Category: National

The President has postponed all his programmes till further orders

Source: GK News Network

President Ram Nath Kovind will undergo coronavirus test on Saturday, according to Rashtrapati Bhavan sources.

The President’s decision comes in the wake of BJP MP Dushyant Singh’s participation in an event where Kanika Kapoor, who is affected by COVID-19, was present on Sunday and the MP’s subsequent meeting with the President.

Sources said the President would follow all the directives of the government. The President has postponed all his programmes till further orders, the sources added.

(This story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Srinagar, March 19: Seventy-eight passengers of an Air India Leh-Srinagar flight were quarantined on their arrival here on Thursday, officials said. However, a decision is awaited as regards nearly forty students who are being screened at the Srinagar airport on their arrival from England and Bangladesh respectively.

Officials told GNS all passengers arriving from Leh at the airport have to undergo mandatory quarantine as such they were taken to quarantine facilities set up by the authorities in Srinagar. “There were protests by some of them, demanding they should be allowed to go home after proper screening,” sources said. However, the officials said that all of them were moved to quarantine facility, set up at different places, as part of the already announced procedure to arrest the spread of the coronavirus.

Regarding the 40 odd students who arrived from England and Bangladesh, the officials said that “decision was awaited” whether or not they will be allowed to go home or they too will be moved to quarantine. “Presently their screening is being done,” they said. (GNS)

Source: GK News Network

A man suspected to be infected with COVID-19 allegedly committed suicide by jumping off the seventh floor of the Safdarjung Hospital here on Wednesday, soon after he was admitted there by the airport authorities, police said.

While police said he was aged 35, a Health Ministry statement said the man 23-year-old.

The man was brought by the airport authorities and was immediately put in the isolation ward, hospital sources said, adding that his samples had already been taken for testing.

The sources said the man forced open the isolation ward and jumped off the building.

According to the Health Ministry, man was living in Australia’s Sydney for the past one year and arrived at the Delhi airport on Wednesday.

On reaching the airport, he mentioned headache as the chief complaint in his self-reporting form.

He was referred to the Safdarjung Hospital where he reached around 9 pm, the ministry said, adding that he was taken to the seventh floor of the hospital for evaluation.

When doctors reached there, he wasn’t found there.

Meanwhile, another doctor coming out of the building at the ground floor observed a body lying on the floor at 9.15 pm, the statement said.

(This story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Source: Times of India

KOLKATA: A 34-year-old home guard, who had his first sip of cow urine in a north Kolkata neighbourhood on Monday, was admitted to hospital on Tuesday after he complained of vomiting and nausea. But Pintu Pramanik did not let that come in the way of his duty. He filed a complaint from his hospital bed against the BJP functionary who “induced” him to drink the gaumutra — as “prasad and preventive medicine” against Covid-19 — following which cops arrested Narayan Chatterjee on Tuesday.
The hospitalisation and the arrest capped a bizarre chain of events that played itself out over 22 hours in a neighbourhood a few kilometres northwest of College Street, the cradle of Bengal Renaissance that stamped out social evils like widow-burning from nineteenth-century Calcutta and Bengal.

TOI on Monday reported how Chatterjee, a local BJP member known for his ability to get in TV camera frames, organised a “gaumata” worship programme at an illegal cow shelter near the Nimtala crematorium on the eastern bank of the Hooghly. He then made several bystanders drink cow urine as “protection against the novel coronavirus (nCoV)”; one of them happened to be Pramanik.
TOI has a video where Chatterjee is heard explaining to Pramanik that there was no medicine for nCoV but cow urine could “cure the infection 100%”. Pramanik’s complaint left out most of these details, only mentioning that “unknown persons” had made him drink the cow urine after telling him that it was “charanamrita” (holy water) and that he took ill a few hours after drinking it.

“The incident happened around 2.20 p.m. on Monday when Pramanik was performing traffic duty at the BK Pal Avenue-Nimtala Ghat Street crossing,” a senior Kolkata Police official said. Pramanik’s colleagues said he felt sick and nauseous and vomited twice on Monday evening and so had to be taken to hospital on Tuesday morning; he was “released after treatment” on Tuesday evening.
Cops slapped BJP leader Chatterjee with Sections 269 (“negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life”), 278 (“making the atmosphere noxious to health”) and 114 (“abetment to an offence”) of the Indian Penal Code. Chatterjee can get a prison term of six months if convicted.

TOI visited the khatal (cow shelter) on Baishnab Seth Street on Tuesday and met multiple persons — from milkmen and cabbies to local residents — who drank the urine but said they were doing “fine”. “I was sitting at my shop when Chatterjee and his supporters came and asked me to me drink the gomutra. I had not tasted it before but still agreed because a political leader asked me,” paan shop owner Pradeep Chaurasia said.
A taxi driver, who refused to be named, said he was waiting at the crossing when the BJP leader came up to him with the bottle of gomutra. “There were so many persons with him… I could not refuse. But it tasted strange,” he said.

