Srinagar, Apr 7 (UNI) Normal life remained crippled for the 19th successive day on Tuesday as restrictions on movement and assembly of people continued in Kashmir valley, where more areas have been declared as ‘Red Zones’ following upward spiral in the number of Coronavirus cases in J&K.
Meanwhile, contact tracking and testing of Coronavirus suspects has been intensified in the valley, where three more persons on Monday tested positive for Coronavirus, taking the total number of infected people to 109 in J&K.
Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar, Shahid Iqbal Choudhary on Tuesday said that fire against COVID-19 is a collective effort, adding that the city has done extremely well so far.
Authorities have called on people to engage in recreational activities like solving puzzles, playing some board games, listening to music, reading etc to reduce boredom. “It is important to be physically active. Simple stretching exercises, simple yoga postures, walking indoors or meditation will be beneficial not only for your physical health but also mental health. Keep yourself busy in doing small activities at home to reduce boredom like gardening, cleaning and cooking etc. Cut down on listening to news all the time as it may be upsetting,” they said.
Official sources told UNI that restrictions on movement and assembly of people has been tightened across Kashmir valley for the 19th successive day. “Out of 109 positive cases, 89 are in Kashmir and 18 are in Jammu,” they said, adding 103 are ‘Active Positive’, four have recovered and two have died.
They said authorities have launched an aggressive contact tracing campaign to put all such persons under quarantine after taking their samples as per health protocol.
Shops and business establishments remained closed while streets were deserted as locals voluntarily remained indoors due to scare following upward spiral in Coronavirus cases in the valley, where over 28 areas, which were declared as ‘Red Zones’, remained sealed and no one was allowed in and out of these areas. Many other areas, including densely populated localities, including Chattabal, Eidgah and Jawahar Nagar, and other parts of the valley have been declared as ‘Red Zones’ during the last couple of days after several positive cases were reported from these area.
Dr Choudhary said the sealing of these areas is aimed at preventing spread of the coronavirus infection out of this area having reported several positive cases. He said it is also aimed at enabling smooth conduct of the survey in the area being a declared containment zone as ordered by the government.
Police vehicles fitted with public address system were directing people since early this morning to remain indoors in view of imposition of restrictions under 144 CrPc, barring assembly of more than three people.
The administration also asked people to cooperate with it and warned of action against those violating prohibitory orders. Police has so far sealed many shops, hotels and educational institutes and arrested about 350 persons from Srinagar, Sopore, Handwara, Ganderbal and Anantnag in the valley since March 31. Police is using drones in some areas in Srinagar to announce restrictions on the movement of people as part of the 21-day lockdown to combat coronavirus pandemic.
Meanwhile, all educations institutes, including schools, colleges and universities, remained closed in the valley, where train services and public transport were suspended. However, despite government asserting that arrangements would be made for online classes for children no such arrangement has been made so far even as high speed internet service remained suspended since August 5, when special status of J&K was scrapped.
The streets in uptown and civil lines were deserted as shops and business establishment were closed and traffic was off the roads. Security forces were deployed in these areas, where people alleged that security personnel were not allowing them to move out of their houses. Similar situation was witnessed in downtown, where people also alleged that they were not allowed to move out of their houses even to buy groceries and vegetables.
The main roads in downtown and SeK remained closed with barbed wires at Nawa Kadal, Rajouri Kadal, Kawdara and Khanyar. Similar road blocks remained erected by security forces at Nowhatta, Rangar stop and Gojwara.
Similar reports of lockdown were received from other parts of the valley, including Kupwara and Baramulla in north, Budagm and Ganderbal in central and Anantnag, Pulwama Kulgam in south Kashmir.
DISCLAIMER :- THIS STORY HAS NOT BEEN EDITED BY KASHMIR AGE STAFF AND IS AUTO-GENERATED FROM NEWS AGENCY FEEDS.
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