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  • COVID-19 | JK Reports 9th Death As Srinagar Man Dies In SMHS

    Srinagar: A 32- year old man from Alamgiri Bazaar area of Srinagar died at SMHS hospital here, becoming the youngest victim of the dreaded disease.

    With this fatality, 9 persons have died due to the disease so far in Jammu and Kashmir, 8 of them in Kashmir and one in Jammu division.

    The man’s death has also taken Srinagar’s toll to 3, equal to Baramulla and highest so far in any other districts in J&K.

    Confirming the 32- year-old’s death, Nodal officer GMC Dr. Saleem Khan told GNS that he was attending to his father admitted in Oncology department at Super Speciality Hospital Shireen Bagh.

    Medical superintendent Dr. Nazir Choudhary told GNS that the man was admitted to hospital on May 05 with underlying ailment pneumonia.

    ” He died late last night and samples came out to be positive at around 9:00 Pm on Wednesday,” he said, adding, ” the body has been handed over to the family for last rites to be carried out as per the COVID-19 protocol”.

    Official sources said Global News Service that the man had no travel history to any affected place outside Jammu and Kashmir.

    However, they said he was attending to his father who was admitted at Cancer ward of Super Speciality Hospital Shireen Bagh where a 55 year-old woman, a plastic surgery patient, from Sangam Anantnag tested positive along with 19 year-old teenager (Attendant) from Surankote Poonch tested positive for the pathogen earlier. (GNS)

  • COVID-19: 34 new positive cases reported

    322 cases recovered till date in JK

    Jammu: The Government Wednesday informed that 34 new positive cases of novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), 02 from Jammu division and 32 from Kashmir division, have been reported today thus taking the total number of positive cases in Jammu and Kashmir to 775. According to the daily Media Bulletin on novel coronavirus (Covid-19), out of 775 positive cases, 445 are Active Positive, 322 have recovered and 08 have died.

    Moreover, 02 more COVID-19 patients have recovered and discharged from various hospitals of Kashmir Division. The Bulletin further said that out of 34277 test results available, 33502 samples have tested as negative till May 06, 2020.

    Furthermore, till date 82367 travellers and persons in contact with suspected cases have been enlisted for surveillance which included 14664 persons in home quarantine including facilities operated by government, 190 in Hospital Quarantine, 445 in hospital isolation and 7625 under home surveillance.

    Besides, 59435 persons have completed their surveillance period.

    Providing district-wise breakup, the Bulletin said that Bandipora has 132 positive cases with 69 Active Positive, 62 recovered, 01 death; Srinagar has 124 (including 11 reported today) positive cases with 46 Active Positive, 76 recovered (including 01 recovery today), 02 deaths; Anantnag district reported 11 new cases which led to 121 positive cases with 119 Active Positive, 01 recovered, 01 death; Baramulla has 104 positive cases with 59 Active Positive, 42 recovered, 03 deaths; with 5 fresh cases today, Shopian has 94 positive cases with 69 Active Positive, 25 recovered; Kupwara has 69 positive cases with 3 cases reported today, 38 Active Positive, 31 recovered (including 01 recovery today); Budgam has 30 positive cases with 18 Active Positive and 12 recovered cases; Ganderbal has 15 positive cases including 1 case reported today with 01 Active case and 14 recoveries; Kulgam has 12 positive cases (including 01 reported today) with 09 Active Positive and 03 recoveries; Pulwama reported 09 positive cases with 06 active positive, 03 recovered.

    Similarly, Jammu has 29 positive cases (including 02 cases reported today) with 03 active positive cases and 26 recoveries; Udhampur has 21 positive cases with 01 active positive case, 19 recovered and 01 death; Samba has 07 positive cases with 03 Active Positive and 04 recoveries; Rajouri has 04 positive cases, 01 active positive and 03 have recovered; Kathua has 01 positive case who is active positive; Kishtwar had only 01 positive case who has recovered while Ramban and Reasi districts both have 01 positive case each who are active positive.

    The Bulletin said that the breakup represents districts from which the patients have been traced or are ordinarily residing. According to bulletin, the people have been informed that Hand Hygiene is one of the effective actions they can take to reduce the spread of pathogens and prevent infections, including COVID-19.

    The public has been urged upon to protect themselves and others from getting sick, wash their hands frequently with soap and water; After coughing or sneezing, when caring for the sick, before, during and after preparing food, before eating, after toilet use,·when hands are visibly dirty, after handling animals or animal waste, before and after wearing face cover/mask.

