CURRENT AFFAIRS
20 May 2021
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Covid-19 vaccination should be deferred by 3 months after recovery, says government.
Vaccination should be deferred by three months after recovery in individuals having lab test proven SARS-2 COVID-19 illness, the Health Ministry said in a statement issued on Wednesday. SARS-2 COVID-19 patients who have been given anti-SARS-2 monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma should also defer vaccination by three months from the date of discharge from the hospital. The statement also recommended Covid-19 vaccination for all lactating women. The second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine should also be delayed by three months for anyone contracting the disease after the first dose. So far, there was no fixed gap for taking a vaccine in such situations. Individual physicians recommended a gap of two or four weeks depending on the condition of the patient. The fresh rules are part of the recommendations by NEGVAC the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 led by NITI Aayog member Dr VK Paul which have been accepted by the Union Health Ministry.
B) Jaishankar intervenes with Singapore over Kejriwal’s remarks on new variant.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal does not speak for India, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar declared on Wednesday after Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan objected to Kejriwal’s claim that a highly infectious variant of Covid-19 that affects children is being transmitted from Singapore. Singapore and India have been solid partners in the fight against Covid-19. Appreciate Singapore’s role as logistics hub and oxygen supplier. Their gesture of deploying military aircraft to help us speaks of our exceptional relationship. However, irresponsible comments from those who should know better can damage long-standing partnerships. So, let me clarify Delhi CM does not speak for India, Jaishankar said, after Singapore summoned Indian envoy to protest Kejriwal’s remarks. In a rather unusual diplomatic gesture, the Ministry of External Affairs announced that the Indian High Commissioner was summoned by the Singapore Government on Wednesday to convey strong objection to Delhi CM’s tweet on ‘Singapore variant.’ The High Commissioner clarified that te Delhi CM had no competence to pronounce on COVID variants or civil aviation policy, said Official Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi. In diplomatic protocol, it is usually the host country that announces if a foreign envoy is summoned to convey displeasure on a certain issue. Singapore’s move came soon after the political leaders in the country objected to Kejriwal’s assertions. Politicians should stick to facts! said Balakrishnan a day after Kejrwal claimed that the strain of the corona virus that is targeting children in Singapore was from there. The Foreign Minister of Singapore was the second to respond to the Delhi leader’s comments. Singapore maintains that the variant found in the country came from India. The Embassy of Singapore in its social media handle had responded to Delhi chief minister’s comment on Tuesday evening. There is no truth whatsoever in the assertions. There is no ‘Singapore variant’. The strain that is prevalent in many of the Covid-19 cases in recent weeks is B.1.617.2 variant, which originated in India. Phylogenetic testing has shown this B.1.617.2 Variant to be associated with several clusters in Singapore, said the Ministry of Health of Singapore in a statement issued on Tuesday.
C) Govt asks Whatsapp to withdraw update to privacy policy.
The Centre has sent a notice to WhatsApp asking it to withdraw a controversial update to its privacy policy and has sought a response within seven days. The government has also warned the Facebook-owned firm that failure to give a satisfactory response may result in steps in consonance with law. The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), in the notice dated May 18, has told WhatsApp that deferring the May 15 implementation deadline does not absolve it from respecting the values of informational privacy, data security and user choice for Indian users, a Ministry source said. The notice directs WhatsApp to withdraw its Privacy Policy 2021, as the changes and the manner of introducing them undermine the sacrosanct values of informational privacy, data security and user choice for Indian users and harm the rights and interests of Indian citizens. The source added that the Ministry has also highlighted how WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy is a violation of several provisions of existing Indian laws and rules. In fulfilment of its sovereign responsibility to protect the rights and interests of Indian citizens, the Government of India will consider various options available to it under laws in India. The government has given seven days’ time to WhatsApp to respond to this notice and if no satisfactory response is received, necessary steps in consonance with law will be taken, the source said.
D) Narada case hearing to continue on May 20, Kolkata Police register case against CBI.
