A-25-year-old girl from Shankarpura in Anantnag was among 24 people who died of the coronavirus in Jammu and Kashmir in the last 12 hours, pushing the death toll in the Union Territory to 2,270 since the beginning of the pandemic. While 10 deaths were reported from Kashmir, seven were from Jammu region.
The J&K administration has imposed a four- day lockdown in Kashmir from April 29 evening to halt the tide of Covid related deaths. The administration has also imposed a ‘corona curfew’ in 11 districts in the UT.
There is also a ban on assembly of more than five people in Kashmir under Section 144 CrPC. Many people in Kashmir have complained about the shortage of Covid vaccines in the UT.
The government has also refuted reports about the shortage of Covid vaccine in Kashmir. The spike in the positivity rate and deaths has suddenly led to more people queueing up at health centres to get themselves vaccinated.
The government has geared up for a possible emergency in the UT and made arrangements to deal with the crisis. Four 1,300-bed temporary hospitals and an oxygen bank have also been readied to deal with an emergency.
The resurgence of Covid has not only disrupted life, but also brought to a grinding halt a promising tourist season in Kashmir. Since December, tourists were flocking Kashmir in droves, sparking hopes of a bumper 2021. Tour operators said the winter season was highly lucrative and all the hotels in Gulmarg and Pahalgam were sold out. Most of the tourists, according to hoteliers and houseboat owners, belonged to Maharashtra and Gujarat.
