Srinagar, Dec 31: With the threat of Omicron variant looming large in Kashmir valley, Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Friday warned against crowding on new year celebrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeople are urged to avoid gatherings on new year to prevent the spread of highly transmissible Omicron variant in the valley,\u201d said DAK President and Influenza expert Dr Nisar ul Hassan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGatherings increase your risk of contracting the virus and spreading it in the community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Hassan said let us not take chances with our own health and health of others by creating easy opportunity for the virus to spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeople should avoid new year parties and gatherings to protect themselves and their loved ones,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe cannot be complacent. We are not out of woods yet. Covid is far from over and we must not lower our guard,\u201d said Dr Nisar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf people are not careful and don’t act responsibly, the situation will spin out of control,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The DAK President said if we want to go back to normal in near future, we need to impose self restrictions. And the most important is to avoid crowding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf we can limit our social gatherings, we can successfully create a deterrent against the spread of infection to a large extend,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
General Secretary DAK Dr Arshad Ali said vaccination and Covid appropriate behavior like masking and avoiding crowding should go hand in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cVaccination will protect from severe disease, but you can still get the virus and spread it to others. People should continue to follow safety norms to avoid catastrophic slipup,\u201d he said<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spokesperson DAK Dr Riyaz Ahmad Dagga said many state governments have already put restrictions on new year celebrations in view of rise in omicron cases across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said Jammu and Kashmir is already witnessing a winter surge in Covid-19 cases and hospitals too are seeing increase in number of cases requiring oxygen and some even need ICU beds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three cases of Omicron that have been detected in Jammu had no travel history or contact which gives us to understand that the new variant is possibly already in the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf we do not behave appropriately, we will give the virus a chance to spread in the community which could reignite another outbreak in the valley,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Srinagar, Dec 31: With the threat of Omicron variant looming large in Kashmir valley, Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Friday warned against crowding on new year celebrations. \u201cPeople are urged to avoid gatherings on new year to prevent the spread of highly transmissible Omicron variant in the valley,\u201d said DAK President and Influenza expert Dr […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48918,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-union-territory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}