The Kashmir valley will stay in red zone as 27 positive cases of novel coronavirus pushed the total to 666 on Saturday in J&K.
“While 25 cases were from the Kashmir division, two were from the Jammu division. Of the 666 positive cases, 404 are active positive, 254 have recovered and eight have died,” the J&K administration said.
While 15 of the 25 cases were from Srinagar, four were from Anantnag and three each from Baramulla and Shopian, according to official figures.
“Five cases belonged to a single family of Batpora Rainawari. An employee of the leading maternity hospital, Lal Ded, also tested positive. However, the employee is on sick leave,” the officials said.
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With COVID-19 cases showing no let up, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Pandurang K. Pole, has decided to treat the valley, comprising 10 districts, as “red zone till further orders”.
Earlier, the Centre had named only four districts of the Valley as red zones. “We can’t lower the guard given the rising number of cases. Two, it’s easy to open shops, businesses etc. but then implementing a lockdown will be a tough task in any eventuality,” Mr. Pole said.
Mr. Pole, who chaired a high-level meeting to review the preparedness and other arrangements of COVID-19 in Srinagar, stressed on higher capacity of testing per day and timely reporting. “Because this is very vital for overall COVID-19 control efforts and mitigation operations across the valley, including isolation, administrative quarantine, home quarantine, contact tracing, sampling,” he said.
