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  • ‘Omicron shouldn’t be categorised as mild’: WHO

    ‘Omicron shouldn’t be categorised as mild’: WHO

    The infectious virus Omicron is a less severe disease than the globally dominant Delta strain, but should not be categorised as “mild”, WHO Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus clarified.

    While giving the statement in Geneva, he said that just like previous variants, Omicron is hospitalising and killing people, reports Reuters.

    Janet Diaz, WHO lead on clinical management said that when Omicron was first detected, early studies showed that there was a reduced risk of hospitalisation.

    According to her, the impact on the elderly is one of the big unanswered questions about the new variant as most of the cases studied so far have been in younger people.

    Currently, healthcare systems are overwhelmed, and governments are struggling to deal with the new variant which has killed millions of people worldwide.

    The vaccine process is quite slow in many countries. According to Ghebreyesus, 109 countries will miss the WHO’s target for 70 per cent of the world’s population to be fully vaccinated by July.

    Pakistan recorded 1293 cases on Friday and the positivity rate stands at 2.52 per cent.

  • Door-to-door vaccination for women to start as Omicron spreads in Karachi

    Door-to-door vaccination for women to start as Omicron spreads in Karachi

    In view of the rapid spread of Covid-19 cases due to the Omicron variant in Karachi, the Sindh government has decided to deploy lady health workers (LHWs) and female vaccinators for door-to-door vaccination in the province. The government took the decision when it was discovered that most stay-at-home women are still unvaccinated, officials said on Thursday.

    “We have decided to send LHWs and female vaccinators to each and every house in Sindh to vaccinate people, especially women, against Covid-19 because most of the non-working women in Karachi, as well as other major cities and rural areas of Sindh, have been found to be unvaccinated,” MPA Qasim Soomro, Parliamentary Health secretary in the provincial assembly, told The News.

    Soomro ruled out any discussion within the government about tough measures and Covid-19-related curbs as they were placed during previous waves of the pandemic but called for an aggressive vaccination campaign to avoid harsh measures.

    “Vaccination of women against Covid-19 has largely been ignored by the heads of their families, especially those women who are housewives and don’t work in public and private sector offices and businesses. This section of the population is most affected due to Covid-19, especially the Omicron variant, which is targeting unvaccinated population very easily.”

    “Training of LHWs and female vaccinators is underway, and hopefully, they will be trained in vaccinating people by the end of this week. Door-to-door vaccination against Covbid-19 will hopefully commence by the start of next week.”

  • Most Valuable Cricketer: Mohammad Rizwan shines in PCB Awards

    Most Valuable Cricketer: Mohammad Rizwan shines in PCB Awards

    Pakistan wicket-keeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan had an exceptional year with the bat, behind the wicket as well in T20 cricket. The star cricketer bagged two awards in the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) annual awards. Rizwan has been given Most Valuable Cricketer Of The Year and T20 Cricketer Of The Year awards.

    There were a total of 10 categories identified with eight player’s categories and two special categories, including Spirit of Cricket and Umpire of the Year.

    Following is the complete list of winners in all categories announced by PCB in a press release issued after the online award ceremony:

    Impactful performance of the Year: Shaheen Shah Afridi

    Emerging Cricketer of the Year: Mohammad Wasim Jnr

    ODI Cricketer of the Year: Babar Azam

    Women’s Cricketer of the Year: Nida Dar

    Test Cricketer of the Year: Hassan Ali

    T20I Cricketer of the Year: Mohammad Rizwan

    Spirit of Cricket: Pakistan cricket team’s visit to the Namibia cricket team’s dressing room following their 45 runs victory to congratulate the Namibia side for qualifying for their maiden ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 and then progressing to the Super-12 Stage.

    Umpire of the Year: Asif Yaqoob

    Domestic Cricketer of the Year: Sahibzada Farhan

    Most Valuable Cricketer of the Year: Mohammad Rizwan

    The independent panel that selected the winners included Rashid Latif, Marina Iqbal (former international cricketers), Tariq Saeed (broadcaster), Mazher Arshad (statistician), Majid Bhatti, Mohammad Yaqoob, Mohi Shah, Rizwan Ali, Shahid Hashmi and Sohail Imran (journalists).

    Rizwan won the PCB’s Most Valuable Cricketer of the Year award following a stellar 2021 in which he scored 455 Test, 134 ODI and 1,326 T20I runs, besides accounting for 56 batsmen behind the wickets across all formats.

    For the Most Valuable Cricketer of the Year award, Rizwan beat the strong competitors like Babar Azam, Hassan Ali and Shaheen Shah Afridi, who also had an impressive and outstanding year, which is reflected through Pakistan’s overall performance in 2021.

