Srinagar, May 11 (IANS): As locals in Jammu and Kashmir defied the lockdown on Tuesday to shop for the forthcoming Eid festival, the Covid crisis also defied official efforts to bring it under control with 65 deaths and 4,352 new cases reported during the last 24 hours.

People in large numbers gathered outside banks, mutton and poultry shops and retail outlets to shop for the coming Eid festival.

The official attempts to break the spread of the deadly virus seemed to have run out of steam.

A total of 1,708 cases and 41 deaths were reported from the Jammu division and 2,644 cases and 24 deaths from the Kashmir division while 2,262 patients were discharged from hospitals after recovery.

So far, 224,898 people have been infected with coronavirus in J&K out of which 171,350 have recovered, and 2,487 have succumbed.

The number of active cases is 50,701 out of which 18,041 are from the Jammu division and 32,660 from the Kashmir division.