Category: National

Focus is on safe, cost-effective vaccines against a range of infectious diseases: U.S. health officials

India and the U.S. plan to work together on vaccine research and testing for COVID-19, U.S. health officials said here on Tuesday, listing a number of other ways in which the two countries are working together.

“U.S. and Indian scientists have been collaborating on key research questions fostering the development and testing of safe, cost-effective vaccines against a range of infectious diseases that could save innumerable lives in India, the United States, and around the world,” U.S. Embassy Health and Human Services (HHS) attaché Preetha Rajaraman told presspersons at a briefing in Delhi.

“In the context of the current pandemic, partners under the Vaccine Action Programme (VAP) are planning to collaborate on the development and testing of vaccine candidates and diagnostics for COVID-19,” she added.

The VAP, or the Indo-U.S. Vaccine Action Program, is a 33-year collaboration between the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the Indian Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) along with other partners.

Meanwhile, 50 ventilators from the United States are expected in India shortly, the embassy said, as part of the donation of 200 ventilators announced by President Donald Trump last week.

‘Part of funding’

The ventilators, which will be paid for by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), are part of $5.9 million in funding announced to date for India, said USAID Acting Director Ramona El Hamzaoui, briefing journalists about the work of the agency, adding that the amount was a part of a worldwide commitment of $900 million made available for combating the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The United States government is providing access to high-quality, American-made ventilators to designated countries as soon as the domestic supply chain and vendors are able to produce and deliver orders,” Ms. Hamzaoui said.

She added that USAID would facilitate a discussion between the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the manufacturer “to ensure that the local context and needs are considered before placing the final purchase order.”

CDC funds

The U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said it would separately fund the Government of India $3.6 million to support “prevention, preparedness, and response activities in India, in collaboration with and concurrence from the GoI.”

To a specific question on whether its disbursement of the funding could be delayed by the Ministry of Home Affairs’ decision to place CDC on a watchlist in December 2019, CDC India’s Meghna Desai said they had not received any “official communication” in the matter, but were aware of government “concerns” over the funding of a study on the Nipah virus at a non-authorised laboratory in India.

However, for the coronavirus grant, the CDC clarified that it will work with agencies approved by the government only, which would not run into issues requiring “prior permission”, in the manner direct funds to laboratories and research centres would.

“The selection of partners will be based on the scope of work and in concurrence with relevant line ministries of the GoI. Funding will not go to one single agency,” Ms. Desai said in response to a question.

With inputs from The Hindu

Response from Ministry of External Affairs is awaited

China has accused the Indian army of crossing into its territory and “blocking” its patrols and “attempting to unilaterally change the status” on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between the two countries in Sikkim.

The strongly worded statement made available to the media by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs marks an escalation in the current tensions at the LAC between them and threatens to bring what the Indian government has thus far maintained were “actions by both armies on the ground” into a diplomatic face-off between the countries, the most serious such event since the Doklam face-off in 2017.

In the statement released on Tuesday in Chinese, the MFA in Beijing referred to the recent skirmish in Sikkim, claiming that “the Indian army has crossed the line across the western section of the Sino-Indian border and the Sikkim section to enter Chinese territory”.

The statement added that the Chinese side had taken up the matter with India, asking the Indian side to “immediately withdraw the personnel across the line, restore the status quo of the relevant areas, strictly restrict the frontline troops, observe the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and the agreements signed by the two sides, and jointly maintain peace and stability in the border areas.”

A response from the Ministry of External Affairs is awaited.

Sikkim’s Naku La pass is one of four areas that have seen aggressive action between Chinese and Indian troops (including Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Patrol personnel) since mid-April this year, according to sources.

Similar skirmishes, including jostling, and fisticuffs between the soldiers have been reported along a stretch in Eastern Ladakh at three points of Pangong Tso lake, the Galwan river nalah, and Langmarpo Zam, the sources said, adding that both sides have rushed more personnel to the area and more than a dozen new Chinese boats had been observed on the lake.

