NEWSALERT
Today Congress and DMK have insulted the respected mother of CM K Palaniswami. God forbid, if they come to power, they will insult many other women of the state: PM Modi at his poll campaign in Tamil Nadu. PTI VGN ROH ROH
Today Congress and DMK have insulted the respected mother of CM K Palaniswami. God forbid, if they come to power, they will insult many other women of the state: PM Modi at his poll campaign in Tamil Nadu. PTI VGN ROH ROH
Taking to Twitter, Kejriwal said that Khattar has assured full support to Delhi over the movement of oxygen.
Started in 1970, this day is celebrated to shine a light on the extenuating circumstances that are plaguing our planet.
New Delhi, Apr 22 (PTI) CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Thursday said his son Ashish died of COVID-19 in the morning.
Just 4 out of 10k people who were administered both doses of Covaxin and 3 out of 10k recipients of both doses of Covishield turned positive after inoculation
Karnataka witnessed highest single-day spike of 21,794 COVID-19 cases and 149 related fatalities on Tuesday.
Beijing [China], April 22 (ANI): After three years of ban on fasting during the holy Islamic month of Ramadan in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), Uyghur Muslims from Xinjiang refrain fasting during Ramadan despite easing of restrictions this year, due to lingering fear of being branded an "extremist" and marked for detention.
Bengaluru, Apr 22 (PTI) Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa was on Thursday discharged from the private hospital here where he was undergoing treatment for COVID-19.
Edu Bedia scored FC Goa's first goal in AFC Champions League.
Despite enforcing one of the strictest lockdowns last year, the authorities seem unable to cope with a renewed Covid surge A sign in Mumbai, India: ‘The vaccination programme is far behind its targets.’ Photograph: Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters At 7.52pm on 16 April, Vinay Srivastava, a 65-year-old freelance journalist in Lucknow, the capital city of India’s largest state Uttar Pradesh, tweeted the state’s chief minister Yogi Adityanath that his oxygen levels had fallen to 52, but no hospital, doctor or lab was picking up the phone. His symptoms pointed to Covid-19, but he was unable to get a test, and his son went from hospital to hospital through the night, pleading in vain for a bed for his father. At 3.15pm the next day, Srivastava tweeted the chief minister’s media adviser: “Now my oxygen is 31 when some will come.” Minutes later he was dead. He had never been tested, and his family would have to wait hours for an ambulance to take his body away. Srivastava’s tweets of his descent transfixed and horrified India’s Twitter users. But whether online or offline, one thing has become abundantly clear to all Indians over the last week: the second wave has grown to a tsunami, and the state is unable to cope. Although the first cases were detected in the country as early as January 2020, India only reached one million confirmed cases on 16 July last year. Until the beginning of June 2020, new cases remained under 10,000 each day. In March last year, the government enforced one of the world’s strictest lockdowns, which lasted for two months. Although these restrictions came at significant costs, some parts of India were able to use this time to build up their healthcare capacity. Yet the country’s healthcare resources remain acutely constrained. India is ranked 155 of 167 countries on its hospital bed density , and every medical doctor in India caters to at least 1,511 people, while there is only one nurse to every 670 people (the World Health Organization recommends one doctor per 1,000 people, and one nurse for every 300) The surge, when it came in July and August 2020, was swift, but just as quickly it appeared to be over. By the middle of September, new detected cases declined steadily, hospitalisations fell and deaths declined sharply. If India had then attempted a scientific assessment of its first wave, there might have been lessons for the future. It would have found that many people were still vulnerable to the virus. India’s most recent nationwide sero-survey conducted during December 2020 and January 2021 indicated that more than one in five Indians had been exposed to the virus, but the proportion of those with antibodies in urban slums was over twelve percentage points higher than in rural areas. While officially recorded deaths appeared to show that India’s mortality from Covid was far below that in much of the developed world, government authorities largely ignored warnings from the first wave: the death report infrastructure was underpowered at the best of times, and health authorities were actively undercounting Covid deaths. Official mortality data was last recorded in 2018. Despite its world-class genomic sequencing infrastructure, India also fell far behind on this front. It did virtually no sequencing between July and December 2020, Gagandeep Kang, one of India’s most respected virologists, told me. Even since then, India has