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Archives for October 2020

Second Cabinet minister in Nepal tests positive for coronavirus

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Pokharel, who was admitted to Patan Hospital on Saturday evening after developing mild fever, tested positive for the virus on Sunday afternoon during a PCR test, MyRepublica reported on Sunday.

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s education minister Giriraj Mani Pokharel has tested positive for COVID-19 — the second Cabinet minister to have contracted the deadly viral infection.

Pokharel, who was admitted to Patan Hospital on Saturday evening after developing mild fever, tested positive for the virus on Sunday afternoon during a PCR test, MyRepublica reported on Sunday.

His health is stable, according to a member of the minister’s secretariat.

Pokharel is the second minister in the Cabinet of Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli to have contracted the contagion, which has so far infected over 107,750 people and claimed 636 lives in the Himalayan nation.

On Saturday, Nepal’s tourism minister Yogesh Bhattarai announced on social media that he has tested positive for the COVID-19 and requested all those who came in his contact to be on alert.

According to a report in The Himalayan Times, both Bhattarai and Pokharel had attended a meeting of the Council of Ministers on Thursday.

Bhattarai had also met India’s Ambassador to Nepal Vinay Mohan Kwatra on Friday to discuss ways to promote tourism in both countries.

Kwatra has quarantined himself.

However, his health is good and he has not developed any symptoms of infection, Indian Embassy spokesperson Abhishek Dubey said on Sunday.

Reopening lifts up air traffic, number of flyers

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With the gradual re-opening of the economy, the number of air passengers has witnessed continuous growth.

NEW DELHI:  With the gradual re-opening of the economy, the number of air passengers has witnessed continuous growth. The number grew by nearly 43 per cent between June and August, while aircraft movement has recorded a growth of nearly 28 per cent. 

However, there was still an average gap of nearly 76% in the movement of passengers and 64% gap in aircraft movements in August this year compared to the same month last year, domestic air traffic data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and Airport Authority of India revealed.

Smaller cities like Patna, Lucknow, Kozhikode, Jaipur, Coimbatore etc. have seen larger growth in aircraft movements in last three months —from 1,148 to 1,676 in Patna, 111 to 202 in Kozhikode and from 860 to 1,288 in Lucknow between June and August.

While the government believes that domestic traffic is likely to reach pre-COVID level by the year-end, industry analysts say the recovery is only marginal.

Harsh Vardhan, aviation expert and former CEO of Vayudoot, said while the recovery is a good sign, it may take till end of 2022 for the aviation sector to return to last year’s levels. “Almost 60-70% fleet is still on the ground. I don’t see anything before 24 months when reasonable operations are stablised…There are restrictions. There is very limited international operation,” he said.

“You have to also realise that what you have lost in last 10 months has created a big hole… the problem of the airline industry is how to get over these crises.” 

Kinjal Shah, Vice President, ICRA, informed that the average number of passengers per flight in September this year was 98 against an average of 133 in September 2019.

“It is expected that the domestic aviation industry operated at a passenger load factor of about 63% in the month as against 85.5% last year,” he said.

Earlier this week, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri said he expected the number of daily air passengers to rise to 2,00,000 by October-end, while pre-COVID figures of 3,00,000 passengers per day could be reached between Diwali and New Year.

Aviation secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola said, “We are now gearing up to face the challenge of welcoming more people in the airports.”

COVID-19 Update India’s tally crosses 71-lakh mark with 66,732 new cases in last 24 hours

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Total case tally stands at 71,20,539 including 8,61,853 active cases and 61,49,536 discharged.

The Health Ministry on Monday updated that India’s COVID19 tally crosses 71-lakh mark with a spike of 66,732 new cases & 816 deaths reported in the last 24 hours.

Total case tally stands at 71,20,539 including 8,61,853 active cases, 61,49,536 cured/discharged/migrated cases and the death toll stands at 1,09,150 deaths

In metro cities, after inital upswing, the case trajectory is showing changes. While Delhi, Pune and Thane seems to be slowing down, many cities such as Bengaluru, Mumbai and Kolkata continue to face the heat of infectious disease.

Over the last week, the number of cases reported in Bengaluru every 24 hours stands at over 4,600.

Utilised lockdown period for studies, says 18-year-old Bihar girl who topped CLAT-2020

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Aparajita would soon get admission to the Bengaluru-based National Law School of Indian University.

