Number of active cases: 19

Anantnag: Shopian district is leading the path to recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, with only 15 cases of the infection reported in the month of June thus far. In another highlight, there are only 19 active cases in the district as of now (Tuesday, June 29).
Last year as well, Shopian was the first district in Kashmir where the cases started declining and dwindled to zero, much before in the other nine districts.
This time around as well, the second wave seems to be coming to an end first in this south Kashmir district. On June 1, the number of total cases of Covid detected in Shopian was 5,534. That number has risen marginally to 5,549 since.
“Only 15 cases of the infection in these 28 days. The district looks like it will hit the zero mark soon enough,” an official privy to the data on Covid-19 told Kashmir Reader.
Thirteen of these 15 cases have been reported in the last week, though, a warning that Covid cannot be written off as yet.
“What is more important is the decline in the number of active cases,” the official said, informing that the active cases in the district have declined by a whopping 98.3% this month.
On June 1, the number of active cases was 1,129, which is now 19.
“This translates to a recovery rate of 98.6 percent,” the official said, adding that the district has done well on the death rate as well. There have been only 3 Covid related deaths in the district since June 1, none in the last more than a week now.
The neighbouring Kulgam district, which also did well in the first wave, lags behind Shopian district by a significant margin. Kulgam district has recorded 1,073 new cases since June 1.
“Besides, there have been 11 Covid related deaths in the district this month, which is way higher than in Shopian district,” the official said. “However, Kulgam district has a recovery rate of over 97 percent and has only 210 active cases of the infection right now,” the official added.
In Kashmir valley on a whole, the total number of Covid cases stands at 1,95,565, with a recovery rate of over 97 percent. Of these patients, 2,210 have died so far in Kashmir.

Suhail A Shah