Srinagar/Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday recorded 1,251 COVID-19 cases, its highest single-day spike in infections, pushing the tally to 42,241, while 15 fatalities in the past 24 hours raised the death toll to 770, officials said.
This is for the third time in as many days that the number of fresh cases has crossed the 1000-mark in a 24-hour period, the officials said.
Among the new cases, 739 were from the Jammu region, while 512 from the Kashmir Valley.
Jammu district reported a maximum of 520 new cases, followed by 181 in Srinagar district, the officials said.
Jammu on Saturday became the first district in the Union Territory to report over 500 COVID-19 cases in a single day.
There are 9,547 active COVID-19 cases in the UT, while 31,924 people have recovered from the infection so far, they said.
Meanwhile, 15 people infected with the coronavirus have died in Jammu and Kashmir in the past 24 hours till 5.00 pm on Saturday, the officials said.
They said while 10 of the new fatalities took place in Jammu, five were reported from the Kashmir Valley.
Meanwhile, Jammu has witnessed a spurt in COVID-19 cases, registering 2,254 new patients in the past nine days with 520 of them on Saturday alone, owing to a strategic plan to ‘sweep clean’ the district of the infection through a massive testing exercise, officials said.
The health officials said the drive pushed Jammu on the top of the list of the districts having most number of active COVID-19 cases in the entire Union Territory, which has so far recorded 770 deaths linked to the infection since the outbreak of the pandemic in March.
They said the Jammu division, comprising 10 districts, had recorded 34 deaths since August 28 with a maximum of 10 fatalities reported in the past 24 hours, raising the total number of fatalities in the region to 91.
Jammu district tops the fatality chart with 59 deaths, followed by eight in Kathua district; five each in Rajouri, Doda and Poonch; four in Udhampur; three in Samba and one each in Ramban and Kishtwar districts, the officials said, adding Jammu’s Reasi is the only district in the entire UT which has not recorded any coronavirus-related death till date.
On August 23, Chief Secretary B V R Subrahmanyam reviewed the COVID-19 mitigation measures in Jammu Division and directed preparation of a strategic plan to ‘sweep-clean’ districts Jammu, Udhampur and Rajouri of all positive cases through a massive testing exercise in these districts focussed on red zones and other areas with higher incidence of COVID -19 cases.
They said Jammu subsequently replaced Srinagar on the top of the chart with detection of 134 cases on August 29; 258 cases on August 30; 139 on August 31; 121 on September 1; 167 on September 2 and 484 on September 3; 322 on September 4 and 520 on September 5, which was largest single-day spike till date.
The other nine districts of Jammu division recorded 1,130 cases in the past nine days, the officials said.
With aggressive testing, Jammu district now leads the chart of having the largest number of active cases in the Union Territory at 2,564 followed by Srinagar at 1400, the officials said.
