COVID-19: 1370 DEATHS AFTER

Seven months into the Coronavirus pandemic, Jammu and Kashmir is struggling to cope with the rising number of infections and deaths. With winter approaching, the government needs to get its act right before infections multiply causing more deaths, reports Umar Mukhtar while assessing the impact of interventions and counter-pandemic measures in Kashmir

- Umar Mukhtar

On September 20, 14 fatalities related to Coronavirus infection took the death toll due to pandemic in Jammu and Kashmir past the 1000mark. Since then more than 300 more people have perished.

The first Coronavirus related death in Kashmir was that of a 63-year-old man from Srinagar up-town on March 26. So, in a span of fewer than seven months, almost a medium-sized graveyard stands added to the sprawling cemeteries in Jammu and Kashmir. More than 900 deaths have taken place in Kashmir’s 10 districts, mostly in Srinagar.

“Dying of 1000 people due to the Coronavirus has dispelled the notion among people that the contagion is a myth,” Doctor’s Association President, Dr Suhail Naik said. “It is a reality”.

True, pandemic is a disaster and is all about the deaths and sufferings but it also reveals the responsive mechanism of the government and the society. Deaths have scared people. They are struggling to adapt to runaway pandemic that shows no signs of abating anytime soon. But along the way, they have learned their lessons and evolved their response to the pandemic.

LESSONS LEARNED

The stubbornness among the people to accept reality has somehow created hurdles in adopting the SOPs. But the deaths made them understand the gravity of the virus.

“The first lesson we learned is that Covid-19 is a reality, and people die irrespective of age,” Dr Naik said. Initially, there was a lot of reportage about the deadly virus sparing certain people have proved quite a hoax.