Comments
The Valley of Kashmir will continue to be under strict lockdown beyond April 20 owing to Covid-19 hotspots across its districts, as per media reports.
Speaking to the Greater Kashmir , Divisional Commissioner Kashmir Pandurang K Pole said that all districts of Kashmir division had more than one Covid-19 hotspot and, therefore, the authorities would not be able to ease restrictions on public movement.
This comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the country and directed for the extension of the lockdown till May 3. He, however, has allowed a moment of respite for cities and localities that have reported no coronavirus cases so far. The relaxations will be allowed after April 20 in places where there are no hotspots.
Financial Commissioner Health and Medical Education Atal Dulloo informed that the Jammu and Kashmir government will wait for the detailed guidelines for lockdown and relaxation being issued by the Centre on April 15. “We will then deliberate on how to implement those guidelines in J&K.”
Micro-planning document
A senior public health official said that J&K government was preparing a micro-planning document to effectively contain Covid-19 in places where there were clusters. He said that although many parts of the Valley had relatively lesser number of cases, the clusters had the potential to spread further. “The government has been completely sealing areas that are reporting more than two cases in the neighborhood,” he said to Greater Kashmir .
He added that the situation will be monitored for a fortnight and stricter curbs will be imposed in “red zones” whereas “green zones”, those which are not the hotspots will see some respite thereafter.
Another official said the government had directed the district administrations to intensify sampling of suspected cases to get the hang of the epidemic in J&K. “Test, isolate, treat – This is our strategy for now,” the official said, adding that lockdown would be relaxed only after there is a decrease in the number of cases. “For now, it is a clear surge and we need to see a flattened curve, maybe nose-diving as well,” he said to Greater Kashmir.
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.