New Delhi: Amid the growing Omicron cases, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Thursday hold a review meeting on the Covid related situation in the country.

The Omicron tally in the country has reached 213 as per the health ministry report.

In a statement, the Union health ministry said on Wednesday morning that the Omicron infection tally has reached 213 across the nation. However, out of the total Omicron positive cases, 90 have been discharged. So far 15 states have reported Omicron cases, said the ministry. At 57, Delhi has the highest cases of Omicron infection followed by Maharashtra with 54 cases, said the ministry report.

Meanwhile, the Centre has said that the new Covid variant Omicron is three times more transmissible than the Delta variant.

The Centre has asked the states to review the emerging data of Covid-19 affected population, geographical spread, hospital infrastructure and its utilisation, manpower, notifying Containment Zones and the enforcement of perimeter of containment zones at the district levels. The Centre has also asked the states to formulate a strategy that can ensure infection is contained at the local level itself before it spreads to other parts.

Amid the Omicron threat, the states have been asked to ‘activate war rooms and keep analysing all trends and surges, no matter how small and keep taking proactive measures at the district or local level’. (IANS)

New Delhi: A slew of studies by Indian scientists show that amid rising cases of Omicron, the third wave of Covid-19 has set in India from mid-December, and it may hit its peak in February next year.

A yet-to-be peer reviewed study led by a team of researchers from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), Kanpur used a statistical methodology based on the fitting of a mixture of Gaussian distributions – based on an algorithm for clustering to estimate the parameters.

The third wave was forecast using the data on the first two waves of pandemic. The team also utilised the data of different countries that are already facing the third wave, modelling their daily cases data and predicting the impact and timeline for the third wave in India.

“The report forecasts India’s third wave of Covid-19 to start around mid-December 2021 and the cases to peak in the beginning of February 2022,” Subhra Sankar Dhar, Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, wrote in the paper.

A separate study led by a joint team from the IITs Hyderabad and Kanpur is based on the Sutra model, which tracks the country’s Covid-19 trajectory.

According to Professor M. Vidyasagar of IIT Hyderabad and Maninda Agrawal of IIT Kanpur, the daily caseload is expected to rise as Omicron begins to displace Delta as the dominant variant.

Meanwhile, India registered 6,317 fresh Covid cases and 318 deaths in the last 24 hours, and the Omicron tally has reached 213, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday. With the addition of 318 new deaths, the death toll has climbed to 4,78,325.

However, out of total Omicron positive, 90 have been discharged. So far 15 states have reported Omicron infection, said the ministry. Delhi (57) has the highest number of Omicron cases 57, closely followed by Maharashtra (54).

Daily Covid-19 caseload in India is expected to increase once the Omicron starts displacing Delta as the dominant variant, media reports quoted members of the National Covid-19 Supermodel Committee as saying.

According to their prediction, the third wave of Covid wave in India is set to begin “early next year”.

However, they noted that the infection rate will be milder than seen in the second wave, due to a large-scale immunity and vaccination present in the country now. (IANS)

Jammu: The confirmed cases of Omicron in Jammu have already tested negative and are fully recovered, the Health Department said on Wednesday.

“The samples of three persons having foreign travel history was sent to NCDC for genome study on November 30,” said an official.

Two of them were from the same family in Talab Tillo area. The third is from Bantalab area.

As of now, only two patients are under treatment at the DRDO Hospital here and one of them has a history of foreign travel.

Meanwhile, Jammu District Magistrate Anshul Garg has ordered declaration of three areas in the city as “micro containment zones”.

RT PCR testing has been intensified in parts of Jammu, especially in localities where the Omicron cases were reported. (UNI)

Panaji: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has changed the working culture in a democracy, BJP national president J.P. Nadda said here on Wednesday, adding that when the Prime Minister of India speaks on international issues, the world now listens.

Nadda, who was speaking at a function organised by the Goa BJP to release its 10-year report card on governance, Nadda also said that under previous regimes, India was known as a corrupt and backward country.

