Category: National

“There is a shortage of medical kits. I won’t lie. But we are doing our best, from centre and from other sources,” said Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray.

Maharashtra has now completed six weeks of fight against the coronavirus, Mr. Thackeray said.

“Till last evening we conducted 66796 tests. 95% reports are negative. Around 3600 are positive. Around 350 have recovered. 70-75% are mild symptoms. 52 patients are severe.

“Last evening, I spoke to private medical practitioners, doctors. They assured us that practice for non-COVID-19 patients will start in Mumbai.

He said the Government has demarcated red, orange and green zones. Permissions are being given in orange and green zones for certain economic activities.

“We are not opening district borders, except for goods transport.

“Intra-district movement in green and orange zones may be allowed.

“In Mumbai and Pune, which are red zones, door-to-door delivery of newspapers will not be allowed,” Mr. Thackeray said, adding that he was aware he would be criticised by journalists for this step. “In other areas, a rethink of the decision will be done in the next 2 to 3 days.”

“There are domestic violence reports coming from different quarters of the world. State govt appeals women to dial 100 in case of any such violence,” he said.

The State govt has come up with 2 more numbers:

BMC and Birla joint service – 1800120820050

Tribal development department , Project Mumbai and Praffulla- 18001024040

“These numbers are to be called in case you are feeling depressed,” said Mr. Thackeray.

–Alok Deshpande

The total number of active cases in the hill state has increased to 23 out of the total 40 positive cases.

PTI

A man, who had recovered from the novel coronavirus, was again found suffering from the infection in Himachal Pradesh, officials said.

The man, a Tablighi Jamaat member, tested positive for the infection on Saturday within a week of his two reports coming out negative, they said.

Residents of different places in Mandi district, the man along with two other Jamaatis had been staying in a mosque of Nakroh village in Una’a Amb tehsil and all tested positive on April 2.

They were admitted to Tanda’s Dr. Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College (RPGMC) in Kangra district on April 3.

As per the available information, they had tested negative for the first time on April 10 and they were declared as cured as per protocol after they tested negative for the second time on April 12.

Subsequently they had been discharged from the RPGMC and were kept in institutional quarantine.

However, with the man again testing positive, the total number of active cases in the hill state has increased to 23 out of the total 40 positive cases.

Four persons have been shifted to a private hospital outside the state. Eleven have recovered while two others have died.

A total of 16 confirmed cases were found in Una and health department statistics now shows 14 active cases and two cured.

Officials said 11 patients — three each from Chamba, Kangra, and Solan districts and two from Una district — have recovered.

Jatin Anand | Nikhil M. Babu

They complain of silence on the part of the authorities
The COVID-19 pandemic has thrust lakhs of civil service aspirants across the country in the lurch and silence on part of the authorities concerned, they complained. They alleged that they are struggling to cope with lack of study material, coaching facilities and general anxiety in the run-up to arguably the most important examination of their lives.

Among those who had travelled to their respective hometowns for a break or to spend Holi with family are those who await word on postponed interviews — uncertainty about whether or when they will be allowed to travel to the Capital. There are others who were to appear for their preliminary examinations scheduled on May 31 and are stranded without study material.

Left job to study

Gourav Sharma, an IIT Bombay alumnus who worked as the Chief Data Scientist at the Mumbai airport, left his job to study for his Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) preliminaries in October last. The 28-year-old Aerospace Engineering graduate then moved to Old Rajinder Nagar in Delhi and was in the midst of his preparations for his second attempt when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.

“There are major issues that are not conducive to preparation. A major part of the day goes into chores; coaching was shut several weeks ago and the mental, as well as economic stress, are problems in themselves. One of my friends who is a fellow aspirant is stuck in Udaipur, another is stuck in Bhopal. All we are asking for is clarity,” Mr. Sharma, who initiated an online petition seeking the postponement of these exams on change.org, said. “We, the aspirants, support our government and its efforts in tackling this pandemic. However, adequate attention must be paid to our issues as well,” his petition stated.