sequenced less than 1% of total Covid-19 samples between January and March 2021, citing a lack of funds. This means that many important questions about the Indian outbreak can’t be answered – there are hypotheses that the new “double mutant” variant that originated in India, and is now the UK’s fastest growing variant, could be more transmissible or evade immunity, but there is little evidence to substantiate this yet. Other hypotheses around the new surge include a high rate of reinfections and breakthrough infections in people who are already vaccinated, but again no data is yet available. Instead, there was triumphalism. “India has successfully contained the pandemic,” health minister Harsh Vardhan said at the end of January 2021. In 2020, prime minister Narendra Modi had given every indication of having taken the virus deadly seriously. Unlike other global leaders, such as Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, Modi was relentlessly on-message, always appearing masked. Yet after the September decline, everyone appeared to throw caution to the winds. Since the beginning of March 2021, Modi has led a seemingly interminable election in five Indian states, continuing to address massive rallies even after his opponents have suspended campaigning because of rising case numbers. Modi has even praised the big crowds he is pulling. His government has also permitted the Kumbh Mela, a once-in-12 years Hindu religious gathering, to be moved from 2022 to 2021 on account of “auspicious dates”. Over one million people have visited the site every day since 11 March, even as local authorities admitted that it was difficult to maintain Covid rules at the gathering. The current case numbers have far surpassed India’s first peak. Since 17 April, India has reported more than 200,000 new cases each day, and the numbers keep rising. Most hospitals in India’s major cities – and many smaller ones – are overrun. Oxygen is in particularly short supply, even as health authorities suggested that more people in the second wave were reporting shortness of breath. Last year, Modi set up an opaque fund into which charitable donations poured in, and set aside money for 162 oxygen plants. It took the government eight months to invite bids; as of 18 April, only 33 plants had been installed and only a handful were functioning. Indians have stepped into the void left by the state, rigging up oxygen cylinders for their families, organising via spreadsheets to get drugs to those who need them and setting up mini control rooms to coordinate bed availability. In a televised address on Tuesday night, Modi invited comparisons to his address announcing a lockdown with four hours’ notice in March 2020. This time, however, the prime minister had no shock and awe on offer, but little by way of concrete relief either, apart from a previously announced expansion of the vaccination programme that is currently far behind its targets. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Modi has attempted to frame the crisis as a collective experience that Indians are in together. But over the last weeks, it has been abundantly clear to most Indians that they are truly on their own. Rukmini S is a data journalist based in Chennai, India
Pfizer said during the pandemic phase it will supply the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 mRNA vaccine only through government contracts.
Candidates who qualified in JAM 2021 are eligible to apply to various masters and integrated PhD programmes in IITs.
Russia is ready to start building its own space station with the aim of launching it into orbit by 2030 if President Vladimir Putin gives the goahead, the head of its Roscosmos space agency said on Wednesday.
The Chennai Super Kings batted well (220/3) at the Wankhede after being sent in by Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Eoin Morgan in match number 15 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 season.CSK openers Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis struck respective fifties to lead their side.On a good batting surface, the KKR bowlers concede aplenty.Here's the mid-innings report.
This report, prepared by an independent, bipartisan commission, has named India on this list second time in a row.
Farmer leaders said it is a ploy to defame the agitation, adding health team swill declare some of them as infected and brand all of them as super spreaders.
Three goals in 10 minutes towards the end of the first half helped Madrid go top of the table on head-to-head, above Atletico Madrid, who play at home to Huesca on Thursday.
With government giving manufacturers and importers pricing freedom, SII has said that Covishield vaccine will be priced at Rs 400 per dose for state governments and Rs 600 for private hospitals.
The RNA virus has the potential to acquire mutations as it replicates and spreads.
CM Mamata Banerjee has accused the Modi government of “not doing enough”. In a letter to PM Modi, she mentioned that she had asked the Centre to give the states more freedom with matters of vaccination and critical drugs.
