However, no Covid related death reported in valley in past week

Anantnag: There’s still a week left in September but the month’s tally of Covid cases has already breached August’s, by almost 300, while the daily cases continue to rise.

“A cursory look at the past week’s numbers tells us about the trend,” an official privy to the data on Covid-19 told Kashmir Reader. In September thus far, he informed, 2,519 new Covid cases have been reported in the ten districts of Kashmir division – till September 23. In August, the figure for the entire month was 2,246.

“Which means September’s tally of new infections is 273 cases more than August’s, and we are still a week away from the end of the month,” the official said, adding that if cases keep on increasing like they are, the tally may even double in comparison to last month.

In the last seven days, only 963 cases of Covid have been reported in Kashmir valley, amounting to more than 38 percent of the total tally of the month. “That actually proves my point of the upward trend in new infections,” the official said.

Another indicator of the worsening situation is the total number of active cases in Kashmir, which at present stands at 1,363.

“At the start of the month the number was 349 less than the current number, which means the recovery rate has been going down,” the official said.

The current recovery rate is 98.2 percent, a few basis points lower than what the recovery rate at the start of this month. The share of Srinagar district in the total active cases seems to be growing exponentially, with the district now contributing about 60 percent of the total active cases.

“In such a scenario, the hospitalisation rate is obviously expected to go up, and that is what has happened. At present 98 people are admitted in hospitals for the infection, which is considerably higher than the number last month, which hovered between the 50s and 60s during the entire month,” the official said.

The good part, however, is that only four Covid patients have died this month. In the past week, no Covid deaths have been reported from any of the ten districts of Kashmir division.

“Hopefully, the numbers will come down. But for that to happen, people will have to take extreme care in the coming days,” the official said.

Suhail A Shah