Anantnag: Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed only two new Covid deaths, in more than 10 days now, after a tumultuous January and equally harrowing February, as the infections, as well as active positive cases, are rapidly coming down.

Both these deaths have been reported from the Jammu division, while no one has died in Kashmir valley since February 23, owing to the infection.

The last Covid related death in the Union Territory was reported on March 4, and before that on February 23. “The numbers are really encouraging and we are probably moving toward the end of the pandemic,” a senior official, privy to data on Covid1-19, told Kashmir Reader.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Jammu and Kashmir has reported 453245 infections and 4749 deaths caused by it – 287163 infections and 2423 deaths in Kashmir valley, and 166082 infections and 2326 deaths in the Jammu division.

“This year’s January saw a steep spike in both the number of cases and deaths. A total of 146 people died in the month even as 94,135 people were infected,” the official said.

February went on a little soft but the union territory still lost 74 people to the Covid infection, as the fresh infections topped 17,500. “Which amounts to a total of 220 deaths and over one Lac fresh infections,” the official said.

Things however started to ease out in the last week of February, when the infections started to drop drastically and no new deaths were reported from anywhere in the union territory.

“The daily infections tumbled down to two digits towards the end of February and there has been a consistent drop in the numbers ever since,” the official said. In the first six days of March, only 248 new infections have been reported.

What the union territory is also making a progress on is the number of recoveries that are being reported. As of March 6, only 357 people remain actively positive for the virus across Jammu and Kashmir – 181 of them in the Kashmir division and the rest in Jammu.

“We are making steady progress viz-a-viz the hospitalizations as well as daily positivity rate in the UT,” the official said, adding that the hospitalization rate was below what it was at the beginning of the year.

Presently, only 8 of the 4838 Covid dedicated beds remain occupied across the union territory, which amounts to a hospitalization rate of a meagre 0.16 percent. Also, the daily positivity rate on March 6 was only 0.07 percent, way below what it was at the beginning of the third wave.

“We might be finally getting to the end of the pandemic but we need to take precautions, now more than ever to curb the spread,” the official said.

Suhail A Shah