Ganesh Rai, owner of two of the five cows at the shelter, said he had been working at the same cattle shed for 25 years but had never tasted cow urine before Monday. “It tasted like pepper mixed in water,” he said, making a face.
Suraj Yadav, another elderly milkman who was photographed being fed cow urine from a bottle, said he drank out of fear. “He is a known face here and a powerful man. He came with a lot of people on Monday and did a puja and then made us drink the gomutra he had brought in a bottle,” Yadav said.
TOI tried to trace Chatterjee but calls went unanswered on his cellphone. A neighbour said cops had taken him away for questioning.
“Chatterjee is one of our karyakartas who worked for us in KMC Ward 20 in the 2015 civic polls. But whatever he did on Monday was not an official party programme,” BJP state general secretary Sayantan Ghosh said.

(This story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Source: Economic Times

Guwahati: As the world fumbles for a cure to the deadly novel coronavirus which has claimed thousands of lives across the world, a BJP legislator in Assam on Monday left the state assembly astounded by saying that the remedy may be ‘gaumutra’ (cow urine) and ‘gobar’ (cow dung). Suman Haripriya claimed that cow urine and cow dung are helpful in curing deadly diseases like cancer.

“We all know that cow dung is very helpful. Likewise, when cow urine is sprayed, it purifies an area… I believe something similar could be done with ‘gaumutra’ and ‘gobar’ to cure coronavirus (disease),” she said during a discussion on smuggling of cattle to Bangladesh during Special Mention on the first day of the budget session of the assembly.

Cow is considered a holy animal in India and the use of cow urine for therapeutic purposes has a long history in Indian culture. Cow dung has been traditionally used for various purposes, including in Hindu religious rituals, medicines, manure and even fuel.

Haripriya also claimed that the economy of Bangladesh has strengthened on the back of smuggled cows from India, primarily Assam.

“Bangladesh is the second largest beef exporter in the world. All these cows are our cows. Earlier the Congress government did nothing to stop smuggling of cows,” she said.

“Nowadays, river route is mostly used to smuggle cows,” the BJP MLA said and urged the BJP-led government in Assam to monitor the cattle markets in the state as she said “illegal trading is being carried out by them with most of their receipts being fake”.

Meanwhile, the Union health ministry on Monday said two more positive cases of coronavirus– one in Delhi and another in Telangana — have been reported in the country.

Five positive cases of coronavirus have been reported in India so far.

As many as 25,738 people are under community surveillance across the country while 37 people suspected to have COVID-19 symptoms are currently hospitalised.

China has so far witnessed 2,912 deaths due to coronavirus.

(This story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Air Vistara Spokesperson: We are temporarily suspending our international operations from March 20 to March 31. We have also temporarily adjusted domestic capacity for March & April in view of reduced demand. Customers booked on the affected flights will be fully refunded. ANI

Leh, Mar 18: The authorities in Union Territory of Ladakh Wednesday said two more patients have been tested positive for novel corona-virus, taking the total toll to 8, while many under active surveillance were departed from hospital.

According to wire service — Kashmir News Observer (KNO), Commissioner Secretary Ladakh and official spokesperson Rigzin Samphel said two more patients were rested positive, taking the total toll to 8.

Samphel said that “we have received test results of 34 more patients out of which only two have been tested positive. “They are the wife and son of a patient, who was already tested positive,” he said.

Medical Superintendent of SNM hospital Leh told—KNO that the two patients who were tested positive for corona-virus are son and wife of the patient Sajad Ali who was tested positive some days back.

He said that the other suspects kept under active surveillance have been discharged after they were tested negative for corona-virus —(KNO)

First positive case of COVID19 confirmed of an Indian Army jawan (from Ladakh Scouts). Jawan’s father has travel history to Iran. Jawan is being treated while his family including sister&wife have been put in quarantine. Jawan’s father has also tested positive.

GK News Network

India on Tuesday reported its third coronavirus fatality with a 64-year-old man dying in Mumbai, Health Ministry officials said as the number of positive cases rose to 125.

The patient, whose wife is stable, is the first COVID-19 death in Maharashtra, the officials said.

Earlier, a 76-year-old man from Kalaburagi in Karnataka with a travel history to Saudi Arabia and a 68-year-old woman in Delhi died after they tested positive for the infection.

The 125positive cases include 22 foreign nationals.

According to ministry data, 13 people have been discharged so far, including the three Kerala patients who were discharged last month following their recovery.

The Mumbai patient was admitted to the city’s Kasturba Hospital and was suffering from multiple health issues apart from being infected by the novel coronavirus, said BMC chief Praveen Pardeshi.

(This story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Total positive cases in Ladakh is 6 now

Spokesman Rigzin Sampheal: Total Six COVID19 cases in Ladakh after 3 more positive cases. UT spokesman Commissioner Secretary Rigzin Sampheal says 2 cases are from Leh, 1 from Kargil district.