Srinagar, May 2 : Strict restrictions on movement and assembly of people continued even as most of the residents preferred to stay indoors in view of sudden spike in fresh Coronavirus cases in Kashmir, where all 10 districts would be treated as ‘Red Zones’.
Kashmir valley has witnessed upward spiral in the number of COVID-19 cases with 140 people testing positive for the infection in the last six days. Meanwhile, wearing facemasks were made mandatory from Friday in Srinagar in order to curtail the spread of Coronavirus.An official appealed to J&K residents, stranded in different parts of the country, to help the authorities organise a safe and regulated movement for everyone, saying that so far return of over 15,200 locals have been facilitated amid COVID-19 lockdown.
He said screening has been made mandatory for all returnees arriving in Srinagar from outside. Authorities have also intensified door-to-door survey to determine the exact spread of the disease across the valley, where strict action has been taken against people violating restrictions, including detention and sealing of shops.
Officials said that restrictions continued for the 45th successive day to combat the spread of COVID-19 in Kashmir valley. “Main roads in most places in the valley have been sealed while barriers were erected at other places to check unwanted movement of people,” they said, adding all roads leading to areas, which were declared as ‘Red Zones’ after several COVID-19 positive cases surfaced from there, also remained sealed.They said only people with valid movement passes would be allowed on the roads, adding strict action would be taken against persons violating lockdown order. “Several dozen people have been arrested while over dozens of shops have been sealed for violating the lockdown order during the couple of days in the valley,” they said.Shops and business establishments remained closed while streets were deserted due to strict restrictions imposed by authorities to curtail the spread of Coronavirus. The streets in uptown and civil lines were deserted as shops and business establishment were closed and traffic was off the roads. Security forces were deployed in these areas, where people alleged that security personnel were not allowing them to move out of their houses.Similar situation was witnessed in downtown, where people also alleged that they were not allowed to move out of their houses even to buy groceries and vegetables.
Reports of lockdown were also received from other parts of the valley, including Kupwara and Baramulla in north, Budagm and Ganderbal in central and Anantnag, PulwamaKulgam in south Kashmir.With 27 more persons, including 25 from Kashmir and two from Jammu, testing positive for Coronavirus on Saturday, the total number of infected people has risen to 666 in the Union Territory of J&K.Meanwhile, despite Union Health Ministry classifying only four districts as red zones in Kashmir, the authorities on Saturday said that the entire valley would be treated as Red Zone following which there will be no relaxation in restrictions.Kashmir Divisional commissioner P K Pole said that all the ten districts of the Valley will be treated as red zone till further orders ‘as we can’t afford to lower over guard at this time’. “Such measures are also important because all the districts have Red Zones and the number of COVID-19 cases is increasing,” he said, adding ‘we also need to be watchful due to return of Kashmiris stranded outside the valley.
The decision comes in the wake of the Centre extending lockdown by two weeks, but allowing more activities to take place in green zone districts.The Centre on Friday extended the Novel Coronavirus lockdown by two more weeks. The lockdown was to end on May 3, but the third edition of nationwide lockdown will be different from the previous ones in character as more activities would be allowed in the new lockdown guidelines.Four Kashmir districts – Srinagar, Bandipora, Anantnag and Shopian – have been classified as red zone, while only one Pulwama has been listed in green zone. Meanwhile, the remaining five districts – Baramulla, Kupwara, Budgam, Gandrbal and Kulgam – have been put in orange zone.
