Srinagar, Jan 8: Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday questioned why are we still doing mock drills when vaccines were given emergency approval more than four days ago.
The Vice President of the National Conference (NC) said many other countries started administering the first doses within hours of granting emergency approval. “What is the holdup now,” he questioned.
Taking to micro-bogging site Twitter Omar said “ Why are we still doing mock drills? The vaccines were given emergency approval more than 4 days ago. Many other countries started administering the first doses within hours of granting emergency approval. What’s the hold up now?”.
Mr Omar was reacting to reports about more mock drills in the country, including Jammu and Kashmir, before administering vaccine.
An official spokesman said that on Thursday 127 new positive cases of novel Corona virus (COVID-19), 106 from Jammu division and 21 from Kashmir division, have been reported , thus taking the total number of positive cases in Jammu and Kashmir to 122176. Also three COVID-19 deaths have been reported, one from Jammu Division and two from Kashmir Division.
Moreover, 187 more COVID-19 patients have recovered and discharged from various hospitals including 110 from Jammu Division and 77 from Kashmir Division. Out of 122176 positive cases, 2396 are Active Positive, 117877 have recovered and 1903 have died; 707 in Jammu division and 1196 in Kashmir division. Out of 4011893 test results available, 3889717 samples have been tested as negative till January 7, 2021.
Till date 931185 persons have been enlisted for observation which included 28062 persons in home quarantine including facilities operated by government, 2396 in isolation and 33630 in home surveillance. Besides, 865194 persons have completed their surveillance period.
The NC VP had questioned former Uttar Pradesh (UP) CM Akhilesh Yadav who had said he is not going to get vaccinated for now as donot truest BJP’s vaccine.
Omar, reacting to Yadav said, “I don’t know about anyone else but when my turn comes I’ll happily roll up my sleeve & get a COVID vaccine. This damn virus has been far too disruptive & if a vaccine helps bring about a semblance of normalcy after all the chaos then sign me up”.
Omar further said, “The more people that get vaccinated the better it will be for the country & the economy. No vaccine belongs to any political party, they belong to humanity & the sooner we get vulnerable people vaccinated the better”.
