Category: Union Territory

Srinagar, Apr 29: Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Thursday said Tocilizumab drug prevents Covid-19 patients from dying.
“The drug saves lives,” said DAK President and influenza expert Dr Nisar ul Hassan.
Quoting a study from United Kingdom, he said Tocilizumab reduces the risk of death when given to hospitalized patients with severe Covid-19 disease.
“The study also showed that the drug shortens the hospital stay and reduces the need for a mechanical ventilator,” he added.
Dr Hassan said we have been able to save lives of many Covid-19 patients in Kashmir hospitals with early institution of the drug.
“But, now the drug has run out of stock in valley hospitals putting lives of patients at risk,” he said.
Urging government to make the life-saving drug available for Covid-19 patients, Dr Hassan said we must ensure that every patient who needs the drug should be able to access it.
“Originally developed to treat rheumatoid arthritis, the drug combats the disease by quelling cytokine storm which is the hyperimmune response of the infected person to the virus,” he said.
“Mortality in Covid-19 patients has been linked to the presence of the cytokine storm induced by the virus,” Dr Nisar said adding that “excessive production of cytokines leads to respiratory failure and widespread tissue damage resulting in multiorgan failure and death.”
“Tocilizumab suppresses the hyperimmune response by blocking receptor for a key cytokine known as interleukin-6 (IL-6) and improves survival rates and reduces mortality among Covid patients,” he said.
The DAK President said it is vitally important to know that there is no single magic bullet to treat the novel coronavirus and several drugs in combination are needed to tackle the virus.
“With the approval of several therapies, combination of them given at the right time gives a good result,” he said.
“Apart from oxygen, moderate to severe patients are given steroids, remdesivir, convalescent plasma and Tocilizumab in various combinations,” he added.
“Initially it was believed that deaths were happening because of poor oxygenation. Now we know that intravascular clotting can also lead to lung dysfunction and death. So heparin is given in Covid patients to prevent clotting,” said Dr Nisar.

Srinagar: Khateeb Jamia Masjid Srinagar Syed Ahmed Syed Thursday made an appeal to people to not congregate and offer namaz at home.

Syed Ahmed Syed told news agency Kashmir News Trust that Government should impose lockdown across Kashmir Valley like last year.

“It is the need of the hour to close public parks, tourist places, shrines and mosques. People should offer prayers at home and supplicate before Almighty Allah,” Syed said.

While emphasizing the need to observe social distancing as the only measure to combat coronavirus, head cleric of Jamia Masjid even made an appeal to Ulemas and clerics of Jammu and Kashmir who yield influence over people to direct the community against congregation in the mosques. (KNT)

AL JAZEERA

Islamabad: Pakistan says it is ready to engage in dialogue with India if its eastern neighbour “is willing to revisit” its recent actions in the disputed territory of Kashmir, Pakistan’s foreign minister says.

Speaking to Anadolu news agency in an interview released on Sunday, Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi welcomed a recent thawing of relations between the two countries.

“If India is willing to revisit some of the decisions that they took on August 5, 2019, Pakistan will be more than happy to engage, sit and talk out our differences and sit and, through a dialogue, resolve the outstanding issues,” said Qureshi, referring to India’s 2019 move to revoke Indian-administered Kashmir’s special constitutional status and launch a widespread crackdown in the territory.

Qureshi’s statement is in line with Al Jazeera’s exclusive reporting of specific actions Pakistan is seeking in relation to Kashmir – the Himalayan region that both countries claim in full but administer separate portions of – to restart bilateral talks.

Those actions include, but are not limited to, a reversal of the alleged demographic change in Kashmir, the release of political prisoners, the restoring of statehood to the territory, lifting all restrictions on communication and movement, and reducing Indian troop levels.

India’s foreign ministry has not commented on the Pakistani foreign minister’s comments or the Al Jazeera report.

Ties between the nuclear-armed neighbours have been virtually frozen since February 2019, when an attack by an armed group on Indian security forces in Indian-administered Kashmir sparked a military standoff with Pakistan that saw both countries bomb each other’s territory.

