Passes to be issued to govt officials to strictly implement COVID curfew in Srinagar: Admin

Srinagar: The Srinagar administration on Tuesday said that passes will be issued to government officials to facilitate their movement from Wednesday in order to strictly implement COVID curfew to curtail the spread of the virus in this summer capital.
An official said that movement of government officials shall be facilitated through a pass system from Wednesday. “All Heads of Departments (HODs) are requested to kindly place requisition for passes immediately,” he added.

The decision to issue movement passes to government officials comes a day after Advisor to Lieutenant Governor Baseer Ahmad Khan asked the police to implement the lockdown strictly and ensure that only those vehicles are allowed who carry valid passes issued by the competent authority.

Khan emphasized upon the importance of breaking the chain through such measures and stressed to put a message across for the people to adopt the COVID appropriate behaviour. “Staying at home, wearing masks, keeping social distancing and vaccination are primary requirement for containing the pandemic and directed the officers to sensitize the people about these precautions,” he said.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Sunday extended the ‘COVID curfew’, which was scheduled to end on Monday, till May 17 in all 20 districts of the Union Territory. Eid-ul-Fitr, the culmination of holy fasting month of Ramazan, also falls within the extended corona curfew period.
However, reports of violation of COVID curfew were coming from many parts of the valley, particularly Srinagar city, where good number of vehicles were plying on roads.

The extension in the lockdown in the UT has come in the backdrop of unabated rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in J&K, particularly the summer capital, Srinagar, which has recorded the major chunk of positive cases during the last about 30 days. Srinagar alone, out of 3614 new Covid-19 cases in J&K, reported 701 cases on Monday followed by Jammu with 658 cases. Of the 56 deaths recorded on Monday in the UT, 17 were from Kashmir and 39 from Jammu.