Officially, the army said there were two incidents of face-off between troops of India and China, on May 5 near Pangong Tso in Eastern Ladakh and a second face-off on May 9 at Naku La in north Sikkim. The incidents were marked by “aggressive behaviour by both sides,” which resulted in minor injuries to troops, after which both sides disengaged after dialogue and interaction at local level, Indian Army officials said.

However, an article by the Global Times on May 18, quoting Chinese military sources, also spoke of an incident along the “boundary line in the Galwan Valley region,” claiming Indian troops had entered “Chinese territory.” It stated that the Indian side had built defence fortifications and obstacles to prevent patrolling by Chinese troops and “attempted to unilaterally change the current border control situation.” Sources in New Delhi have denied the claim and indicated that the blame lay with Chinese troops trying to disrupt the construction of a road close to the LAC in Eastern Ladakh.

“Temporary and short duration face-offs between border guarding troops do occur along the LAC due to the differing perceptions of the alignment of boundaries that are not resolved,” Army chief Gen. Manoj Naravane said last week in a statement, adding that “development of infrastructure capabilities along our Northern borders is on track.”

The Army chief also denied that the separate incidents in eastern Ladakh and western Sikkim, a distance that spans 1,200 km along the LAC, were “co-related” in any way.

In a statement last Thursday, MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava had said India and China attach “utmost importance to ensuring peace and tranquillity in all areas of Sino-India border regions” and referred to agreements between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in their two informal summits.

“Occasionally, however, on account of differences in perception of the alignment of the LAC, situations have arisen on the ground that could have been avoided if we had a common perception,” he had said, when asked.

With inputs from Ananth Krishnan; The Hindu

Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali said that the official map of Nepal will soon be made public by the Ministry of Land Management

PTI

Nepal’s Cabinet has endorsed a new political map showing Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura under its territory, amidst a border dispute with India.

The move announced by Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali came weeks after he said that efforts were on to resolve the border issue with India through diplomatic initiatives.

Nepal’s ruling Nepal Communist Party lawmakers have also tabled a special resolution in Parliament demanding return of Nepal’s territory in Kalapani, Limpiyadhura and Lipulekh.

The Lipulekh pass is a far western point near Kalapani, a disputed border area between Nepal and India. Both India and Nepal claim Kalapani as an integral part of their territory – India as part of Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh district and Nepal as part of Dharchula district.

Gyawali said that the official map of Nepal will soon be made public by the Ministry of Land Management.

Decision of the Council of Ministers to publish the map of Nepal in 7 provinces, 77 districts and 753 local level administrative divisions including Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani, he wrote on Twitter on Monday.

Gyawali last week summoned the Indian Ambassador Vinay Mohan Kwatra and handed over a diplomatic note to him to protest against the construction of a key road connecting the Lipulekh pass with Dharchula in Uttarakhand.

India has said that the recently-inaugurated road section in Pithoragarh district in Uttarakhand lies completely within its territory.

Nepal’s Finance minister and government spokesperson Yuvaraj Khatiwada on Monday said that the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli has approved the new political map of the country.

It was presented by Minister for Land Management Padma Aryal at a Cabinet meeting for endorsement at the official residence of Prime Minister Oli at Baluwatar here on Monday.

The government said it will soon publicise the new political map that incorporates the territories unilaterally kept by India on its side of the border.

Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Bhattarai said that the Cabinet’s decision will be written in golden letters.

However, senior Nepal Communist Party and member of Nepal Communist Party Standing Committee Ganesh Shah said the new move may escalate unnecessary tension between Nepal and India at a time when the country is fighting the coronavirus.

“The Nepal government should soon start a dialogue with India to resolve the matter through political and diplomatic moves,” he said.

The new map includes 335-km land area including Limpiyadhura in the Nepalese territory.

The new map was drawn on the basis of the Sugauli Treaty of 1816 signed between Nepal and then the British India government and other relevant documents, which suggests Limpiyadhura, from where the Kali river originated, is Nepal’s border with India, The Kathmandu Post quoted an official at the Ministry of Land Reform and Management as saying.

