Says no need to panic, assures no patient shall die for want of oxygen

Srinagar: The entire government machinery is all set to combat the serious challenge caused by second wave of Covid-19 pandemic with all requisite measures in place to keep Covid-19 surge in control.

Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce, Rajan Prakash Thakur  made these remarks while taking stock of oxygen concentration centres,  buffer stock of Oxygen cylinders and availability of beds for Covid  patients at Sher-I-Kashmir  Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura, Srinagar.

“Adequate buffer stock of oxygen cylinders is available and people need not to panic. Not a single patient shall die for want of Oxygen in J&K”, maintained the Principal Secretary.

Principal Secretary said that there is no shortage of oxygen at this point. He stated that sufficient beds are available for everyone who is ill with Covid-19. ‘We are ramping production for future demand and emergency’, he added.

He said administration has taken decision to divert oxygen from all non-medical uses to medical use in view of prevailing situation to ensure its abundant availability  in all hospitals.

Principal Secretary also requested people to follow Covid SOPs in letter and spirit, maintain physical distance, wear masks and not to go out without any necessary work.

Meanwhile, he stressed on SKIMS administration to gear up entire machinery on war footing basis.

During his visit, Principal Secretary inspected various sections including ICU, Neuro Surgical unit, Intensive Cardiac Care unit, Department of Dietetics and Therapeutics, Central Sterile Supplies Department, Oxygen Concentrator Plant and other sections.

Director SKIMS, A G Ahangar, said the institution has reserved 260 beds for Covid patients and  156 Covid patients are presently admitted in the hospital. He informed that the current consumption rate of oxygen at the institute is 3.93 lakhs litre per hour and additional required amount of oxygen is 1.5 lakh per hour.

Srinagar: Amid continuing surge in the number of covid-19 cases, the government on Tuesday ordered 50% opening of shops in major markets and malls while public transport will be permitted to ply only at 50% of its authorized seating capacity.

The government also extended night curfew in all the twenty districts of Jammu and Kashmir.

The decision was taken after detailed review of the current COVID situation in Jammu and

Kashmir was conducted by Lt Governor, Jammu and Kashmir, with the Chief Secretary, J&K, Financial Commissioner, Health, Administrative Secretary School Education, Administrative Secretary Higher Education, Divisional Commissioner, Jammu/Kashmir and other officers.

On the basis of the assessment, the State Executive Committee, in exercise of the powers conferred up on it under section 24 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, ordered  that the Corona Curfew at night shall be extended to Municipal / urban local body limits of all 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir with effect from 20.04.2021. lt was already in force in eight districts earlier, from 10 pm to 6 am.

“Public transport (matadors / mini-buses / buses etc.,) in J&K shall be permitted to ply only at 50 % of its authorized seating capacity. The District Superintendents of Police shall ensure compliance to this effect.

This shall take effect from 21.04.2021,” reads the order by member secretary of the state executive committee, a copy of which lies with GNS.

“Only 50 % shops in major Market complexes /Bazaars/ Malls within the Municipal limits / urban local body limits shall be open on alternate basis through a rotation system. District magistrates of all districts shall devise a pattern to implement this, preferably in consultation with local market associations. This shall take effect from 21.04.2021.”

Srinagar: Minister of State (MoS) in Prime Minister Office (PMO) Dr Jitendra Singh has tested positive on Tuesday.

Union Minister of State (Ind Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region. MoS PMO has asked people who have in his contact recently to get themselves screened.

Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter Dr Singh, Member of Parliament from Udhampur (J&K) said “ I have today tested #COVID positive with symptoms.

Please get yourself screened if you were in my contact recently and take care”.

Srinagar:  Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, P K Pole on Tuesday said that there was no immediate plan of imposing lockdown in view of rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in the valley.

However, he said if the situation worsens, appropriate decisions will be taken by the administration accordingly at that time.

Admitting that there is carelessness among people despite adequate information about the precautions needed to curtail the spread of COVID-19, he said this attitude has to change before the situation worsens further. “Be it in the administration or common masses, any COVID related carelessness has to end immediately. We need to learn from the situation in other states,” he added.

“There is no immediate plan of the administration to impose lockdown in Kashmir valley. The situation that has arisen in other parts of the country due to the second wave of COVID-19 is definitely emerging in J&K as well. But, it is not that serious… we have still taken timely extra precautions to curtail the spread of the virus in the valley,” Mr Pole told reporters during a press conference here on Tuesday.

Pole said that COVID-19 pandemic has undergone three stages. “In the first stage, lockdown was implemented without any knowledge about the virus to save the lives of our people…. The lockdown was implemented in different phases and after sufficient information about the behavior of the virus guidelines were tailored accordingly. But, people suffered economically,” he said.

The Div Com said in the second phase a balance was made between saving life and economy. “There was a stage that COVID was at its lowest in November, December and even in January,” he said.

He said ‘currently we are undergoing a third phase during which our routine life is normal, but COVID-19 cases are also increasing’. However, he said in this phase there is an advantage that experts already know the protection protocols. “We may not know much about the virus, but we know how to prevent its spread and how to defeat it. People are also well aware about the measures they need to take to keep themselves safe,” he added.

