CURRENT AFFAIRS
17 April 2021
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Centre promises more oxygen for U.P., Chhattisgarh.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has informed Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh that their demand for 10 litre and 45 litre jumbo oxygen cylinders and additional ventilators having high flow nasal canula will be met very soon, a statement from the Union Health Ministry said. Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla has also written to all States to ensure that no restriction is imposed on the movement of medical oxygen between States and Union Territories. In the letter he asked the States not to limit supply only to hospitals run in a particular State. There shall be free movement of vehicles carrying oxygen in cities without any time limit or inter-city restriction, the letter stated. Bhalla and Bhushan chaired high-level meetings on Friday to review the status of Covid-19 in Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh. Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra are the only States that have more than 1 lakh active cases. Both Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh are reporting very high number of daily new cases and high deaths. The Ministry said Chhattisgarh has reported nearly 6.2% increase in weekly new cases based on 7-day moving average. In last two weeks, the State has seen an almost 131% increase in weekly new cases, the Ministry said. Uttar Pradesh has reported a growth rate of 19.25% in daily new cases. 46 districts in Uttar Pradesh have crossed their reported highest number of cases in the last 30 days Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi and Prayagraj are the most affected districts. The Union government has mapped the manufacturing sources of Oxygen with the 12 States reporting the highest number of daily new cases. States have been advised to increase dedicated Covid-19 beds and use the available buildings in the hospital campus (including AIIMS) for creation of additional Covid-19 dedicated wards, the Ministry said.
B) Gujarat HC asks govt to publish data on tests, deaths.
A day after raising doubts about the actual number of Covid-19 cases and the numbers given by the State government during its hearing on the suo motu petition initiated by it, the Gujarat High Court on Friday asked the State to publish actual data on RT-PCR tests and people found positive for Covid-19. In an order on Friday, the division bench of Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Bhargav Karia also asked the State government to release the actual figures of patients who had died of Covid-19 and those who had died with co-morbid conditions. The Court observed that transparency is needed to remove general conception from the minds of people that data shared by the government on Covid-19 tests and positive cases was not accurate. Accurate reporting of RT-PCR testing (considered gold standard in diagnostic testing) with correct figures of positive results be made public. The State should not feel shy of publishing the correct data of RT-PCR testing results, if such figures are not being correctly reported, said the bench. Emphasising on the transparency, the Court held that there was no gain for the State from not giving the real and actual data, saying suppression and concealment of accurate data would generate more serious problems, including fear, loss of trust and panic amongst public at large. Necessary arrangements should be made by issuing statement by responsible officer of the State with regard to the number of positive COVID patients, number of deaths due to COVID-19 and number of deaths due to COVID with co-morbidity so that faith and trust can be restored in the minds of public at large, the court said.
C) ‘Strong evidence’ Covid-19 predominantly spreads through air, says Lancet study.
There is consistent, strong evidence to prove that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, behind the Covid-19 pandemic, is predominantly transmitted through the air, according to a new assessment published on Friday in The Lancet journal. The analysis by six experts from the UK, the US and Canada said public health measures that fail to treat the virus as predominantly airborne leave people unprotected and allow the virus to spread. The evidence supporting airborne transmission is overwhelming, and evidence supporting large droplet transmission is almost non-existent, said Jose-Luis Jimenez, from the University of Colorado Boulder in the US. The researchers highlighted the super-spreader events such as last year’s Skagit Choir outbreak in the US, in which 53 people became infected from a single infected case. Studies have confirmed these events cannot be adequately explained by close contact or touching shared surfaces or objects, the researchers said in their assessment. They noted that transmission rates of SARS-CoV-2 are much higher indoors than outdoors, and transmission is greatly reduced by indoor ventilation. The team cited previous studies estimating that silent asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from people who are not coughing or sneezing accounts for at least 40% of all transmission. The researchers also highlighted work demonstrating long-range transmission of the virus between people in adjacent rooms in hotels, who were never in each other’s presence. On the contrary, the team found little to no evidence that the virus spreads easily via large droplets, which fall quickly through the air and contaminate surfaces.
D) Yediyurappa, Javadekar test positive.
Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on Friday tested positive for Covid-19. This is the second time he has contracted the infection and he is undergoing treatment at Manipal Hospital. Yediyurappa announced the news on Twitter. Upon having mild fever, he got tested for COVID-19 and my report has come out as positive. Although he is doing fine, he is being hospitalised based on the advice of doctors. He request all those who came in contact with me recently to exercise self-quarantine, he wrote. He had tested positive for Covid-19 for the first time in August 2020. Yediyurappa has also received the first dose of vaccination. Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar announced on Twitter on Friday that he has tested positive for Covid-19. He have tested #COVID positive today. All those who have come in contact with me in the last 2-3 days may please get themselves tested, Javadekar tweeted. The Union Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath too are in quarantine with Covid-19 infection.
