JAMMU, MAY 25: With the testing rate of over 10,000 per million Jammu and Kashmir has now become number one in country in testing. The testing capacity in the UT has gone up from just about 100 tests/day in March to 8000 tests/day today. In the last one month alone it has gone up from 1800 tests/day to 8100/day – an increase of  350%.

This was stated by Principal Secretary to Government, Power Development Department and Information, Rohit Kansal, who is also the official spokesperson at a press conference here today. He said that aggressive and sustained testing is the only effective weapon against the disease and the administration shall continue to pursue it effectively.

On the efforts to of the administration in combating the situation arising out of Corona Virus and the COVID 19 pandemic for the last more than 8 weeks, Kansal said that the Government has taken a slew of measures on the health, economic and welfare fronts.

“Jammu and Kashmir was probably one of the first states or UTs to take note of the emerging situation and initiate action and many of our interventions have not only been been fast but effective too.

It may be recalled that the total number of COVID 19 cases in J&K is 1668, out of which 1374 are from Kashmir division and 294 are from Jammu division. The number of active cases are 836 of which 620 are in Kashmir Division and 216 are in Jammu division. As many as 809 recoveries which include young children and 23 unfortunate deaths have also been reported.

A total of over 1.34 lakh persons have been enlisted for surveillance out of which over 72,000 have completed mandatory period of surveillance. 47 new Covid positive cases have been reported today, out of which 33 cases are from Jammu division and 14 cases are from Kashmir. As per the media bulletin of the health department, no recovery has been reported today.

Kansal pointed out that while J&K had been able to achieve a low growth rate and a doubling rate of over 3 weeks, this should not become a cause of complacency. Reminding that effective lockdown, strong containment policy, aggressive testing and cooperation by the people of J&K has played a key role in containment of COVID 19.

The spokesperson said that there is no room for any laxity. “What we now need is to understand that there are enough worrying factors in the situation. 15 deaths have been reported in last month alone. There is at least one district which has more than 200 active cases and at least one district with more than 150 active cases,” he said.