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Archives for November 2020

Seafood to be home-delivered by Karnataka fisheries department

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Fish lovers, rejoice! Seer, salmon and other creatures of the sea will now be available at the tap of an app. 

BENGALURU: Fish lovers, rejoice! Seer, salmon and other creatures of the sea will now be available at the tap of an app. The Karnataka fisheries department is coming up with a dedicated mobile-based application to order fish to be home-delivered. Fisheries minister Kota Srinivas Poojary said the app will be launched on Saturday by Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa.

He told reporters on Thursday that there is a long-pending proposal to start online sale of fish, and the department proposes to give private players some stiff competition. The Union government has approved of Rs 137 crore for the scheme, and in the next five years, the State government will get Rs 4,115 crore under the Matsya Sampada Yojana. The app for online sales and door delivery was designed to push for better turnover.

Poojary said that Karnataka is in ninth place in terms of inland fisheries and fourth in marine fisheries. “We want to make it to first place,’’ he said. He also said there is a proposal to upgrade the Mangaluru Fisheries College as a University. They will also start a diploma in fisheries courses at Shivamogga, Ankola, Udupi, Mysuru and other places. 

Pointing to a fisheries centre at Hesaraghatta, Poojary said they are setting up a quarantine centre where fish coming from outside India will be stored for a week before they are allowed to breed. There is a similar set-up in Chennai.

Congress shifts focus to upcoming bypolls

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BENGALURU: Congress leaders who had gathered at the KPCC office on Thursday to commemorate former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s 103rd birth anniversary, had something else on their minds — the upcoming bypolls to Basavakalyan and Maski assembly seats and Belgaum Lok Sabha constituency.

With the party having suffered a drubbing in the recent bypolls to RR Nagar and Sira, the talk among leaders gathered here clearly revolved around the bypoll dates. Senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Siddaramaiah were among those at the function.

The leaders are under pressure to perform because both Maski and Basavakalyan are Congress strongholds. While Maski is their home turf, where Prathapgouda Patil switched sides and joined the BJP as part of Operation Kamala, in Basavakalyan, it was the death of their MLA Narayana Rao that has necessitated a byelection. Whether the seats will remain with the party remains the big question.

Opposition leader Siddaramaiah has already visited Basavakalyan to meet leaders there, and is expected to visit Maski next week. Former minister MB Patil has called for a meeting of Congress leaders in Belagavi on Saturday. KPCC president DK Shivakumar will visit Maski and Basavakalyan starting Sunday, and will meet party workers and leaders.

The Congress faces a few challenges in both constituencies — Lingayats number about 50,000-60,000, and since the community does not back the Congress, it is the party’s biggest worry. The reverses they faced in the recent bypolls in Karnataka and across the country, has made the party jittery about whom to field. The party is also under pressure in Belagavi, where they suspect it would be walkover for the BJP.

As Congress leaders huddled to introspect the loss of R R Nagar and Sira — party strongholds which the BJP picked up quite easily — the writing on the wall is not too encouraging. Yet, the Congress is determined not to give up without a fight.

CBI has become ‘pan shop’ under BJP government: Maharashtra textile minister Aslam Sheikh

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Welcoming the court’s ruling, the minister said that the agency ‘goes anywhere and books anyone, particularly in non-BJP ruled states’.

Maharashtra textile minister Aslam Sheikh

MUMBAI: While welcoming the Supreme Court’s ruling that the state government’s nod is mandatory for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe in its jurisdiction, Maharashtra Minister Aslam Sheikh has said that the CBI has become like a ‘pan shop’ under the BJP government at the Centre.

“Under the BJP government, the CBI has become like a ‘paan patti ki dukaan’ (‘pan shop’). It goes anywhere and books anyone, particularly in non-BJP ruled states. It took action against chief ministers and ministers. We welcome the court’s ruling.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court held that the consent of the state government is mandatory for a CBI probe in its jurisdiction and the Central government cannot extend the agency’s jurisdiction to any state without permission of states.

