COVID-19: Three more test positive in Ladakh; total toll reaches 13

Three more persons tested positive for novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Ladakh today, taking the total number of cases to 13. Commissioner Secretary (Health) of Ladakh Affairs, Rigzin Sampheal said, “The samples of three more persons have tested positive for COVID-19 in Ladakh.”

“After the reports of the three patients came positive, they were immediately shifted to an isolation ward in a hospital here,” he added.

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The Ladakh administration ordered airlines not to carry any passengers, except locals, civilian officers and security personnel to Leh due to the novel Coronavirus pandemic.

In its order, the Ladakh administration said, "In the wake of the outbreak and as part of stringent precautionary measures against its spread, it is hereby ordered that no commercial flights landing at the KBR airport in Leh should carry passengers to Leh, other than the residents of Ladakh, civilian officers and officers of uniformed forces serving in Ladakh or on duty to Ladakh till further orders."

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Kashmir shut down

The decision came on Friday, just after the number of Coronavirus patients in Ladakh mounted over ten on Saturday. Reports said that the new cases don’t have any travel history but they were in contact with the affected person. 

In Kashmir Valley, the authorities have already shut down gardens and parks, schools and other educational institutions in the union territory. Clubs and public gymnasiums have also been shut as precautionary measures. Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) has intensified thermal fogging and sanitisation drive in the city to counter the threat of COVID-19 infection.

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The thermal fogging and sanitization drive is going on for the last 10 days in close coordination with the health department and was intensified with the induction of more teams to cover the entire city within shortest possible time, Mayor SMC, Junaid Mattoo said.

It is pertinent to mention that all four PhD students from Kashmir who had reportedly absconded from the isolation facility at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) have been traced by Jammu and Kashmir Police. All four students, hailing from the north and south Kashmir, who had escaped from the university’s isolation centre in Uttar Pradesh city on March 18, currently have been traced and doctors would decide the course of preventive procedure regarding these scholars.

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