President Bidhya Bhandari, addressing Parliament last week, reiterated that Limpiyadhura, Kalapani and Lipulekh belong to Nepal and appropriate diplomatic measures will be adopted to resolve the existing issues with India.

India and Nepal are at a row after the Indian side issued a new political map incorporating Kalapani and Lipulekh on its side of the border in October last year. The tension further escalated after India inaugurated a road link connecting Kailash Mansarovar, a holy pilgrimage site situated at Tibet, China, that passes through the territory belonging to Nepal.

The 80-Km new road inaugurated by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh earlier this month is expected to help pilgrims visiting Kailash-Mansarovar in Tibet in China as it is around 90 kms from the Lipulekh pass. “The road follows the pre-existing route used by the pilgrims of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra,” spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Anurag Srivastava said in New Delhi recently.

The directive comes amid a nationwide lockdown to slow down the spread of coronavirus.

PTI

Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband has issued a fatwa asking Muslims to offer their Eid prayers this time at home, instead of congregating at mosques.

The directive comes amid a nationwide lockdown to slow down the spread of coronavirus.

Despite the relaxations announced in the lockdown, religious and other large gatherings are still banned.

The fatwa was issued in response to a query put to the seminary, its spokesman Ashraf Usmani told PTI.

The fatwa said the Eid namaz can be offered in the same manner that the Friday prayers are now being read at home.

It said, not holding the namaz in the usual manner is pardonable in circumstances such as these.

Eid falls on May 24 or 25 this year.

Class 12 exams were affected by lockdown and Class 10 tests by Delhi riots

The Class 12 examinations of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) postponed nationwide because of COVID-19 and Class 10 exams in northeast Delhi affected by riots will be held from July 1 to 15.

Issuing safety instructions for the candidates, the CBSE said they should carry hand sanitiser in a transparent bottle, cover the mouth and nose with a mask or cloth and follow physical distancing norms. Parents should guide their children about the precautions to be taken and also ensure they are not sick.

The Class 12 exams across the country will start with home economics on July 1, Hindi elective and Hindi core on July 2, informatics practices and computer science (both old and new) and information technology on July 7, business studies on July 9, biotechnology on July 10, geography on July 11 and sociology on July 14. For northeast Delhi district, the Class 12 physics exam will be held on July 3, accountancy on July 4, chemistry on July 6, English elective-n, English elective-c and English core on July 8, political science on July 14, and mathematics, economics, history and biology on July 15.

The Class 10 exams in northeast Delhi will start on July 1 with social science. The exams for science theory and science without practical will be held on July 2, Hindi course-a and Hindi course-b on July 10, and English communicative and English language and literature on July 15.

With inputs from The Hindu

U.S. virologist expresses concern about India’s crowded urban areas in low-income neighbourhoods where people are forced to live in proximity

As the world continues to grapple with the debilitating human toll and economic consequences of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Peter Hotez, Dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine and a Professor at the Departments of Paediatrics and Molecular Virology and Microbiology at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, speaks about the state of play in the battle against the novel coronavirus.

What is the current situation in the U.S., where President Donald Trump recently said fatalities could reach 1,00,000. Why did the numbers spin out of control this way and is there hope that the curve can be flattened?

There is quite a bit of concern here. It really took off because the virus probably entered the U.S. earlier than we suspected. A national emergency was not declared until the middle of March. It is likely that the virus entered the U.S. in early February, back-tracing it. That means that transmission went on for about six weeks before any efforts for social distancing were implemented. We know from the models that it produces tragedy and makes the difference between having thousands of patients in your intensive care units and local hospitals, versus having just a handful.

What treatment options could have a scalable impact? We are hearing hopeful accounts of Remdesivir…

Vaccines offer the greatest promise for protecting large populations at risk, like in India. The problem with vaccines is also that they are the highest bar to achieve because with a vaccine you are generally injecting healthy individuals to prevent them from getting sick. So, you have to be absolutely pristine, in not only showing that the vaccines work, but also your safety profile. That is what takes time. In the meantime, there are some new, promising treatments on the horizon.

