The cold desert of Ladakh is free from the coronavirus as all its 43 patients have recovered and returned home.

The region had set alarm bells ringing after the first cases surfaced in Leh as early as March 8 and soon the number of infected people surged to 43, a big volume for a place that has a population of 2.7 lakh only.

Dr Motup Dorje, the chief medical officer of Leh, said the two districts of Leh and Kargil had not recorded any positive case in the past several days, during which all the Covid-19 patients receiving treatment had recovered. There have been no Covid-related deaths in the new Union Territory.

'In all, we had 43 positive cases in Ladakh - 34 in Leh and nine in Kargil. As of now, we have no active case in the region as all of them have recovered and gone home,' Dr Dorje told The Telegraph.

The CMO said there were no red zones in the region although thousands of people continued to be in home quarantine.

'We are doing vigorous searching. Anybody coming from the red zones (outside Ladakh) are being quarantined,' he said.

'Lot of people are coming back and they are being tested. They are all under home quarantine. In the past few days, we have conducted 1,000 tests (in Leh) and they have all come negative,' Dr Dorje said.

He said many pilgrims who had gone to Iran and tested positive there had returned. 'They were tested (again) here and the results are negative,' the doctor said.

Officials said they were not lowering their guard and were taking all steps to prevent a second wave.

Ladakh had been under a strict lockdown for weeks but the restrictions have since been eased a little.

Kashmir, in comparison, recorded its first case on March 19 and the number has since swelled to close to 1,200, around half of whom are active.The virus had caused 15 deaths in the Valley till May 19 evening.

The Ladakh CMO pointed to the strict lockdown and said the government had started working when cases in India first began surfacing in Kerela.

Ladakh faced a massive challenge as hundreds of pilgrims from the region got stuck in Iran when the pandemic broke out. Many of them tested positive there and have since returned after recovery.

Chuchot village in Leh was the worst hit, recording around 30 cases.

Its sarpanch Ghulam Mohammad Chow said the village had been under lockdown since March 8.

'In two areas of our village, the restrictions remain. But in the area where I live, the restrictions have been eased. We are taking all precautions to prevent a fresh outbreak,' he said.