“UPSC prelims require dedicated preparation of 3-4 months and looming uncertainty over extension of lockdown is hampering our preparation…Anxiety and stress are preventing us from performing at our best,” the petition, addressed to the UPSC, Department of Personnel and Training, Union Minister Jitendra Singh and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, stated.

Other aspirants like Mr. Sharma, complained they were facing similar problems. “I went back to my hometown in Kerala before the flight operations stopped. Back in Delhi, I was going to the institute and was on track. Now I have lost it and I’m trying to get back on track,” said Pranoy Maxwell, 27, who is studying at a coaching institute in the city said. “There is a lot of uncertainty right now. My exam centre is in Gurugram and I don’t know whether I will be quarantined if I come back to Delhi. The exam should be postponed,” he said.

Swati Singh, 25, who lives in west Delhi, had passed her 2019 UPSC preliminary examination and was waiting for her interview on April 3, when the lockdown happened. “Now my interview has been postponed, which would take place only after May 3. I have registered for the prelims, which is to be held on May 31, but right now we are not able to give mock tests and then meet our teachers for feedback like we used to do and it is affecting our preparation. The exam should be postponed,” she said.

Gopika Gopinathan Pillai, who is studying at a coaching centre in the city said that her preparation has been affected because of the lockdown. “There is no clarity at this point on whether the exam will be postponed or not that increases the pressure on us. Also, how much can a person study when she is locked inside a room for the whole day? My studies have been affected by about 60% since the lockdown,” she said.

In a statement issued after a special meeting of the Commission on April 15, the UPSC said dates for all interviews, exams and recruitment boards where candidates and advisers are required to travel from all parts of the country “will be reviewed from time to time.”

“…A decision on fresh dates for the remaining Civil Services-2019 Personality Tests will be taken after May 3, following the second phase of the lockdown will be notified on the website of the UPSC,” it stated.

(With inputs from The Hindu)

PTI

Five deaths in Gujarat, total toll 58

For the second day in a row, Gujarat saw a spike in the COVID-19 death toll as five people succumbed to the disease. This brings the total toll in the State to 58, said the health department.

The State also saw 228 new cases. Overall, 1,604 people have tested positive for the infection in Gujarat.

Of the five deaths, four are from Ahmedabad and the other from Surat. Three of the dead are female and two male. According to the health department, 94 patients have recovered so far.

With 140 new cases today, the number of cases in Ahmedabad now stands at 1,002. Twenty nine people have died in the city while 27 have recovered.

Another death in Rajasthan, toll is now 22

A 62-year-old man died in Jaipur, taking the death toll in Rajasthan to 22. The COVID-19 patient was admitted to the hospital on Thursday with complaints of fever and breathlessness. He was identified as COVID-19 positive on Saturday, according to the State Medical and Health Department.

Forty-four new COVID-19 positive cases have been detected in Rajasthan, taking the State’s tally to 1,395. As many as 205 patients have recovered, says officials.

PTI

Three lakh more Rapid Antibody Test kits used for the quick detection of the coronavirus (COVID-19) have been dispatched to India from Guangzhou, the Indian envoy here said on Saturday, as India ramped up the global hunt to procure more kits to tackle the rising cases of the infection.

The kits were airlifted to Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, Vikram Misri said. Great work on ground by our team, Mr. Misri tweeted.

This is in addition to the 6.50 lakh antibody and RNA Extraction Kits China sent earlier this week.

India is procuring the medical supplies from China in recent weeks to ensure availability of adequate supplies.

The Rapid Antibody Test Kits deliver results in 15 minutes and work on blood samples instead of nasal swabs to tell whether a patient has ever been exposed to the virus.

The RNA extraction kit enables the total RNA extraction from tissues. This extracted RNA is a mix of a person’s own genetic material and, if present, the virus’ RNA.

Two major consignments of the medical kits were reported to have been sent to India from China earlier as part of the efforts to step up testing especially in hotspots during the lockdown.

India has been facing severe shortage of personal protection equipments and testing kits in view of the rising cases.

