Early Times Report
Srinagar, May 7: Restrictions were intensified in view of Jummatul Vida, the last Friday of holy month of Ramazan, in the Kashmir valley, where 'COVID curfew' imposed by administration to curtail the unabated rise in the number of fresh Coronavirus cases and death entered day eight today.
However, essential services were exempted from the lockdown in the valley, where security force vehicles were making announcements, directing people to stay indoors and offer Friday prayers in their respective houses.
Majority of the mosques, including historic Jamia Masjid, Hazratbal shrine, which houses the Holy Relic of Prophet Muhammad, and other shrine, remained closed in view of lockdown. The Jammu and Kashmir administration earlier this week extended the ongoing 'corona curfew' for the third successive time since April 29 in four districts, including Srinagar, Baramulla, Budgam and Jammu till May 10. Barring Shopian, the lockdown was extended by the respective Deputy Commissioners of other districts in the valley as there was no letup in the number of fresh COVID cases and deaths. The Union Territory on Thursday hit another grim milestone with a record single-day spike of 4,926 Covid-19 infections and 52 deaths. Meanwhile, asserting that the double mutant strain of Coronavirus is highly infectious, Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar Head of Department, Community Medicine, Dr Mohammad Salim Khan has appealed to the people to stay indoors and strictly adhere to the guidelines to curtail the spread of COVID-19. Dr Salim, who is one of the leading preventive medicine experts of J&K, said that the mutant strain is infecting whole families and even children are getting affected, adding N440K has been found in Kashmir division which spreads ten times faster. "Both vaccines available in India, Covishield and Covaxin, are safe and rumours about side effects like vaccine causing infertility among women are false. |
