Archives for May 2021

Kolkata: Experts believe a prolonged election campaign helped spread the Covid pandemic in Bengals largely rural hinterland.

Since the announcement of elections on February 26, till Saturday the number of active cases in West Bengals districts other than Kolkata, increased 48-times.

Most medical professionals blame the mass gatherings at election rallies for the huge surge in the disease.

On February 26, when the Election Commission announced the poll dates, West Bengal’s number of active Covid cases was just 3,343, while it stood at 1.32 lakh on Saturday, a near 40-fold increase.

However, the spread in districts, other than Kolkata, is far more. From a mere 2,183 active cases on February 26, the number of active cases on May 15 has risen to 1.06 lakh, a worrying 48-fold increase.

“There is no doubt that the reason behind this surge of Covid in rural Bengal is the prolonged election process.

The reason is nothing but political and only political,” Dr Amitava Nandi, a senior expert in tropical diseases and formerly of the School of Tropical Medicine (STM), told PTI.

Elections were held from March 27 till April 29, in an unprecedented eight phases, prolonging the campaign period.

Many of the districts which saw pitched political battles with leaders extensively touring them such as Hooghly, Purba Bardhaman, Paschim and Purba Medinipur, Nadia, Darjeeling and Murshidabad reported near 100-fold rise in cases during the period.

Dr Sanjib Bandyopadhyay, community medicine specialist and vaccination supervisor of the Infectious Diseases and Beliaghata General (ID&BG) Hospital blamed the “unscientific” holding of elections in eight phases and movement of people including paramilitary forces across state and district boundaries for the surge.

“If you cannot allow people who had gone to other states to work as migrant labourers to return home here without RT-PCR tests, how have you allowed large numbers of central forces and other people to travel remote areas without any such tests? This has definitely helped in the surge of cases,” he said.

According to Dr Nandi, the new Bengal strain (B.1.618), the second mutant strain discovered in India, started spreading across the state because of movement of people during the elections.

“The administration was never prepared for this despite our warnings. Both the central and the state government were complacent as if they had won the battle against corona. They reduced the number of beds in the hospitals, never thought of increasing testing facilities.

Then they allowed people to move, migrate without proper tests and flout the safety protocols,” said Dr Hiralal Konar of the Joint Platform of Doctors.

On Saturday, Howrah reported 1,276 new cases, South 24 Parganas (1,257), Hooghly (1,193), Nadia (1,038), Purba Medinipur (753), Paschim Bardhaman (977) and Darjeeling (662), according to the state health department’s statistics.

The figures may be the tip of the iceberg, given the fact that people in rural areas have limited access to testing facilities.

North 24 Parganas, wedged between Kolkata and the international border with Bangladesh, has just three government RT-PCR testing centres, whereas it has 26,047 active cases as on Saturday, marginally fewer than the tally for the capital of West Bengal.

“Definitely there has been under-reporting. Primarily, people are not taking the tests and also there are not adequate tests taking place. And the current RT-PCR tests are sometimes unable to detect the contagion because the virus has genetically mutated,” Dr Nandi said.

West Bengal at the moment has 115 testing laboratories in different parts of the state with a daily average of around 33,000 tests held daily, as per the state health bulletin.

New Delhi: Congress leaders on Sunday slammed the police action against some people for allegedly putting up posters critical of the prime minister and dared the government to arrest them for raising questions on the export of COVID vaccines.

Led by Rahul Gandhi, Congress leaders changed their profile pictures on Twitter with the poster asking why COVID vaccines were sent abroad.

The opposition party said tough questions will be asked from the prime minister if people don’t get vaccines, medicines and oxygen.

“Arrest me too,” said Gandhi in a tweet while a picture of the poster “Modi ji, why did you send our children’s vaccines abroad”.

The challenge was posed after a few people were arrested by Delhi police for putting up posters in the national capital on the vaccine issue.