While deciding petitions by the accused in a corruption case in Uttar Pradesh, a bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar said the investigation cannot be conducted without states’ nod.

The observation of the Apex Court becomes significant as recently the state governments of Punjab, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh withdrew their “general consent” to the CBI probe in their states.

Oxford COVID vaccine should be available for public by April 2021: Serum Institute CEO

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NEW DELHI: Vaccine maker Serum Institute of India’s CEO Adar Poonawalla on Thursday said the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine should be available for healthcare workers and elderly people by around February 2021 and by April for the general public, and will be priced at a maximum of Rs 1,000 for two necessary doses for the public, depending on the final trial results and regulatory approvals.

Probably by 2024, every Indian will get vaccinated, he said at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit (HTLS), 2020.

“It will probably take two or three years for every Indian to get inoculated, not just because of the supply constraints but because you need the budget, the vaccine, logistics, infrastructure and then, people should be willing to take the vaccine.

So these are the factors that lead up to being able to vaccinate 80-90 per cent of the population.

“It will be 2024 for everybody, if willing to take a two-dose vaccine, to be vaccinated,” Poonawalla said. Asked at what price the public will get it, he said it will be around USD 5-6 per dose with an MRP of around Rs 1,000 for the two necessary doses.

“The government of India will be getting it at a far cheaper price at around USD 3-4, because it will be buying in a large volume and get access to the price that is similar to what COVAX has got.

Asked about the efficacy of the vaccine, he said the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine is so far proving to work very well even in elderly people, which was a concern earlier.

“It has induced a good T-cell response, which is an indicator for your long-term immunity and antibody response but then again, time will only tell if these vaccines are going to protect you in the long term.

Nobody can answer that for any of the vaccines today,” Poonawalla said.

Responding to a question on the safety aspect, he said there has been no major complaints, reactions or adverse events, adding, “We would need to wait and see. The efficacy and immunogenicity results from the Indian trials will come out in about a month-and-a half.”

Asked when the SII will apply for an emergency authorisation, Poonawalla said as soon as the UK authorities and the European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA) approve it for emergency use, it will apply to the drug controller for emergency use authorisation in India.

“But that will be for a limited use for frontline workers, healthcare workers and elderly people,” he added.

Children would have to wait a little longer till the safety data is out, but the good news is that COVID-19 is not so bad and serious for them, Poonawalla said.

“Unlike measles pneumonia, which is deadly, this disease is seeming to be less of a nuisance for children but then, they can be carriers and can give the infection to others.

“We want to vaccinate the elderly people and others who are the most vulnerable first. Once we have enough safety data to go in on children, we can recommend it for children too,” he said.

Poonawalla said the Oxford vaccine is affordable, safe and stored at a temperature of two to eight degrees Celsius, which is an ideal temperature for it to be stored in the cold storages of India.

He said the SII plans to make about 10 crore doses per month from February.

As regards how many doses would be provided to India, Poonawalla said talks are still going on and no agreement has been arrived at in this regard.

“India wants around 400 million doses by July. I do not know if it will take all from the Serum Institute. We are gearing up to offer that kind of volume to India and still have a few 100 million to offer to COVAX by July and August. No agreement so far,” he said.

Poonawala said the SII is not entering into any agreement with other countries at this moment as India is its priority.

“We have not signed and committed anything else beyond Bangladesh at the moment. We really do not want to partner right now with many countries because we will not have enough stocks to deliver.

“We want to handle India as a priority first and manage Africa at the same time and then help out other countries,” he said.

Poonawalla said 30-40 crore doses of the Oxford vaccine will be available by the first quarter of 2021.

In another session of the summit, AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria said there is some talk going on between Pfizer and the Indian government but not much with Moderna.

“It is going to be a huge challenge as far as the Pfizer vaccine is concerned, considering that it needs a cold chain of minus 70 degrees Celsius,” he said and pinned hoped on the vaccines that are at various stages of trial in India.

