Only 54 cases reported this month, no deaths

Anantnag: Covid is ebbing away in the south Kashmir region where the districts of Shopian and Kulgam have reported only one case each of the infection in the month of October thus far.

Srinagar district in central Kashmir continues to be the worst affected among the ten districts of Kashmir division.

As of October 10, Kashmir valley has reported a total of 206445 cases of Covid infection, among whom 203384 have recovered and 2252 people have lost their lives — a recovery rate of 98.5%.

In the month of October, the valley has reported a total of 718 cases thus far. “The good news is, there have been no fresh cases in Shopian and Kulgam districts for nine out of the ten days of this month so far,” a senior official, privy to data on Covid-19, told Kashmir Reader.

Both these districts reported a case of each of the infections on October 4. The rest of the days have gone Covid free in these two districts of south Kashmir. “And it is not just the diminishing cases, the active positive cases in the two districts are at the rock bottom as well,” the official said.

Shopian and Kulgam, as of October 10, have only one active positive case each of the infections. Besides, the two districts have reported no new Covid related death this month thus far.

“Last year as well, these were the two districts that had gone Covid free, among the ten districts of Kashmir valley. This year as well, these two districts are leading the way,” the official said.

Overall in south Kashmir, the situation is way better than in other districts. Anantnag, a district as populous as Srinagar, has reported only 27 fresh cases of Covid this year and Pulwama has reported only 25 cases.

“So in culmination, we have only 54 new cases of the virus in the four districts of South Kashmir and no death this month so far,” the official said, “The active positive cases in Anantnag and Pulwama have also come down to 25 and 24 respectively,”

The data essentially means that the four districts of South Kashmir have contributed only 7.5 percent of the fresh infections, and just 6.3 percent of the active positive cases.

Compare it to Srinagar and there is an overwhelming difference. Srinagar district has so far reported 399 cases of infection in the first ten days of October.

“Which means, Srinagar has contributed 55.5 percent of October’s infection in Kashmir valley,” the official said. Also, the number of active positive cases in Srinagar stands at 465, more than 57 percent of the total active positive cases in Kashmir.

Besides, both the deaths caused by the infection this month, in Kashmir valley, have been reported from Srinagar district – as the district continues to be battered by the spread of the virus.

Suhail A Shah