Abid Bashir
Srinagar (NVI): Jammu and Kashmir government today declared the entire Kashmir as “Red Zone”, barring two districts -Bandipora and Ganderbal, a day ahead of the massive review on Covid-19 situation in the Union Territory.
According to an order issued by the J&K UT Chief Secretary BVR Subramanyam, all districts in Kashmir Valley, excluding Bandipora and Ganderbal, have been declared as red zones. “Ramban district of Jammu province has also been declared as a red zone,” the order read.
It stated that Kathua, Samba, Ganderbal, Bandipora, Reasi, Udhampur, Poonch, Rajouri and Jammu have been declared as orange zones. Kishtwar and Doda districts have been declared as green zones.
The government order comes a day ahead of the massive review on Covid-19 situation in the J&K. The government had earlier stated that a massive review will be done on the overall situation on July 8 in which the decision on fresh guidelines and relaxations in lockdown will be taken.
Sources said since the coronavirus deaths and positive cases have shown a spurt, there was less chance of relaxing the lockdown. However, the government was mulling to allow three-wheelers to ply and the home delivery of food items in summer capital Srinagar from tomorrow onwards, they said.
An official said that district-wise guidelines on relaxations will be issued by this evening or tomorrow morning. Pertinently, since the past four days, J&K has witnessed a sudden spike in Covid deaths as five people have died in the past three days while the tally of positive cases has climbed to almost 3500. What is more worrying is that more and more pregnant women are fast falling prey to the deadly pandemic as every day 20 to 30 expecting mothers are testing positive for the virus in J&K UT on an average.
Senior medicos have already termed the trend of pregnant women testing positive for the pandemic as “worrisome” and advised a series of tests to find out whether the baby contracts the virus within the womb of the mother or post delivery.
Senior doctor and the Associate Professor at Government Medical College Srinagar Dr Nisar-ul-Hassan has advocated Cord, amniotic fluid and maternal fetus test of women who test positive for the virus and deliver babies in the same state. “This is to find out whether the baby contracts the virus within the womb. If that’s the case, then it’s a disaster. So far there is no evidence of vertical transmission,” Dr Nisar had told NVI recently.
Official figures suggest that there are at least 200 pregnant women who were tested positive for the virus and a five-day-old baby girl was the youngest Covid case reported from Kashmir recently.
