Jammu surpasses Kashmir in daily Covid infections

SRINAGAR: The Jammu division is witnessing more Covid-19 cases this month as compared to Kashmir which till August 31 was in the lead for number of infections and deaths.

Officials have attributed the change in contagion trend to increased testing in Jammu division and relaxation in lockdown. As many as 600 people tested positive in Jammu division on Monday while 413 cases were reported from Kashmir.

From September 1 to 6, the union territory has recorded 5,859 coronavirus cases, of which 3,037 (51.8%) pertained to the Jammu division and 2,822 (48%) to Kashmir division. In the last four days, the daily cases have hovered over 1,000, even touching a record high of 1,316 on Sunday.

The higher percentage of cases in Jammu this month is in complete contrast to the overall distribution of number of Covid patients in the UT, majority of which have been found infected in Kashmir.

Of the total 43,557 cases till September 6, Kashmir has contributed 31,739 patients (72.8%), while Jammu accounted for 11,818 (27%).

If the comparison is made without including the cases in the Valley till August 31 has witnessed 76.6% cases, while Jammu has contributed to 23%.

“The increase in cases in Jammu is due to two things – one that testing has increased and second is the increased public activities due to relaxation in lockdown,” said Dr ADS Manhas, epidemiologist and state surveillance officer of infectious diseases in Jammu.

He said the rate of testing has increased by 100 percent since the rapid antigen tests (RAT) were introduced. “Earlier, 4,000-5,000 RT-PCR tests were conducted, but now we are testing 10,000 people daily using RAT and RT-PCR,” he said. With RAT, the test results come within 15 minutes as against 1-2 days for RT-PCR.

1,013 new cases in J&K

J&K on Monday recorded 17 deaths and 1,013 fresh infecSeptember, tions taking the total number of Covid-19 cases to 44,570. Total 32,152 cases were reported in Kashmir and 12,418 in Jammu.

As many as 433 people were discharged from different hospitals, taking the overall recoveries to 32,760 and the recovery rate to 73.5%. At present there are 11,009 active cases in the Union Territory.

As many as 10,88,652 tests have been conducted in the UT so far.