On the availability of a COVID-19 vaccine, Guleria said the percentage of population to be inoculated will depend on the number of vaccines getting the regulatory approvals and the number of shots they are producing.

He further said the coronavirus goes into the lungs without making a person symptomatic.

“We have individuals who are asymptomatic and you can see patches in their lungs at CT scans directly.

It really bypasses a person’s defence mechanism, which means that you not only have the virus in your nose or throat, but it has gone right into your lungs.

A virus which can do that is something we have to be wary of,” Guleria said.

COVID-19 Update India reports 45,882 new cases, 584 deaths, total cases cross 90 lakh mark

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Total active cases is now  at 4,43,794 after an increase of 491 in the last 24 hours while total discharged cases is 84,28,410 with 44,807 new discharges in the same time period.

With 45,882 new COVID-19 infections, India’s total cases has crossed the 90 lakh mark

According to the Health Ministry’s Friday morning update, the total caseload in the country has risen to 90,04,366.

The death toll has mounted to 1,32,162 with 584 new deaths.

Total active cases is now  at 4,43,794 after an increase of 491 in the last 24 hours while total discharged cases is 84,28,410 with 44,807 new discharges in the same time period.

Bengaluru’s COVID-19 fatality rate lowest among major Indian cities: Health Minister

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Bengaluru's COVID-19 fatality rate lowest among major Indian cities: Health Minister

Bengaluru: Bengaluru’s COVID-19 case fatality rate (1.1 percent) is the lowest among all major cities in the country, Karnataka Health Minister Sudhakar K said on Wednesday.

“With 3,36,880 recoveries and 17,707 active cases as on Tuesday, city’s recovery rate stands at a healthy 93.94 percent and active rate stands at 4.93 percent”, he tweeted.

On Tuesday, Karnataka reported 1,336 new cases of COVID- 19 and 16 related fatalities, taking the total number of infections to 8,64,140 and the death toll to 11,557 in the State.

Union Health Ministry on Wednesday reported a single-day rise of 38,617 new COVID-19 cases and 474 fatalities pushing India’s virus caseload to 89.12 lakh and toll to 1.30 lakh.

10 killed, 16 injured in truck accident near Vadodara In Gujarat

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Vadodara: At least 10 people were killed and 16 others injured when a mini-truck in which they were traveling rammed into another truck on the outskirts of Gujarat’s Vadodara city early Wednesday morning, police said.

The accident took place at Waghodia circle when the mini-truck hit the other vehicle from behind, Vadodara Police Commissioner R B Brahmbhatt said.

The 10 people who died were from the Varachha area of Surat city and they were heading towards Pavagadh in Panchmahal district, he said.

Trump fires top Homeland Security official who said election was most secure in US history

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Trump fires top Homeland Security official who said election was most secure in US history

Washington: US President Donald Trump has fired a top Homeland Security official who last week said that the November 3 presidential election was the most secure one in America’s history.

Trump, who has launched a slew of lawsuits in key states, but has not provided any evidence to back his claims of fraud, announced on Twitter on Tuesday that he has fired Christopher Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) at the Department of Homeland Security.

The recent statement by Chris Krebs on the security of the 2020 Election was highly inaccurate, in that there were massive improprieties and fraud – including dead people voting, poll watchers not allowed into polling locations, glitches in the voting machines which changed votes from Trump to (President-elect Joe) Biden, late voting and many more, Trump said in a tweet, repeating unsubstantiated claims of election fraud.

Therefore, effective immediately, Chris Krebs has been terminated as Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, he said.

Trump said that the only thing secure about the election was that it was virtually impenetrable by foreign powers.

On that, the Trump administration takes great credit. Unfortunately, the Radical Left Democrats, Dominion, and others were perhaps more successful! he said.

The mainstream media has declared Biden as the winner of the presidential election after the 77-year-old former vice president crossed the mandatory 270 electoral votes out of the 538-member Electoral College.

Trump, however, has refused to concede the election, asserting that he has won.