E) IMD forecasts normal monsoon.
India is likely to receive ‘normal’ monsoon rainfall this year, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said as part of its official April forecast. Except for parts of eastern and northeastern India, many parts of the country are expected to get above normal rainfall, the IMD’s models show. Normal rainfall refers to a range: 96%-104% of the Long Period Average (LPA) of 88 cm. Earlier this week, private weather forecasting company, Skymet Weather, too, said it expected India to get normal rainfall but said this was likely to be 103% of the LPA, whereas the IMD, on Friday, has estimated it to be 98% of the LPA. The April forecast, which is based on an analysis of select meteorological factors in March, is updated in May along with estimates of how the monsoon will perform in different geographical regions. In 2019, the IMD forecast 96% LPA in April but India ended up with record excessive rainfall of 110%. In 2020, it said 100% LPA but India wound up with 109%. IMD officials, however, said that it was unlikely there would be such excessive rain this year.
F) Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments.
The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 1,44,85,313 with the death toll at 1,75,376. The Union Health Ministry has advised Central Ministries and their PSUs to dedicate their hospital beds for Covid-19 management in States/ UTs and to ensure that details of such dedicated hospitals/blocks be provided to the public. In a release issued on Friday, the Ministry said, to substantially augment the hospital infrastructure for effective clinical management of severe Covid-19 patients across the country, the Health Ministry has advised all Central Ministries to issue instructions to the hospitals under their control or their PSUs to set-up exclusive dedicated hospital wards or separate blocks within the hospitals for COVID Care, as was done last year. The Election Commission on Friday ordered curbs on campaigning for the last three phases of the eight-phase West Bengal elections, including extending the silence period before voting from 48 hours to 72 hours and barring all campaigning from 7 pm to 10 am, in view of the rising Covid-19 cases. The EC’s decision came on the eve of the fifth phase of polling on Saturday. Haffkine Biopharma Corporation, Mumbai, has received permission from the Union government to manufacture Covaxin, an anti-coronavirus vaccine of Bharat Biotech, on technology transfer basis. The State government had sent the proposal to the Centre in the last week of February saying the infrastructure of Haffkine, which is known for vaccine production, could be used for corona vaccine production in the country.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) U.K. Home Department approves extradition of Nirav Modi.
The United Kingdom’s Home Department has approved the extradition of diamond merchant Nirav Modi to India in connection with the ₹13,758-crore Punjab National Bank fraud, about two months after the Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London ruled that a prima facie case was made out against him. The Secretary of State for the UK’s Home Department, Priti Patel, has approved Nirav Modi’s extradition, said a CBI official on Friday. The accused now has the legal recourse of approaching the U.K. High Court, within 14 days, to seek permission for moving an appeal against the Secretary of State’s decision. Unless there is an appeal, a requested person must be extradited within 28 days of the Secretary of State’s decision to order extradition (subject to any appeal), according to the UK’s official website. In its order, the Westminster Magistrates Court had found sufficient grounds warranting Nirav Modi’s trial in India. It also took on record the evidence furnished by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate, alleging that he conspired to destroy the proof against him and intimidate witnesses. The agencies alleged that he kept his employees, some of who were dummy directors in the firms floated by him, in illegal confinement in Cairo and got their mobile phones disposed of in Dubai. A Dubai-based server, in which information about the communications between the accused persons used to be stored, was also destroyed. The businessman had fled the country along with his relatives in January 2018. On India’s request, he was arrested in London on March 19, 2019, and since then he has been in judicial custody there.
B) Serum Institute CEO appeals to U.S. to lift embargo on raw materials export.
Adar Poonawalla, CEO, Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s biggest vaccine maker, on Friday tweeted an appeal to U.S. president Joe Biden seeking lifting of the embargo on U.S. exports of raw materials, which he said is hurting its production of Covid-19 shots. In his tweet he said that if we are to truly unite in beating this virus, on behalf of the vaccine industry outside the U.S., he humbly request you to lift the embargo of raw material exports out of the U.S. so that vaccine production can ramp up. Your administration has the details. SII is making the AstraZeneca COVID-vaccine. The appeal comes when World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday urged countries in South-East Asia Region to apply all tools to prevent further infections and save lives. Cases are rising for the past several weeks. These are worrying trends as we continue to see opening of societies and emergence of variants. Basic public health measures remain the foundation of pandemic response and we need to reinforce them. We need to apply all the tools we have, and apply them together said Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia Region.
