The Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday recorded 10 fresh cases of Omicron variant of coronavirus, taking the total, taking the total number of infections related to particular strain to 13. Simultaneously, with 1148 new cases the daily infection has witness 63 per cent rise from yesterday while the 3 more fatalities have pushed the death toll to 4,542
“Among 10 new cases of Omicron variant, 5 each reported from Jammu region and Kashmir region,” an official told.
“With detection of five cases, the tally omicron has reached to 8 in Jammu region,” an official said adding that the samples were sent for genome sequencing last month.
Earlier three cases of Omicron were detected in Jammu who had already recovered, which included two from Channi Himmat and one from Canal Road who had travel international travel history.
He also informed that the highly mutant Omicron has finally made its way to Kashmir as two locals and three tourists tested positive for the strain.
“Omicron has finally made its way to Kashmir. 05 cases detected. Stay safe stay healthy. Follow Covid appropriate Behavior, follow Sops,” Kashmir Health Services Director Mir Mushtaq tweeted.
Simultaneously, the Union Territory has seen a 63% jump in daily Covid cases as a total of 1,148 people were confirmed COVID-19 positive today.
The union territory also reported two more deaths, raising the toll to 4,542. The surge in the fresh Covid cases has increased the positivity rate of J&K to 2.09 percent from 0.35 percent in just last eight days.
Among the fresh cases included- a senior politician from the Kashmir valley, 32 persons in the Jammu University, 26 more employees from the civil secretariat, more employees in PHQ and 12 doctors from the Kashmir valley.
Meanwhile, Jammu University has postponed all PG, PGDBM, B.Ed. and B.Sc. Nursing exams. As per communiqué by JU-All PG (all subjects- 2nd and 4th Semesters), PGDBM (2nd Semester), B.Ed. (2nd Semester), and B.Sc. Nursing (3rd year) exams (ongoing and which were scheduled) stand postponed. The fresh dates and the mode of examination shall be announced/notified shortly.
Meanwhile, at Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Soura ordered cancellation of winter vacations for faculty members. The faculty members have been asked to resume their duties without any delay. Moreover the authorities at Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar and Government Medical College Rajouri ordered suspension of offline classes. The online teaching and clinical posting shall continue as per the roster issued by the respective departments.
District Administration Kishtwar on Tuesday initiated action against Private Coaching centres for flouting Covid guidelines. The official team conducted surprise inspections of several educational institutions and Tuition centres in the district. During the inspection, various Coaching Centres were found violating the Covid norms/guidelines issued by the govt. Acting stringently against the violators, the registration documents of various educational Institutions were seized for violating the guidelines issued by the government.
In the wake of surge in cases District Magistrate, Udhampur, Indu Kanwal Chib, today ordered urgent measures to avoid any kind of Covid-19 related flare at Patnitop tourist destination. As per the order all the persons who intend to visit Patnitop except Day Picnickers shall have to produce prior hotel booking for which he/she shall necessarily tie up with the hotel authority to obtain any proof of booking which shall be checked at Chenani Naka before proceeding towards Patnitop. Any person without valid proof of hotel reservation shall not be allowed to proceed towards Patnitop after 5 PM. Only fully vaccinated persons and those with RAT/ RTPCR sampling report of last 72 hours coming with prior confirmed booking of hotel shall be allowed to proceed towards Patnitop. Besides, no Day Picnicker shall be allowed to stay in Patnitop or its peripheral areas after 4 PM. Similarly, all Hotels and Guest Houses/Lodges in Patnitop shall deploy only fully vaccinated staff in their establishments. Covid Health Cards are mandatory and shall be shown to the visiting inspection team with minimum one Covid Sampling done per month.
Meanwhile, the total number of infections has risen to 3,46,506. Of the fresh cases on Tuesday, 640 were recorded from the Jammu division and 508 from the Kashmir division, they said. Jammu district recorded the highest of 301 cases, followed by 256 cases in Srinagar district. There are 4,810 active Covid cases in the union territory as of now. The number of recovered patients was 3,37,150.
Meanwhile, District Magistrate (DM) Indu Kanwal Chib imposed necessary measures to avoid any kind of COVID-19 related flare at the tourist destination Patnitop.
As per the latest prohibitory order issued on Tuesday, DM imposed new restrictions in which any persons who intended to visit Patnitop except day picnickers shall have to produce prior hotel booking for which the tourists shall necessarily tie-up with the hotels to obtain the proof of booking which shall be checked at Chenani naka.
The order further reads that any person without valid proof of hotel reservation shall not be allowed to proceed towards Patnitop after 5 PM.
It was also mentioned that only fully vaccinated persons and those with RAT/RTPCR sampling report of the last 72 hours coming with prior confirmed booking of hotel shall be allowed to proceed towards Patnitop.
“No Day Picnicker shall be allowed to stay in Patnitop or its peripheral areas after 04:00 PM”, the order mentioned.
DM also directed the SDM and SDPO Chenani to constitute teams to ensure that no person shall be utilizing vehicles for night shelter on the plea of non availability of rooms.