Trump, who has 232 electoral college votes, has challenged the election results in various states including Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan, Georgia, and Arizona. He had demanded a recount in Wisconsin.

In his capacity as president-elect, Biden has been receiving congratulatory calls from the world leaders.

Media and state officials have said that they have not found any evidence of voter fraud as alleged by Trump.

In a statement issued on November 12, members of the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council (GCC) including Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said that the November 3 election was the most secure in American history.

Right now, across the country, election officials are reviewing and double-checking the entire election process prior to finalizing the result, it said.

When states have close elections, many will recount ballots. All of the states with close results in the 2020 presidential race have paper records of each vote, allowing the ability to go back and count each ballot if necessary. This is an added benefit for security and resilience. This process allows for the identification and correction of any mistakes or errors. There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised, the statement said.

Senator Mark Warner, the co-chair of the Senate Cybersecurity Caucus, condemned the firing of Krebs.

Chris Krebs is an extraordinary public servant and exactly the person Americans want protecting the security of our elections. It speaks volumes that the president chose to fire him simply for telling the truth, he said.

Congressman Adam Schiff, Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said that throughout this election, Krebs worked diligently to safeguard the elections, provide vital support to state and local election officials, and inform the American people about what was true and what was not.

In the best tradition of government service, they spoke truth to power and helped keep Americans and our institutions safe. Instead of rewarding this great service, President Trump is retaliating against Director Krebs and other officials who did their duty. It’s pathetic but sadly predictable that upholding and protecting our democratic processes would be cause for firing, he said.

In a joint statement, Congressman Bennie Thompson, Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, and Lauren Underwood, Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Innovation, said that in firing Krebs for refusing to lend credibility to his baseless claims and conspiracy theories about voter fraud, Trump is telling officials throughout the administration to put his political interests ahead of their responsibilities to the American people.

That is not only disturbing, but it is also anti-democratic, the two lawmakers said.

The President’s unsubstantiated tweets this evening do nothing to defend our state and local governments and critical infrastructure against malicious cyber campaigns from Russia, China, and Iran. And they do nothing to improve the security of our elections, they said.

Our country finds itself without a smart and capable cyber chief in one of the most vulnerable times our nation has ever seen during a worsening pandemic and in the middle of a presidential transition. Once again, President Trump puts himself before our country. He does not care about the safety and wellbeing of the American people and that is why he lost this election,” said Congressman C A Dutch Ruppersberger.

Congressman Jim Langevin, a senior member of House Committee on Homeland Security, member of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, and co-founder and co-chair of the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus decried the removal of Krebs.

Volunteers still needed to test a variety of COVID-19 vaccines

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Volunteers still needed to test a variety of COVID-19 vaccinesWashington: Two COVID-19 vaccines might be nearing the finish line, but scientists caution it’s critical that enough people volunteer to help finish studying other candidates in the US and around the world.

Moderna Inc and competitor Pfizer Inc recently announced preliminary results showing their vaccines appear more than 90% effective, at least for short-term protection against COVID-19.

If those early results hold up and US regulators agree the shots are safe, emergency use of small, rationed supplies could start in late December. Other countries with contracts for early doses would undertake their own reviews.

But multiple vaccines will be needed to meet global demand and help end the pandemic, raising concern that studies that still need to sign up thousands of volunteers could run short if people wait for an already OK’d option instead.

We don’t want to see that happen, said Dr. James Cutrell, an infectious disease expert at UT Southwestern Medical Centre in Dallas.

Supplies aside, other COVID-19 vaccines under development may work differently in different populations, and “we likely will benefit from having a menu of vaccine options, Cutrell said.

We still need volunteers, stressed National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, urging Americans to sign up.

Additionally, participants in the Moderna and Pfizer studies who originally got dummy shots would almost certainly be offered the real vaccine if the US Food and Drug Administration allows emergency use. But no one knows how long protection would last, meaning those studies also must continue to track recipients somehow.

