DHAKA: Bangladesh on Tuesday extended a nationwide shutdown until April 11 to stem the spread of the coronavirus in the country.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the shutdown, announced on March 26 and due to end on April 4, was being extended for five more days, the state-run Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha news agency reported.
The shutdown, which the government continues to refer to as a “general holiday”, will officially end on Friday, April 9, but the next two days are the regular weekend.
The decision came as two more COVID-19 cases took Bangladesh’s tally to 51 on Tuesday. The country of around 165 million people has so far reported five deaths due to the coronavirus.
“We earlier announced a 10-day general holiday from March 26 and it is now extended for five days until April 9,” Hasina said in a video conference with civil administration officials of the country’s 64 districts.
She said the full shutdown will be eased on “a limited scale” to cater to the country’s essential needs.
“Everything cannot be stopped. The essential things will remain in operation, but all educational institutions will remain closed,” said the premier, adding that the situation will be reviewed on April 4.
She said industries must remain operational but with all precautionary measures. “We have to keep industries open for production of many essential goods. We must also ensure that nobody is allowed to hike up prices of daily commodities. We must behave humanely during this time of crisis,” Hasina stressed.
The premier also warned of an impending global financial crisis due to the disruption of economic activity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“To overcome that crisis, we have to pay attention to our agriculture sector. We have enough fertile land and sufficient manpower, but we must ensure that no piece of land anywhere in the country is left uncultivated,” she said.
She directed the Ministry of Agriculture to facilitate farmers and to provide them all necessary materials to ensure optimum output.
Just three months after capping what was the best year for Indian startups, having raised a record $14.5 billion in 2019, they are beginning to struggle to raise new capital as prominent investors urge them to “prepare for the worst”, cut spending and warn that it could be challenging to secure additional money for the next few months.
In an open letter to startup founders in India, ten global and local private equity and venture capitalist firms including Accel, Lightspeed, Sequoia Capital, and Matrix Partners cautioned that the current changes to the macro environment could make it difficult for a startup to close their next fundraising deal.
The firms, which included Kalaari Capital, SAIF Partners, and Nexus Venture Partners — some of the prominent names in India to back early-stage startups — asked founders to be prepared to not see their startups’ jump in the coming rounds and have a 12-18 month runway with what they raise.
“Assumptions from bull market financings or even from a few weeks ago do not apply. Many investors will move away from thinking about ‘growth at all costs’ to ‘reasonable growth with a path to profitability.’ Adjust your business plan and messaging accordingly,” they added.
Signs are beginning to emerge that investors are losing appetite to invest in the current scenario.
Indian startups participated in 79 deals to raise $496 million in March, down from $2.86 billion that they raised across 104 deals in February and $1.24 billion they raised from 93 deals in January this year, research firm Tracxn told TechCrunch. In March last year, Indian startups had raised $2.1 billion across 153 deals, the firm said.
New Delhi ordered a complete nation-wide lockdown for its 1.3 billion people for three weeks earlier this month in a bid to curtail the spread of COVID-19.
The lockdown, as you can imagine, has severely disrupted businesses of many startups, several founders told TechCrunch.
Vivekananda Hallekere, co-founder and chief executive of mobility firm Bounce, said he is prepared for a 90-day slowdown in the business.
Founder of a Bangalore-based startup, which was in advanced stages to raise more than $100 million, said investors have called off the deal for now. He requested anonymity.
Food delivery firm Zomato, which raised $150 million in January, said it would secure an additional $450 million by the end of the month. Two months later, that money is yet to arrive.
Many startups are already beginning to cut salaries of their employees and let go of some people to survive an environment that aforementioned VC firms have described as “uncharted territory.”
Travel and hotel booking service Ixigo said it had cut the pay of its top management team by 60% and rest of the employees by up to 30%. MakeMyTrip, the giant in this category, also cut salaries of its top management team.
Beauty products and cosmetics retailer Nykaa on Tuesday suspended operations and informed its partners that it would not be able to pay their dues on time.
Investors cautioned startup founders to not take a “wait and watch” approach and assume that there will be a delay in their “receivables,” customers would likely ask for price cuts for services, and contracts would not close at the last minute.
“Through the lockdown most businesses could see revenues going down to almost zero and even post that the recovery curve may be a ‘U’ shaped one vs a ‘V’ shaped one,” they said.
(This story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
President Donald Trump finally leveled with America about the desperate reality of the coronavirus pandemic, warning of cruel weeks to come in one of the most chilling White House moments in modern history.
Even with blanket nationwide adoption of stringent mitigation efforts, between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans could face death in the coming weeks in a cascading nationwide ordeal, according to modeling explained by senior members of the President’s emergency task force Tuesday.
