CURRENT AFFAIRS
22 JULY 2020
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Pune firm to make a billion doses of Oxford vaccine
The Serum Institute of India, based in Pune, said that it will apply for a license to start clinical trials of the coronavirus vaccine developed at Oxford University. The firm is the world’s largest vaccine-maker in terms of the number of doses produced and sold globally. It has partnered with biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to mass-produce the Oxford vaccine. With the trials of the SII’s COVID-19 vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University showing encouraging results, Adar Poonawalla, CEO of the Serum Institute of India (SII) had earlier said at least 300 million doses of the potential vaccine named ‘Covishield’ would be ready by December this year.
B) Caution against the use of respirator masks
A recent advisory from the Union Health Ministry said that the N-95 valved respirator masks do not prevent the virus from escaping out and thus may not aid in the containment of COVID-19. The Director-General of Health Services has alarmed against the use of N-95 respirator masks by telling that they do not prevent the virus from escaping outside, thus may not aid in the containment of Covid-19.
The Central government has told the need to wear at least home-made protective cover for the face and mouth whenever people step out of their residences. The advisory further said that the covers must be washed and cleaned each day and only cotton cloth must be used.
C) COVID Watch: Numbers and Developments
The number of coronavirus cases reported from India stood at 11,88,791 with the death toll at 28,747. The government said that their ultimate aim is to reduce Covid-19 cases positivity rates to 5% and maintain aggressive testing levels. The ministry added that 30 states and union territories already had lower figures than the national average. It further said that cases per million in India is 837, which is very low compared to the figures for other countries. Deaths per million population are 20.4 as compared to 77 in the rest of the world.
D) 23% Delhiites have antibodies to the virus
The results of Delhi’s seroprevalence study, released on 20 July showed that 23.48% of the people surveyed had developed IgG(Immunoglobulin G) antibodies. This indicates that they had been exposed to the coronavirus. The study indicated that a large number of infected persons remain asymptomatic. Releasing the results of the survey, the Union Health Ministry on 20 July said that the serosurvey is done to determine the exposure of the novel coronavirus among the population. These cases are mostly in the densely populated areas of Delhi.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) Probe Russian link to Brexit poll: Lawmakers.
According to a parliamentary report released on 20 July, the British government should properly investigate any Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum after failing to look into it despite past evidence of Kremlin meddling. The report further said that oligarchs with links to Russian President Putin used their wealth for extending patronage and building influence across a wide sphere of the British establishment. There should have been an assessment of Russian interference in the referendum and the public must be told the results of that assessment.
B) EU leaders strike a deal to rebuild the economy.
A €750 billion rescue package has been announced to pull the bloc out of deep recession. On July 20, European leaders have agreed on a massive aid package for their pandemic-ravaged economies, as U.S. President Donald Trump finally came out in favor of face masks as a tool against the novel coronavirus. The virus has infected more than 14.7 million people and killed over 6,10,000 of them since emerging in China late last year, with the fresh alarm being sounded over its accelerating spread in Africa. After a 90-hour summit, the European leaders finally agreed on a rescue package of €750 billion ($858 billion) to try and pull their bloc out of a deep recession. The pandemic has devastated the global economy.
C) Close to a limited trade deal with the U.S.
On July 20, the Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said that India and U.S. have almost finalized a limited trade deal. He also told that both the countries have declared earlier that the long term plan is to work towards a comprehensive trade deal. As an intermediate step between the imminent limited deal and the comprehensive deal, Mr. Goyal proposed a preferential trade agreement that would cover 50 to 100 goods and services. India and the U.S. have apparently been close to finalizing a limited trade deal several times over the past year, including when both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Donald Trump were in New York last year for the United Nations General Assembly session. Again, in February this year, the two sides scrambled unsuccessfully to finalize a mini deal that was to be announced during Mr. Donald Trump’s India visit.
D) China repeats claim on Bhutan’s east.
China said that it has offered Bhutan a package solution for its boundary dispute, which is
reviving a reference to its 1996 proposal for a territory swap to give Bhutan the disputed areas in its north in exchange for the disputed western areas, including Doklam. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) also repeated its claim on Bhutan’s eastern boundary at Sakteng, which experts warn, maybe a new pressure tactic by Beijing to push Thimphu into concluding a boundary deal. During a meeting of the UNDP-led Global Environment Facility on June 2-3, 2020, the Chinese representative had unsuccessfully tried to stop the funding for Bhutan’s Sakteng forest sanctuary, claiming the area was disputed. Bhutan, through the Indian delegate who represented them, had rejected the claim and was granted the funding.
SPORTS NEWS:
A) Team India to undergo two-week quarantine.
The Cricket Australia acting chief Nick Hockley said that the Indian team will have to undergo a two-week quarantine period, most likely in Adelaide, once it touches down in Australia for the much-anticipated tour later this year. This statement is in contrast to the views of the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, who had already made it clear that he was not in favor of a two-week quarantine period for the Indian team once they get off in Australia. Hockley again stated that the two-week quarantine is pretty well-defined. They are working towards making sure that during the quarantine, the players will get the best training facilities so that they do not suffer any kind of losses relating to their practice and training.