It’s one thing to be effective two months after your last vaccination and another thing to be effective a year later said Dr. Jesse Goodman of Georgetown University, a former director of the FDA’s vaccine division. It’s going to be really important to complete these clinical trials and the trials of the other vaccines so we can make comparisons.

The promising Moderna and Pfizer news bode well for some of their competitors, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US government’s top infectious disease expert whose team at NIH helped develop the Moderna candidate.

Those shots target the spike protein that studs the surface of the coronavirus, and the early results prove that’s enough to generate a protective response, Fauci said. Conceptually this looks good for other spike-focused vaccines made in different ways.

Here’s a scorecard of the frontrunners in the global vaccine race:

GENETIC CODE VACCINES

The Moderna-NIH vaccine and the candidate developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech aren’t made with the coronavirus itself, meaning there’s no chance anyone could catch it from the shots.

Instead, the vaccines are made with a brand-new technology that injects a piece of genetic code for the spike protein. That messenger RNA, or mRNA, instructs the body to make some harmless spike protein, enough to prime the immune system to react if it later encounters the real virus.

There are no licensed mRNA vaccines for people, so scientists had no idea if or how well the COVID-19 candidates might work.

Both manufacturers are working to scale up production in factories in the US and Europe. They can’t simply partner with other vaccine companies to take on some of the work because the technology is so different than the way most of today’s shots are made.

It is not a very easy or quick swap, said Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel.

TROJAN HORSE VACCINES

A different way to target the spike protein: Use another, harmless virus to carry the spike gene into the body. Once again, the body produces some spike protein and primes the immune system.

Britain’s Oxford University and AstraZeneca are making their version of this viral vector vaccine with a cold virus, or adenovirus, that normally infects chimpanzees. Studies of tens of thousands of people are underway in the UK, US, and several other countries.

Johnson & Johnson is using a human adenovirus for its version and is the only option in advanced US testing aiming to show if a single dose rather than two would be enough.

China’s government authorized the emergency use of CanSino Biologics’ adenovirus shots in the military ahead of any final testing. Russia likewise began offering an adenovirus vaccine ahead of late-stage tests.

PROTEIN VACCINES

Novavax makes its vaccine candidate by growing harmless copies of the coronavirus spike protein in the laboratory and packaging them into virus-sized nanoparticles.

There are protein-based vaccines against other diseases, so it’s not as novel technology as some of its competitors. Novavax has begun a large final-stage study in Britain and is set soon to begin another in the US.

KILLED VACCINES

Spike-focused vaccines aren’t the only option. Making vaccines by growing a disease-causing virus and then killing it is a tried-and-true approach it’s the way Jonas Salk’s famed polio shots were made.

China has three so-called inactivated COVID-19 vaccine candidates in final testing in several countries and has allowed emergency use in some people ahead of the results. An Indian company is testing its own inactivated candidate.

Safely brewing and then killing the virus takes longer than newer technologies. But inactivated vaccines give the body a sneak peek at the germ itself rather than just that single spike protein. 

Kejriwal seeks to shut down markets emerging as Covid hotspots; Centre to increase ICU beds to 6K

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Kejriwal seeks to shut down markets emerging as Covid hotspots; Centre to increase ICU beds to 6K

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday sought the Centre’s nod for shutting down markets which could be COVID-19 hotspots, as authorities spelled out a fortified strategy including increasing ICU beds, doubling the testing capacity to 1 to 1.2 lakh, and deploying around 8000 surveillance teams in the wake of an alarming spike in cases.

Addressing an online media briefing, Kejriwal also said that the Delhi government has sent a proposal to Lt Governor Anil Baijal to allow only 50 people to attend wedding ceremonies against the earlier limit of 200.

As the national capital has witnessed a spurt in coronavirus cases, people coming from Delhi to Noida will be randomly tested for COVID-19 from Wednesday.

However, there will be no restriction on the free movement of people between Noida and Delhi, District Magistrate of Gautam Buddha Nagar Suhas L Y Suhas told PTI.

On Tuesday, Delhi recorded 6,396 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the infection tally in the national capital to over 4.95 lakh, while 99 more fatalities pushed the toll to 7,812, authorities said.