Giving details, he said at present there are 7351 active positive Covid-19 cases, out of which symptomatic/serious cases, are admitted in different Coronavirus Designated Health Facilities while as asymptomatic cases are put under home isolation with strict surveillance by district surveillance teams.

“During the course of 13 months, a total of 1297 COVID-19 deaths have taken place giving a Case Fatality Rate of 1.46 per cent in J&K, with maximum contribution to these deaths from Srinagar (487) deaths.

“A total of 28,10,339 Covid-19 tests have been performed till date which include 20,82,568 RAT and 7,27,771 RT-PCR Tests. More than 7.5 lakh people have received COVID-19 vaccination in Kashmir which includes Health Care Workers, Front-line Workers and people aged more than 45 years,” he added.

Asserting that there is no shortage of Oxygen supply in hospitals, he said non-medical oxygen supply is totally banned.

Answering a question about shortage of oxygen to private hospitals and non-COVID patients in view of administration asking NGOs to return the Oxygen cylinders, he said the supply will be made available for everyone. “We will only register them so that we can monitor that oxygen is supplied only for medical purposes,” he added.

He said other COVID-19 protocols, including maintaining social distancing and wearing masks in public places will be strictly enforced in the valley. “Keeping in view the dependency of economy of J&K on tourism, efforts are being made the people don’t move in public places without masks.

Srinagar: With the new evidence revealing that Covid-19 spreads through air, Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Tuesday called for urgent change of safety norms.

“We need to focus on measures that would prevent airborne transmission of the virus which is now considered to be the primary route of spread,” said DAK President and influenza expert Dr Nisar ul Hassan.

“Improving indoor ventilation would help tackle airborne transmission,” he said.

“Opening windows for proper ventilation could be a significant measure at controlling the spread of Covid-19.”

“The simple measure plays a critical role in removing contaminated air and protecting people,” DAK President said.

“In mechanically ventilated buildings, ventilation is typically provided by heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems,” he added.

“Upgrading ventilation systems to improve ventilation rates and eliminate air-recirculation would help reduce the risk of airborne infection.”

“People are much more likely to become infected in poorly ventilated spaces,” Dr Nisar said.

“The use of sufficient and effective ventilation in public buildings including hospitals, shops, offices, restaurants, elevators, schools, conference rooms or public transport would be a critical measure to reduce the likelihood of virus transmission and thereby protect healthcare workers, patients and general public,” he said.

“Last week, a study published in lancet revealed that indoor airborne transmission associated with small aerosol droplets play a dominant role in the spread of Covid-19.”

“Till now, large droplet transmission was considered to be the main mode of transmission, and emphasis was laid on staying 2 meter apart from the next person, cleaning surfaces and wearing gloves,” Dr Nisar said.

“But in aerosol transmission, particles can travel for long distance of 20-30 feet and can remain suspended in air for hours.”

“So if an infected person coughs and sneezes in a closed space, the virus may be present in the air even after he is gone, emphasizing the importance of ventilation,” he said.

“Another crucial implication of airborne spread is that the quality of the mask matters for effective protection against inhaled aerosols.

Masks usually impede large droplets from landing on covered areas, and most are at least partially effective against inhalation of aerosols.

However, both high filtration efficiency and a good fit are needed to enhance protection against aerosols because tiny airborne particles can find their way around any gap between mask and face,” said Dr Nisar.

 New Delhi: Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla on Tuesday held a high-level review meeting to assess the COVID-19 situation in the in Union Territories (UTs) and steps taken to contain the spread of infections and the state of other public health measures.

The Central Government in an official statement said, “Mr Bhalla, along with Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, chaired a high-level meeting to review and discuss the COVID-19 status, and the management and response strategy with chief secretaries of all the UTs of India.”

The meeting, held through video conference, was also attended by NITI Aayog Member Dr V K Paul, ICMR DG Dr Balram Bhargava and Director Generals (DGs) of Police of all UTs.

During the meeting it was advised that the UT administrations should plan to augment the hospital infrastructure in advance for next three weeks”, as they also need to ramp up testing and other infrastructure relating to large containment zones”, the Government said in its statement, adding that suggestions were made with regard to “strict enforcement of COVID-19 appropriate behaviour and movement restrictions”.

Pointing out the alarming surge in the number of cases all across the country, the Government said, from 20,000 cases reported on January 1 2021, India has almost 10 times more cases (more than 2,00,000 cases) being reported daily since April 15 2021.

“Through a detailed and comprehensive presentation, the current trajectory of total new COVID-19 cases, weekly tests, weekly positivity rate, weekly new COVID-19 cases, weekly number of deaths and status/proportion of RT-PCR tests and Rapid Antigen Test in all UTs were presented,” it said.

Sharing their present efforts for containment and management of the positive cases, the UTs of Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Lakshadweep pointed to the rise in cases due to large number of inbound travelers. “Lakshadweep has seen a sudden spike after April 14 primarily due to travel of large number of people to mainland to shop for the recent festive occasions”.