I am very excited, for instance, about convalescent plasma. It is a relatively low-tech solution which involves identifying individuals who have recovered from their COVID-19 and have antibodies. The problem is that it is hard to scale because it requires you having a base of patients with the illness.

In India, while the number of infections continue to rise, the government moved aggressively to impose a nationwide lockdown. Could the fact that we are not seeing the sort of fatality numbers that you did in the U.S. be down to India facing a different coronavirus strain?

I do not think it is going to turn out to be a coronavirus strain issue. It is possible that this is a new virus pathogen. But I think it is most likely because India did implement some social distancing early on. So, India may have mitigated the worst aspects of this.

But I would say that we should not be complacent, because I am still worried for India. The reason for that is that you are moving into the summer months and we know that sometimes in tropical countries, the global south, or in places like South Asia, Africa, Australia and South America, sometimes for influenza the seasonality is inverted. I think you have to assume the potential for things to get much worse as you head towards July and August. I am particularly worried about India’s crowded urban areas in low-income neighbourhoods, where people are forced to live in proximity, including in Mumbai. I am holding my breath because I still do think India could get hit very hard.

Should we be worried about reports from New York about COVID-19-positive children succumbing to symptoms that resemble Kawasaki disease?

It caught us a bit off-guard because in China we did not hear much about paediatric syndromes. Our understanding was that children were mostly handling the virus pretty well, not getting very sick, with the exception of about 10% of infants. These symptoms first came out of the United Kingdom and then we saw them in New York, a syndrome that looks like vasculitis, an inflammation of the blood vessels, linked to this virus, maybe later on in the course of the illness. This Kawasaki-disease-like syndrome is still not common — there have been about 100 cases in New York.

We are also seeing, unfortunately, a lot of cases in the U.S. among adults, of clotting defects, which we are trying to understand. We are seeing lots of different types of thromboses, or clotting of the blood, leading to blockage, which in turn lead to strokes, pulmonary emboli, and may be associated with coronary artery thrombosis, giving people heart attacks.

If there is one broad lesson of the COVID-19 pandemic for developing countries such as India, is it to be better prepared for future events of this sort in terms of creating a sufficient pandemic preparedness?

This is not unique to India. Every nation on the planet has to learn some lessons from this. But things will change after this pandemic. India has an enormous amount to offer. I continue to be impressed by the quality of some of the universities in India.

I am impressed with its capacity for innovation, especially around vaccines. India is an example of what a country can do even despite its levels of poverty, in terms of over-achieving and having an impact in terms of pandemic preparedness.

With inputs from The Hindu

IANS

Zee Media said on Monday, 18 May that 28 employees have tested positive for COVID-19 and its office, newsroom and studios here have been sealed.

“The global pandemic has now become a personal story for Zee Media. Last Friday, one of our colleagues tested positive for COVID-19. As a responsible organisation, we initiated mass testing of all those who could have been in direct or indirect contact with the said individual,” Sudhir Chaudhary, Editor-in-Chief, Zee News said in a statement.

“So far 28 of our team mates have tested positive. Fortunately, most of them are asymptomatic and not complaining of any discomfort. We believe this is because of early diagnosis and pro-active intervention,” the statement said.

“We are following the best practices to break the cycle and contain the infection, in coordiation with all government and health authorities. All health protocols and official guidelines are being followed,” Chaudhary announced.

“Our office, newsroom and studios have been sealed for sanitisation. The Zee News team has been shifted to an alternative facility for the time being,” he said.

The testing of the rest of the employees will continue. The ICMR too has relaxed its testing norms to allow it to test asymptomatic individuals who might be COVID-19 positive and carriers of the disease.

“This might lead to a greater number of COVID-19 cases being identified, isolated and treated. We believe this is the best way to fight the pandemic,” Chaudhary said.

Since Noida has lot of containment zones, aggressive testing, isolation and treatment is the only way to ensure the safety of teammates, he added.

At the moment, Zee Media Corporation Ltd has 2,500 employees, by far the largest in the private sector. “We are committed to the safety of each one of them,” the statement said.

