SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir 

At least three more people died due to the novel coronavirus in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir region, officials said on Monday, taking the total number of fatalities to 31.

The deceased include a 45-year-old man from Kashmir's Shopain district, 70-year-old man from Pulwama district and a 72-year-old man from Doda district of Jammu region.

Farooq Jan, medical superintendent at a tertiary hospital in Srinagar, said that the deceased man from Ramnagar area of Shopian was admitted to hospital's emergency at 9:00 p.m. local time (1530GMT) on Sunday.

“While he died in the midnight, his swab sample for the COVID-19 came in positive today,” Jan said.

Meanwhile, the patient from Doda district died at a government hospital in Jammu region on Monday.

“He had multiple chronic ailments and he was found positive for the COVID-19 yesterday,” said Dara Singh, medical superintendent at the Government Medical College (GMC) Jammu.=

With these fatalities, the death toll in Kashmir region is now 27, while four persons have so far died in the Jammu region. The Jammu and Kashmir has so far reported 2,500 cases in the region.

Disputed region

Kashmir is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed both in full. A small sliver of Kashmir is also held by China.

Since they were partitioned in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars -- in 1948, 1965 and 1971 -- two of them over Kashmir.

Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against the Indian rule for independence, or unification with neighboring Pakistan.

According to several human rights organizations, thousands of people have reportedly been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989.