    “I feel humbled and honoured to have been adjudged Pakistan’s Most Valuable Cricketer of 2021. This is the PCB’s most prestigious award and to be recognised for my contributions in the team’s superlative performances across all formats in 2021 in such a way gives me tremendous satisfaction and happiness,” Rizwan said.

    “I thought I had an exceptional year in the shortest format of the game when I was able to hit a century early in the year against South Africa and then carry that confidence and momentum for the rest of the year. I give a lot of credit to our bowlers who bowled their hearts out and didn’t let the pressure get onto the batters by maintaining sustained pressure on opponents throughout the year.”

    Speaking on the ocassion, Chairman PCB Ramiz Raja said: “PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja: “On behalf of the PCB, I want to congratulate each award winner. They deserve all the applause and accolades for their tremendous consistency across all formats in difficult times that inspired their sides to outstanding performances throughout 2021, which have been widely acknowledged by the Pakistan cricket fans.”

  • PM Khan says he hasn’t decided whether COAS Bajwa will get an extension in November

    PM Khan says he hasn’t decided whether COAS Bajwa will get an extension in November

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan during a one-on-one meeting with Dunya TV Islamabad Bureau Chief Khawar Ghumman, said that he had so far not thought about an extension in the tenure of Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General (Gen) Qamar Javed Bajwa.

    “The current year has just started and November is far away. Then why there is worry about extension in the tenure of the army chief,” said PM Khan.

    When asked about rumours of a possible deal between the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the establishment to send Khan’s government packing and whether he felt threatened in any way, the PM said he personally was not under any kind of pressure. He added that he enjoyed the support of government allies and expressed the confidence that his government would complete its mandated five years.

    Terming Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) defeat in the recent local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) “a big loss”, and when asked how the PTI planned to ensure electoral success in local government elections in Punjab, the prime minister showed confidence in Chief Minister (CM) Punjab Usman Buzdar and hoped that his party would have a better showing when polls were held in Punjab.

    Talking about his party’s quest for accountability, the PM said major Opposition figures had not yet been tried on corruption charges and still walked free because of weak prosecution.

    He said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) take cases before the court but they were not being prosecuted.

  • Social media reacts to Feroze Khan’s character wanting to go on a honeymoon in Ramzan

    Social media reacts to Feroze Khan’s character wanting to go on a honeymoon in Ramzan

    Social media users are reacting to a scene in a new Pakistani drama, ‘Musht-e-Khaak’ starring Feroze Khan and Sana Javed. The names of the characters are Mustajab and Dua respectively. In that particular scene Mustajab is asking his wife to go on a honeymoon in the month of Ramzan. The drama airs twice a week on Geo entertainment. The story of the drama revolves around the obsessive behavior of Mustajab who falls in love with Dua in the first meeting.

    Social media had every kind of reaction on the scene:

  • ‘Nudity’: Syra Yousuf opens up on rejecting a Hollywood offer

    ‘Nudity’: Syra Yousuf opens up on rejecting a Hollywood offer

    An interview of actor Syra Yousuf is currently circulating on social media in which she opened up about rejecting a Hollywood film offer.

    The Mera Naseeb star mentioned that she was offered to play the role of a mistress in an English film, “When they sent me the script, the role was little too bold,” revealed Syra while sharing the reason behind declining the offer.

    Syra Shehroz says a little too much at Tonight with HSY

    She further said that it is not necessary that you have to get naked to play the character of a mistress.

    The Bilquis Kaur diva will soon be seen in the forthcoming drama serial, Sinf-e-Aahan co-starring multiple A-list contemporaries. The small screen magnum opus is based on the theme of women empowerment and also stars Sajal Aly, Yumna Zaidi, Ramsha Khan, Kubra Khan. The makers have also roped in Ali Rehman Khan, Sheheryar Munawar, Usman Mukhtar, Asad Siddiqui and Asim Azhar as male leads.

    Written by Umera Ahmed and helmed by Nadeem Baig, Sinf-e-Aahan will be aired on ARY Digital later this year.

  • Katrina Kaif humorously replies reporter for question about kissing Shah Rukh Khan

    Katrina Kaif humorously replies reporter for question about kissing Shah Rukh Khan

    Touted as the ‘King of Romance’, superstar Shah Rukh Khan had a ‘no-kiss’ policy in his films until Katrina Kaif became her leading lady in Yash Chopra’s blockbuster.

    Shah Rukh Khan and Katrina Kaif

    The dimpled actor shared his first on-screen kiss with Katrina Kaif not once but twice and broke his ‘no-kiss’ clause in Jab Tak Hai Jaan as he couldn’t say no to Yash Chopra.

