Hamlet turns hotspot in north Kashmir

Gundjehangir, a nondescript village, has become a hotspot for Covid-19 in this north Kashmir district, recording as many as 50 positive cases.

The first coronavirus case from the village was reported onApril 6 when a 52-year old died of covid-19 at SMHS hospital after testingpositive; the patient had no travel history. Since then, the virus has spreadat an alarming scale in the village.

   

“Although, we made every effort to stop the virus fromspreading, we could not break the chain. Yes, over the last few days, thenumber positive cases has increased,” said a health official.

He said the family members of all the positive contacts havebeen strictly asked to undergo home quarantine.

“Samples are sent every day for testing. Today 86 samples ofthe contacts of positive cases were collected from the Hajin tehsil,” theofficial said.

He described the situation in the doomed village asextremely worrisome. “This hamlet is the worst hit in J&K, as it has seen anumber of 50 COVID positive cases alone out of 71 in the Hajin catchment. Hefurther said the village has 3700 population.

“Therefore we are taking every possible step from spreadingit in community,” he added.

According to officials there seems no end to new casesreported every day from the village. Most people are of the dead COVID patientscontacts.

On last Tuesday After 41 people tested positive for theCOVID-19 virus in Danger Mohalla (Gundjehangir) of the Bandipora district,authorities decided to quarantine a mohalla (locality) where they found many ofthe COVID-19 patients were related to the deceased.

Syed Shahnawaz , Officer on Special Duty (OSD)forCoronavirus in  Bandipora said that morethan 700 were put under administrative quarantine since beginning, nearly 250have already been released after testing, many of them twice as abundantprecaution.

He said, “During the door-to-door survey conducted by teamsled by the doctors, 2500 plus families comprising of more than 14000 souls havebeen thoroughly screened and during which 106 high risk people were identifiedfor referral to hospital or administrative quarantine identified.

“In this process more than around 600 people have also beenadvised under strict home quarantine, majority of them in Danger Mohalla GundJahangeer and Niadkhai village,” he added.

“Even our agriculture season is at peak, we are unable toperform the same because of pandemic fear,” says a local Bashir Jehangir.

During a spot visit by this reporter on Friday to severalRed Zone areas, none of the villagers was on roads.

In the district there are 13 villages under red zone with people confined to their houses since April 25, the first day 4 coronavirus case were recorded from Hajin town. The patients had returned from Nizamuddin New Delhi.

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