It is in the nature of the presidency, that the commander-in-chief sometimes has to deliver grave news to the nation.
George W. Bush had to narrate the horror of the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Ronald Reagan movingly eulogized shuttle astronauts after a 1986 disaster. And John Kennedy kept his nerve to address the nation during a showdown with the Soviet Union over Cuba that threatened to erupt in nuclear war.
But no president for many decades has had to level with his country over such a sudden impending loss of American life in a medical emergency as Trump is now being forced to do — after apparently coming to terms about the extent of the crisis himself.
It was not the first time that administration experts modeled the staggering possible death toll. But the combination of the President’s unusually serious demeanor and the ominous curve charts of his top public health officials struck a note of alarm missing from Trump’s previous knockabout briefings.
The stark spectacle of a president, especially one who spent weeks dismissing the virus, warning of the imminent demise of so many Americans encapsulated the scale of the crisis.
“I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead. We’re going to go through a very tough two weeks,” the President said in the White House briefing room.
Trump’s briefing mostly lacked the elements of self-congratulation and false hope that have characterized his heavily criticized leadership in the crisis.
To begin with, during his marathon two-hour briefing, he mostly ceded the stage to his credible lieutenants Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, who convinced him of the seriousness of the situation over the weekend.
There have been many false dawns when Trump has failed to match the gravity of a moment during his tenure. Past behavior suggests he may struggle to maintain his unifying tone at a moment of unique national peril.
And the harrowing potential scale of the looming tragedy already have some, like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying lives might have been saved had Trump not spent weeks denying the severity of the approaching pandemic and adopted more aggressive actions to prepare.
A multi-front battle intensifies
Trump’s appearance came on a day of grave developments that underscored the multi-front nature of the fight against Covid-19. Field hospitals sprang up in New York’s Central Park to alleviate overcrowding in the city’s hospitals. State governors pleaded with the federal government for more ventilators, and doctors prepared to make grim decisions about who will live and die amid a shortage of the machines.
Fauci and Birx arrived armed with slides showing the rocketing rise of Covid-19 cases in New York and New Jersey in recent weeks, and more shallow curves for other states.
Their most hopeful moments involved referring to Italy’s belated turn to a downward curve in infections after weeks of agony, reflecting the wrenching substance of their message.
But in order to keep deaths to the lower end of their estimates, they warned that maximum mitigation efforts — including physical distancing and staying at home — were imperative.
Even with such a regime in place across the country — and some states and cities are not yet taking the advice seriously — there are likely to be between 100,000 and 240,000 deaths.
Fauci vowed, however, not to accept those figures and to strive to keep the mortality curve below expectations.
He said there were some early signs that mitigation efforts taken by states and the White House’s distancing guidelines, which have been extended until April 30, are working.
“Whenever you’re having an effect, it’s not time to take your foot off the accelerator,” Fauci said.
“And that’s what I hope. And I know that we can that do over the next 30 days.”
Birx called on the entire nation to unite, and, in a comment that appeared to jar with Trump’s earlier rhetoric on the crisis, added: “There’s no magic vaccine or therapy. It’s just behaviors.”
“Each of our behaviors translating into something that changes the course of this viral pandemic over the next 30 days,” Birx said.
A grave moment in history
As Tuesday’s briefing wore on, the President indulged in his familiar misinformation and political shape-shifting that underscored his own erratic leadership and dishonesty.
Empathizing with the pain in New York and New Jersey, the President who a month ago predicted a “miracle” that would make the virus go away bemoaned that “they got off to a very late start.”
New York’s Gov. Andrew Cuomo has repeatedly criticized Trump for not invoking the full power of the Defense Production Act to supercharge the production of ventilators and other vital gear.
Less than a month ago, the President, resisting calls to shut down the economy and take the pandemic sufficiently seriously, equated coronavirus to the common flu.
“So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!” Trump wrote in a tweet.
But now, with the number of cases of the virus in the United States racing towards 200,000 on Tuesday and 4,000 deaths, Trump admitted the two are not the same.
The President invoked an unnamed friend who he said was in a coma because of the disease.
“It’s not the flu. It’s vicious,” Trump said.
Later in the marathon briefing — which became more an attempt to flood the zone for political gain the longer it went on — Trump claimed of the virus, “It just reared up and came from nowhere.” The White House in fact had weeks of notice once the disease emerged in China.
As is often the case, the President’s off-the-cuff style raised questions about his tone when he ditched his prepared remarks.
And Trump also portrayed himself as a lone force resisting calls to “ride it out,” warning such an approach could cost more than 2 million American lives.
The President appeared to be setting up a political construct to use in his reelection campaign under which he can claim to have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
CNN reported Tuesday that not all of the President’s advisers backed extending the distancing guidelines.
