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50 percent referrals are uncertain; 17000 patients seen in LD OPD in June month alone this year: Officials

Srinagar, Jul 27: The Valley’s lone maternity hospital known as Lal Ded hospital in Srinagar continues to get normal cases from peripheries which otherwise could easily be managed at lower-rung hospitals at district and sub-district levels.

Doctors posted at LD hospital told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) said that LD hospital is Kashmir’s largest tertiary care Gynaecology and Obstetrics facility but that doesn’t mean “you have to refer every case here to put pressure on limited resources.”

They said that despite government orders to avoid unnecessary referrals, they continue to receive 20-40 referral cases per day and among them only 50 percent are genuine while as 50 percent are uncertain and can be easily managed at Primary Health Centre, Sub district hospitals and district hospitals.

The doctors further said that besides unnecessary referrals, pregnant ladies themselves come here for check-ups from very far off places who can get easily visit peripheral hospitals in their districts.

Patients from Lolab, Gurez, Keran and far off places of other hospitals are coming here themselves for check-ups once they pregnant but they can avail this facility at SDH and District hospitals where gynaecologists are posted already.

They said that these pregnant ladies come here for ante-natal check-ups to get LD card and come here for regular check-ups to put pressure on OPD as well.

“This is being done so that whenever they have labour pain, they get admit themselves here without being called as referrals. Despite that most of them have normal delivery which can be easily managed at peripheral hospitals,” a doctor at LD said wishing not to be named.

A senior doctor at LD told KNO that around 17000 patients were treated in OPD of the hospitals

He said that around 3500 deliveries were carried out at the hospital in June month and among them 800 were referral cases. Among 3500 deliveries, around 1300 were C-section cased and most of the cases among rest 2200 were normal deliveries—(KNO)

New Delhi, Jul 26: Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik, who is on a hunger strike in Tihar Jail here for five days, is being given intravenous fluids and his health is being regularly monitored by doctors, officials said on Tuesday.

Malik (56), the head of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), began his indefinite hunger strike on Friday morning after the Centre did not respond to his plea that he be allowed to physically appear in a Jammu court hearing the Rubaiya Sayeed abduction case, in which he is an accused.

Malik, who was kept in solitary confinement in a high-risk cell in Tihar’s jail number 7, has been shifted to the prison’s Medical Investigation (MI) room where doctors are constantly monitoring his health status and updating officials about the same.

The JKLF chief is serving a life sentence in a terror-funding case.

“On Friday morning, Malik refused to eat anything. He is still on a hunger strike and his health is being regularly monitored by doctors. He is being given IV (intravenous) fluids since Sunday,” an official said.

Appearing before a special CBI judge through a video-conference, Malik had said he wanted to physically appear in the case related to the abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of then Union home minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, in 1989.

Malik had informed the court that he had written a letter to the government seeking his transfer to a Jammu jail so that he could physically appear in the case and contest the allegations against him.

He had said he would like to personally cross-examine the prosecution witnesses and would wait for a government nod till July 22. He had also said he would sit on an indefinite hunger strike inside the jail if his plea was not allowed.

Malik began his protest when he received no information from the government on his plea to shift him to any prison in Jammu.

Rubaiya Sayeed was allegedly abducted by the JKLF on December 8, 1989. She was freed from captivity five days later after the then V P Singh government at the Centre, supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), released five JKLF militants in exchange.

The JKLF chief was arrested in early 2019 in connection with a 2017 terror-funding case registered by the National Investigation Agency. Malik had pleaded guilty in the case and was sentenced by a special NIA court in Delhi in May.–(PTI)

‘No need to panic, 99.9 positive patients are recovering within 2-4 days without hospitalization’

Srinagar, Jul 25: Amid the fresh surge in Covid-19, the experts on Monday said that it is characteristic of virus to behave differently and ups and downs are part it but there is no need to worry as 99.9 percent patients are recovering in just few days without any hospitalization.

Flu expert and President of Doctors Association of Kashmir Dr Nisar Ul Hassan told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), that Covid-19 pandemic is in endemic stage now and it has joined many viruses which are endemic and one of them is Influenza which we see every year.

“Once the virus goes into endemic phase, the rise and fall can be seen with small changes in the virus as it keeps on changing and once there is a change, rise and fall can be expected,” he said.

Moreover, those who have got vaccinated and those who have got infection before six months or more and by then, they might have waned some immunity as most people haven’t got the booster dose.

“Some immunity remains for longer time due to which there can be contraction of the virus but due to some immunity, there is no severity among positive patients and almost all patients are recovering themselves without any hospitalization,” he said.

He said that case counting should be stopped now as it has relevance now and it is minor flu now and counting will lead to fear and anxiety among people,” he said. “Once there is increase in hospitalizations, then we have to bell the alarm but as of nothing like that.”

