Author: hamid

Srinagar, Dec 06: Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Monday said Omicron variant causes mild illness in individuals who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

“If you have received both doses of Covid-19 vaccine, you are less likely to get severe disease from the new variant,” said DAK President and Influenza expert Dr Nisar ul Hassan.

The DAK President said early reports suggest people who are vaccinated do not get complications with Omicron.

In South Africa, vaccinated people are experiencing mild symptoms with the new variant. Most of the patients are treated at home and do not need hospitalization. People who are getting sick enough to need hospitalization with omicron are those who are unvaccinated.

Among the initial 70 cases reported from Europe, half of the patients had no symptoms and the other half had mild symptoms. There were no cases of severe disease, hospitalization or death. Most of these patients were fully vaccinated.

India has so far reported 21 cases of omicron and all cases till now have either been asymptomatic or accompanied by mild symptoms of the disease. Majority of them had received both doses of Covid-19 vaccine.

“While Omicron causes infections even in fully vaccinated individuals, vaccines still offer protection against severe disease and prevent people from hospitalization and even death,” he said.

Dr Hassan said though early reports are encouraging, but the number of patients so far remains too low – and their infections too recent – to draw firm conclusions on whether omicron leads to milder or severe disease cases of covid-19 than other variants.

“Moreover, the cases have mostly been seen in young people – so we are not sure whether the variant will cause more severe symptoms in older adults and vulnerable,” he added.

“We need more data and it will take several weeks for us to know how much more contagious Omicron is and what are its implications on those who get infected,” said Dr Nisar.

No intention of floating party, but for Kashmir cause, if necessary, Ghulam Nabi Azad today did not rule out the possibility of framing a new political outfit in near future.

Daily Excelsior

Srinagar: While claiming that ‘anything can happen in politics anytime’, former Union Minister and senior All India Congress Committee leader, Ghulam Nabi Azad today did not rule out the possibility of framing a new political outfit in near future.

Amid speculations of creating new party and holding several impressive rallies across Jammu and Kashmir, the veteran Congress leader said that he has ‘no intention’ to float a new party but ‘cannot predict’ the future in politics.

Azad had been addressing series of rallies across J&K which witnessed impressive response and also fuelled speculations that he is forming a new party. Adding much to the speculations, about two dozen Azad’s loyalists have also resigned from Congress posts recently.

“Rallies were meant to revive political activities that had stopped after Jammu and Kashmir was stripped of its Statehood and special status. There was no political activity for the last two and half years in J&K. No connectivity of the leaders with the public. I felt the need and took the lead but now the others are also following,” Azad told reporters here.

When asked whether he was going to float his own party, Azad remarked, “No one can say what will happen next in politics, like no one knows about death. In politics, no one can predict what will happen next, but I have no intentions to form a party.”

Stating how there is no place for criticism today Azad said, “No one is challenging the leadership. Perhaps, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Ji had given me too much freedom to question when things were going wrong. They would never mind criticism. They would not see it as offensive. Today, the leadership sees it as offensive,” he added.

“Indira Gandhi had once told me ‘keep it up’ when I refused to appoint two people she recommended as general secretaries in the Youth Congress and when Rajiv ji joined politics, Indira Gandhi called both of us and told Rajiv ji that Ghulam Nabi can even says no to me, but that ‘no’ doesn’t mean disobeying or disrespect, that’s for the good of the party. Today, no one is ready to listen to that no. For saying no, you become nobody today,” Azad remarked.

Senior leaders of the party, who didn’t want to be quoted said, “the party leadership must learn to trust its ‘war horses’. It should not isolate or sideline senior leaders who have stood through thick and thin with the party. They have given blood and sweat to the party.

The party must utilize their services to chalk out new political strategies. Azad had also accomplished some challenging tasks assigned to him by the party high command in the past, specially in Maharashtra and Karnataka”.

While referring to the recent stance of the party high command to promote ‘Young Turks’, leaders said, “youngsters Jyotiraditya Scindia, Youth Congress president Ashok Tanwar and Mahila Congress president, Sushmita Dev left the party. Even senior party leader Jitender Parsad quit and joined BJP, and later he became the minister”.

The senior AICC leader claimed that he also wanted to quit politics, but decided to continue for lakhs of his supporters. He said the people did not allow him to do so. Azad said he wanted to revive political activities in J&K, and for this reason, he was holding series of rallies here and would continue to do so.

Azad reiterated the demand for restoration of the Statehood of Jammu and Kashmir before Assembly elections, saying the bureaucracy is no match to popular rule in fulfilling the aspirations of the people.