    The bulletin says that early detection of COVID-19 can prevent the spread of disease, let us be responsible for the well-being of ourselves and everyone around us. Not disclosing symptoms could put life of individuals and their families at risk. In case of symptoms like fever, cough and difficulty in breathing report early.

    Do not fear, call COVID-19 helpline numbers and seek medical advice. Advisory urged people not to step out of home, unless absolutely necessary. “If you have to move out for unavoidable reasons, ensure that you wear a mask and practice social distancing, personal hygiene and frequent handwashing with soap and water.”

    In case of any emergency people can avail free ambulance services 24×7 at their doorsteps by calling on toll-free number 108 while as pregnant women and sick infants can avail free ambulance services by dialling toll-free number 102.

    People can also call on toll-free national helpline number 1075; J&K COVID-19 Helpline Numbers 0191- 2549676 (UT level Cell), 0191-2520982, 0191-2674444, 0191-2674115 (For Jammu Division), 0194-2440283 & 0194-2430581 (For Kashmir Division) for support, guidance, and response to health-related queries on Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19).

    Public is advised to strictly follow the advisories issued by the government from time to time and are urged to rely only on the information released by the government through the daily media bulletin to print and electronic media. People are also advised to refrain from spreading rumours and pay no heed to them at the same time— (KNO)

  • Hacker ‘sees’ security flaws in Aarogya Setu

    Aarogya Setu says no personal information had been proven to be at risk.

    PTI

    Ethical hacker Robert Baptiste on May 6 alleged that security flaws in the government’s Aarogya Setu application enabled him to see that five people at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and two people at the Indian Army headquarters were unwell.

    Mr. Baptise, who goes by Elliot Alderson on Twitter, also claimed that there was “one infected person at the Indian Parliament and three at the Home office.”

    On May 5, he tweeted that there were security issues with Aarogya Setu. Tagging the official account of Aarogya Setu, he said, “A security issue has been found in your app. The privacy of 90 million Indians is at stake. Can you contact me in private?”.

    Rahul is right’

    He went on to add that former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who has termed the app “a sophisticated surveillance system”, was right.

    In response to the issues raised by Mr. Baptise, the team of Aarogya Setu, in a statement, said no personal information of any user had been proven to be at risk. “ …we were alerted by an ethical hacker of a potential security issue of Aarogya Setu…No personal information of any user has been proven to be at risk by this ethical hacker. We are continuously testing and upgrading our systems. Team Aarogya Setu assures everyone that no data or security breach has been identified,” the statement said.

    Following this statement, Mr. Baptise tweeted that he was able to “… know who is infected, unwell, made a self assessment in the area of his choice. Basically, I was able to see if someone was sick at the PMO office or the Indian parliament. I was able to see if someone was sick in a specific house if I wanted… This is the issue.”

    He further called for making the application’s source code open source. “…When you ask (force) people to install an app, they have the right to know what the app is really doing. If you love your country @SetuAarogya, publish the source code,” he tweeted, adding that countries such as Singapore, Israel did it and Iceland did it.

    As per the Aarogya Setu statement, Mr. Baptise pointed out that the application fetched user location on a few occasions. However, Aarogya Setu said, “This is by design and is clearly detailed in the privacy policy.”

    It noted that the application fetched a user’s location and stored it on a server in a secure, encrypted and anonymised manner “1) at the time of registration, 2) at the time of self-assessment, and 3) when the user submits his or her contact tracing data voluntarily through the app or when we fetch the contact tracing data after the person turns COVID-19 positive.”

    Further, the French hacker had said that a user can get the COVID-19 stats displayed on the home screen by changing the radius and latitude-longitude using a script.

    The Aarogya Setu statement said, “The radius parameters are fixed and can only take one of the five values — 500 metres, 1 km, 2km, 5km and 10km. These values are standard parameters, posted with HTTP headers. Any other value as part of the ‘distance’ HTTP header gets defaulted to 1 km.”

    It added that a user can change the latitude/longitude to get the data for multiple locations. “The API call though is behind a Web Application Firewall, and hence bulk calls are not possible. Getting data for multiple latitude longitude this way is no different than asking several people of their location’s COVID-19 statistics. All this information is already public for all locations and hence does not compromise on any personal or sensitive data.”

    — raising serious data security & privacy concerns. Technology can help keep us safe; but fear must not be leveraged to track citizens without their consent.”