This February, however, saw the surprise announcement of a reaffirmation of a 2003 ceasefire at the Line of Control (LoC), which divides Indian-administered Kashmir from Pakistan-administered Kashmir and had seen an increased level of violence from both militaries firing at each other since 2019.

In March, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote to his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan to congratulate him on the occasion of Pakistan Day, a national holiday. Pakistan PM Khan responded in kind.

A meeting of the countries’ Indus water commissioners also occurred that month in New Delhi.

On Sunday, FM Qureshi cautioned against attaching too much importance to the nascent process of talks.

“It is too early to make a value judgement on that,” he said, stressing the need for the two countries to avoid active conflict.

“We cannot afford to go to war, you know, it will be mutually suicidal,” he said. “And no sensible person will advocate a policy of that nature. So, we need to sit and we need to talk.”

Regarding the recent communication leading to the reaffirmation of the ceasefire, Qureshi said only that “both sides contacted each other”, offering no details on the current mechanism for communication between the countries.

On Friday, he had denied that any “peace talks” were taking place or that the United Arab Emirates had any role in the process, contradicting a statement by the UAE’s ambassador to the United States

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

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

PTI

Srinagar: The Srinagar authorities on Tuesday announced barring assembly of five or more people under Section 144 of the CrPC in view of a massive surge in COVID-19 cases in the city.

“In view of massive spurt in positive cases in District Sringar & after due deliberations, Section 144 CrPC is imposed hereby within the municipal limits of the district to contain further spread of the epidemic. Assembly of five or more persons is banned with immediate effect,” Srinagar Deputy Commissioner Aijaz Asad said on Twitter.

The city recorded 1,144 coronavirus cases on Tuesday — the highest tally since the pandemic began.

5,489 active positive cases in district, Admin notifies 48 areas as Micro Containment Zones

Srinagar: The active positive cases in Srinagar have crossed 5400-mark on Saturday with official data revealing that the summer capital of the Union Territory has recorded over 6400 cases in the last 15 days. The district administration has also declared 48 localities across Srinagar as Micro Containment Zones in the last nearly one month.

According to the data available with the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), the toll of active positive cases of COVID-19 cases has reached to 5489. The data also added that the summer capital has recorded 6,464 positive cases in the last 15 days.

On April 11, Srinagar recorded 362 cases of COVID-19 while on April 12, Srinagar recorded 303 positive cases. According to the data 423 cases were recorded on April 13 while 388 positive cases were recorded on April 14.

Srinagar reported 418 and 407 positive cases on April 15 and 16 respectively, the data said, adding that On April 17, Srinagar recorded 319 positive cases while on April 18 and 19, 520 and 383 positive cases respectively have been detected in the summer capital.

On April 20, Srinagar recorded 647 positive cases while on April 21, the summer capital recorded 612 cases. The data revealed that 590 COVID cases were recorded on April 22 while 501 cases were recorded on April 23.

Srinagar recorded a total of 591 cases today, thus adding the number of cases from the last 15 days to 6,464.

According to the data, the district has a total of 5489 active positive cases at present.

With the recovery of 363 people today, the overall toll of recovered patients so far has mounted to 32025 in the district. A total of 500 deaths have also been reported so far across the district, the data said.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC), Syed Muhammad Hanief Balkhi told KNO that at total of 48 localities across Srinagar have been declared as Micro containment Zones till Friday evening.

He said that declaring areas as Micro Containment Zones helps is aimed at preventing the virus from spreading. “The localities are being declared as Micro Containment Zones after over four COVID cases are being detected from the particular area. A series of preventive measures are being taken forthwith to ensure that the virus is prevented from spreading in the locality,” he said—(KNO)

Srinagar, Apr 24: The management of Makdhoom Sahab (RA) shrine Saturday appealed Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) to sanitize and fumigate the shrine as the head Imam and others have been tested positive for Covid-19.

One of the members of Management told KNT that besides Imam of Ziyarat Makdhoon Sahib (RA), half a dozen people related to shrine have been tested positive, but still Wakaf Board has done nothing to sanitize the Shrine.