Scott Morrison denies the government is abandoning Australians stuck in India, which is grappling with a surge in coronavirus transmission• Follow the Australia liveblog • ‘The system has collapsed’: India’s descent into Covid hell• Australians with a disability ‘forgotten’ in vaccine rollout Flights from India to Australia will be cut by 30% after the country reported 295,041 new Covid infections on Wednesday and 1.6m cases in the past week. Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP Australia will stop almost one-third of flights coming from India, which is in the grips of a severe second wave of the Covid pandemic. New restrictions will also be introduced for high-risk countries, which will limit outbound travel and require inbound travellers to pass a Covid-19 test prior to boarding. The prime minister, Scott Morrison, announced the measures late Thursday afternoon in an attempt to reduce the risk of transmission from India and other nations dealing with surging Covid-19 cases. Flights from India will be reduced by 30%. Travellers from high-risk countries, including India, will be required to have a PCR Covid-19 test 72 hours prior to leaving the last port they are in before travelling to Australia. The Australian Border Force will also limit departure exemptions for people travelling to high-risk countries like India, allowing travel only for urgent situations. The nations that are to be defined as high-risk will resemble – though not mirror exactly – the United Kingdom’s “red list”, which currently includes India, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Asked whether Australians stuck in India would view the government’s decision as an abandonment, Morrison replied: “It doesn’t reflect that at all. It reflects that we’re in the middle of a global pandemic that is raging. And Australia has been successful throughout this pandemic, working together with the states and territories, to have very effective border arrangements.” He said between 10% and 40% of cases being reported in hotel quarantine now were people who were arriving back in Australia from India. The health department secretary, Brendan Murphy, said the risk of importing the virus from high-risk countries was significant. “There are many countries in the world – the prime minister was talking about India – that are in very serious situations with Covid and the risk of Covid importation and outbreaks in Australia is ever present,” he said. “We can’t be complacent.” Earlier, the Western Australian premier, Mark McGowan, said he would ask the commonwealth to temporarily ban travellers from India following a hotel quarantine outbreak in the state. The state government said two recent Covid-19 cases were the result of transmission in one of its quarantine hotels, the Mercure hotel in Perth. Two guests were staying in a room opposite a couple who had just returned from India. Genomic sequencing has shown the transmission occurred in the hotel. Western Australian premier Mark McGowan argued for a temporary ban on travellers from India at national cabinet. Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP India is currently battling a severe second wave of Covid-19. It reported 295,041 new infections on Wednesday, the world’s highest daily rise, and 1.6m cases in the past week. McGowan said 40% of the state’s quarantine cases in the past month involved returned travellers from India, jumping from 11% in the previous month. The premier planned to take up the potential for a ban during Thursday’s national cabinet meeting. “With more and more arrivals coming from India, we need to seriously look at temporarily restricting travel of people who have been in or through India,” McGowan said. “The pre-testing measures ahead of international flights need to be examined.” But his position was rebuffed by the New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, who was also dealing with transmission in hotel quarantine. She said no single country should be targeted. “I don’t think it is fair or appropriate to distinguish one nation over others,” she said. “Things change, the rates of infections go up and down across the world. Aussies who want to come home should have the right to do that.” NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian: ‘Aussies who want to come home should have the right to do that.’ Photograph: Jenny Evans/Getty Images McGowan is not alone in calling for such a ban. The Australian Medical Association’s Northern Territory president, Robert Parker, this week called for travel restrictions after the Howard Springs quarantine facility was hit with its highest number of positive Covid-19 cases since it started taking repatriation flights last year. Two more cases involving returned travellers from India were recorded at Howard Springs on Wednesday, bringing the total to 18 since the weekend. The territory’s health minister, Natasha Fyles, said the Indian outbreak would continue to be monitored but said her government had a “humanitarian responsibility” to repatriate vulnerable Australians. The federal treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, said earlier the decision was one for the chief health officer and national cabinet when it met on Thursday. But he did note Australia’s early decision to close the border with China. “Scott Morrison took the decision early on to close the border with China and that’s been to Australia’s great benefit,” he said. “We will continue to take that health advice. Decisions about India or other countries are matters for the chief health officer and ultimately for national cabinet.” Other nations have either considered or implemented bans, restrictions or travel cautions for India. The United Kingdom this week added India to its “red list” of countries, banning travel for non-UK and non-Irish citizens to the UK from India. The UK government has faced criticism for acting too slowly to restrict travel from India. Hong Kong, Pakistan and New Zealand have also enacted temporary bans on travellers from India. NSW is currently investigating how three returned travellers from two families contracted the South African variant of the virus after staying at the Mercure hotel in Sydney. Authorities believe the transmission occurred in the hotel, because the individuals were tested and cleared after arriving in Australia. NSW is warning that contacts of the three infected individuals have already travelled interstate. Another 40 returned travellers were staying on the same level of the hotel at the time. “We have managed to contact 36 of those individuals, a number have gone into other states and territories and those states and territories have been alerted,” the NSW chief medical officer, Kerry Chant, said. She said they were “urgently escalating” efforts to contact the remaining four people. Staff potentially exposed will also have to self-isolate.