PATNA: While the Corona-induced lockdown brought a plethora of problems for others, it proved to be a boon for 18-year-old Aprajita. 

While being confined to home, Aparajita, a native of Ara district of Bihar, utilized the time to prepare for the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT)-2020 for the UG course and became the national topper by scoring 127.25 out of total 147 marks.

Earlier this year, she had cleared her class 12 exam (Arts) with 93.25% marks from Patna’s prestigious Notre Dame Academy. 

“I used the six months of lockdown period as an opportunity for preparing for the CLAT. I went through almost all the study materials by devoting 12 to 14 hours every day. And finally, thank God, hard labour paid dividends”, Aprajita, the daughter of an East Central Railway employee SK Upadhayay, said.

“I think India needs a good number of women lawyers. I want to become a lawyer and fight for the rights of the poor and women”, she said, adding more girls should opt for law and civil services in order to be empowered. 

Aparajita would soon get admission to the Bengaluru-based National Law School of Indian University.

Trump free of COVID-19 symptoms since 24 hours, didn’t show fever in four days: Doctor

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The president is confronted by dire polling numbers ahead of the November 3 election, which comes as the economy struggles to recover from COVID shutdowns.

US President Donald Trump removes his mask as he stands on the Blue Room Balcony upon returning to the White House in Washington

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has been free of COVID-19 symptoms for 24 hours and has not had a fever in four days, his doctor said Wednesday. “The president this morning says ‘I feel great,'” doctor Sean Conley said in a brief update.

Trump tested positive last week and was hospitalized at the Walter Reed military medical center late Friday evening, returning to the White House on Monday evening. “His physical exam and vital signs, including oxygen saturation and respiratory rate, all remain stable and in normal range,” the doctor’s statement said.

Karnataka sees biggest single-day spike in Covid cases

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Karnataka recorded the highest single-day Covid cases on Wednesday with 10,947 positives, which brought the tally to 6,68,652.

BENGALURU: Karnataka recorded the highest single-day Covid cases on Wednesday with 10,947 positives, which brought the tally to 6,68,652. Active cases now stand at 1,16,153. With the state crossing one lakh tests in a day, the total cases reported in the state too saw a surge. Meanwhile, 113 new Covid deaths were reported, bringing the toll to 9,574.

Bengaluru Urban, which recorded 5,012 cases on Monday, recorded 5,000 cases again on Tuesday. However, Bengaluru conducted the most numbers of tests at 35,183. As many as 55 Covid fatalities were reported in the district and 2,057 discharges. Total recoveries are 2,00,426 and active cases in the district are 58,624

Munish Moudgil, in charge of State War Room,  said, “Bengaluru is conducting the highest number of daily RT-PCR tests in the state and hence the high number of positive cases. Mumbai and Chennai have been conducting about 13,000 tests daily. If Bengaluru did the same number of tests, our daily cases would be less than 1,500. But the idea is not to reduce tests to falsely claim lesser number of cases.”

Canada to ban single-use plastics such as bags, straws by end of 2021

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According to Ottawa, Canadians throw away three million tonnes of plastic waste each year — including 15 billion bags annually, and 57 million straws daily.

PLastic straws

OTTAWA: Checkout bags, straws and four other single-use plastic items will be banned in Canada by the end of 2021, the environment minister announced Wednesday, while acknowledging the nation is trailing Europe in recycling efforts.

The ban – which also targets stir sticks, six-pack rings, cutlery, and food ware made from hard-to-recycle plastics – is part of a broader plan to eliminate plastics waste by 2030, which is at the heart of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s climate and environmental agenda.

But Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson acknowledged, “We are not leading the world in this. Many countries in Europe, including the United Kingdom, have gone down this path and we’ve certainly learned from the work that they have done.”

According to Ottawa, Canadians throw away three million tonnes of plastic waste each year — including 15 billion bags annually, and 57 million straws daily. Only nine percent of it is recycled. Ottawa, said Wilkinson, aims to hike that to 90 percent, in line with European targets for 2029.

Wilkinson said that of the six plastic items that will be prohibited, there are already “readily available and affordable alternatives”. “There are lots of (plastics) that are going to have to continue to be single use,” he added, “But they need to be the kinds of things that we are able to recycle, that we are able to keep in the economy and not end up in the environment where they cause problems,” he said in a news conference.