The decision to shut down the previously purring US economy has thrown millions of Americans out of work and choked off growth. The full scale of the devastation is expected to be revealed in jobs numbers later this week.
Trump faces an agonizing dilemma, balancing a desire to slow the spread of the virus and the need to return people to work to alleviate the possibility of an economic depression.
Health advisers argued a month’s extension of the distancing guidelines was necessary.
But given that many hotspots may not reach the peak of their pandemics for weeks, it seems unlikely the situation will have improved sufficiently to relax the guidelines in a month.
NEW DELHI: Scientists at India’s top health research bodies and health experts have said holding newspapers in your hands is safe, and there is no evidence of them or other types of paper being carriers of Covid-19 infection.
Over the past week, there have been WhatsApp messages and forwards — stating that newspapers can be avenues of infection. But this has been roundly refuted by health experts and doctors.
Nivedita Gupta, chief epidemiologist at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), told ET that Covid-19 is a “respiratory infection” and there is “no risk” of catching it through newspapers and packages.
Sujeet Singh, director of National Centre for Disease Control, said NCDC’s helpline number has been working round the clock to refute such rumours. “Investigating virologists have not found any evidence that suggests that it can survive on paper. We are getting these queries on everyday basis and clarifying them,” he said.
Renowned heart surgeon Devi Shetty ruled out the likelihood of the virus lingering in the air for hours — the characteristic that makes measles infectious.
“The virus cannot sustain for longer periods. Right now there is no evidence that the virus can survive on surfaces, for that mutation should happen. It will take a long time and will require infection getting spread to huge number of people,” he said, rubbishing rumours that the virus can be spread through newspapers.
Experts said Covid-19 spreads from person to person among close contacts and, as of now, there is no evidence that suggests the virus is airborne and hence may be infecting surfaces. Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia said, “Airborne spread has not been reported for Covid-19. Based on the information received so far and on our experience with other coronaviruses, Covid-19 appears to spread mostly through respiratory droplets (for instance produced when a sick person coughs) and close contact. This is why WHO recommends maintaining hand and respiratory hygiene”.
Dr Randeep Guleria, Director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) said the possibility of an infected person contaminating commercial goods and infection risk from a package that has travelled from one place to another, is low. “Survivabiity of the virus on cardboard surfaces is quite low as compared to metal or steel; hence there is no chance of virus being spread through newspapers,” he said.
The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention also claims that it is highly unlikely that Coronavirus could spread through newspaper delivery. “These are rumours, that’s all I can say,” cardiac surgeon Naresh Trehan said.
Anyone who has resided for a period of 15 years in the UT of J&K or has studied for a period of seven years and appeared in Class 10th /12th examination will be deemed to be domicile
After revoking the special Status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370, the Centre has issued an order that government jobs will be reserved only for domiciles of J&K.
The order says anyone “who has resided for a period of 15 years in the UT of J&K or has studied for a period of seven years and appeared in Class 10th /12th examination in an educational institution located in the UT of J&K or who is registered as a migrant by the Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner (Migrants) shall be deemed to be domicile.”
On August 6, the Centre revoked the special status of J&K under Article 370 and Article 35A of the Constitution and downgraded and bifurcated it into two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh.
The two revoked provisions of the Constitution let the J&K Legislature decide the “permanent residents”, prohibiting a non-J&K resident from buying property there and ensuring job reservation for its residents.
The provisions shall apply to reservation for domiciles in “all the Gazetted and non-Gazetted posts, Class IV posts” of the Government.
“Children of Central Govt. officials, All India Services, PSUs, autonomous body of Centre, Public Sector Banks, officials of statutory bodies, Central Universities, recognised research institutes of Centre who have served in J&K for a total period of 10 years” will be domiciles.
The domicile status also applies to “children of such residents of J&K who reside outside J&K in connection with their employment or business or other professional or vocational reasons but their parents should fulfil any of the conditions provided”.
The World Health Organization warns that while attention has shifted to epicenters in Western Europe and North America, COVID-19 epidemics are far from over in Asia and the Pacific.
Urging governments at all levels in the region to stay engaged in efforts to combat the virus, WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific, Dr. Takeshi Kasai says, “This is going to be a long-term battle and we cannot let down our guard. We need every country to keep responding according to their local situation.”
He said the WHO realizes there is no one-size-fits-all approach but there are common tactics.
Those are: finding, isolating and testing case early, tracing and quarantining contact quickly, and putting in place multiple public health interventions to place physical distance between people to slow and stop transmission. Takeshi also cautioned that countries still need to prepare for large-scale community transmission.
We need to be clear that even with all of these measures, the risk will not go away as long as the pandemic continues. Rather, these measures can buy us valuable time to prepare, he said.
