Kargil in the Union Territory of Ladakh on Wednesday became Corona-free with lone remaining patient of the district testing negative twice and was discharged from the hospital along with another COVID-19 positive person of Leh which has reduced total Corona patients in the UT to just two. An announcement to this effect was made by Commissioner/Secretary Health, Ladakh, Rigzin Samphel at a press conference. He said a total of 83 reports of Coronavirus tests were received and all of them were negative. They included two COVID positive patients-one each from Leh and Kargil districts-who have tested negative for second consecutive time and were declared as treated and accordingly discharged from the COVID hospitals. As Kargil had only one Corona patient, the district has now become Corona-free. Out of total of 18 Corona patients in Ladakh UT, 16 have been treated and sent home while there were now just two active cases and both of them hailed from Leh district. Feroz Khan, Chairman-cum-CEC Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) Kargil, has expressed gratitude to selfless and timely efforts put in by all stakeholders including Lieutenant Governor RK Mathur, his Advisor Umang Narula, Rigzin Samphel, Divisional Commissioner Ladakh Saugat Biswas and IGP Ladakh SS Khandare for their efforts in making Kargil Corona-free. Hailing the public of Kargil for their support and cooperating in making Kargil COVID-free, Khan urged them to wear masks and observe guidelines and advisories already issued by the administration. He appealed to the people to keep their areas neat and clean. Meanwhile, another group of 230 pilgrims of the Union Territory of Ladakh, who had returned from Iran and were kept for quarantine at various places in Rajasthan, were flown to Leh in an Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft. Divisional Commissioner Ladakh Saugat Biswas in a tweet said: “the UT administration is happy to announce arrival of second batch comprising Iran returnees from Jodhpur. Gratitude to Ministries of GoI, Army and IAF-MCC for prompt consideration of our request”. Samphel said out of 230 pilgrims who reached Leh Airport, 20 belonged to Leh district and 210 to Kargil. They have been sent for institutional quarantine at respective district headquarters for observation and will be allowed to go home after the quarantine period is over. Only yesterday, 57 pilgrims of Ladakh were evacuated from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh and all of them belonged to Kargil district. Today’s pilgrims were airlifted from Jodhpur in Rajasthan. Samphel said there were many more pilgrims of Ladakh, all of whom had been evacuated from Iran, who were stranded at some places in the country. He added that the UT administration is in touch with Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Health and other authorities and hopefully remaining pilgrims will also return home soon. However, he said, as of now they have no exact figures as to how many people from Ladakh were stranded outside. “The decision to quarantine the returnees was collectively taken by the Hill Councils, Health Department and the administration keeping in view health condition of the pilgrims as well as their family members,” Samphel said. On people of Zanskar stranded in Leh and Kargil, the Commissioner/Secretary Health said a policy is under consideration to transport them to Zanskar in buses in the coming days.