“There is a change in working culture in a democracy. You have to understand that this change in working culture has happened because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I am not saying this just because I am giving a speech,” Nadda said.

“The culture was to just deliver speeches to lure people, talking about nice things, picking on issues in society, which can trigger a sort of a competition in sections of society and giving an emotional edge to issues,” he said.

“(They indulged in) vote-bank politics, becoming a champion of one section of society and when you get the votes, then looking after yourself, looking after your family, filling up your home with riches earned through corruption and then awaiting the next elections. This was the political culture and I am speaking with full responsibility,” Nadda added.

With the coming of Modi as the Prime Minister, Nadda said that the spotlight has turned on the concerns and well-being of people.

“The previous government ate meva (loaves of power), we have to understand that seva (service) was carried out by governments headed by Atal ji and Modi,” Nadda said.

Nadda also said that India was besieged by corruption and was considered as a “corrupt” nation.

“We were being counted as corrupt. We were a backward country. We have progressed from that to where we are now. On international issues, what Modi speaks, the world listens. This is the situation which we have today,” Nadda said. (IANS)

Srinagar: Prayers were held on Wednesday in the oldest church in the J&K capital. For the first time in over 30 years, the St. Lukes Church saw worshippers standing and praying just days ahead of the Christmas.

The 125-year-old church was restored and will be officially e-inaugurated by Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Thursday.

Pastor Eric from The Church of North India (CNI) led the prayers that was joined by many.

Church official Kennedy David Rajan said: “Actually we were supposed to meet on December 23 and Lt Governor Manoj Sinha was to inaugurate the church officially. But due to the preoccupations of the Lt Governor, it would be e-inaugurated now online from the Secretariat.”

He said, “The Christian community is very happy to see the over a century old church of Srinagar being renovated by the authorities and reopened for the prayers once again for the community.

“A dream come true for the community.”

He, however, added the Christmas Mass and celebrations will not be conducted in the church since it is still under renovation.

“There are still no sitting arrangements,” he said, and added “If the renovation work would have been completed, definitely Christmas prayers would have been held here as before.”

Today’s prayers were held and recorded which would be played during the e-inauguration of the church from the Secretariat by the Lt Governor Manoj Sinha tomorrow, David Rajan said.

The authorities started the renovation work of St. Lukes Church situated at Dalgate under the Jammu and Kashmir Government sponsored “Preservation and Maintenance of Architecture and Heritage” Srinagar Smart City Project Scheme more than a month ago.

The ceiling of the church which was dilapidated for years due to the closure was redesigned with famous Kashmiri “Khatamband” pieces. The structure of the Church was also restored to its original shape.

Till the 1990s the church would hold regular prayers and the annual Christmas mass would draw a huge crowd.

However, with the passage of time and prevailing situation in Kashmir Valley the stone and brick masonry structure fell silent due to closure and absence of worshipers.

The foundation stone erected on the wall of the Church by Dr Earnest and DR Arthur Neve “To The Glory of God” and “As A Witness to Kashmir” was dedicated by The Bishop of Lahore on September 12, 1896. (UNI)

Srinagar: The Jammu & Kashmir Public Service Commission (JKPSC) today in its extra ordinary meeting approved the declaration of result of written test of Assistant Registrar Cooperative Societies (ARCS) examination.

The written test was held on 12th of December, 2021 at 73 centres established at Srinagar and Jammu districts of the Union Territory of the Jammu & Kashmir.

According to JKPSC, a total of 30,725 candidates had applied for the post, out of which 19,369 candidates appeared for the examination in both the Divisions on the date.

On the basis of the result, 279 candidates have been declared successful and have been shortlisted for interview/viva-voce against 91 posts.

The result of the shortlisted candidates is available on the official website of the commission under the domain www.jkpsc.nic.in.

As per the JKPSC, the result is provisional and is subject to scrutiny of original documents by the candidates at the time of the interview which is tentatively scheduled in the 3rd week of January, 2022.

Srinagar: Government on Wednesday asked its employees to register themselves on the PRS Portal and file their annual property returns for the year 2021 necessarily.

