Amid lockdown, 7 deaths; 4,615 fresh cases in J&K

Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday reported seven deaths and a surge of 4,615 fresh COVID-19 cases pushing the number of active cases to 40,270. The spurt in deaths and positivity comes at a time when the entire Union Territory is under tight weekend lockdown that commenced on Friday afternoon.

Meanwhile providing a relief to traders, businessman dealing in non-essential items the Jammu and Kashmir government has relaxed the weekend curfew by excluding Friday, while continuing with the restrictions on Saturdays and Sundays.

While continuing weekend restrictions, the State Executive Committee (SEC), which met under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary AK Mehta, said that there shall be complete restrictions on non-essential movements in the entire UT from Fridays 9 pm to Mondays 6 am. Now the weekend restrictions will for 57 hours instead of 64 hours.

Moreover,6557 more COVID-19 patients have recovered and been discharged from various hospitals including 1585 from Jammu Division and 4972 from Kashmir Division in the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, amid weekend the normal life remained affected across Jammu and Kashmir and all major towns of the UT. The 64 hour-long weekend lockdown begins on Friday from 2 pm to Monday 6 am. Jammu and Kashmir has seen a rise in day-to-day COVID-19 cases during the past few weeks forcing authorities to impose weekend restriction on non-essentials movements in the UT.

With seven more deaths, the death toll in J&K has reached 4,659 and 4,615 fresh positive cases reported on Sunday have pushed the tally of positive cases to 432,875. Of the exact number of 432,202 cases, 276,371 are from Kashmir division and 156,504 from Jammu division.

Among 4,615 fresh cases, 3,214 belong to Kashmir division while as 1,401 are from Jammu division. Srinagar district recorded a maximum of 889 new cases, followed by Jammu district which registered 826 such infections.
The officials said that the total number of active cases in Jammu and Kashmir are 40,270 including 29,802 from Kashmir division and 10,468 from Jammu division. Moreover, the bulletin also highlights that against the availability of 5038 dedicated level 1 and level 2 COVID beds, only 544 ( 10.79%) are occupied. There are 51 mucormycosis (black fungus) cases in the union territory. No fresh case has been reported since last evening.
Among the people who died from the Covid in Jammu region included three from Jammu district and one from Doda district. Meanwhile, during targeted testing, 26 were found positive from Girls Higher Secondary School Gandhi Nagar, seven from Jewel Chowk area,, five from General Bus Stand, two each from police post at Gandhi Nagar and police check up point at Janipur and 10 during mobile sampling from different locations in the district.

The authorities in Jammu and Kashmir imposed a weekend lockdown on January 15 and it was later extended by 16- hours from Friday 1400 hours to Monday 0600 hours on January 21 following a rise in COVID-19 cases. All shops and business establishments were closed and transport was off the roads. Only shops selling essential items were allowed to open. The Sunday market also wore a deserted look, amid the lockdown and rainfall. As per the reports from various parts of the state, the lockdown was strictly implemented and people were abiding to the norms.