    Five years later, for Aanand L Rai’s Zero, the actor again let go of his policy because the ‘kiss’ between him and Katrina was the game-changer in the movie.

    Watch the video to find out what the Dhoom 3 star had to say on being asked if she felt lucky to have kissed SRK.

    At the launch of the song Husn Parcham, a journalist asked the actress if she felt lucky to have kissed him on screen, not just once but twice.

    Shah Rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif's adorable moments go way beyond Zero photo - IBTimes India

    Katrina had a rather epic response to this question. “Kisne bola main lucky hoon? Woh lucky hai (Who said I’m the lucky one? He is lucky),” she said.

    Zero will see Shah Rukh playing a vertically challenged man from Meerut named Bauua Singh. He is in a complicated love triangle with a wheelchair-bound scientist (Anushka Sharma) and an actress battling alcoholism (Katrina).

  • Danish Taimoor reveals wife Ayeza Khan’s biggest phobia, Ayeza opens up on their ‘filmy’ broken engagement

    Danish Taimoor reveals wife Ayeza Khan’s biggest phobia, Ayeza opens up on their ‘filmy’ broken engagement

    Celebrity couple of Ayeza Khan and Danish Taimoor appeared on Ahsan Khan’s show together and opened up about each other’s secrets.

    On being asked about the Chupke Chupke diva’s phobia, Danish revealed that she has a phobia of swimming. The Meray Paas Tum Ho star stated that she has a phobia of swimming since childhood, even when she goes to a beach, she only clicks pictures there. Ayeza mentioned that she doesn’t go near the water.

    The Deewangi star stated that he told Ayeza that he can teach her swimming as he has been doing that since childhood but she doesn’t agrees as she is scared of it.

    Ayeza Khan, Danish Taimoor's loved-up photo breaks the internet

    The Meherposh duo revealed that they parted ways after being engaged over differences but later patch up when they were roped in by producer Abdullah Qadwani who casted them together in a play.

    Danish Taimoor isn't Ayeza Khan's soulmate - SAMAA

    Ayeza said that after their break up, Danish just suddenly called her and proposed on the phone.

    The pair married in 2014 and have two children together.

    In Photos: Danish Taimoor and Ayeza Khan celebrate son's birthday - ARY Digital


    ALSO READ: ‘Looks good with only’: Ayeza Khan opens up about Danish Taimoor’s romantic on-screen pairings

  • Fiverr Gig: ‘Professional’ prayer at Data Darbar for Rs 4,616 ‘burn oil lamp’ for Rs 18,463

    Fiverr Gig: ‘Professional’ prayer at Data Darbar for Rs 4,616 ‘burn oil lamp’ for Rs 18,463

    A screenshot of a Fiverr Gig is making rounds on social media in which the seller has posted a gig to pray at Data Darbar and other shrines in Lahore in exchange for money. Thee silver package which costs Rs 4,616, had the following description, “I will pray professionally for you in the city of Data Ganj Bakhsh Lahore.” He also gave two days delivery time.

    The seller also offers a diamond package for Rs18,463. In the silver package the seller is offering the following services, “I will pray, burn oil lamp and distribute meal to the needy, in place of you, in your desired shrine.

    Social media has reacted to the Gig in funny way, with someone calling it a “new business idea.

  • ‘I demand apology for tapping my phone’: Maryam Nawaz admits to leaked audio

    ‘I demand apology for tapping my phone’: Maryam Nawaz admits to leaked audio

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice-President Maryam Nawaz on Thursday admitted to the recently leaked audio between PML-N leader Pervaiz Rashid and herself.

    While addressing a press conference she said, “As a citizen of Pakistan, it was a violation of my rights to tap my personal phone call. Therefore, I am not going to comment on this issue unless I receive an apology.”

    “It was a personal and private conversation that I had with Pervaiz Rashid. Who had the right to tap my personal conversation?” said Maryam Nawaz.

    “Why was it provided to one media channel, and why was it on-aired? I want an answer to this,” said the PML-N leader.

    Maryam said, “I am not answerable about my conversation with Pervaiz Rashid Sahib and neither are any two common Pakistani Citizens.”

    Providing details related to the figures revealed in the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) report, she said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has 26 bank accounts, of which 18 were active, while only four were declared.

    “Imran Khan received the money from abroad in the accounts of four of his employees,” Maryam said, adding that the PTI submitted fake certificates to the ECP.

    “Imran Khan will have to be answerable to the people of Pakistan as to where he spent the foreign funding,” she said.

    “The PML-N, as well as the joint Opposition, demand Imran Khan tenders his resignation,” said Maryam.