The hearing at the Calcutta High Court in connection with the Narada case remained inconclusive on Wednesday and will continue on Thursday. The development implies that four heavy weight political leaders, including two Ministers, Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, and MLA Madan Mitra and former Minister Sovan Chatterjee, arrested by the CBI on Monday, will have to the spend Wednesday night in judicial custody. Three of the four arrested, except Minister Firhad Hakim, were admitted to the State-run SSKM Hospital. In another development, the Kolkata Police filed a case against CBI personnel under Section 51B of the Disaster Management Act. The case was filed at Gariahat police station in the city for violation of the restrictions imposed during the pandemic while arresting one of the accused. The CBI, along with personnel of central forces, had picked all the accused early on Monday morning from their respective residences. The CBI on Wednesday also filed a transfer petition to move the matter involving Narada case out of West Bengal and also made Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Law Minister Moloy Ghatak and Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee party to the case.
E) Cyclone Tauktae death toll rises to 45; another storm brewing in Bay of Bengal.
As many as 45 people have been killed due to cyclone Tauktae across 12 districts of Gujarat, officials said Wednesday. Fifteen deaths were reported from Amreli district in Saurashtra region, the worst affected in the cyclone. Eight people each were killed in Bhavnagar and Gir Somnath coastal districts, an official of the State Emergency Operation Centre said. While 24 deaths were due to wall collapses during the cyclone, six died after trees fell on them, five each because of house collapse and electrocution, four due to roof collapse, and one died due to a tower collapse, the official said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday undertook an aerial survey of affected areas in Gujarat and adjoining union territory of Diu to assess the devastation caused by Cyclone Tauktae. Modi is in Gujarat to review the situation in the state in the aftermath of cyclone Tauktae. He landed at Bhavnagar from Delhi around noon and proceeded for the aerial survey of Una, Diu, Jafarabad and Mahuva, an official said. Meanwhile, with Cyclone Tauktae yet to entirely abate, a new storm may be in the works, this time in the Bay of Bengal. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a statement Wednesday that a low pressure area— a precursor to cyclonic storm — was likely to form in the eastern Bay of Bengal and the Northern Andaman Sea by May 22 (Saturday). It is very likely to intensify gradually into a cyclonic storm during subsequent 72 hours and reach Odisha-West Bengal coast by May 26, according to the statement.
F) Only three teachers on polling duty died of Covid-19, says U.P. govt.
The Uttar Pradesh government has said that only three teachers died of Covid-19 while on duty during the recently-concluded panchayat polls, dismissing the figure of over 1,600 deaths claimed by teacher unions. Satya Prakash, under secretary in the basic education department, Uttar Pradesh, said on Tuesday that so far District Magistrates had provided the State Election Commission (SEC) a list of only three confirmed deaths of teachers. He also appealed to people to not fall for misleading reports not based on facts. The State government’s statement stands in stark contrast to the claim made by the Uttar Pradesh Prathmik Shikshak Sangh, a union for primary teachers. The union earlier this week released a list of 1,621 teachers and staff of the basic education department who allegedly died of Covid-19 after being assigned duty in the panchayat polls and control rooms for the pandemic. The son of a science school teacher, who died of COVID-19, performs final rituals prior to lighting his father’s funeral pyre. Interestingly, the SEC had recently informed the Allahabad High Court that 77 polling officers and agents in 28 districts had died while on polling duty during the panchayat polls. Data from other districts was awaited, the SEC told the court on May 7. It also alleged that despite assurances by the State Chief Secretary on May 1, a day before counting, that unwell teachers and staff would not be asked to be on polling duty, those who were absent due to illness on counting and voting days had faced suspension and salary cuts. Reacting to the State basic education department’s claim of only three deaths, Dinesh Chandra Sharma, president of the Uttar Pradesh Prathmik Shikshak Sangh, said the government statement was insensitive, irresponsible and far from reality. We won’t let them kill the rights of the children of the teachers who died. We will fight for their families at all levels, he said.
G) Vaccine caller tune removed due to shortage: AAP’s Atishi.