By Saturday evening, the toll due to the infection rose to 488, while the number of cases climbed to 14,792, according to data provided by the Centre.

On Tuesday, Mr. Misri told the media here that India has placed orders for 15 million personal protection gear from China for medical personnel treating the COVID-19 patients, besides three million testing kits.

The orders are being placed with bona fide firms with the help of the Chinese government.

“I think facilitation of our needs and our requirements in a timely manner, in a smooth manner, on a predictable timeline at prices that are stable and orderly, would be the best signal possible to send for the India-China relationship,” Mr. Misri said.

Government sources in New Delhi had said large consignments of PPE kits are being bought from a number of countries to meet their increasing demands by several States battling to stem the spread of the infection.

In the wake of adverse reports about the quality of Chinese medical equipment, spokesperson in the Chinese embassy in New Delhi, Ji Rong, earlier said China attaches great importance to the export of medical products and that steps have been taken to ensure their quality.

As the demand for Chinese medical supplies scaled up, China on Wednesday asked all the countries to import these items through reputed Chinese firms cleared by the government and vowed to punish those involved in counterfeiting.

Cyber security agencies suspect a massive data breach has occurred over the last few days, enabling cyber criminals to obtain proof against citizens visiting pornographic websites and blackmailing them.

PTI

According to the Maharashtra Cyber police, a rise has been observed in extortion emails received by people over the last few days.

“The victims receive their own account passwords in the email or their browser history which shows that they have accessed porn sites. The emails demand large amounts in bitcoins for not making these details public. Such emails have become rampant over the last few days and this may be due to a data breach event,” Balsing Rajput, Maharashtra Cyber SP, said.

Mr. Rajput said the data breach could be a result of any number of possibilities.

“Often, cyber criminals instal trackers on porn sites which creep into the browsers of the targets when they visit the sites. Once the trackers have access to the victims’ browsers, they can do anything that they are programmed to do, including capture log in names and passwords of email or other accounts.”

Another possibility, he said, is that passwords of a large number of targets, which were hacked at a previous date, have been sold in bulk to a gang specialising in cyber-extortion and are now being used to intimidate the victims. The fact that the criminals have their passwords convinces the targets that they have access to their browsing history as well, the officer said.

The issue, however, does not end here. As viewing pornographic material comes with a stigma, many prefer paying up to alerting the authorities. While the Maharashtra Cyber department has been informally approached by a few people, none of them was willing to register a complaint. The absence of clear data also becomes a hindrance in trying to detect the source of the breach, sources said.

Mr. Rajput said everyone should follow basic cyber hygiene to avoid falling prey to such scams.

“One can go for a two-factor authentication while logging in to email accounts, which alerts the user every time there is an attempt to log in. All devices should have anti-virus software and should be scanned regularly. Any application or programme which is not downloaded by the users should be deleted immediately.”

Congress’ chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala took to twitter to give credit to Mr. Gandhi for the government move.

PTI

Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Saturday thanked the Union government for “taking note” of his warning and amending the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy to check hostile takeovers of distressed Indian companies amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

I thank the Govt. for taking note of my warning and amending the FDI norms to make it mandatory for Govt. approval in some specific cases. https://t.co/ztehExZXNc

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 18, 2020

“I thank the government for taking note of my warning and amending the FDI norms to make it mandatory for government approval in some specific cases,” Mr. Gandhi tweeted.

Congress’ chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala took to twitter to give credit to Mr. Gandhi for the government move.

“Glad that govt. has positively responded to @RahulGandhi’s suggestion of protecting our corporates from hostile takeovers. The amendment in FDI Policy is welcome and will plug creeping acquisition of any Indian entity. Hope that this constructive engagement shall continue,” Mr. Surjewala tweeted.

Health Ministry official said that States which have reported fewer number of COVID-19 infections also had cases with links to the Markaz event.

PTI

Of the 14,378 coronavirus (COVID-19) infections reported in the country so far, 4,291 cases in 23 States and Union Territories are linked to the Markaz event held in Delhi’s Nizamuddin area in March, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday.

