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Kathmandu Valley has been facing shortage of cetamol, an important medicine for seasonal ailments, at present.

Prof Dr Jagadish Prasad Agrawal searched the medicine in many stores but to no avail. Instead he bought another medicine.

CPN-UML lawmaker Shanta Chaudhary also did not find the cetamol, which is used to relieve pain and reduce fever. She had taken to social media on Thursday to express her dissatisfaction.

Consumers claimed that the collusion between drug manufacturers and traders has created artificial shortage of cetamol in the wake of the coronavirus fear.

“The traders have been creating artificial shortages of paracetamol in the country to earn money from black marketing, taking advantage of the precarious situation,” Bishnu Timilsina, Deputy General Secretary of the Forum for Protection of Consumer Rights Nepal said.

Chairman of the Association of Pharmaceutical Producers of Nepal Prajwal Jung Pandey,however, said that the pharmaceutical industries have been producing paracetamol.

“Around 20-22 industries are producing paracetamol. We have been sending paracetamol in the market on a daily basis,” he said.

Mrigendra Meher Shrestha, the president of Nepal Chemists and Druggists Association, said there was no shortage of cetamol a week ago.

“The Covid-19 cases increased drastically in the past few days,” Sherstha said , adding, “Consumers bought more than they needed and the demand increased in the market.”

The government has not made public the number of people infected from the Omicron variant of coronavirus separately. According to the Ministry of Health and Population, the number of Covid-19 cases has increased dramatically because of the Omicron.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is set to address the nation on Friday.

According to the PM's press advisor Govinda Pariyar, the Prime Minister will address the nation from his official residence in Baluwatar at 3 pm today.

Query

I am a 33-year-old working male. With the arrival of another wave of Covid-19, I feel anxious all the time. As I and my family have already been through the agony of covid infection, I fear it could happen all over again. It reaches a point where the smallest of things like a dry throat in the morning or a light headache in the evening makes me fear covid and I get anxious all over again. I start to worry about my family: how will they cope if something happens to me? So much so that I cannot even do routine work. How do I overcome my fear? – An anxious breadwinner

Answer by Kapil Sharma, Counseling Psychologist, Hudec Nepal 

I want to say that it is okay to be scared right now. The fear of catching Covid helps you be more alert and cautious. But that fear is a matter of concern if it scares you beyond reason. First things first, having gone through the experience before, you have a better idea of what it is like and what can be done when you or someone in your family is infected. You have the experience of taking care of your family and that in itself is a reassurance that no matter what happens, you know you will get through it and will help your family do the same.

Second, validation on a personal level, with family members, or with an expert can do wonders. Sit with yourself, check in with your feelings, and maybe write down what you are scared of. Why did this particular instance or feeling trigger your fear? How can you solve or get over it? Write down your thoughts and then go through them to differentiate which are true and which are not. 

You can also communicate with your family and share your feelings. A simple conversation can help you realize that you have no reason to be scared. 

That leads us to a logical validation. Try to validate your fears with logical reasoning. For example, if a dry throat in the morning triggers your fear of covid, try drinking warm water. Maybe it is just dehydration, and if that helps, you will calm down. If your throat still feels dry and the fear is still there, talk to your physician and share your feelings. Nowadays, we do have an option of telehealth services where you can cross-check and validate your symptoms with physicians and experts from your own home, so just dial and get your worries validated you are just a call away from winning your worries.  It will help you understand what is going on and what can be done for the safety of you and your family. 

Fear of uncertainty can be crippling. Of course, there is no way of knowing what is going to happen next, which can make you so fearful you can’t even do routine work. But then you can also take your fear as a window of opportunity. Make it a reason to be more cautious in any way you can. This can help you become more grounded and figure out how to stay safe rather than what is keeping you in danger. For instance, if stepping out for grocery shopping is nerve-racking, get a face shield and glasses besides other recommended safety measures before leaving home. That way, you are taking precautions, thereby reducing the chances of infection. 