Plastic lids on coffee cups was highlighted as the most visible plastic garbage in city dumps. Wilkinson said he’s still working on a fix.

Ottawa proposed as well to establish recycled content requirements in products and packaging, hoping to boost recycling and invite better product design to extend the life of plastic materials. “This could include a minimum requirement of recycled content in new products and greater responsibility for producers and sellers to collect and recycle plastics,” he said.

Brazil’s coronavirus cases top five million

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Coronavirus cases, deaths on rise in Brazil, Mexico

The state of Sao Paulo, the epicentre of the national epidemic with 36,669 deaths and 1,016,755 cases, reopened schools on Wednesday.

SAO PAULO: Brazil on Wednesday said 31,553 COVID-19 cases were reported over the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide total to 5,000,694.

And 734 more patients died of the disease, raising the national death toll to 148,228.

On Feb. 26, Brazil reported its first case and also the first in Latin America in the city of Sao Paulo, South America’s largest city.

Brazil has the world’s second-highest death toll, after the United States, and is the third-worst hit by the pandemic after the United States and India.

The state of Sao Paulo, the epicentre of the national epidemic with 36,669 deaths and 1,016,755 cases, reopened schools on Wednesday, with social distancing rules in place.

The state government announced that it will carry out tests starting next week on 19,300 people within the educational system in 20 cities to track the virus as in-person classes begin.

More than 36 million cases were reported worldwide as of 0100 GMT, Oct.8, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

IAF will evolve, ready to safeguard India’s sovereignty and interests ON 88th Indian Air Force Day

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‘I want to assure the nation that the Indian Air Force will evolve and be ever ready to safeguard our nation’s sovereignty and interests in all circumstances,’ said Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria.

Air Chief Marshal R K Bhadauria inspecting the guard of honour during the 88th Airforce Day celebration in Hindon airbase

GHAZIABAD: On the occasion of Indian Air Force Day, 2020 Indian Air Force (IAF) chief Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria on Thursday assured the nation that the Indian Air Force will evolve and be ever ready to safeguard India’s sovereignty and interests in all circumstances.

“I want to assure the nation that the Indian Air Force will evolve and be ever ready to safeguard our nation’s sovereignty and interests in all circumstances,” said Bhadauria at Hindon airbase.

“As we enter the 89th year, the IAF is undergoing a transformational change. We are entering an era which will redefine where we employ aerospace power and conduct integrated multi-domain operations,” he added.

Bhadauria further stated that this year has indeed been an unprecedented one. As COVID-19 spread across the globe, our nation’s response was firm.

“The tenacity and resolve of our air warriors ensured that IAF continued to retain its capability to undertake full-scale operations throughout this period,” said IAF Chief.

“I commend all air warriors for quick response in the recent standoff on the northern frontiers when we deployed our combat assets at short notice to handle any eventuality and provided proactive support to all requirements of deployment and sustenance for Indian Army,” he added.

Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, Chief of Army Staff, General Manoj Mukund Naravane and Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Karambir Singh attended the 88th Indian Air Force Day celebrations at Hindon airbase in Ghaziabad.

Bhadauria inspected the 88th Indian Air Force Day parade here.

Nishan Toli being led by Squadron Leader Shivangi Rajawat marched at the Hindon Air Force Station in Ghaziabad on the occasion.

Two Chinook helicopters also took part in the flypast to mark

COVID-19 Update India’s tally crosses 68-lakh mark with spike of 78,524 new cases

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Total case tally stands at 68,35,656 including 9,02,425 active cases, 58,27,705 cured/discharged/migrated cases & 1,05,526 deaths, Union Health Ministry said.

India’s Covid tally crossed the 68-lakh mark with a spike of 78,524 new cases & 971 deaths reported in the last 24 hours.

Total case tally stands at 68,35,656 including 9,02,425 active cases, 58,27,705 cured/discharged/migrated cases & 1,05,526 deaths, according to the Union Health Ministry’s Thursday update.

West Bengal’s COVID-19 tally mounted to 2,80,504 after the highest single-day spike of 3,455 new infections was reported on Wednesday, the health department said in a bulletin.

The death toll in the state rose to 5,376 with 58 more fatalities.

Meanwhile, Kerala ministers M M Mani and K T Jaleel tested positive for the coronavirus on Wednesday.

With this five members of the Pinarayi Vijayan cabinet have so far been infected by the deadly virus.

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