    Mr. Baptiste sent out a tweet, saying: “Rahul Gandhi tweeted about the Aarogya app. I guess I’m forced to look at it now.” He claimed that the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and the National Informatics Centre (NIC) got in touch with him 49 minutes after his initial tweet.

    With inputs from The Hindu

  • Coronavirus | 155 CRPF men test positive for virus

    PTI

    The 3.25 lakh strong Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) had reported 158 positive cases, of which have two recovered and one died.

    A CRPF official said that since April 21, the force had screened 11,219 personnel and their contacts, of which 3,112 were quarantined. Of the 155 active cases, 152 were being treated in Delhi, two in Noida and one at Kupwara in J&K.

    A 55-year-old Sub Inspector, who passed away, was a resident of Barpeta in Assam. He was posted at the force’s unit at Mayur Vihar in East Delhi. Many personnel, including the deceased, were placed in quarantine after a 43-year-old constable, posted as a nursing assistant at the unit, tested positive on April 21.

    Forty-five personnel of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and 13 men of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) have tested positive till May 5.

  • Offices of Universities, Colleges in J&K opened with 30 pc staff

    Class work in all educational institutions to remain off till May 30

    Jammu: Pursuant to directions of Lieutenant Governor, G C Murmu, the Higher Education department has ordered that class work of all educational institutions will remain closed till May 30th 2020.

    The government order issued here today in this regard reads that ‘However, in the interest of administration, it is hereby ordered that offices of Vice Chancellors including Head of Departments and Principals of Government Degree Colleges of Higher Education Department and Principals of Polytechnic Colleges and ITI’s of Technical Education Department across the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir shall start functioning from 06-05-2020 (Wednesday) with minimum 30% staff strength on rotation basis.

    Besides, Principals of respective Institutions shall draw duty roster of teaching staff to start pending work of evaluation/assessment, virtual class-work, lab work, curriculum development, scholarships and other activities assigned by the Principal of their institutions.

    Similarly, duty roster of non-teaching staff on rotation basis shall also be drawn to start routine official work as assigned by the controlling officer of the institution. Research Scholars are also permitted to start their activities in the lab while strictly observing the COVID-19 protocol.

    Meanwhile, all staff detailed for duties shall observe/follow COVID-19 protocol and safety precautions issued by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, GoI from time to time particularly regular hand wash/sanitization and maintaining proper hygiene, mandatory wearing of mask, maintaining social distance etc.

    Pertinently, Advisor to LG, K K Sharma, had also held a detailed review meeting with the Principal Secretary Education and Secretary Higher Education regarding the status of preparation of online content and various centrally sponsored schemes.

    It was suggested in the meeting that the administrative staff of all education institutions and polytechnics should be asked to resume their duties for successful implementation of CSSs and preparation of online content keeping in view the protocols set in place for COVID-19.

  • Today’s two Awantipora encounters: Police Version

    Srinagar: On specific inputs two cordon and search operations were launched by J&K Police and SFs at Sarshali and Beigpora in Awantipora.

    These cordon and search operations led to encounters as the hiding militants fired upon the operation parties.

    During these encounters four militants were neutralized. In Sharshali encounter 02 militants of LeT were killed. The identification of killed militants is being ascertained. Incriminating material including arms and ammunition were recovered from the site of encounter.

    In the second operation in Beigpora village of Awantipur district, a top militant commander was trapped along with his associate. The operation was launched last evening and contact was established with hiding militants in the morning today.

    In this encounter two militants were killed. One of the militant has been identified as Riyaz Naikoo. He was the Chief operational Commander of (HM) outfit in Kashmir.

    In a statement issues to news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), said that he joined Militant ranks of HM outfit in May 2012 and was a close associate of Burhan Wani. After Zakir Musa’s defection from HM to form his own Outfit called Ansar Gazwat ul Hind, he took command of HM outfit in Jammu Kashmir. Pertinent to mention that Zakir Musa was eliminated in operation last year.

    Naikoo had been continuously making audio and video clips and putting up on social media to motivate youth to join militancy and went on recruiting new boys. He was responsible for a large number of innocent youths getting into militant ranks and indulging in serious violence against local population and SFs .

    He was a masterminded behind the revival of HM outfit in Jammu and Kashmir. He also released videos / audios on number of occasions carrying Pro-Pakistan and separatist propaganda.

    He executed a series of attacks on policemen, SF and civilians. He resorted to brutal killings of civilians branding them as police/SFs informers.

    He looted orchard owners and farmers to collect funds for his outfit. He also has been collecting booty from illicit cultivation of opium and bhang in South Kashmir.