He also added that the people of the country are suffering due to the price hike of essential commodities and the Congress has been fighting over it within and outside Parliament. Jihad (holy war) is not fighting against another religion. The real ‘Jihad’ is to wipe out poverty and unemployment which is our biggest enemy, rather than any leader or party, Azad said.

“The ‘war’ should not be against any religion but to wipe out poverty and unemployment which is our real enemy,” the former J&K Chief Minister maintained.

With inputs from Daily Excelsior

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi, December 4 : “Article 370 was in place for decades but was there peace in Jammu and Kashmir,” asked Union Home Minister Amit Shah at a function here on Saturday, asserting that the abrogation of the provision in the Constitution had ushered in peace and investment.

He was referring to a statement by former J&K Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, claiming there would be no peace in the UT until Article 370 was restored. “There was Article 370 for the last 75 years. Why was there no peace? If there is a relation between peace and Article 370, was the Article not in place in 1990? Even if we include figures of targeted killings, we are not even close to 10 per cent. This means there is peace,” Shah maintained. “I am happy that Prime Minister Narendra Modi abrogated Article 370 from the Constitution on August 5, 2019. Kashmir is at peace now, investment is taking place, tourists are visiting and J&K is gradually looking to stand united with the rest of the country,” Shah said.

On the demand of J&K political parties that elections should take place after statehood is restored, Shah said Parliament had passed an Act that elections would be followed by a delimitation exercise. — TNS

Srinagar, Dec 04: With omicron appearing to spread much faster than previous strains of the virus, Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Saturday called for vaccinating children against Covid-19.

“Amid Omicron variant threat Covid vaccination for children becomes crucial,” said DAK President and Influenza expert Dr Nisar ul Hassan.

“Up until now, Covid-19 has caused mild symptoms in children. But in South Africa where Omicron variant is now dominant strain, there has been increase in hospital admissions among young kids,” he said.

The DAK President said the country is seeing a rise in severe Covid infections in children under 5 years of age.

“Researchers believe lack of vaccination among children may be the result of increase in hospitalization,” he said

“That makes Covid vaccine vitally important for children,” he added.

Dr Nisar said children were not affected severely by the Covid pandemic in the past. Now we are seeing sharp increase in cases particularly in young kids.

“While most of the elderly and adults have been vaccinated, children have not been included in the vaccination drive yet,” he said adding it is unjust to allow kids to take on great burdens during the pandemic but not give them the opportunity to benefit from a vaccine.

Spokesperson DAK Dr Riyaz Ahmad Dagga said vaccinating children will protect them from getting Covid and can also help keep them from getting seriously sick even if they do get Covid-19.

“Covid-19 vaccine is required for children to return to classrooms and is important for ensuring safe learning environment in schools,” he said.

General Secretary DAK Dr Arshad Ali said pediatric vaccine would not only help children, but it will be the basis of eventually eliminating Covid-19 in our population.

“We won’t be able to defeat Covid-19 until children are vaccinated. It is hard to beat the pandemic without vaccinating children who constitute nearly 40 percent of the population,” he said

“Many countries have already started vaccinating children.

India, too, has two indigenous vaccines, approved for use in children.”

“While ZyCoV-D has received emergency use authorization in children aged 12-18 years, Covaxin has been recommended for use in children aged 2 to 18 years in October,” he added

Jammu: Additional Director General of Police for Jammu zone, Mukesh Singh Friday said that Starlink satellite train was seen over sky in areas of Jammu which people mistook as mysterious light of an aerial object and there was no need to panic.

ADG of Police, Mukesh Singh told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that Starlink train of satellites have been seen in sky in areas of Rajouri and Poonch.

“The mysterious light are of satellite of starlink train category, “said ADG Singh said.

Pertinent to mention here that Elon Musk starlink satellite train is a category of satellite which are often seen in the sky.

Earlier, on Friday evening, panic gripped in areas of Rajouri, Poonch and others parts of Jammu zone too after locals spotted mysterious lights in air. People mistook it as a drone while security forces were also put on high alert—(KNO)

‘Booster shots could keep the new Covid variant at bay’

Srinagar, Dec 03: With India reporting two cases of Omicron, Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Friday warned of higher rates of reinfections due to the new variant in persons who have recovered from Covid-19 infection.

“The risk of reinfection from the Omicron is higher than for any previous variants,” said DAK President and Influenza expert Dr Nisar ul Hassan.

Quoting a new study published in the preprint server medRxiv on Thursday, he said Omicron variant is three times more likely to cause reinfection compared to the Delta variant.

The DAK President said the study was based on data collected through South Africa’s health system on about 2.8 million confirmed coronavirus infections between March 2020 and 27 November, 2021 including 35,670 suspected reinfections.

