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Video Editor: Deepthi Ramdas
Producer: Zijah Sherwani
There is a growing demand to restore full speed 4G in Jammu & Kashmir amid the deadly coronavirus outbreak. Students who have returned home, people working from home, doctors, and healthcare workers are all finding it difficult to access information about COVID-19.
Web pages don’t load, videos keep buffering due to painfully slow internet, making it difficult to prepare and obtain critical information about the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the J&K administration on Thursday said that only 2G mobile services will be available till 3 April.
People are getting worried after the first coronavirus death in Kashmir has been reported. Anika, a student, told The Quint that people are more scared than they need to be because of a lack of information regarding the virus. This information vacuum, she says, is also paving way for fake news and rumours to take hold.
People are not even aware of where to go to get tested. How can they find out? Usually, the internet is a good resource. But the internet is of no help to the people of Kashmir. One student told me:
Internet services were restored earlier this month but the slow speed left people frustrated. A file as small as 24MB, of the ICU guidelines from England, took hours to download. Countering the rise of misinformation in these conditions becomes especially tough.
Another student said, “The whole world is talking about coronavirus, except us, because we don’t have enough knowledge to talk about it.” She said,
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