On June 7, AG Ahangar, director of the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences in Srinagar, said the Kashmir Valley was “facing commu...
On June 7, AG Ahangar, director of the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences in Srinagar, said the Kashmir Valley was “facing community spread of Covid-19”. The Sher-i-Kashmir is the region’s pre-eminent medical facility and has been desginated a Covid-19 hospital. “This is a reality and we must accept it and learn to live with it,” Ahangar told IANS.
Ahangar’s assessment comes at a time when Jammu and Kashmir has registered a sharp rise in cases. As of June 10, Jammu and Kashmir had 4,507 cases. In the government bulletin, 1,605 cases are listed as “travellers” while 2,902 are marked as “others”. A staggering 2,061 cases have been reported in June alone. The Union Territory also had 51 Covid-19 related deaths till June 10. The Kashmir Valley accounted for 3,522 cases and 46 deaths.
Cases have surged across states in June. But both Central and state governments across the country have been reluctant to concede to community transmission, although the Delhi health minister suggested on June 10 that it had reached that stage. The Jammu and Kashmir government has not offered any explanation for the sudden rise in cases either.
According to the World Health Organization, “Community transmission is evidenced by the inability to relate confirmed cases through chains of transmission for a large number...
