362% rise in weekly Covid cases in Ladakh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 20

The Centre has sounded alarm over rapidly rising Covid-19 cases in Ladakh, which has seen a 362 per cent rise in the cases in November.

The Health Ministry has shot off a letter to the Ladakh authorities asking for immediate containment measures. It noted that the UT had witnessed 362 per cent spike with the new cases rising from 34 in the week that ended on October 27 to 157 cases in the week ending November 17.

The ministry has also written to Puducherry over similar concerns with the testing and positivity rate in both the UTs surging over the past weeks. Monitoring the surge, the ministry had earlier flagged resurgence of the disease in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.

In a letter to the Principal Secretary, Health, Ladakh, the ministry said it was worrying to note that the UT had exhibited a rise of over 156 per cent in the weekly positivity rate from 1.5 per cent in the week ending October 26 to 3.9 per cent in the week ending November 17.

The letter also records trends on weekly cases, testing and positivity rate increase across Ladakh’s districts. Leh district has reported a decrease in the proportion of RT-PCR testing as a share of overall tests. The government has mandated 70 per cent RT-PCR testing in the overall testing basket.

Kargil too has conducted only 26.8 per cent RT-PCR tests. The ministry has advised the UT to step up containment, ensure routine submission of RT-PCR positive samples from international travellers and the community for genomic analysis at the designated labs for the purpose and monitor vaccine breakthrough infections, super-spreader events and clusters of cases with high mortality.

The ministry warned against laxity amid mass gatherings for marriages and festivals. In the letter to the Puducherry Principal Secretary (Health), the ministry said 41.7 per cent increase in weekly new cases had been seen in the UT from 168 cases in the week ending November 9 to 238 cases in the week ending on November 16.

At 10,302, Situation stable in country
Overall infection rate stable with 10,302 new cases on Saturday
Daily new cases have been below 50,000 for 146 days.