J&K had 626 of its residents testing positive today, highest in the past 26 days while eight persons lost life during the past 24 hours.
On Thursday and Friday, the cumulative number of cases testing positive in Kashmir and Jammu divisions has been marginally higher than the number of cases reported over the past three weeks.
While Thursday had 617 fresh cases, Friday saw it increasing to 626.
Since October 16, J&K has seen cases lower than 626.
The government said 24,916 samples had been tested and reported in J&K between Thursday and Friday of which 2.51 percent samples were found positive.
The positive percentage of samples has been higher than the average recorded over the past month, hinting at a more aggressive spread of SARS-CoV2 infection.
Today, 429 cases were reported from the Kashmir division, highest since October 14.
A health official said nearly 8300 Rapid Antigen Tests and 1300 RT-PCR tests were carried out across the 10 districts of Kashmir division.
He said the number of tests was similar to those carried out in the past month but a higher number of positives were seen.
The doctors in Kashmir have expressed apprehensions that winter may see COVID19 cases rising in Kashmir division.
Many doctors that Greater Kashmir spoke to advised people to maintain social distancing as temperature drops and when families tend to huddle up in a closed warmed room where spread of infections could be aggressive.
Today, four persons were reported to have lost life due to SARS-CoV2 in Kashmir division.
All the deceased were in their seventies.
Two of these were from Srinagar – a 72-year-old woman from Nishat admitted at SKIMS, Soura and a 70-year-old non-local man from West Bengal living in Eidgah, who too was admitted at SKIMS Soura.
A 70-year-old woman from Wishroo, Shopian admitted at CHC Rajpora and a 70-year-old woman from Rayil Ganderbal admitted at SKIMS Soura also succumbed to the viral illness on Friday.
Four deaths were also reported from Jammu division.
The number of cases in Srinagar on Friday was 157 while Baramulla had 158 positive cases, higher than Srinagar.
The cumulative case tally in J&K over the past eight months reached 1,01,594 today, of which 1574 have lost life.
The recovery percentage today was 92.89 with 551 cases recovering.
Currently, 5645 cases are active in J&K – 4051 in Kashmir division and 1594 in Jammu division.
Ganderbal had 27 cases, Kupwara 23, Budgam 20, Anantnag 13, Bandipora 12, Pulwama 10, Shopian 5 and Kulgam 4.