CURRENT AFFAIRS
21 May 2021
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Declare mucormycosis an epidemic, Centre tells states.
The Union government has asked the States to declare mucormycosis, the fungal infection being reported in Covid-19 patients, an epidemic. In a letter to the States, Health and Family Welfare Ministry joint secretary Lav Agarwal said that declaring the black fungus infection seen in Covid-19 patients an epidemic would lead to healthcare facilities screening for it and reporting all such cases to the government. In recent times a new challenge in the form of a fungal infection, namely mucormycosis, has emerged and is reported from many States amongst Covid-19 patients, especially those on steroid therapy and deranged sugar control. This fungal infection is leading to prolonged morbidity and mortality amongst Covid-19 patients, he said. The treatment of the fungal infection required a multi-disciplinary approach that involved eye surgeons, ENT specialists, general surgeons, neurosurgeons and dental maxilo facial surgeons, and the use of Amphotericin B as an anti-fungal medicine, he noted. You are requested to make mucormycosis a notifiable disease under Epidemic Diseases Act 1897, wherein all government and private health facilities and medical colleges will follow guidelines for screening, diagnosis, management of mucormycosis, issued by MoHFW (Gol) and ICMR and make it mandatory for all these facilities to report all suspected and confirmed cases to Health Department through district-level Chief Medical Officer and subsequently to IDSP [Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme] surveillance system, he wrote.
B) Govt issues advisory on aerosols, says ventilation essential to reduce Covid-19 transmission indoors.
Aerosols could be carried in the air for up to 10 metres and improving the ventilation of indoor spaces would reduce transmission, a government advisory on stopping the spread of Covid-19 said on Thursday. The advisory, issued by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, said there was need to remember the simple measures that could reduce the transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Ventilation can decrease the risk of transmission from one infected person to the other. Just as smells can be diluted from the air through opening windows and doors and using exhaust systems, ventilating spaces with improved directional air flow decreases the accumulated viral load in the air, reducing the risk of transmission. Ventilation is a community defense that protects all of us at home or at work, it stated. It recommended adding outdoor air in offices, homes and public spaces. Droplets and aerosols were the key transmission modes of the virus. While droplets fell up to 2 metres from an infected person, aerosols could travel up to 10 metres. Ventilation in hutments could be improved by adding jaali or other simple air outlet, apart from installing exhaust fans. It is advised that jaali/air outlets with exhaust fans are installed by gram panchayats in homes where there is no cross-ventilation, the advisory said. For workplaces, it recommended keeping doors and windows open while air-conditioners were on. Hospitals should ensure that vaccinations were carried out in well-ventilated areas and public transport like buses should keep windows open and use exhaust fans.
C) It is insulting that CMs were not are allowed to speak in meeting with PM, says Mamata.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday took strong exception to Chief Ministers not being allowed to speak at a virtual meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It was just a casual, super flop meeting. We, the CMs, felt insulted and humiliated, she told journalists at the State Secretariat after the conclusion of the meeting between the Prime Minister and 10 Chief Ministers. Banerjee said that she thought that she would be allowed to speak and raise issues relating to the Covid-19 pandemic but was shocked and astonished at not being allowed to speak. She also added that she had listed down several points she wanted to raise with Modi. The country is passing through a critical juncture but the Prime Minister’s approach is very casual. They have demolished the federal structure. If the Chief Ministers were not allowed to speak, why were they invited? she asked. Banerjee said that vaccines, medicines, oxygen, remdesivir were not being provided by the Centre, and the States could not procure these from markets because of non-availability. Referring to the slow pace of vaccination, Banerjee said, If States were to accept his [PM’s] formula of vaccination, it will take 10 years to vaccinate people. It was one-way insult, one-way humiliation. No Chief Minister was allowed to speak. Only a few CMs from BJP-ruled States were allowed to speak, she said. Banerjee also asked how many Central teams were sent to Uttar Pradesh when bodies of Covid-19 patients were found floating in river Ganga. She also accused the Centre of indulging in vendetta politics during the time of pandemic.
D) Sonia urges PM to give free education to children who lost parents in pandemic.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to provide free education to children who have lost their parents to Covid-19. In a letter to Modi on Thursday, she highlighted the plight of the children who had either lost both the parents or an earning parent during the pandemic. They were left with the trauma of loss and no support towards a stable education or future, she pointed out. Amidst the devastation caused by the pandemic and the heart-wrenching tragedies being faced by affected families, news of young children losing one or both parents to COVID-19 are the most poignant, her letter stated. He is writing to request you to consider providing free education at the Navodaya Vidyalayas to the children who have lost either both parents or an earning parent on account the Covid-19 pandemic. Feel that as a nation, we owe it to them to give them hope for a robust future after the unimaginable tragedy that has befallen them, she wrote. The Navodaya Vidyalayas are CBSE-affiliated, co-educational residential schools in which talented students of Class VI to XII, after clearing a selection test, are offered free education, including text books, school uniforms and hostel facilities. Gandhi described the Navodaya Vidyalayas as among the most significant legacies of her husband, Rajiv Gandhi, and noted that there were as many as 661 such schools across the country. It was his dream [Rajiv Gandhi] to make high-quality modern education accessible and affordable to talented youth, predominantly from rural areas, she said.
