Tasaduq Hussain

Leh, Apr 21 : Amid the resurgence of COVID-19 cases, the Union Territory of Ladakh is witnessing a regular spike in positive cases forcing authorities to order the closure of educational institutions besides reducing the gathering and transport seating capacity to 50 per cent to contain the spread.

Comprising two districts Leh and Kargil, in Ladakh Leh is the most affected with the infection positivity rate, and several cases have been registered against the violators.

Top health officials told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), there is a huge surge of COVID-19 cases in Ladakh with Leh district most affected having a total of 1730 active positive cases while only 82 in Kargil.

He said that last week the UT reported a total of 944 cases in just six days with 12 containment zones in leh besides a death.

The official said that in past ten days a total of 1791 positive cases have been reported in Ladakh of which the majority belong to Leh and two deaths from the same district.

As reported earlier by KNO with 944 cases in six days (Last week). “Ladakh reported a total of 847 cases in just four days between Saturday to Wednesday besides two deaths of which 813 positive cases are from Leh alone”, the official said.

He said that several measures have been taken to contain the spread of infection across the region and negative RTPCR has been made mandatory for all those coming to Ladakh not older than 96 hours.

The official said that around 16 FIRs have been registered against the COVID-19 protocol violators by police in Leh and teams have been constituted to ensure there are no violations in public places and the required behavior is maintained.

Special Enforcement Squads (SESs) a day back recovered around 16, 000 rupees as fine from the Covid-19 violators in Leh, he said.

An official said that Ladakh has reported a total of 12556 cases of which 2274 from Kargil and 10282 in Leh with an 85 per cent recovery rate of which 8462 (82%) belong to Leh and 2148 (94%) recovered cases belong to Kargil taking to total toll to 10610 (85%)—(KNO)