Jammu Kashmir reports the highest death toll ever with 5,443 new COVID cases and 60 recorded deaths over 24 hours, the highest ever! Is N440K responsible?
Jammu Kashmir has seen three years of a long lockdown after the revocation of Article 370 and the recent reopening of the Union Territory probably led to a large outflow of public gatherings which in turn allowed the new mutations to evolve.
Earlier, in a worrying case, a sample sent from Kashmir for genetic sequencing has been found to have the lesser-known N440K mutation by the India SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG). It is uncertain whether this new mutation is the culprit behind the recent spike of cases and deaths.
The number of total active cases now stands at 44,307, which continues to increase, while the recovery rate is decreasing with each passing day.
The officials said, out of the 5,443 new cases, 3,575 belong to the Kashmir division while 1,868 are from the Jammu division, adding that the total number of positive cases in the Kashmir division have reached 127,221 including 96,970 recoveries and 1,515 deaths.
As per the daily information bulletin, 1,885,550 persons in Jammu and Kashmir are under observation while 87,419 persons have been kept under home quarantine besides that 44,307 persons are in isolation.
Vaccinations and isolation, (distancing and masking) are the dominant weapons to fight the virus. No one is safe unless everyone is safe.
Vaccinations and isolation, (distancing and masking) are the dominant weapons to fight the virus. No one is safe unless everyone is safe.