Addressing a daily media briefing to give updates on the COVID-19 situation in the country, Joint Secretary of the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said most of the Markaz event-related cases have been found in States with high burden of the disease, such as Tamil Nadu (84%), Telengana (79%), Delhi (63%), Uttar Pradesh (59%) and Andhra Pradesh (61%).

“A total of 4,291 COVID-19 cases or 29.8% of the 14,378 coronavirus infections reported so far are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation,” he said.

The Health Ministry official also said that States which have reported fewer number of COVID-19 infections also had cases with links to the Markaz event.

For example, the only coronavirus case reported in Arunachal Pradesh till now is related to the Markaz event. Similarly, 32 of the 35 cases reported in Assam and 10 out of 12 cases from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are linked to the same congregation, he said.

According to the Union Health Ministry, 991 fresh COVID-19 cases and 43 fatalities have been reported in the country in 24 hours since Friday morning, taking the total number of cases to 14,378 and the death toll to 480.

Till now, 1,992, that is around 13.85% of the COVID-19 patients, have been cured of the disease, Mr. Agarwal said.

The mortality rate in COVID-19 cases in India has been around 3.3%, he said, adding 14.4% of the deaths are between 0-45 years, 10.3% between 45- 60 years, 33.1% between 60-75 years and 42.2% fatalities among people aged 75 and above.

“So, we see that 75.3% deaths have been in among those aged 60 or above and in 83% cases co-morbidities have been found,” Mr. Agarwal said and reiterated that the elderly and people with co-morbid conditions are at high risk.

The Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry also said that protocol for using rapid antibody test kits have been shared with the States. “Rapid antibody test kits is to be used in hotspots. It can also be used for surveillance and for epidemiological purposes in such areas where COVID-19 cases have not emerged so far. RT-PCR test is the gold standard for frontline test and antibody test cannot replace this test. Utility of rapid antibody test is primarily for assessing prevalence of infection in a particular area,” he said.

He stepped out during lockdown period to buy domestic items, says father.

PTI

Rizwan Ahmed, 22, a daily wage worker, died in U.P.’s Ambedkar Nagar district on Saturday three days after he was allegedly thrashed by police when he stepped out during the lockdown period.

In his police complaint, Rizwan’s father Israil said he had stepped out in the Chajjapur locality of Tanda town in Ambedkar Nagar to buy domestic items on April 15 at around 4 p.m. According to a relative, he went to buy biscuits as he was hungry.

When Rizwan reached the local post-office, he was intercepted by a woman inspector and some constables, said Mr. Israil.

The police got down from their vehicle and “beat him with lathis,” said Mr. Israil, adding that Rizwan was badly injured.

An inconsolable Mr. Israil told reporters that when Rizwan had come back home, his body was blue with injury marks.

Afraid of the police and the lockdown, the family treated Rizwan with ‘desi’ remedy at home. Since his condition did not improve, they shifted him to a hospital in Asopur but doctors there referred him to the district hospital where he died at 2 a.m., said Mr. Israil.

Avanish Kumar Mishra, Addl. SP, said the allegations against the police were being probed.

“After the post mortem is done and on the inspection of the CCTV footage, the allegations made by the family will be investigated and action taken,” Mr. Mishra said.

The post mortem report is yet to be released.

Worldwide, over two million cases cases have been reported and the overall death toll is nearly 1,40,000.

PTI

Madhya Pradesh reported 20 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing its death toll to 75. Of this, eight deaths took place in Indore, its most populous city.

Indore also registered 256 new cases in a day, the most for the city till date.

On Wednesday the count in the city stood at 586. With reports from New Delhi detecting 218 new cases and from the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College, Indore, 26, the numbers grew by 43% to 842.

As the death toll in the country exceeded 450, all residents of Indore in Madhya Pradesh are being screened for Influenza-Like Illness and Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARIs) to check the spread of the novel coronavirus. This comes as the fatality rate in the city shot up to 12%, the highest in the country.

Worldwide, over two million cases cases have been reported and the overall death toll is nearly 1,40,000.