If the issue persists, you can visit helping professionals like psychiatrists, counseling psychologists, or psychosocial counselors in person or online and help yourself to be resilient and be in an optimal state of wellbeing. 

Nepal recorded 12, 338 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, the highest daily infection number since the start of the pandemic.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 27,497 (21,007 PCR and 6,490 antigen) tests were conducted today. 

The Ministry said that 649 infected people have been recovered and four persons succumbed to the disease.

Meanwhile, the Kathmandu Valley recorded 6,981 cases, out of which 5,001 cases were detected in Kathmandu and Lalitpur and Bhaktapur reported 1,130 and 850 respectively.

Tribhuvan University has decided to postpone all its scheduled examinations until further notice.

A meeting of the the Examination Controller Office of the TU held on Thursday decided to postpone all the exams scheduled to start from January 23.

Meanwhile, the Public Service Commission also postponed all the scheduled examinations until the next notice.

The main opposition CPN-UML and Democratic Socialist Party have forged an alliance in Madhesh Pradesh for the National Assembly elections.

Issuing a joint statement on Thursday, the parties said that they have decided to forge the alliance as per the wish of the people of Madhesh Pradesh.

The parties have urged all the leaders and cadres among others to vote UML’s candidate Usman Ansari and Democratic Socialist Party’s candidate Rita Yadav.

The elections are scheduled to be held on January 26 for 19 National Assembly members.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE), the sole secondary market of the country, gained 33.03 points to close at 2,931.34 points on Thursday, the last trading day of the week.

Meanwhile, a total of 15,989,744 unit shares of 229 companies were traded for Rs 5. 77 billion.

Similarly, the sensitive index, which measures performance of Class 'A' stocks, increased by 4.09 points to close at 543.74 points.

In today’s market, all sub-indices saw green except for Banking and Mutual Fund.

Meanwhile, Mailung Khola Jalavidyut Company Limited was the top gainer today, with its price surging by 10.00 percent. ICFC Bank Limited Debenture was the top loser as its price fell by 4.39 percent.

At the end of the day, total market capitalisation stood at Rs 4.14 trillion.

President Joe Biden said Wednesday he thinks Russia will invade Ukraine and warned President Vladimir Putin that his country would pay a “dear price” in lives lost and a possible cutoff from the global banking system if it does, Associated Press reported.

Biden, speaking at a news conference to mark his one-year anniversary in office, also said a “minor incursion” by Russia would elicit a lesser response. He later sought to clarify that he was referring to a non-military action, such as a cyberattack, that would be met with a similar reciprocal response, and that if Russian forces cross the Ukrainian border, killing Ukrainian fighters, “that changes everything.”

But the comments also hinted at the challenge of keeping the United States and its NATO allies united in their response to Russia. In explaining the minor incursion remark, he said “it’s very important that we keep everyone in NATO on the same page.”

The news conference came at a critical moment in Europe as Russia has amassed 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian border and a series of talks in Europe last week failed to ease tensions. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on Friday. On Wednesday, Blinken met with Ukraine’s president in Kyiv and he heads to Berlin on Thursday for talks with allies.

Biden reiterated that he did not think that Putin has made a final decision on whether to invade, but speculated “my guess is he will move in.”

Even after he sought to clarify his comments about a potential NATO response to a “minor incursion” by Russia, the White House moved quickly to make clear that Biden was not telegraphing to Putin that the U.S. would tolerate some military action against Ukraine.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki noted that the Russians could turn to an “extensive playbook of aggression short of military action, including cyberattacks and paramilitary tactics.”

“President Biden has been clear with the Russian President: If any Russian military forces move across the Ukrainian border, that’s a renewed invasion, and it will be met with a swift, severe, and united response from the United States and our Allies,” Psaki said in a statement.

As the White House did cleanup, Biden faced a barrage of criticism over the “minor incursion” remark.