“We informed Wakaf Board but our requests have gone to deaf ears. Now we have appealed SMC and hopefully one of the officials there assured that shrine will be sanitized and fumigated,” he said.

The shrine of Sufi mystic Hamza Makhdoom Kashmiri who was popularly known as Makhdoom Sahib is located in the foot hills of Hari Parbat Srinagar. (KNT)

Srinagar: A teenage ‘self-taught’ artist is winning hearts of people with her calligraphy work which she uploads on different social media platforms.

Muneeba Bashir(19), daughter of Bashir Ahmad Khan resident of Malikgund village in Imamsahib belt of Shopian, who is Laboratory Technician student, has so far made hundreds of calligraphy pieces.

Muneeba, while talking to news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) said that she was interested in making sketches and other arts since her childhood, however, last year due to some family issues and lockdown, she was feeling alone and depressed.

“To beat anxiety and depression, I started making calligraphy pieces and within just few days I learned this art and started making calligraphy pieces,” she said. “Once I started spending time in calligraphy, I was feeling relaxed and it was giving me a peace of mind and since then I spent one to two hours in calligraphy work every day.”

She said that this work isn’t affecting her studies but instead this art work gives her freshness and if she even spends time in art work in evening hours, she feels fresh.

Muneeba said that the youth of J&K are very much talented but there is need direct them properly towards their goal and youth must work hard and show steadfastness in order to achieve any goal—(KNO)

(Recieved and Posted)

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Srinagar April 09: Government’s decision for imposing night curfew has not gone well with people questioning it when tourist spots are open in Kashmir and won’t contain the virus.
Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has ordered an imposition of night curfew in the urban areas of eight districts, including Jammu and Srinagar, to check the spread of the soaring coronavirus cases.
However, experts and common masses have questioned the decision saying it won’t stop spread of COVID-19 infection as there is no night life in Kashmir.
“It beats logic to have restrictions at night when most of the crowds are during the day,” said DAK President and influenza expert Dr Nisar ul Hassan in a statement to news agency Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS).
“One wonders how night curfew will help in curbing the spread, when people go about their business during the day hours,” he said.
“We have no night life in Kashmir. There is no movement at all during the night hours. Life comes to a standstill in the night.”
“All activities happen during the day and that is the time when virus transmission occurs,” DAK President said.
“It is during daytime that huge crowds are seen in markets, large gatherings are seen at social and public functions which is the main cause behind the spread of Covid-19 infection in the community.”
Kashmir is reeling under the grip of a raging second wave of Covid-19 with surge in number of cases and hospitalizations too.
J&K Government yesterday has announced imposition of night curfew from April 09 in a bid to contain the spread of coronavirus.
“The virus does not take rest during the day and becomes active during the night. It doesn’t work like that,” Dr Nisar said.
“There is no data to support the use of night curfew to reduce the virus transmission.”
“Even union health ministry has written to states like Maharashtra that night curfew has not much impact on virus transmission.”
“Instead of applying night curfew, we need to make people understand that corona is still here and they need to be cautious,” he said.
Abdul Hamid, a school teacher said that imposition of night curfew was a bizarre move by the government. “We have no night life in Kashmir then how can night curfew help to contain the COVID-19,” he said.
Similarly, on last Sunday, authorities announced closure of schools in Kashmir upto class 9th for two weeks and one week for class 10th, 11th, and 12th. The decision was taken after around 200 students were tested positive for COVID-19 in schools across Kashmir.
At the same time, people have questioned the government’s move saying tourist spots have been kept open where tourists and locals visit without wearing masks or maintaining social distancing.
Tulip Garden and Badamwari in Srinagar have become a main attraction of tourists and locals, where people in large numbers throng these days.
“Government announced closure of school for safety of students but those children are now visiting Tulip Garden. I fail to understand for what purpose schools were closed when thousands of people visit gardens without even wearing masks,” Abdul Gani Bhat, a resident of Dalgate told news agency Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS).
On last Saturday, the tulip festival was thrown open by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha in presence of Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan.
An official of the Floriculture Department said over 1.10 lakh people have visited Tulip Garden since it was thrown open on March 25. (KINS)