He said that testing in mild cases must be avoided now and quarantine only healthy patients having mild symptoms and we must go for testing only when there is severity in anyone and high risk groups and we must focus on booster doses and vaccination.

“I firmly believe that we may end up in yearly booster doses after a year or so,” he said, adding that that “ups and downs can happen as virus keeps changing.”

Meanwhile other doctors said that the number of COVID cases are seemingly on rise over the last few weeks, but the symptoms are mild and self-limiting lasting for a few days only.

The majority of affected persons don’t know if they had COVID as they never tested for it, he said, adding that despite being positive, they kept on doing their routine activities and the virus keeps on spreading.

There’s no severity of currently circulating strain as it mainly affects the upper respiratory tract and as such the hospital admissions are minimal with those having comorbidities and involvement of lungs which rarely occurs with the circulating strains of Omicron variant, he said.

Meanwhile, another doctor from GMC Srinagar told KNO that the positivity rate in J&K is increasing with each passing day and it is likely that sub lineages of omicron are behind it, however, it can be fully confirmed in genome sequencing labs

He said that it is usually mild form presenting with fever, body aches, sore throat and cough and it resolves in few days.

The variant doesn’t seem to be aggressive as the hospital admissions haven’t increased as of now, however, people must not be complacent and must use masks at least in outdoors—(KNO)

Srinagar, July 25: The BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh on Monday said that people of J&K have now completely given up the two families of Abdullahs and Muftis for having looted them and misleading them in the last many years.

Chugh, who flagged off the first-ever Tiranga rally to Kargil from Lal chowk, said that Muftis and Abdullahs have ruined Jammu and Kashmir and are still trying to ruin it which they will never allow. 

“The people here have understood that these people are robbing us”, he said and added that . In the  bike rally thousands of youth participated in making Narendra Modi’s dreams a success. Youth from every part of Kashmir also participated, which will culminate on July 26 at Kargil War Memorial marking the Vijay Diwas,” he said. 

He added that in the last 70 years, Kashmir was not progressing because of these two families and now people are realizing that they have been robbed by these two families

“Mehbooba Mufti had said that after the abrogation of 370, there will be no one to  raise the tricolour. I want to ask her, come to Lal chowk and see how many youth have raised the tricolour,” he said.

He also said that these two families have come together to ruin Kashmir further but BJP will never let that happen and the bike rally is proof of peace and order in Kashmir. 

Notably, All India Youth BJP presidents, General Secretaries and BJP JK general secretary and in charge J&K affairs Sunil Sharma along  Altaf Thakur, Manzoor Bhat, Arif Raja and Er Ajaz Hussain with other members also attended the event.

Calls meeting on ‘common action plan’ on July 28

Srinagar: An emergency and extraordinary meeting of several important and leading members of the Muttahida Majlis Ulema (MMU) headed by incarcerated Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was held which was presided over by one of its founding members, and renowned religious scholar, Moulana Muhammad Rehmatullah Mir Al Qasmi.

Among the leading muftis and scholars who participated in the meeting included Mufti Abdul Rasheed Miftahi, senior religious scholar Moulana Bashir Ahmad Al Qasimi, Mufti Nisar Ahmad Al Qasimi, Mufti Ijaz Ul Hassan Banday, Mufti Irshad Ahmad Qasmi, Mufti Ghulam Rasool Samoon, Moulana Fayaz Ahmed, Qari Muhammad Aslam Raheemi, and Moulana M S Rehman Shams, and others.

In this important meeting, the participants expressed strong reaction against the recent negative activities of some individuals aimed at creating sectarian divisions in Jammu and Kashmir.

The meeting rejected such actions and activities of accusations and counter-accusations between the two sects of Ahlus Sunnat Wal Jamaat in Kashmir, saying that Kashmir and its people cannot afford and allow such irresponsible attempts nor can any individual or party be allowed to commit insolence and misdemeanours of the great Muslim scholars.

The participants said that in the context of the current situation, the meeting and discussion among all the responsible scholars of all schools of thought was inevitable and the need of the hour.

The MMU proposed that in this regard, the Majlis-e-Ulema should convene a consultative meeting on Thursday, 28 July 2022, during which a common action plan and strategy shall be compiled, and the scholars and preachers of all schools of thought would be bound to adhere strictly to it.

The meeting stressed mutual unity and harmony in view of the serious local and external situation and appealed to the people to keep an eye on the activities of anti-Islam and anti-unity elements and to be vigilant against their negative activities.

At the end of the meeting, the participants expressed deep concern over the arbitrary and illegal detention of the MMU Patron Mirwaiz-Kashmir Dr Moulvi Muhammad Umar Farooq who continues to be under house arrest for the last three years. They demanded his immediate release.

