Anantnag: With a massive increase in the number of Covid infections here in Jammu and Kashmir, the daily positivity rate has also increased by 1,740 per cent between January 1 and January 16, according to official figures.
On January 1, the government said it had conducted 65,920 Covid tests in the last twenty-four hours, of which only 169 turned out to be positive – 68 in Jammu division and 101 in Kashmir division.
“These numbers only add up to a positivity rate of 0.25 percent,” an official privy to the Covid-19 figures told Kashmir Reader. “We could safely assume that the positivity rate was negligible.”
However, the positivity rate has increased by 1,740 per cent in just a fortnight. On January 16, the administration said it had conducted 74,593 COVID tests and found 3,499 people positive – 2,289 in Kashmir and 1,210 in Jammu region.
“Which essentially means that the positivity rate has increased to 4.6 per cent as on January 16. It is a big jump at least in time and it looks like things are going to get worse from here on,” the official said.
Experts have expressed similar apprehensions. SKIMS Director Dr Parvez Kaul recently told Kashmir Reader that the number of daily cases will go far beyond the highest number during the second wave.
“The second wave had the highest number of 3500 cases, but it’s going to be even higher this time,” said Kaul, “Omicron’s super-spreading behavior.”
We have already seen the daily number increase to 3499 on Sundays. For now, there has not been a single daily drop in the numbers or positivity rates since January 1. The numbers, as well as the positivity rate, are rising steadily.
“This is a worrying trend, and we need to follow the appropriate Covid practices to put the brakes on the ever-increasing numbers,” the administration official said.
Happily, however, the hospitalization rate has remained at a low level, although it has seen an increase in the last few days. Between January 13 and January 16, the bed occupancy has increased from 5.4 per cent to 7.02 per cent.
“But it is still at a low level and the number of deaths due to it is less than the previous months,” the official said. A total of 37 deaths have occurred in Jammu and Kashmir between January 1 and January 16, while only the Kashmir division has seen so many deaths in December.
Meanwhile, as both the divisions of the Union Territory have witnessed a serious rise in the number of infections, the spread in Jammu has been comparatively slow. The daily infections in the Kashmir division have increased by over 2,100 per cent, while the spike in Jammu is below 1,800 per cent.