    His outfit also figured in narco trade case in jammu where a huge sum of sale proceeds was transferred to one of his contacts. Some of the Killings/ Crime where he was directly involved were –

    1) killing of Haji Ghulam Mohd Dar Father Of a Sarpanch At Dogripora 0n 8-3-2014

    2) Firing On Police Bus Near Bhatpora Tokena

    3) killing of Gh Mohi-Ud-din Dar

    4) killing of Javaid Akbar Khanday R/o Khandaypora

    5) killing of a Police HC Ashiq Hussain Mir at Padgampoara crossing.

    6) kidnapping of constable Naseer Ahmad 7) looting of 09 weapons from the residence of ex MLA Wachi

    8) killing of six migrant labour in kulgam

    9) killing of truck drivers and fruit traders post Aug 5.

    10) Release of an audio tape threatening attacks on the Jail staff after Preferential treatment being provided to militants and the separatists lodged in various jails was discontinued.

    Apart from the above he was involved in many other cases of heinous crime for which a big number of FIRs were registered against him.

  • Govt extends time limit for annual GST returns for financial year 2018-19 till 30 September

    Srinagar: Government has announced further relaxations for filing of Annual returns for Goods and Services Tax (GST) and movement of goods in the country.

    Official sources told news KINS that the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has extended the time limit for furnishing of the annual return and GST audit for the financial year 2018-2019, till 30 September, 2020.

    “Government has also given an extension till 31st May for all the e-way bills generated on or before the March 24th, whose validity were to expire between March 20th and April 15th. This relaxation will allow seamless movement of goods and supplies through road transport carriers ensuring availability of supplies across the county”. (KINS)

  • Hydroxychloroquine no wonder drug for treating COVID-19, can be fatal: Experts

    PTI

    New Delhi: As countries around the world explore the potential of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 patients, several experts have sounded a note of warning to say it is not a wonder drug and may even be fatal in some cases.

    While frantic efforts are underway to develop a vaccine and doctors all over try and control the spread of the disease for which there is yet no cure, hydroxychloroquine, or HCQ, has emerged as a prime focus area of treatment.

    This reliance on HCQ must immediately stop, the experts say, adding their voices to the growing debate to stress that there is no scientific evidence to prove that it is beneficial in treating COVID-19.

    “It is only on anecdotal evidence that doctors are using HCQ along with other antiviral medication (used in HIV and other viral infections) as empiric therapy to treat COVID-19 patients as there is no definite treatment available yet,” said M C Misra, former director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi and one of India’s top surgeons.

    “However, there have been reports of some patients developing cardiac arrhythmias due to hydroxychloroquine which can cause sudden cardiac death,” Misra told PTI.

    Yudhyavir Singh, a core member of AIIMS’ COVID-19 team deployed at the hospital’s trauma centre, agreed. “Globally, some deaths have been reported due to the administration of HCQ alone and along with azithromycin as well. HCQ blocks the potassium channel and potentially prolongs the QTc (heartbeat) with consequences of sudden cardiac arrest death and various arrhythmias. This has also been documented in prominent studies,” he explained.

    The assistant professor of anaesthesia at AIIMS said there are contradictory reports on HCQ usage for treating COVID-19.

    As the pandemic spreads and the urgency for effective treatment of COVID-19 mounts, several countries, including the US, have started relying heavily on HCQ, majorly used in the treatment of malaria and rheumatoid-arthritis.

    India has become the biggest supplier of the drug and has fulfilled large orders from countries such as the US, UAE and UK.

    With US President Donald Trump touting the anti-malaria drug as a definite cure for COVID-19, his administration has stockpiled millions of doses of HCQ despite the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issuing a safety communication regarding the known side effects of the drug.

    The FDA said HCQ has been given ‘Emergency Use Authorisation’ for the treatment of patients who have tested positive for coronavirus but its side effects include serious and potentially life-threatening heart rhythm problems.

    In India too, HCQ is being used by many hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients though there is no scientific proof of its benefit for the disease.

    “We are using HCQ among other drugs but ignoring its extreme hazardous side effects,” Misra said.

    In the first week of April, when coronavirus cases in India started to surge, a doctor in Assam who was put on a high dose of HCQ after he showed COVID-19 symptoms died of a cardiac arrest, he said.

