Omar Abdullah tests positive for COVID-19, goes into self-isolation

Srinagar:Former chief minister and National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah on Friday said that he has tested positive for COVID-19.

However, Omar said that he is completely asymptotic and has gone into self-isolation in his residence based on medical advice. The development comes two days after the former chief minister got the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine at S K Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura.

Meanwhile, Omar’s father and National Conference (NC) president Dr Farooq Abdullah had tested positive for COVID-19 on March 30, weeks after he got first dose of vaccine against the virus at SKIMS in Srinagar. Dr Farooq tested positive for COVID-19 for the second time earlier this week though was discharged from SKIMS on Wednesday following improvement in his health condition.

“For a year I did my best to dodge this damn virus but it’s finally caught up with me. I tested positive for #COVID?19 this afternoon. I’m completely asymptotic. Based on medical advice I’m self-isolating at home & monitoring my parameters like oxygen saturation levels etc,” Mr Omar wrote on micro-blogging site twitter.

The J&K administration on Thursday directed the divisional administration to impose a night curfew from 2200 hrs to 0006 hrs in the urban areas of eight districts, including five districts of Kashmir, which have witnessed spike in COVID-19 cases.

Earlier this week, the administration suspended all ‘close contact sports’ activities as a precautionary measure in view of surge in COVID-19 infection in the Union Territory. This decision came, a day after all educational institutes, including government and private schools, upto class 12th were closed in view of rise in COVID-19 cases in the Union Territory.

Amid a spike in COVID cases, Jammu and Kashmir government last month classified Srinagar as an orange zone while all other districts have been declared as green zones, whereas Lakhanpur was declared as a containment zone and Jawahar Tunnel area on either side as Red zones. As many as 835 new positive cases of novel Coronavirus, including 555 from Kashmir division and 246 from Jammu division, were reported on Thursday, when a person died due to COVID-19 in the UT.(UNI)