It was informed that most UTs have imposed movement restrictions, including night curfew, restriction of intra-island movement in the island UTs, the Chandigarh informed that they are conducting door to door counselling for increasing vaccination while 90 percent of the patients are in home isolation who are being monitored by mobile teams.

While expressing gratitude to the Central Government for timely support by reopening of DRDO run Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Covid Care Hospital in Cant area of Delhi, augmenting the ICU bed capacity in the capital, the Delhi Government discussed shortage of beds, it is said in the statement, adding that the Delhi government’s efforts to ramp up testing and reduce the turnaround time for the test results were also outlined.

By: Jahangeer Ganaie

Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir administration has vaccinated around 17 lakh people against the COVID-19 with no reported case of extreme adverse events.

As per the official figures till 19th of April, over 16.9 lakh have been vaccinated of which 8.14 lakh people have been inoculated with COVID vaccine in Kashmir division while 8.76 people have been vaccinated in Jammu division.

State immunisation officer Dr Shahid told KNO that 140,215 of the healthcare workers, 407,701 of the frontline workers and 1,142,828 persons above 45 years of age have been inoculated.

The total number of healthcare workers who have received their first dose of Covid-19 stand at 90,807 and 49,409 healthcare workers have received both doses of Covid-19, he said.

He said that among front line workers, 259,895 persons have the first dose of Covid-19 vaccination while 147,806 front line workers have received both doses of Covid-19.

The total numbers of persons above 45 years who have the first dose of Covid-19 vaccination stands at 1,084,039 while as 58,789 persons above 45 years have received both doses of vaccination, he said.

“Initially the pace of vaccination drive had decreased in Muslim dominant areas due to fasting, however, after coming to know that it won’t affect their fasting, people have again started to come up to vaccination centres and get vaccinated,” Shahid said.

“On 19th April, 34,981 persons from Kashmir and 29,833 persons from Jammu were vaccinated,” he said

The vaccines are being administered free of cost at all government CVCs and against the payment of Rs 250 per dose at private centres, officials said.

The government has now decided to vaccinate people above 18 years. In this regard, the health department in collaboration with the administration has chalked out a strategy to roll out vaccination from April 15.

Srinagar:  Amid forecast for more rains in plains and fresh snowfall on higher reaches including the world famous skiing resort of Gulmarg, minimum temperatures in Kashmir were recorded below normal for this time of the year.

“Today, the weather will be generally cloudy in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh with 50%chances of brief shower in the evening at isolated to scattered places of J&K,” Director Metereological Department Sonam Lotus said.

“Scattered to widespread rain/thunderstorm and snowfall over higher reaches like Gulmarg, Zojila, and on higher reaches of Leh -Manali Highway is likely during 21-22nd.  Thereafter, mainly dry weather is expected till ending April,” he added.

Meanwhile, a meteorological department official told GNS that Srinagar recorded a low of 7.2°C against 7.6°C on the previous night. It was 0.7°C below normal in the summer capital of J&K.

Qazigund, the gateway town of Kashmir, saw a low of 4.9°C against previous night’s 7.4°C, the official said.

Pahalgam, the famous resort in south Kashmir, recorded a low of 1.4°C same as on the previous night which was 2°C below normal, he said.

The mercury settled at 5.0°C at Kokernag, also in south Kashmir, against previous night’s 4.8°C and 6.5°C normal for the area during this time of the season, the official said.

Kupwara in north Kashmir recorded a low of 4.5°C against 4.8°C on the previous night, the official said.

Gulmarg, the world famous skiing resort in north Kashmir, recorded a low of minus 1.0°C against 0.5°C on the previous night which was below 2.3°C than the normal for the area, the official said.

By: Jahangir Lolabi

Srinagar: Pakistan Rangers Tuesday repatriated a 17-year-old youth, who had gone missing from his home since September 2020, via Teetwal sector in presence of civil and defence officials in north-Kashmir’s Bandipora district.

An official, privy to the development, told GNS that the teenager namely Mohammad Sayeed Ganai son of Ghulam Mohamamd Ganai, resident of Tarbal in Gurez of Bandipora district was repatriated by Pakistan army (Rangers) through Crossing Point (Crossing Bridge) Teetwal.

The repatriation was done in presence of Executive Magistrate (First Class) concerned, army officers (of both sides) besides Station House Officer Karnah and DO Teetwal.

Citing a missing report, the official said that the youth as per records available with them had gone missing from his home in September 2020.

Jammu: Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha has extended his warm greetings to the people on the eve of “Ram Navami”.

In his message of felicitations, the Lt Governor observed that Lord Rama, the seventh incarnation of Lord Vishnu is an embodiment of compassion, dutifulness, tolerance, Justice, and great virtues.

People, especially the youth must follow the ideals of Lord Rama, and tread the path of righteousness, he added.

May the auspicious occasion of Ram Navami bring happiness, peace, and prosperity in the lives of all, besides giving us renewed strength to fight the Covid pandemic, prayed the Lt Governor.

He also urged the people to observe the festivities following all SoPs and Covid appropriate behaviour.