Jammu: UT Government on Saturday categorised half of Kashmir Valley as Red and the remaining half along with entire Jammu division Orange in respect of the COVID-19 situation, the Union Territory does not have any place falling in Green category.
The categorisation has been done for the purposes of containment of COVID-19 with effect from May 31, a government order issued by UT’s Department of Disaster Management, Relief Rehabilitation and Reconstruction said this has been done following a detailed review of the current COVID situation in Jammu and Kashmir with the Finance Commissioner Health and Medical Education, Divisional Commissioner of Jammu and also of Kashmir among other officers and senior doctors from medical institutions.
According to it, Pulwama, Anantnag, Baramulla, Budgam and Kupwara districts, besides area on either side of Jawahar tunnel and Lakhanpur containment zone on the National Highway-44 with a buffer of 500 mts radius has been classified as Red Zone.
The remaining five districts of Kashmir including Srinagar, Shopian, Ganderbal, Kulgam and Bandipora, besides all the ten districts of Jammu division have been categorised Orange.
This has been done on the basis of overall assessment of the situation pertaining to spread of COVID-19 in Jammu and Kashmir, the trend in new cases particularly the test positivity rate, the risk perception of the Health Department vis-à-vis each district and the need to control further spread of COVID-19, the capacity of the health system to handle the rising volume of cases, and the status of vaccination of the eligible people.
“These factors will be monitored and will be the basis for relaxing restriction in future,’’ said the order issued by UT Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam, who also happens to be the chairperson of the State Executive Committee of the UT’s Department of Disaster Management, Relief Rehabilitation and Reconstruction.
The on Saturday had reported 46 deaths including 30 in Jammu division and 16 in Kashmir. It also had 2,253 new cases of Coronavirus including 794 in Jammu division and 1,459 in Kashmir Valley.