    Citing a research from France in which one half of COVID-19 patients was administered hydroxychloroquine while the other half was not, Misra said the recovery and outcomes of the two groups were same. “Another study submitted in The New England Journal of Medicine on April 4, 2020 concluded that HCQ administration to the hospitalised SARS-CoV- 2 positive population was associated with an increased need for escalation of respiratory support,” he said, adding that hydroxychloroquine was not a “wonder drug”. COVID-19, which broke out first in China’s Hubei province, has caused havoc across the world, claiming the lives of more than 2.5 lakh people and infected over 36 lakh.

    Ashraf Ganie, professor of endocrinology at Srinagar’s Sher-I-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, described as brazen the manner in which HCQ was being projected as a cure for treating coronavirus.

    “HCQ can have serious cardiac side effects and cannot be used without prior evaluation,” Ganie told PTI. “There is no quality scientific evidence available, which can prove the efficacy of the drug in prevention or cure of COVID 19,” added D K Mangal, director of the Centre for Health Systems and Policy Research in Jaipur’s IIHMR University. “It should be used with precautions for patients with severe heart disease and require continuous monitoring of QT interval. HCQ is known for its cadio-toxicity. Hence it should be used in health care settings only,” he told PTI. Rajesh Kumar, a doctor of Internal Medicine at Gurgaon’s Paras Hospital, said HCQ can also cause hypoglycemia in diabetes patients.

    With inputs from PTI

  • EU forecasts ‘recession of historic proportions’ this year

    The 27-nation EU economy is predicted to contract by 7.5 per cent this year, before growing by about 6 per cent in 2021

    PTI

    The European Union predicted Wednesday “a recession of historic proportions this year” due to the impact of the coronavirus with a drop in output of more than 7 per cent, as it released its first official forecast of the damage the pandemic is inflicting on the bloc’s economy.

    The 27-nation EU economy is predicted to contract by 7.5 per cent this year, before growing by about 6 per cent in 2021.

    The group of 19 nations using the euro as their currency will see a record decline of 7.75 per cent this year, and grow by 6.25 per cent in 2021, the European Commission said in its Spring economic forecast.

    “Europe is experiencing an economic shock without precedent since the Great Depression,” EU Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said in a statement.

    More than 1.1 million people have contracted the virus across Europe and over 137,000 have died, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

    Unclear outbreak data, low testing rates and the strain on health care systems mean the true scale of the pandemic is much greater.

    With the spread slowing in most European countries, people are cautiously venturing out from confinement and gradually returning to work, but strict health measures remain in place amid concern of a second wave of outbreaks and any return to something like normal life is at least months away.

    The pandemic has hurt consumer spending, industrial output, investment, trade, capital flows and supply chains. It has also hit jobs.

    The unemployment rate across the 27-nation EU is forecast to rise from 6.7 per cent in 2019 to 9 per cent in 2020 but then fall to around 8 per cent in 2021, the commission said.

    While the virus hit every member country, the extent of the damage it ultimately inflicts will depend on the evolution of the disease in each of them, the resilience of their economies and what policies they put in place to respond.

    Gentiloni said that the depth of the recession and the strength of recovery will be uneven across the world’s biggest trading bloc.

    Much will depend, he said, on the speed at which lockdowns can be lifted, the importance of services like tourism in each economy and by each country’s financial resources.

    Such divergence poses a threat to the single market and the euro area – yet it can be mitigated through decisive, joint European action.

    How quickly things can change.

    On February 13, the commission had predicted a path of steady, moderate growth this year and next of 1.2 per cent.

    At that time, uncertainty over U.S. trade policy and a Brexit trade deal plus tensions in Latin America and the Middle East were the main threats.

    The coronavirus outbreak in China was noted at the time as a new downside risk but the commission’s assumption less than three months ago was that the outbreak peaks in the first quarter, with relatively limited global spillovers.

  • Pak army resorts to firing along LoC in Poonch, Indian soldiers retaliate

    Cross-border shelling between the two sides was going on when last reports were received, officials said.

    PTI

    Pakistan Army on Wednesday resorted to firing on forward areas along the Line of Control (LoC) in two sectors of Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district, drawing retaliation from Indian soldiers, a defence spokesperson said.

    “Around 1540 hours today, Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation by firing with small arms along LoC in Shahpur sector,” the spokesperson said, adding the Indian Army retaliated befittingly.

    Cross-border shelling between the two sides was going on when last reports were received, officials said.

    However, there was no immediate report of any casualty.

    Fear has gripped villagers along the LoC in Rajouri, Poonch and Kupwara since three civilians were killed last week in shelling by Pakistan.