Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir administration has declared Srinagar district a Red Zone after the summer capital recorded 1,126 fresh Covid-19 cases on Sunday. All other 19 districts have been declared as orange zones. Srinagar and Jammu districts reported 1,126 and 486 fresh Covid-19 cases respectively on Sunday, taking the tally of active cases in the two districts to 9,554 and 6,478. Srinagar’s classification as a Red Zone will likely result in stricter containment measures to slow down the spread of the disease. Srinagar and three other districts are under curfew till Thursday and government officials say it could be extended further if the cases continue to rise, especially in the Red Zone. The health experts have been advocating for the extended curfew to bring down the number of cases. Besides Srinagar, Lakhanpur and Jawahar tunnel containment zones covered by a 500-metre radius-- have also been declared Red Zones. Areas with high caseload and doubling rate are classified as Red Zones or Hotspot districts In contrast, a green zone has zero confirmed cases of coronavirus in the last 21 days. Currently, no district in J&K falls under the Green Zone as per the government notification issued on Sunday night after a review meeting of the State Executive Committee of the Department of Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction. The meeting was headed by J&K chief secretary BVR Subrahmanyam. “The categorization will [help in the] implementation of permitted activities in such areas notified by the committee,” said a senior government official.

Meanwhile, the government has already constituted a five-member Crisis Management Group (CMG) headed by the chief secretary to monitor the rapidly evolving Covid-19 situation and take preventive, controlling and mitigating measures. “The CMG will be meeting daily, and more often if necessary, to review the rapidly evolving Covid-19 [situation] in terms of cases, testing rates, positivity, mortality, recovery, hospital occupancy and other parameters,” said the J&K government spokesman. The group will also review the oxygen and medicine requirements and availability at all health institutions and manage the availability of resources, the spokesperson added. He said the group will also keep a close watch on vaccine rollout in the Union Territory.

J&K recorded 45,123 infections and 289 deaths in April this year—the highest so far, taking the number of active cases to 32,421, officials said. Most of these cases have been added since February 9, when the UT had the lowest active case tally of 593.