnag district has witnessed only 264 cases and 7 deaths since November 12, while Baramulla district has recorded 1,061 cases and 13 deaths in this period.
“It is indeed a matter of concern and needs to be looked into. This is happening despite the fact that people in Srinagar have been taking more precautions than people in other districts, such as social distancing and wearing masks in public,” the official said.
Meanwhile, the twin districts of south Kashmir, Kulgam and Shopian, are continuing to be on the path of recovery. Kulgam district continues to remain the least affected district with only 85 new positive cases reported since November 12 while only 4 people have died in the district.
“Shopian district, too, is faring pretty well with only 146 new cases and as little as 2 deaths during this period. We need to look into what these districts are doing better than Srinagar, Baramulla or for that matter Budgam district, where 902 new cases were reported and 10 people lost their life (since Nov 12),” the official said.
The overall caseload in Kashmir valley, meanwhile, is nearing the 70k mark and 1,151 people have died thus far. The only solace seems to be the recovery rate, which stands at more than 94 per cent for now.

Suhail A Shah