“Sub Section 2 of Section 9 of the Jammu and Kashmir Public Men and Public Servants Declaration of Assets and other Provisions Act, 1983 lays down that it shall be incumbent on the part of every public servant to submit annual returns of the assets held by him and his family members in the month of January every year and shall indicate the reasons for increase, if any, in the assets and source thereof,” reads an order by government.

The Jammu & Kashmir Public Servants Declaration of Assets Act and Rules provides for imposing a penalty for non-submission of the property returns by public servants.

“It is further provided that if any public servant without any reasonable cause which he shall be required to show, fails to submit the return annually, he shall be guilty of committing criminal misconduct under the Prevention of Corruption Act and shall be punishable under the said Act,” the order reads further.

“The Act and Rules also lay down that every Public servant shall submit annual property returns in duplicate to the General Administration Department (Vigilance) in respect of all the assets possessed by the public servant and his family members,” it said, adding, “This manual mode of filing the annual property returns was seen as a cumbersome exercise and in order to make it easy and accessible, it was felt that property returns should be filed through online mode and the process for submission should be made user friendly.”

With a view to make the process of filing of property returns employee friendly, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir has recently launched online portal for filing of annual property returns (PRS Portal), it reads further.

“The facility for filing the annual property returns by all public servants shall be available on https://prs.jk.gov.in. The public servants can file their annual property returns on the portal from 1st of January and the facility will get automatically closed on 31st of January every year,” it said, adding, “For submitting the details on the portal, every employee has to first register himself on the portal through his CPIS account. In case of employees with no CPIS number, their respective DDOs will get them registered on the portal.”

The portal will facilitate processing of vigilance clearance in favour of the employees and non-submission of the property returns will result in denial of their vigilance clearance, it said.

“Accordingly, all the employees are instructed to register themselves on the PRS Portal and subsequently file their annual property returns for the year 2021 necessarily,” it said, adding, “The employees will be able to submit their property details on the portal from 1st of January, 2022 upto 31st of January, 2022. Further, it is enjoined upon all the DDOs to ensure the registration/subsequent filing of the property details of their employees within the specified timelines.” (GNS)

By: Nadeem Nadu

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir reported 125 fresh covid-19 cases while as one person succumbed to the virus in the last 24 hours, officials said on Tuesday.

28 of the fresh cases were reported from Jammu Division and 97 from Kashmir, taking the overall tally to 340161.

There one death reported from Jammu division due to the virus during the last 24 hours, they said. So far 4515 persons—2196 in Jammu and 2319 in Kashmir—have died due to the virus, they said.

Giving district wise details of the fresh cases, the officials said that Srinagar reported 47 cases, Baramulla 17, Budgam 9, Pulwama 1, Kupwara 9, Anantnag 2, Bandipora 6, Ganderbal 3, Kulgam 3, Shopian 0, Jammu 20, Udhampur 1, Rajouri 3, Doda 1, Kathua 0, Samba 0, Kishtwar 0, Poonch 3, Ramban 0 and Reasi 0.

A number of these cases were confirmed at CD hospital’s diagnostic labouratory and include male (83) (NA) from Hajin Bandipora, female (50) (NA) from Sopore, male (52) (NA) from BSF humhama, male (65) from Jawahar nagar, female (40) from Kupwara, male (62) from Gagal kupwara, male (48) from Nutnussa kupwara, male (27) from Chiwakalan pulwama, male (40) from Barsoo awantipora, male (58) from PC tral, female (60) from Lasjan sgr.

Moreover, 143 Covid-19 patients recovered during the time, 21 from Jammu Division and 122 from Kashmir, they said.

So far 334338 patients have recovered, leaving active case tally at 1308—338 in Jammu and 970 in Kashmir.

They said there was no new confirmed case of mucormycosis (black fungus) reported today. So far 50 black fungus cases have been confirmed in J&K, the officials said. They also informed that 63304 doses of covid-19 vaccine were administered during the time in J&K. (GNS)