The Jammu and Kashmir government is searching for the people who visited the Tablighi Jamaat religious gathering at Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi in mid March and returned to the union territory.
With most corona cases in Kashmir having history of direct or indirect contact with members from religious gathering, nothing is left to chances.
The district Commissioners in Kashmir have appealed to the members who were a part of the gathering to identify themselves for putting them under surveillance isolation and quarantine.
“We are taking the matter very seriously and have appealed to all those who attended the Nizamuddin congregation to come up for screening,” Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir, P.K Pole told IANS.
He said initially there was some reluctance shown by the people to reveal their travel histories but now more and more people are coming forward.
“Four cases which were found positive in south Kashmir had contracted it through the members of religious gathering,” he said. “The process of tracing the men who attended the congregation is being seriously pursued.”
He said there are 87 people from Kashmir who were currently in Nizamuddin and have been put in quarantine in Delhi itself.
“They have been put under quarantine, we are in touch with delhi police on this issue,” he said.
Notably on March 24, a 65-year-old died in Kashmir. He was a part of the religious gathering at Nizamuddin and had returned to Kashmir on March 16.
A 13-year-old British boy has died days after testing positive for COVID-19, hospital officials and his family said on Tuesday, with relatives saying he had no underlying illnesses.
The boy, who died Monday, is believed to be Britain’s youngest confirmed death in the coronavirus pandemic. A 12-year-old girl, whose death was confirmed earlier on Tuesday in Belgium, is thought to be Europe’s youngest victim.
A spokesman for King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: “Sadly, a 13-year old boy who tested positive for COVID-19 has passed away, and our thoughts and condolences are with the family at this time.
“The death has been referred to the coroner and no further comment will be made,” he added.
Srinagar, April 01: In a major development, the Government of India has scrapped a legal provision providing rent-free accommodation and other facilities to former chief ministers of Jammu & Kashmir.
According to wire service—Kashmir News Observer(KNO) , Centre has repealed section 3-C of the State Legislature Members’ Pension Act, 1984 under which former CMs of J&K were entitled to different privileges and perks.
As per KNO, under the law, former CMs were entitled to rent-free furnished accommodation, expenditure to the limit of Rs 35,000 per annum for furnishing of the residential accommodation, free telephone calls up to the value of Rs 48,000 per annum, free electricity to the extent of Rs 1500 per month ,car, petrol, medical facilities, driver etc.
They were also entitled to one personnel assistant, one special assistant and two peons. “Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, a member who is entitled to pension under this Act and who has served as Chief Minister of the State, shall be entitled to car, petrol, medical facilities, driver, rent-free furnished accommodation, expenditure to the limit of Rs 35,000 per annum for furnishing of the residential accommodation, free telephone calls up to the value of Rs
48,000 per annum, free electricity to the extent of Rs 1500 per month etc,” reads section 3( C) of the law which was deleted by the Centre last night.
The law has been deleted through Jammu & Kashmir Reorganization( adaptation of state laws )Order-2020.
The move comes months after J&K Law Commission had recommended repeal of the legal provisions providing facilities to former CMs, saying these provisions “violate the constitutional principles of equality” and are “arbitrary and not in consonance with any scheme or law”—(KNO)
Jammu/Kathua, March 31 After chaos at Lakhanpur — the gateway to Jammu and Kashmir — and limited facilities of quarantine in Kathua town, the UT administration has now decided to start shifting all the people from the Kashmir valley who are being quarantined in Kathua and Samba districts to their respective districts in government-owned SRTC buses from tomorrow. According to the official sources, there are around 4,000 persons, including women and children, who have crossed into J&K via Lakhanpur since March 23, being currently quarantined at different centres established at Samba and Kathua districts. “The number of people hailing from different districts of the Kashmir valley, who are being quarantined in Samba district, is around 2,500, while this number is more than 1,400 in Kathua town. The administration has decided to shift them to their respective districts in batches in SRTC buses. This process was to begin today but could not take place due to closure of the Jammu-Srinagar highway due to landslides,” a senior official told The Tribune. The highway was blocked for traffic due to a landslide at Dalwas village in Ramban district. To a query, the official said all the persons were yet to complete the mandatory quarantine period of 14 days but the administration in both the districts had screened the people under quarantine thoroughly. “These people will be shifted in phases,” the official said. A total of 39 quarantine centres have been established in Kathua town where over 2,700 persons are being quarantined. Of them, there are 1,415 persons belonging to the Kashmir valley. Pertinently, there was chaos at Lakhanpur due to increasing number of stranded J&K residents who wanted to enter the UT from outside. J&K had sealed its borders with all neighbouring states and Ladakh on March 23 to contain the spread of coronavirus. The people of Kathua town had been demanding the shifting of these people to their respective districts.