Anantnag: Covid positive cases in Kashmir witnessed a 13 fold increase since the beginning of March even as the overall recovery rate has also dropped by a little more than 8 notches, shows official with Srinagar district being the epicentre.
The total number of cases in the ten districts of Kashmir has reached a whopping 89,942 and the number of people who remain actively positive for the virus stands at 7895.
“On March 1, the number of active positive cases was only 616. There has been an increase of 12.81 times in the number of active positive cases across Kashmir valley,” an official privy to the records told Kashmir Reader.
He added that in the same time frame (from March 1) there has been an addition of more than 15,494 fresh cases of Covid. “These numbers are worrying but not alarming,” the official said, adding that the alarming thing was a steep drop in the recovery rate of the patients.
On March 1, the recovery rate among the 74,448 cases recorded till then was a heartening 97.5 percent as 72600 people had already recovered from the disease. Presently, however, the scenario is much worse, as the recovery rate has dipped down to a dismal 89.7 percent.
“Out of the 89942 people infected, the recovered number stands at 80,747 which means a recovery rate of only around 89.7 percent. It is alarming and even more so if you have a look at the recovery rate around the end of March,” the official said.
He told Kashmir Reader that the recovery rate around March 25 was 96.8 percent and has dropped this low in less than a month. “May be it is because there has been a steep surge in the last ten to fifteen days and the active positive cases are mostly fresh ones. But in any case, we cannot be complacent at any cost,” the official said.
His argument about the cases being fresh ones is also supported by a slight decrease in the mortality rate since March 1. A total of 1232 people had died till February 28 and the mortality rate stood at around 1.6 percent.
“Today, the mortality rate is only 1.4 percent as 1300 people have died so far,” the official said, “Let us have our fingers crossed and hope for the best,”
Srinagar district, meanwhile, continues to be the worst hit across the Valley. The overall cases in Srinagar district stand at 35720, the active positive people among them are 4,480.
“Which means Srinagar has a share of more than 56 per cent in the overall active positive cases in Kashmir valley right now,” the official said, “Shopian district in south Kashmir, meanwhile, has the lowest number of active positive cases at only 101,”
The other hard hit district in the recent surge has been north Kashmir’s Baramulla district where the number of active positive people stands at 1128.

Suhail A Shah