The Leh health administration has praised the role of frontline workers in their fight against Covid-19 in the Union Territory of Ladakh.

The number of people ‘cured’ stood at 12 on Monday (13 April). Ladakh has managed to put up a tough fight against the virus owing to stringent measures, disciplined shown by citizens in the following of quarantining and social distancing protocols.

The All India Radio website reported that Union Territory Ladakh has a total of ‘five active cases’. A class 12 Kendriya Vidyalaya student in Leh was found Covid-19 positive.

A person from Kargil containment zone was also found positive.  Fifty results arrived as per the Ladakh Health Commissioner. After this development, the Leh administration has declared Kargil’s Shakar Chiktan as a containment zone and Saboo Phu as a containment area.

Meanwhile, 44 pilgrims from Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, who were evacuated from Iran and were quarantined in the naval facility at Ghatkopar, have returned to their homes. They were part of the second batch of Indian pilgrims who had returned to Iran after the pilgrimage to the Qom city.

Their stay in the quarantine facility had begun on 13 March. Each of them had come negative in the pre-embarkation test, the report adds.

At the naval quarantine facility, they were monitored round-the-clock by a dedicated team of doctors.

The Hindu reported that a special flight was arranged for them as their arrival in Ladakh was delayed owing to the lockdown and there were no means to travel from Srinagar to Leh (the Srinagar-Leh road opened only last week).

Naval spokesperson Commander Mehul Karnik is quoted as saying in The Hindu report: “Consequently, arrangements were made to airlift them using an IAF aircraft. On April 12, a C-130 aircraft flew these people back to Srinagar.”