Photo by Haamid Bala
Srinagar, Mar 23 : Srinagar city virtually turned into ghost town on Monday as the markets were shut, public transport remained off the roads and entry of travellers from the all adjoining districts was banned.
Schools colleges and universities which reopened last month after several months of lockdown in the backdrop of abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir State into to union territories have been already shut and people crave for essential supplies as they prepare for another period of lockdown.
However banks, till today are functioning normally but the apprehensions of pockets becoming dry in coming days have intensified the growing anxiety among people in Kashmir.
The intensity of the fear brewing among the people after the report of four locals testing positive during last few days has skyrocketed.
The real crisis lies in Kashmir hospitals which remain under stopped and ill equipped the intensifying outbreak of COVID-19 across India.
on conditions of anonymity, the hospitals in Kashmir are ill equipped to deal with even normal health cases in normal times and it will devastate the entire Kashmir if the community does not intervene.
“This time the focus is not on emergencies and critical surgeries but on fight against COVID-19 which can’t be a success in the presence of ill equipped hospitals,” he said.
The clinician said that even M-95 respiratory masks and surgical masks (face masks) used by doctors and health purpose to protect them themselves from infections while treating COVID-19 patients are not available in sufficient numbers in hospitals across Srinagar and several towns of Kashmir valley.
One of the doctors attending the COVID-19 patients at SKIMS on conditions of anonymity, “Welfare of public depends on doctors and if doctors themselves are at risk, how can they provide health care to patients coming here with symptoms of COVID-19.”