“The authors detected a significant increase in reinfections since the first known case of omicron,” he said adding the reinfection risk profile of omicron was substantially higher than that associated with the beta and delta variants during the second and third waves.

“The study provides the first epidemiological evidence for Omicron ability to evade immunity from prior infection,” said Dr Nisar.

He said while those who had Covid-19 could get sick again with the new variant, vaccine still appears to offer protection against severe disease,” he said

“People who are unvaccinated should get the vaccine and those who have received both doses of Covid-19 vaccine should get the booster shot,” he added.

General Secretary DAK Dr Arshad Ali said booster doses would help broaden individual’s immune response against different variants of Covid.

“The higher levels of antibodies could keep the new variant at bay,” he said,

Spokesperson DAK Dr Riyaz Ahmad Dagga said while the current Covid vaccines still protect against the circulating variants, antibodies naturally wane over time, so booster dose is needed to ensure that the protection is maintained against the new variants.

“A booster shot is to increase the body’s antibody response to a virus after the immune system has been primed by the initial vaccination,” he said.

Many Countries like US and UK have started administering booster doses.

“We were devastated with Delta. Let us not give this virus a chance again,” he said adding that government should consider the booster shots now and not wait for the next iteration of the virus.

Returnee from Saudi Arabia on Wednesday has tested positive for COVID-19. Foreign travellers to be quarantined for 7 days in J&K. .

As a precaution against Omicron, all foreign travellers to Jammu and Kashmir will compulsorily be RTPCR tested on their arrival and even the negative travellers will be sent for quarantine of 7 days.

They will be re-tested on the 8th day, while the COVID positive travellers will be sent to institutional isolation centres (designated health facilities) for 15 days and their samples will also be sent for genome sequencing at ICMR designated testing laboratories.

A Kashmir resident who returned from Saudi Arabia on Wednesday has tested positive for COVID19 and has been isolated at DRDO COVID19 Hospital in accordance with the fresh guidelines. Meanwhile, 60 people were put under quarantine during the 24 hours preceding this report.

After J&K Government initiated the implementation of mandatory quarantine and testing of all travelers with a history of visit to outside the country on December 1.

60 people have been sent to various public and private facilities.

Sticker of ‘Home Quarantine’ shall be pasted outside their residence.

Divisional Commissioners of Kashmir and Jammu, Pandurang K Pole and Raghav Langer today reviewed testing, mitigation measures in light of the fresh worldwide alert due to the new COVID-19 variant Omicron.

The Divisional Commissioner directed the concerned officers to assess data from Air Suvidha Portal for early detection of incoming travellers from countries listed at-risk. State Surveillance Officer was told to share the lists with CMO’s and field surveillance units on real-time basis.

The CMOs were asked to paste stickers of ‘home quarantine’ on the gate of foreign travellers during the observation period of 8 days.

The Divisional Commissioners directed the district administration of entry point districts ie Kathua, Jammu and Reasi (in Jammu) to notify the Government and Paid quarantine centres to deal with any future situation.

The Divisional Commissioner directed for ensuring compulsory RTPCR testing of all foreign travellers at the air, road and rail entry points and to hold them up till the negative report is not reached.

They also stressed the need to ramp up random RAT testing of domestic travellers at the Airport, Lakhanpur and Katra as a preventive measure. All passengers landing at the Srinagar airport will be tested.

Deputy Commissioner Kathua was told to activate a separate testing counter for persons having a history of foreign travel besides putting in place all requisite arrangements for quarantine facilities at Lakhanpur that is the entry point into J&K from Punjab.

The health department was directed to designate separate wards for positive patients with a foreign travel history and to ensure that they are not mixed with the local positive cases without foreign travel history.

It was informed in the meeting that DRDO Hospital Jammu would be the designated facility for containment of positive cases having foreign travel history.

Langer stressed strengthening surveillance and directed the Deputy Commissioners to ensure that proper mechanism is being followed at Airport, Lakhanpur, Katra and Jammu Railway stations and south portal of Navyuga tunnel at Ramban.

The meeting was attended by Deputy Commissioner Jammu, Anshul Garg; SSP Jammu, Chandan Kohli; Director Airport, Director Health Services, State Surveillance officer, Nodal officer Divisional control room and other concerned officers while Deputy Commissioners of Kathua, Reasi, Ramban, MD NHM participated in the meeting through video conferencing.

A statement by the SKUAST-K said the “feat is the result of the steadfast commitment of teachers, researchers, administration, students and auxiliary staff of the University who equally toiled hard to improve the ranking of the University from 24th in 2018, 9th in 2019 and now 6th in 2021”.

Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology, Kashmir has been ranked sixth best state agriculture university at the all-India level.

As per an official handout, the SKUAST-K has improved its ranking by three spots in 2021 from the ninth best in 2020. The ranking was released today by the Education Division of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi during the Agricultural Education Day, which is commemorated on December 3 every year.

With the 6th rank, SKUAST-K has joined the elite group of agriculture universities of the country like PAU and Pantnagar agriculture university. SKUAST-K has secured 10th position in the all India ranking of agricultural universities and four national-level agricultural research institutes under ICAR in the composite score of research, teaching, extension and academics, the statement said.

The ranking was released by Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Kailash Choudhary at the ICAR headquarters in New Delhi.

A statement by the SKUAST-K said the “feat is the result of the steadfast commitment of teachers, researchers, administration, students and auxiliary staff of the University who equally toiled hard to improve the ranking of the University from 24th in 2018, 9th in 2019 and now 6th in 2021”.

Vice-Chancellor Prof JP Sharma expressed his gratefulness and praised all Officers/Deans of Subject Matter Faculties/Heads of Research Stations/Units/Centres/Institutes, students, teaching and non-teaching staff “who equally have made it possible by their earnest, clear and professional attitude, the University arose as one of the leading and forerunner Agricultural Universities in the country”.

Prof Sharma avowed that the university has still to continue its strenuous efforts in touching the new heights and improving its ranking further to be among the top five agriculture universities of the country.SKUAST-K has secured Rs 30-crore funding in 2019 for its institutional development under the World Bank-ICAR funded National Agriculture Higher Education Project (NAHEP).

Besides building the best infrastructure, the three-year project is aimed to develop SKUAST-K as a model agricultural higher education institution and build next-generation human capital to drive the knowledge-based and technology-driven agri-economy of Jammu and Kashmir and the country.

The Uttar Pradesh government has told the Supreme Court that the closure of industries would affect the sugar cane and milk industries in the state and that UP is in the downwind, the air is coming mainly from Pakistan. To this, CJI NV Ramana joked, so do you want to ban industries in Pakistan?

On this argument of the UP government, Chief Justice NV Ramana joked that he wants to ban industries in Pakistan. At the same time, in the contamination case, the Center told the Supreme Court that a five-member working group had been formed.

At the same time, during the hearing on air pollution in Delhi today, the CV said that we have seen some sections of the media trying to show that we are villains. We want to close the schools. You (the Delhi government) said that we are closing schools and starting to work from home, but look at today’s newspaper.

The AQI in Ghaziabad (331), Gurugram (309), and Noida (315) remained in the ‘very poor category. The 24-hour AQI in Delhi stood at 429 on Thursday. An AQI between zero and 50 is considered good, an AQI between 51 and 100 is considered satisfactory, between 101 and 200 is moderate, between 201 and 300 is poor, between 301 and 400 is considered very poor and an AQI between 401 and 500 is considered poor. Considered in the severe category.

• – Agencies

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Srinagar, Dec 3: Anjuman Auqaf Jama Masjid Srinagar has strongly protested against the authorities’ decision of continuously barring Muslims from performing important religious duty of offering Friday prayers at the largest place of worship in Jammu and Kashmir, the Jama Masjid Srinagar.

The Anjuman in a statement said that once again today the men, women and elderly people who came from various parts of the Valley were deprived from offering Friday prayers at the Jama Masjid Srinagar.

It is the 43rd time this year and 17 consecutive Friday since Juma prayers have not been allowed in the Jama Masjid Srinagar while Muslims have not been allowed to offer congregational Friday prayers.The pulpit and mihraab of the grand mosque are silent which otherwise used to reverberate with the voices of Qaal Allah Wa Qaala Rasool (SAW), it said.

Expressing outrage over the dictatorial behaviour of the authorities, the Anjuman said the Jama Masjid Srinagar was being kept closed for worship under a nefarious plan which was extremely painful for the Kashmiri people and also a sheer interference with religion. Such measures expose the hollow claims of the proponents of the so-called democracy, it said.

We and the people of Jammu and Kashmir are unable to understand that on the one hand, all the places of worship of the followers of different religions have been opened for the performance of their religious rites; while on the other hand, the Jama Masjid Srinagar is being subjected to vengeance, which is extremely regrettable and reprehensible.

The Anjuman has stressed upon opening of the Jama Masjid Srinagar and releasing its head Mirwaiz-e-Kashmir Dr Moulvi Muhammad Umar Farooq who continues to be under illegal and arbitrary house arrest since 5 August 2019.