“These are challenging times but COVID-19 has not been able to shake the morale of the team. Zee Media is raring to go, as always. We assure our viewers that our fearless coverage will continue. Such challenges will not be able break our resolve to discharge our duties with utmost sincerity and unmatched passion. We wish all our employees a speedy recovery,” Zee Media announced.

The country recorded 136 more deaths in the last 24 hours. taking the overall death toll to 3,157.

India’s tally of COVID-19 cases crossed the one lakh mark on Monday, with 5,079 new cases taking the total to 1,00,734, according to data from the State Health Departments. Of these 58,360 are active cases, while 39,217 persons have recovered from the infection.

The country recorded 136 more deaths in the last 24 hours. taking the overall death toll to 3,157.

The average number of new cases everyday since May 11 has gone up to 4,077, while the average number of fatalities per day for the period is 115.

Maharashtra topped the nationwide tally with more than 35,000 confirmed cases and 1,249 deaths, followed by Tamil Nadu with 11,760 confirmed cases and 81 deaths. Gujarat has also reported 11,746 confirmed cases, but its death toll is higher than Tamil Nadu at 694. Mumbai reported 1,185 fresh cases and 23 more deaths, taking the total cases in the city to 21,152 and fatalities to 757.

According to the Union Health Ministry, the country has now registered a jump of over 10,000 cases in the past two days — the highest so far in 48 hours.

“India currently has a recovery rate of 38.29%,” noted a release issued by the Health Ministry, which added that in terms of confirmed cases per lakh population, India has so far about 7.1 cases per lakh population which indicates that aggressive and early measures taken so far have shown encouraging results.

The Ministry added that it has now issued new guidelines to the States for categorisation of red/orange/green zones as part of its lockdown easing measures. The new directive allows States to delineate the containment and buffer zones.

As per the latest guidelines States have been asked to categorise districts/ municipal corporations, or if warranted subdivision/ ward or any other administrative unit as red/orange/green zone as per their field assessment.

“States have been told to ensure stringent implementation of the containment plans in these containment zones,” the latest guidelines said.

“In the containment zones, active search for cases through house-to-house surveillance by special teams, testing of all cases as per sampling guidelines, contact tracing, clinical management of all confirmed cases are the priority tasks. Active involvement of community should be sought in this regard,” the latest guidelines said. States are also required to have a buffer zone around each containment zone to ensure that the infection does not spread to the adjoining areas.

In her letter to the States and Union Territories, Health Secretary Preeti Sudan said States could categorise areas using the broad guideline issued the Central Health Ministry.

“They, however, may also choose to categorise sub-division, ward or any other appropriate administrative unit into the colour-coded zones after detailed analysis at their end, duly taking into consideration the geographical spread of cases, contacts and their zone of influence in terms of disease spread,’’ the ministry said.

The letter states that the demarcation of the zones would be based on total active cases, cases per lakh population, doubling rate calculated over a seven-day period, case fatality rate, testing ratio (number of tests per lakh population) and sample positivity rate.

The Health Minstry, however, noted that the benchmarks or thresholds for critical and desirable levels are dynamic and may be revised by the Centre as per the evolving situation at the field level.

Meanwhile, the Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA), India has on Monday written to the Health Ministry stating that many doctors at the frontline, even after taking adequate precautions, are contracting the infection in different parts of the country.

In their letter the doctors note that the government should take a relook at its guideline for “Quarantine of Healthcare Workers” to ensure that adequate protection is available to this section.

With inputs from The Hindu

The triple conviction of Amiram Ben-Uliel, 25, by Lod District Court carries a potential life prison sentence.

Reuters

An Israeli court found a Jewish settler guilty of racially motivated murder on Monday in a 2015 arson attack that killed a Palestinian couple and their baby in the occupied West Bank.

The triple conviction of Amiram Ben-Uliel, 25, by Lod District Court carries a potential life prison sentence.

He has argued that Israeli investigators forced him to make a false confession to the attack on the Dawabsheh family’s home in the village of Duma. A lawyer for Ben-Uliel said on Monday that he would appeal the verdict at Israel’s Supreme Court.