“This is the wrong way to view this threat,” said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who was part of a bipartisan congressional delegation that traveled to Kyiv over the weekend to meet with Ukrainian officials. “Any incursion by the Russian military into Ukraine should be viewed as a major incursion because it will destabilize Ukraine and freedom-loving countries in Eastern Europe.”

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said Biden effectively “gave Putin a green light to invade Ukraine by yammering about the supposed insignificance of a ‘minor incursion.’”

“He projected weakness, not strength,” Sasse said.

If Russia invades, Biden said, one action under consideration was limiting Russian transactions in U.S. financial institutions, including “anything that involves dollar denominations.” Biden was referring to potentially limiting Russia’s access to “dollar clearing” — the conversion of payments by banks on behalf of clients into U.S. dollars from rubles or other foreign currency, according to a senior administration official who was not authorized to comment publicly.

The U.S. president said he believes the decision will “solely” be Putin’s and suggested he was not fully confident that the Russian officials with whom top White House advisers have been negotiating are fully informed about Putin’s thinking.

“There’s a question of whether the people they’re talking to know what he’s going to do,” Biden said.

Ukraine, meanwhile, said it was prepared for the worst and would survive whatever difficulties come its way. The president urged the country not to panic.

Russian military activity has been increasing in recent weeks, but the U.S. has not concluded whether Putin plans to invade or whether the show of force is intended to squeeze the security concessions without an actual conflict.

Biden, who spoke with Putin twice last month, said he’s made it clear to him that Russia would face severe sanctions. Still, he said the decision for Putin could come down to “what side of the bed” he wakes up on.

“He’s never seen sanctions like the ones I promised will be imposed if he moves, No. 1,” Biden warned. “This is not all just a cake walk for Russia,” Biden said. “They’ll pay a stiff price immediately” and in the medium and long term “if they do it.”

In Kyiv, Blinken reiterated Washington’s demands for Russia to de-escalate the situation by removing its forces from the border area, something that Moscow has flatly refused to do. And, Blinken said he wouldn’t give Russia the written response it expects to its security demands when he and Lavrov meet in Geneva.

Meanwhile, a top Russian diplomat said Moscow would not back down from its insistence that the U.S. formally ban Ukraine from ever joining NATO and reduce its and the alliance’s military presence in Eastern Europe. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow had no intention of invading Ukraine but that its demands for security guarantees were non-negotiable.

The U.S. and its allies have said the Russian demands are non-starters, that Russia knows they are and that Putin is using them in part to create a pretext for invading Ukraine, which has strong ethnic and historical ties to Russia. The former Soviet republic aspires to join the alliance, though has little hope of doing so in the foreseeable future.

Blinken urged Western nations to remain united in the face of Russian aggression. He also reassured Ukraine’s leader of NATO support while calling for Ukrainians to stand strong.

Blinken told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the U.S. and its allies were steadfast in backing his country and its democratic aspirations against Russian attempts to incite division and discord through “relentless aggression.”

“Our strength depends on preserving our unity and that includes unity within Ukraine,” he told Zelenskyy. “I think one of Moscow’s long-standing goals has been to try to sow divisions between and within our countries, and quite simply we cannot and will not let them do that.”

The Biden administration had said earlier it was providing an additional $200 million in defensive military aid to Ukraine. Blinken said more assistance is coming and that it would only increase should Russia invade.

Washington and its allies have kept the door open to possible further talks on arms control and confidence-building measures to reduce the potential for hostilities.

Ryabkov insisted, however, that there can’t be any meaningful talks on those issues if the West doesn’t heed the main Russian requests for the non-expansion of NATO with a formal response. He said the Russian demands are “a package, and we’re not prepared to divide it into different parts, to start processing some of those at the expense of standing idle on others.”

Blinken, though, said no such formal response was coming. “I won’t be presenting a paper at that time to Foreign Minister Lavrov,” he said. “We need to see where we are and see if there remain opportunities to pursue the diplomacy and pursue the dialogue.”