Senior AAP leader Atishi on Wednesday claimed that the caller tune asking citizens to get vaccinated has been removed by the Centre due to the shortage of vaccines in the country. The caller tune asking all citizens to come forward and get vaccinated has been removed from all phone networks! So basically the Central Govt has accepted that there are not enough vaccines for everyone and so there is no point in encouraging people for vaccination! she tweeted. Till recently, the caller tune was being played before each call across all networks. These have now become less frequent and only some users are still getting the tune before the call connects. The Central government has been using the caller tune feature since the beginning of the pandemic as means to create awareness among the public. The Department of Telecom, on a request from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, had in March 2020 ordered all telecom firms to make a 30-second audio clip on coronavirus as a caller tune of mobile phone users. The earlier audio clips, voiced by actor Amitabh Bacchan, asked the public to follow Covid-19-appropriate behaviours such as masking up and maintaining physical distance. The latest caller tune was focused on the inoculation drive and asked people to get vaccinated, while assuring them that the vaccines are safe.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) U.S. to work with COVAX to allocate 80 mn vaccine doses.
The U.S. will work with the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) programme as well as its partners to decide how to allocate the 80 million doses of vaccine it is sending to other countries over the next six weeks. lndia, which is currently the global epicentre of the pandemic, is expected to receive a significant share of these vaccines, but administration officials have not released actual numbers. We’re looking at how we can get maximum coverage, because, I think, as all of you would agree, that demand exists everywhere, Gayle Smith, the U.S.’s Coordinator for Global COVID Response and Health Security, said on a briefing call with reporters on Wednesday. We’re consulting closely with COVAX, which, as you know, is the largest vaccine delivery platform in the world and that is focused on, in particular, low income and low-middle income countries and with our partners , she said. Ms. Smith referred to COVAX as an absolutely critical and the central platform for vaccine allocation. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, on Tuesday, said vaccine allocation decisions would be made based on ‘equity’, in response to a question on whether India would be a recipient of the vaccines. The U.S. has deployed around SIOO million in assistance to India during this current wave of the pandemic. Transparent manner We, of course, will be making decisions based on equity, based on ensuring they are providing these vaccines in a transparent manner with the global community through COVAX and also through direct relationships, Ms. Psaki said. While India could theoretical use some of the vaccines it will produce as part of a Quad (India, the U.S., Australia and Japan) plan to supply at least I billion doses of to the Indo-Pacific by the end of 2022, the actual decisions will be taken based on ground conditions at the time, as per Ms. Smith. Biological E, a Telengana based pharmaceutical company, is collaborating with Johnson & Johnson to produce the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine under the Quad plan. Given the timeline for that production, I think its dispensation will depend to a great extent on the state of play around the world with vaccine coverage. That timeline is fairly extended. So, I think, while in principle those vaccine doses are available for internal use, but also for export to the rest of the world, the final allocation or plan for that will depend on what conditions we’re facing at the time they’re available, Smith said.
B) U.S. to waive sanctions on firm behind Russia’s Nord Stream 2.
The U.S. government will waive sanctions on the company behind Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Europe and its Chief Executive, a Washington source familiar with the plans and Germany’s Foreign Minister said on Wednesday. A U.S. State Department report to be delivered to Congress as early as Wednesday concludes that Nord Stream 2 AG and CEO Matthias Warnig, an ally of Ruse Sian President Vladimir Putin, engaged in sanctionable activity but that it was in the U.S. national interest to waive the sanctions, the source said. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the administration had waived the sanctions on those two parties but also imposed sanctions on Russian entities and ships linked to Nord Stream 2. We see this as a constructive step. which we are happy to further discuss with our partners in Washington. Mr. Maas said. The administration under Democratic President Joe Biden still opposed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline but felt it was important to send a signal about its commitment to ties with Germany, which were badly damaged under former President Donald Trump. Russia’s state energy company Gazprom and its western partners are racing to finish the line to take Russian gas to Europe via Germany, under the Baltic Sea. The project, now about 95% complete, would bypass Ukraine, depriving it of lucrative transit fees and potentially undermining its struggle against Russian aggression.
