Curfew extended in 4 J&K dists as 4,650 fresh cases reported

The J&K government on Tuesday extended curfew in four districts and brought Samba under restrictions.

“The corona curfew in Srinagar, Baramulla, Budgam and Jammu, which is there till 7am on Thursday, will stand extended till 6 am on Monday, May 10,” directorate of information and public relations said in a Tweet.

“In addition, Samba district will also be under corona curfew from 7pm on Wednesday till 7am on Monday,” it said.

The latest curbs came at the time when Jammu and Kashmir witnessed the record highest single day spike of 4,650 Covid infections, taking the overall cases to 1, 91,869 in the UT on Tuesday.

The UT also recorded 37 fatalities, taking the total death toll to 2,458. Of the 37 deaths in the UT, 25 were reported in Jammu division and 12 in Kashmir. Officials said with 1,311 cases, Srinagar had the highest number of new infections, followed by 589 in Jammu district, 386 in Budgam, 352 in Baramulla and 240 in Pulwama.

The number of active cases, which has been rising exponentially, reached 37,302, officials said.

Around 1,878 patients have recovered, including 1,247 from Kashmir and 631 from Jammu.

As many as 1,52,109 people have recovered so far, taking the recovery rate to 79.27%.

Meanwhile, Kashmir divisional commissioner Pandurang K Pole on Tuesday visited Reshipora village in Budgam to take stock of ongoing construction work of DRDO’S 500-bed Covid hospital.

Pole said that work on the project is to be completed within 35 days.

J&K govt announces incentives for doctors, healthcare workers

Jammu and Kashmir administration has decided to extend the tenure of retiring doctors till the end of the year and also provide monetary incentives to all healthcare workers directly dealing with coronavirus patients.

Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Monday approved the special financial incentives for Covid-19 warriors of the health and medical education department of J&K.

“Although, the services rendered by these Covid warriors cannot be compensated, still the UT government has decided to incentivise their efforts,” Sinha said.

Incentives are exclusively for those frontline workers who directly deal with Covid-19 patients.

“The decision will benefit more than 17,000 corona warriors, including resident doctors, medical officers, paramedical/ nursing staff, drivers and other employees,” a government spokesperson said.

The incentive will be ₹10,000 per month for resident doctors, PGS and medical officers; ₹7,000 for nursing and paramedical staff, and ₹5,000 for drivers, sweepers and attendants.

“The tenure of these incentives will be initially for a period of three months and will be paid from May 2021 onwards,” the spokesman said.