COVID-19: Deaths spike by 57 % in J&K in last 30 days

JAMMU: With 1171 fatalities due to COVID-19 in last 30 days, the Jammu and Kashmir witnessed surge of 57 percent as compared to fatalities recorded first wave during March 2020 and April 21.

As per the report the second wave of COVID-19, which started around mid-April, has relentlessly affected the Union Territory, and in particular the Jammu region, which has shown a massive 96.18% increase in the number of deaths in past one month.

On April 17, Jammu region had registered 761 deaths in thirteen months since the outbreak of pandemic. However, a month later, on May 17, the death toll stood at 1493, with 732 people dying in last 30 days. This is 96.18% of all the deaths in past thirteen months, occurring in just one month.

In this deadly period of one month, 8 of 10 districts of Jammu region have registered a growth of 50% in death toll, with Rajouri, Poonch and Jammu districts seeing a spike of over 100%.

Rajouri district led the pack with 80 of its 136 deaths occurring in this period, an increase of 143%, followed by Poonch district at 128%, while Jammu district witnessed 445 new deaths taking its tally to 842, an increase of 112%.

Among the other districts, Samba has registered a growth of 98%, Ramban 87%, Kathua 85%, Udhampur 71% and Reasi 50%, while Doda and Kishtwar managed to control the deaths, with only 15% and 18% increase, respectively, reveals the data.

The Kashmir region, on the other side, has done exceptionally well to control the deaths in this period, with the Valley registering a growth of only 34% in past one month. Against 1290 deaths on April 17, the region logged 1729 deaths on May 17, an increase of 439 deaths.

A detailed analysis shows that none of the Valley district saw a spike of more than 50% with Pulwama being highest at 48%, followed by Srinagar and Kulgam at 42% each and Anantnag at 39%.

Six of the ten Valley districts actually managed to keep the death toll increase below 30% which included Ganderbal (26%), Kupwara (25%), Budgam (23%), Baramulla (21%), Bandipora (20%) and Shopian (17%).

Overall, the UT of Jammu and Kashmir witnessed 1171 more deaths in one month, taking its toll from 2052 on April 17 to 3222 on May 17, an increase of 57.09%.