These fresh cases came out of the 49,031 tests conducted the previous day, while the positivity rate stood at 13.04 percent.

During the media briefing, Kejriwal said that according to directions and guidelines of the Centre, 200 participants were earlier allowed in wedding ceremonies due to the decreasing number of coronavirus cases.

“Now, a proposal has been sent to LG Baijal for his approval to withdraw the previous order and bring the number of guests for wedding ceremonies back to 50 from 200,” he said.

The chief minister said the Centre and all agencies are making “double efforts” to control the COVID-19 situation in the national capital.

“We are sending a proposal to the Centre to give power to the Delhi government to impose lockdown in market areas which may emerge as COVID-19 hotspots,” the chief minister said.

Earlier in the day, the Delhi government had used the term of local “lockdown” in its press release, but later it revised it to “shut down”.

The Congress, meanwhile, said that the proposal would have a disastrous result and the government should impose a total shutdown of markets, public transport, and offices to save precious lives.

Kejriwal said that during Diwali, it was seen that many people were not wearing masks and were violating social distancing norms due to which the coronavirus spread.

“I hope the crowd in the markets will thin out and there will be no need to lock them down.”

“However, if violations of mask-wearing and social distancing are witnessed and there is a chance of these markets becoming local coronavirus hotspots, these could be shut down as a preventive measure for some days,” said Kejriwal.

Delhi witnessed a sudden spike in novel coronavirus cases since October 28 when the daily rise breached the 5,000-mark for the first time and it crossed the 8,000-mark on Wednesday.

According to official data, the city recorded over one lakh new coronavirus cases and around 1,200 deaths between November 1-16 while nearly 94,000 COVID-19 patients recovered during the same period.

Meanwhile, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, during a press conference, said Delhi was testing very less in June at around 5,776 tests per day and that number rose to over 50,000 in September which then plateaued out.

The recent spike of COVID cases could be because many positive cases escaped the net, he said.

“In the last two days, the decision of urgent actions taken by the government included an increase in overall beds, including ICU beds, doubling testing to 1-1.2 lakh per day, the right mix of RT-PCR and antigen tests, strengthening and augmenting home care support, mobilizing doctors and nurses, enforcing quarantine of contacts, containment zone SOPs and COVID appropriate behavior,” he said.

A decision has also been taken to increase house-to-house surveillance of active cases in containment zones and other vulnerable pockets in the national capital and 7,000-8,000 teams will be engaged for this exercise, an increase from the existing 3,000 teams that are currently involved.

Elaborating further, NITI Aayog member V K Paul who heads COVID national taskforce said the ICU bed capacity will be increased from 3,523 to over 6,000 in the next few days in hospitals across Delhi.

“The capacity, which was 3,523, we will increase it to over 6,000 ICU beds in the next few days. Arrangement of over 537 new ICU beds have been made at the 1000-bed Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel COVID facility operated by DRDO,” he said.

The Delhi government is making arrangements for 2,680 ICU beds. In big hospitals under the Centre like Safdarjung and Lady Hardinge also beds will be increased. “We have a plan to increase ICU bed strength by 80 percent,” he said.

On increasing the testing capacity, Paul said that arrangements would be put in place to enable ICMR and central government laboratories to do 10,000 more tests a day. Besides that, 10 mobile laboratories will be deployed in the national capital.

“We will utilize the capacity of science and technology research institutes for testing too,” he said.

“If cases go up higher, we plan to ramp up the capacity to monitor 35,000 to 40,000 active cases in home isolation at any given time. We have a plan along with the Delhi government on that,” he said.

During the media briefing, Kejriwal thanked the central government for helping the people of Delhi in “such difficult times” and appealed to Delhiites with folded hands to wear masks and follow social distancing norms.

Meanwhile, the North MCD said it has kept 20 ICU beds for COVID-19 patients at its Hindu Rao Hospital, the biggest municipal hospital in the national capital.

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