Srinagar, Nov 23; Kashmir has seen an upsurge in the number of COVID-19 cases during the last two months, officials in the valley said on Tuesday.
While there has been an upsurge in the number of Covid-19 cases across Kashmir in October -November, the Covid-19 growth rate has increased up to 170% in the Srinagar district.
“Srinagar contributed to almost 55% of cases during October and November. For the rest of the Kashmir division the growth rate is currently around 115%,” a senior official at Divisional Covid-19 Control Room Kashmir said on Tuesday.
According to the statistics, the weekly positivity of District Srinagar has increased from 0.38% in the first week of August to 1.96% in the first week of November 2021 and since then it is around the same value.
The surge in cases in District Srinagar was seen immediately after the season of marriages with “poor adherence to Covid Appropriate Behaviour (CAB)”.
“District Srinagar being the most populous district with highest population density and largest business establishments have always been the starting point of any Covid-19 wave, which subsequently spreads to other districts,” the officer said, adding they cannot rule out the emergence of the new variant as there have been no Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) testing results available over past two months.
The positivity of the Covid-19 cases in the rest of the Kashmir districts remained around 0.20% up to the first week of November and is showing an upwards trend in some districts since then, he noted.
Currently, the positivity of the Kashmir Division has gone up to 0.58% with rising positivity in District Baramulla to 1.31%, District Ganderbal to 0.75%, and District Kupwara to 0.63%.
The officials, however, maintain the situation does not seem to be alarming.
“The situation does not seem to be alarming as the rate of increase in the positive cases has not been too high and the rising trend seems to have flattened in Srinagar where it started the first, with similar expectations from other districts as well,” the officer at Divisional CoVID-19 Control Room Kashmir said.
He further stated the overall CoVID-19 vaccination coverage of the first dose has already crossed 100% and that of the second dose has reached 71 % in Kashmir Division among people aged 18 years and above.
