Spike in positive cases in Jammu after ‘sweep clean’ drive: Officials
Jammu: Jammu has witnessed a spurt in COVID-19 cases, registering 2,254 new patients in the past nine days with 520 of them on Saturday alone, owing to a strategic plan to ‘sweep clean’ the district of the infection through a massive testing exercise, officials said.
The health officials said the drive pushed Jammu on the top of the list of the districts having most number of active COVID-19 cases in the entire Union Territory, which has so far recorded 770 deaths linked to the infection since the outbreak of the pandemic in March.
They said the Jammu division, comprising 10 districts, had recorded 34 deaths since August 28 with a maximum of 10 fatalities reported in the past 24 hours, raising the total number of fatalities in the region to 91.
Jammu district tops the fatality chart with 59 deaths, followed by eight in Kathua district; five each in Rajouri, Doda and Poonch; four in Udhampur; three in Samba and one each in Ramban and Kishtwar districts, the officials said, adding Jammu’s Reasi is the only district in the entire UT which has not recorded any coronavirus-related death till date.
On August 23, Chief Secretary B V R Subrahmanyam reviewed the COVID-19 mitigation measures in Jammu Division and directed preparation of a strategic plan to ‘sweep-clean’ districts Jammu, Udhampur and Rajouri of all positive cases through a massive testing exercise in these districts focussed on red zones and other areas with higher incidence of COVID -19 cases.
Following the aggressive drive of Rapid Antigen Test (RAT), Jammu district registered a three digit figure of 109 cases on August 28 against 194 in Srinagar which was the highest in any of the 20 districts in the Union Territory on that day, the officials said.
They said Jammu subsequently replaced Srinagar on the top of the chart with detection of 134 cases on August 29; 258 cases on August 30; 139 on August 31; 121 on September 1; 167 on September 2 and 484 on September 3; 322 on September 4 and 520 on September 5, which was largest single-day spike till date.
The other nine districts of Jammu division recorded 1,130 cases in the past nine days, the officials said.
With aggressive testing, Jammu district now leads the chart of having the largest number of active cases in the Union Territory at 2,564 followed by Srinagar at 1400, the officials said.
They said Jammu and Kashmir’s caseload stands at 42,241 — 31,091 in Kashmir and 11,150 in Jammu region. While 31,924 patients have recovered from the infection, 9,547 cases are still active in the Union Territory which included 5,572 in Kashmir division and 3,975 in Jammu division, the officials said.
In the Kashmir Valley, Srinagar accounts for a maximum of 233 deaths from the novel coronavirus, followed by 104 in Baramulla, 64 in Budgam, 56 in Pulwama, 54 in Kupwara, 52 in Anantnag, 37 in Kulgam, 28 in Shopian, 26 in Bandipora and 25 in Ganderbal.
Meanwhile, the officials said Akhnoor police station and Pallanwalla police post on the outskirts of Jammu were closed for public till further orders on Saturday after 11 policemen including the Station House Officer (SHO) tested positive for the coronavirus.
The step was taken as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of the infection, they said. (PTI)