The Delhi Police also registered a number of FIRs and arrested people for pasting posters critical of the prime minister.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh dared the prime minister and home minister to arrest him, saying he was putting up such posters on his compound wall.

“Putting up critical posters against PM is now a crime? Is India run by the Modi Penal Code now? Is the Delhi Police so jobless in the middle of a raging pandemic,” he asked.

“I am putting up posters on my compound wall tomorrow. Come get me,” Ramesh dared.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said at a press conference that questions will be asked from the prime minister if people don’t get vaccines, medicines and oxygen they desperately need to fight COVID.

“I dare you to arrest me. Where is my vaccine, where is my oxygen? We will continue to ask you questions,” he said while alleging that people are being “arrested for asking questions”.

Khera said most of the deaths could have been avoided and people are dying not because of COVID, but due to the mismanagement in handling the pandemic.

He alleged that the government had created man-made shortages and there was chaos all around.

“The Government of India did not manage the crisis well,” he said.

The Congress leader alleged that when it came to negotiating with vaccine manufacturers or putting in place the vaccine policy, everything was “centralised and individualised”.

“PM Modi wanted to be known as a vaccine guru, but now the entire world and every Indian is asking tough questions,” he said.

“You can’t have centralised decision-making and decentralised responsibility,” he said.

“What we witnessed is image management, which is the most unfortunate aspect of this government. It is fatal for the country,” he felt.

On the Centre issuing guidelines in rural areas, Khera said they have come much after the virus has already spread in villages.

“We also get to know the under-preparedness of the government, as the entire preparedness was vested with the Centre under NDMA,” he said.

He said India has successfully implemented immunisation drives in the past and diseases like polio have been eradicated.

“India has achieved immunisation in the past, provided there is a political will. The political will is not there under PM Modi,” he alleged.

New Delhi: Bharat Biotech on Sunday said its COVID-19 vaccine ‘Covaxin’ has been found to be effective against coronavirus strains found in India and the UK.

Citing a study published in peer-reviewed medical journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, the Hyderabad-based vaccine major noted that vaccination with Covaxin produced neutralising titres against all key emerging variants tested, including B.1.617 and B.1.1.7, first identified in India and the UK, respectively.

The study was conducted in collaboration with the National Institute of Virology and Indian Council of Medical Research, it added.

“Covaxin gets international recognition yet again, by scientific research data published demonstrating protection against the new variants. Yet another feather in its cap,” Bharat Biotech co-founder and Joint Managing Director Suchitra Ella said in a tweet. She also tagged PMO India, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, among others, in the tweet.

The study found a modest reduction in neutralisation by a factor of 1.95 against B.1.617 variant compared to vaccine variant D614G, Bharat Biotech noted.

Despite this reduction, neutralising titre levels with B.1.617 remain above levels expected to be protective, it added.

Bengaluru: With Cyclone Tauktae wreaking havoc in the coastal and surrounding Malnad districts of Karnataka, four deaths have been reported in the state so far, officials said on Sunday.

According to a situation report by Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority officials Sunday morning, 73 villages, 17 taluks in seven districts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Kodagu, Shivamogga, Chikkamagaluru and Hassan have been affected by the cyclone so far.

Among the 73 villages affected, a maximum of 28 are from Udupi district.

Among the four deaths reported so far one each are from Uttara Kannada, Udupi, Chikkamagaluru and Shivamogga, officials said.

While one fisherman who went to tie his boat died in Uttara Kannada as he got hit by another boat, a person died in Udupi due to electricity mishap, they said, adding that one death each were reported in Chikkamagaluru and Shivamogga due house collapse and lightning respectively.

A total of 318 people have been evacuated so far, as per the situation report, and 298 people are currently taking shelter in the 11 relief camps that have been opened.

Damages to a total of 112 houses, 139 poles, 22 transformers, 4 ha of horticulture crops have been reported so far, it added.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Sunday asked in-charge Ministers of coastal districts and Deputy Commissioners there to visit affected areas and carry out rescue and relief works.