E) In letter to Twitter, Congress seeks suspension of BJP leaders’ accounts over ‘fake toolkit’ posts.
Days after filing a police complaint against BJP President J P Nadda, Union Minister Smriti Irani, spokesperson Sambit Patra, and party functionary B L Santosh for spreading an alleged ‘fake’ toolkit, the Congress on Thursday formally wrote to Twitter to remove their tweets and permanently suspend their accounts. For the past three days, the Congress and BJP have engaged in a bitter war of words after BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra accused the Congress of preparing a toolkit to destroy Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image during the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. The BJP alleged that social media volunteers of the Congress were instructed to refer to the mutant virus as ‘Modi Strain’ or the ‘Indian Strain’. The Congress hit back with a police complaint against Patra and other top leaders for allegedly using a forged document to target the Congress. The Opposition party claimed that the letterhead of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) Research Department was forged from an actual document on the Central Vista project to prepare a fake document. As Twitter’s own policy and rules seeks to discourage deceptive/ synthetic/ manipulated media that are likely to cause harm, we humbly request you to immediately remove the tweets contained in Annexure 1, or any other such material on the Twitter platform. Also, you are requested to kindly carry out a detailed probe on the subject-matter and permanently suspend the Twitter accounts of the above named individuals, read the Congress complaint, filed by AICC research department head Rajeev Gowda and social media head Rohan Gupta. Calling it a pre-planned criminal conspiracy, the complaint mentioned that the toolkit was prepared with the clear intent to cause social unrest, communal disharmony in order to fuel hate and escalate violence in various parts of India.
F) Govt’s responsibility to preserve records at National Archives, says Culture Minister.
Culture Minister Prahlad Singh Patel said on Thursday that the government was responsible for the records at the National Archives and would continue to store them safely during the Central Vista redevelopment project. Patel told that the historic National Archives building housed all the important records and would not be touched during the revamp, in which the annexe building had been proposed to be demolished and replaced with a new one. Talk of this project is premature. There will be no change to the old building. All the important records are kept in the old building. Besides, it is the government’s responsibility to maintain the archives and it will continue to keep the records safely, he said, when asked about the public outcry against the proposal. The National Archives was shifted from Kolkata to the present building in 1926 and the annexe was added post-Independence. As a part of the Central Vista redevelopment project, the National Archives annexe building was proposed to be replaced with a new building meant for use by researchers, according to the draft Masterplan prepared by the Centre’s consultant for the project, HCP Design, Planning and Management Ltd., in 2019.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) U.S., Russia at odds over military activity in the Arctic.
The Biden administration is leading a campaign against Russian attempts to assert authority over Arctic shipping and reintroduce a military dimension to discussions over international activity in the area. As Russia assumed the rotating chairmanship of the Arctic Council on Thursday, the U.S. rallied members to oppose Moscow’s plans to set maritime rules in the Northern Sea Route, which runs from Norway to Alaska, and its desire to resume military talks within the eight nation bloc. Those talks were suspended in 2014 over Russia’s actions in Ukraine. The effort reflects growing concerns in Washington and among some NATO allies about a surge in Russian military and commercial activity in the region that is rapidly opening up due to the effects of climate change. At a meeting of Arctic Council Foreign Ministers in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the group should maintain its focus on peaceful cooperation on environmental issues, maritime safety and the well-being of indigenous people in the region. Mr. Blinken stressed the importance of upholding effective governance and the rule of law to ensure that the Arctic remains a region free of conflict where countries act responsibly. Several other Foreign Ministers, including those from Canada, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden, echoed Mr. Blinken’s call to keep the Arctic peaceful and free of conflict.
B) World’s largest iceberg breaks off from Antarctica, says ESA.
A huge ice block has broken off from western Antarctica into the Weddell Sea, becoming the largest iceberg in the world and earning the name A-76. It is the latest in a series of large ice blocks to dislodge in a region acutely vulnerable to climate change, although scientists said in this case it appeared to be part of a natural polar cycle. Slightly larger than the Spanish island of Majorca, A-76 had been monitored by scientists since May 13 when it began to separate from the Ronne Ice Shelf, according to the U.S. National Ice Center. The iceberg, measuring around 170 km long and 25 km wide, with an area of 4,320 sq km is now floating in the Weddell Sea. It joins previous world’s largest title holder A-23A — approximately 3,880 sq. km. in size — which has remained in the same area since 1986. A-76 was originally spotted by the British Antarctic Survey and the calving — the term used when an iceberg breaks off — was confirmed using images from the Copernicus satellite, the European Space Agency said. Icebergs form when hunks of ice break off from ice shelves or glaciers and begin to float in open water.
