Anantnag: With nine out of its ten districts now Covid free, the entire Jammu division has only two active positive cases of the virus, even as the Kashmir division is still battling more than 70 active positive cases across its ten districts.
The number of daily infections has been coming down drastically with no fresh infections reported on Monday, for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic in Kashmir.
Recoveries have been coming thick and fast, too, leading to Covid free zones and now Covid free districts. In Jammu division of the Union Territory, there were only two active positive cases as of Tuesday.
“And both the cases are in Jammu district. The rest of the nine districts in the division are now free of Covid,” a senior official in the administration, privy to data on Covid, told Kashmir Reader, “which means that we might see a Covid free Jammu division in just a couple of days.”
In Kashmir division, while other districts are doing quite well, Srinagar district is keeping the caseload on the higher side.
“Srinagar has a total of 67 active positive cases. This is around 92 percent of the total tally of 73 in the entire Kashmir division,” the official said, adding that Baramulla district was the second-worst-hit but with only 3 active positive cases.
The rest of the three active positive cases are one each in Budgam, Anantnag and Shopian districts.
“Shopian has remained Covid free for the most part of February and March, but some fresh cases have recently been detected in the district,” the official said. The rest of the six districts are Covid-free as of now. That means a total of 16 districts in Jammu and Kashmir are Covid-free at present.
There are also no patients undergoing treatment for the virus in any of the hospitals across Kashmir. “And it is unlikely that we will witness a fresh wave now,” the official said.
The Doctors’ Association Kashmir (DAK) on Monday said that the XE variant of the virus is unlikely to bring a new wave of the pandemic in Jammu and Kashmir. The variant was first detected in the United Kingdom and is a hybrid of prevalent Omicron strains – BA1 and BA2. “Almost the whole population here has already been exposed to these variants and it is unlikely that the XE will have any further effect,” President of DAK, Dr Nisar ul Haq, said.

Suhail A Shah