Yediyurappa called Ministers incharge of coastal districts and Deputy Commissioners and took stock of the situation there, his office said in a statement.

The Chief Minister has directed the officials to call the Ministers concerned or him directly if in need of any emergency assistance from the state government, it said.

As per the situation report, due to cyclone Tauktae heavy to extremely heavy rainfall was observed over six districts, three coastal districts (Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada) and three Malnad districts (Shivamogga, Kodagu and Chikkamagaluru) in the past 24 hours.

The rainfall was accompanied by gale winds speed reaching 70 to 80 km/hour, gusting at times upto 90 km/per along and off Karnataka coast, it said.

Heavy to extremely heavy rainfall was observed over the state mainly over coastal and Malnad districts during last night, it further said, 313 stations recorded more than 64.5 mm (heavy) rainfall in Udupi, Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada, Shivamogga, Kodagu and Chikkamagaluru districts during 08:30 AM of May 15 to 8.30 AM of May 16.

The highest rainfall of 385 mm was recorded at Nada Station in Kundapura taluk of Udupi district, and 15 stations recorded more than 200 mm of rainfall in the district.

There has been coastal erosion due to rough seas along the coast, roads along the shore have been damaged, the report said, there has also been uprooting of trees due to gale winds and damage to poles and transformers.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned light to moderate rainfall at most places, with heavy to very heavy falls at isolated places in the coastal and adjoining ghat districts of the state on Sunday.

Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai has said, around 1,000 trained personnel from fire force, police, coastal police, home guards, SDRF have been deployed in the three coastal districts and they will work with coordination in rescue and relief operations, also NDRF teams have also been roped in.

State’s Revenue Minister R Ashoka on Saturday had said that the effect of the cyclone is likely to be there till May 18 and had warned fishermen not to venture into the sea till then.

NEW DELHI: Petrol price on Sunday was increased by 24 paise per litre and diesel by 27 paise, pushing rates across the country to record highs and that of petrol in Mumbai to near Rs 99 a litre.

The increase led to rates in Delhi climbing to Rs 92.58 per litre and diesel to Rs 83.22, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers.

Rates had already crossed Rs 100-mark in several cities in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and with the latest increase, price in Mumbai too was inching towards that level.

A litre of petrol in Mumbai now comes for Rs 98.88 and diesel is priced at Rs 90.40 per litre.

Fuel prices differ from state to state depending on the incidence of local taxes such as VAT and freight charges.

Rajasthan levies the highest value-added tax (VAT) on petrol in the country, followed by Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

This is the ninth increase in prices since May 4 when the state-owned oil firms ended an 18-hiatus in rate revision they observed during assembly elections in states like West Bengal.

Sri Ganganagar district of Rajasthan had the costliest petrol and diesel in the country at Rs 103.52 per litre and Rs 95.99 a litre, respectively.

In nine increases, petrol price has risen by Rs 2.19 per litre and diesel by Rs 2.49.

Since March last year when the government raised excise duty on fuel to an all-time high, petrol price has increased by a record Rs 22.99 per litre (after accounting for a handful of occasions when rates fell) and diesel by Rs 20.93.

Oil companies, which have in recent months resorted to unexplained freeze in rate revision, had hit a pause button after cutting prices marginally on April 15.

This coincided with electioneering hitting a peak to elect new governments in five states including West Bengal.

No sooner had voting ended, oil companies indicated an impending increase in retail prices in view of firming trend in international oil markets.

Central and state taxes make up for 60 per cent of the retail selling price of petrol and over 54 per cent of diesel.

The union government levies Rs 32.90 per litre of excise duty on petrol and Rs 31.80 on diesel.

NEW DELHI: More than 1.84 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses are still available with states and UTs, while nearly 51 lakh doses are in the pipeline and will be received by them within the next three days, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday.

The Centre has so far provided more than 20 crore vaccine doses (20,28,09,250) to states and UTs free of cost, it said.

Of this, the total consumption, calculated based on average up to May 14, including wastages, is 18,43,67,772 doses, according to data available at 7 pm on Saturday.  

