For the first time this year, the daily Covid count in Jammu and Kashmir crossed 400
For the first time this year, the daily Covid count in Jammu and Kashmir crossed 400. The UT on Thursday recorded 461 infections, the highest daily count after December 8. The new cases have taken the case tally in the Union Territory to 1,31,421. The death toll reached 1,998 with four fresh fatalities — three in Kashmir and one in Jammu division.
For the last seven days, the UT has reported around 200 daily cases. From 210 cases on Friday, the count reached 461 on Thursday – the highest daily count in 114 days. Overall, the month of March recorded 4,519 Coronavirus infections, an increase of 133% against February, and 37 deaths. In February,1,935 cases and 21 deaths were reported in the UT.
As many as 361 cases were reported in the Kashmir division on Thursday while 100 fresh cases were reported from Jammu division. Officials said Srinagar recorded 157 new cases, followed by 76 in Baramulla , 61 in Jammu, 26 in Budgam and 21 in Kathua. Three districts, all of them in Jammu division, did not report any cases.
The number of active cases, which has been rising steadily in March, has reached 2,874, officials said. There are 2,150 active cases in the Kashmir division, of which 1,158 are in Srinagar. Of the 724 active cases in the Jammu division, 519 are in Jammu. On Thursday, 114 patients were also discharged from various hospitals including 78 in Kashmir and 36 in Jammu. As many as 126,549 people have recovered so far, taking the recovery rate to 96.29%. Over 6.08 million Covid-19 tests have been conducted in the Union territory.
Meanwhile, as many as 39 students and five staff members from three different educational institutions in central Kashmir’s Budgam district tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, prompting the authorities to shut them for at least five days, officials said.
The positive cases were found during random sampling at these intuitions, the officials said. At Government Higher Secondary School in Hafroo Batapora in Nagam area of the district, 33 students and four staff members tested positive, Chief Education Officer of Budgam, Syed Muhammad Amin told PTI.
Amin said the medical teams conducted random testing on 584 students of the school. He said a contact tracing programme has been initiated and the family members of the positive cases would also be tested. The school has been ordered to remain closed for 10 days, the official added. He said random testing was also done at an orphanage in Beerwah area of the district and samples of six students there came back as positive.
The institution has been closed for five days, he added. Amin said a staff member from Delhi Public School, Budgam, also tested positive a day after two staff members of the school had tested positive for the virus.
He said DPS has also been closed for five days and contact tracing of the positive persons was going on. The education officer said the department in cooperation with health authorities on Thursday started vaccination of all the teaching and non-teaching staff in the district and it will be concluded in three days.
On Wednesday, at least 36 students of primary classes of Noorani Public School in Khull area of Kulgam tested positive, while in the adjacent Anantnag district, 14 students at Government High School in Kathsoo tested positive for the novel coronavirus. In another case, two staff members at Kothibagh Higher Secondary School in Srinagar also tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday.