Burhan Hussainii

Srinagar, 22 July: Aabida Rashid self taught islamic calligrapher and medical student, from Zainakote HMT area of central Kashmir’s district, Srinagar Jammu & Kashmir.

Growing in a locality where some professions are cherished while many are destined to dustbins. Well, my name Aabida Rashid doesn’t linger any story I started to create one. I m a self taught callgrapher from Kashmir valley Hmt Srinagar, I have never been to any institution I learned it all by myself, this is all by the grace of almighty Allah.

While interacting with Ms. Rashid she said that islamic Calligraphy has always fascinated her but being a medical student didn’t she get enough time for this but this pandemic came as both boon and bane. 

“Lockdown provided me with lot of opportunities to use my time in a good way and I realise that I m blessed with this art of Calligraphy,” she said.

“I started my journey as a calligrapher during lockdown, when there was laziness all around, lockdown aided me with more time to Improve my skills, I began to devote most of my time towards this art, from school days I used to participate in all local competitions and won many of them, No doubt it is a beginning but I want to do it for my life now.”

“I m now trying to master in this field, having innate tendency towards this I am working hard to get proficiency in this, it is more than a hobby for me.”

“I don’t feel alone in the shadow of this art,  it is the medicine for all my bad moods, I find calm in this, for me it is an effective way to communicate and pass a message in a beautiful way, it is the music not for the ears but for the eyes, a best way to deal with stress.”

“Moreover I believe that an artist should be given an opportunity to prove his/her mettle, everybody is genius, society should appreciate this kind of talent.”

“I want audience both to appreciate as well as prune every artist, it must not be abhorred, art or profession should give pleasure hence, it becomes worship.”

“Now eventually people have begun to appreciate my work, my family friends and whosoever sees my work Alhumdulilah everyone appreciates me and are giving positive response which keeps me going.”

“Besides Calligraphy I sometimes draw and paint also which gives me joy n peace. According to me Calligraphy is a therapeutic art because when we start doing it, our mind just focuses on it n we start forgetting all other things including problems n everything.”

“My little message for all the artists n beginners is, “Just do whatever makes u happy n whatever gives u peace, for me it is like a therapy and if you are thinking about success and all,  just stop thinking that because your success is only by Allah, you just do ur hardwork and stay motivated towards your goal, don’t let the circumstances overpower you, don’t hide your talent, come forward and show the world that u can do anything”,  She said.

‘Majority of people unaware even when they are infected, strain behaving mildly’

Srinagar, Jul 20: Health experts believe that the current spike in Covid cases in the Union Territory of J&K is likely caused by the Omicron sub-lineages, mainly BA.2, BA.2.38, BA.4 and BA.5.

Experts told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that these new sub variants are indicating higher transmissibility and dominating currently in most of the places but most cases are of mild infection that includes cold, cough, fever and body ache.

Dr Muhammad Salim Khan, Head of Department Community Medicine at GMC Srinagar said that the number of Covid cases are seemingly on rise over the last few weeks, but the symptoms are mild and self-limiting lasting for a few days only.

“The majority of affected persons don’t know if they had COVID as they never tested for it,” he said. “Despite being positive, they kept on doing their routine activities and the virus kept on spreading.”

He said that there’s no severity of currently circulating strain as it mainly affects the upper respiratory tract and as such the hospital admissions are minimal with those having comorbidities and involvement of lungs. Which rarely occurs with the circulating strains of Omicron variant.

Meanwhile, another doctor from GMC Srinagar told KNO that the positivity rate in J&K is increasing with each passing day and it is likely that sub lineages of Omicron are behind it, however, it can be fully confirmed in genome sequencing labs.

He said that it is usually mild form presenting with fever, body aches, sore throat and cough and it resolves in a few days.

“The variant doesn’t seem to be aggressive as the hospital admissions haven’t increased as of now, however, people must not be complacent and must use masks at least in outdoors,” he said—(KNO)

According to an order, issued by deputy commissioner Srinagar, Mohammad Aijaz, there has been a recent spike in COVID-19 cases in Jammu and Kashmir.

The order stated that various preventive measures are recommended by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Government of India such as wearing face masks, maintenance of social distance and hand sanitization etc from time to time as effective means of COVID-19 containment.

“It has become imperative to ensure strict implementation of all preventive measures such as usage of face masks and maintenance of social distance in all the public places across the District to minimize the spread of covid-19 infection,” it added.

“Moreover, all district and sectoral officers shall ensure the usage of face masks by all officers and officials in the offices,” it reads.

Earlier, authorities in Bandipora and Ganderbal districts had also made the wearing of face masks mandatory at public places and government offices.