“More than 1.84 crore COVID vaccine doses (1,84,41,478) are still available with the states and UTs to be administered. States with negative balance are showing more consumption (including wastage) than vaccine supplied as they have not reconciled the vaccine they have supplied to Armed Forces,” the ministry said.  

It said 50,95,640 vaccine doses are in the pipeline  and will be received by states and UTs within the next three days.

Vaccination forms an integral component of the comprehensive strategy of Government of India of containment and management of the pandemic (including Test, Track, Treat and COVID Appropriate Behaviour). 

The Centre has been supporting the nationwide vaccination drive by providing COVID vaccines free of cost to states and UTs, in addition to several efforts to ramp up its production and supply, the ministry stated.

Implementation of the Liberalized and Accelerated Phase 3 Strategy of COVID-19 Vaccination has started from May 1 as part of which the government has opened up inoculation for all aged above 18.

Under the Strategy, every month 50 per cent of the total Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) cleared vaccine doses of any manufacturer would be procured by the Centre. It would continue to make these doses available to state governments free of cost as was being done earlier. 

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday announced extension of the ongoing lockdown by one more week in the national capital to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The lockdown imposed on April 19 has been extended for the fourth time till May 24 morning.

It was scheduled to end at 5 am tomorrow.

The COVID-19 situation has been improving in Delhi with the number of cases and positivity rate going down steadily in the past few days.

The chief minister said the lockdown is being extended as the gains made so far in combating the coronavirus cannot be lost due to relaxations now.

ALAPPUZHA: “The rockets launched by Hamas fly above our heads. We are safe in the bunker constructed in my home. When rockets are fired  from faraway places, we get alerts on the mobile phones and, at the same  time, the local alarm starts ringing,” said Sajeesh Lawrence, a native of Nedumkandam in Idukki, who is working as a caregiver in war-torn Tel Aviv.

“We immediately move into the  bunker.  Such bunkers are available in public places like parks, shopping areas, playgrounds and in big buildings. The Israeli  government has also introduced an app to monitor the movement of Hamas from  the borders and alert people, which is a relief to the millions who are  staying in the city of Tel Aviv,” he added.

Sajeesh, son of Lawrence Padickal who had been in Tel  Aviv for the past nine years working as a caregiver,the phone that the death of Malayali caregiver Soumya Santhosh is a rare incident, because the country is well equipped to intercept rockets and thwart other  kinds of attack from Gaza and other border areas. 

“More than 1,700  rockets had been launched by Hamas in the past four days and a majority of them were destroyed by the Israeli defence system. However, very few were missed and these hit houses and other human intervention areas of the country,” 37-year-old Sajeesh said.

“Soumya’s death was also because of such an attack. Hamas has been launching rockets for the past many years and, in 2014, it mounted a strong attack and Israel retaliated. In the years after, such attacks had been very few and the  recent relaxation of restrictions in the entry into Al Aqsa  mosque had led to the massive attack by Hamas and Israel’s retaliation,” he added.

His wife Asha and son Alon are in the Maldives. “Buildings are constructed in the  country with features to withstand such attacks. A room of each house is constructed as a bunker. The wall of that room will be constructed in  double-layered concrete and iron windows,” Sajeesh said.

“Oxygen cylinders, dry fruits, medicines and other essentials are always available in the bunker. When  a rocket is fired from the launchpad of Hamas in Gaza, the defence system automatically detects its direction and distance it will travel before hitting the target. An alert is sent to the mobile phones in the area and the local alarm set by the government administration goes off,” he said.

“After hearing it, people move into the bunkers. When Hamas launches rockets, the  Iron Dome aerial defence system of Israel destroys it mid-air most of the time. Very  few are missed and these hit civilian areas,” he added..

“Normally, the Israeli government does not retaliate  immediately. When it becomes a serious problem, they issue a warning to the people in the border areas of Gaza and  start retaliating. Such a retaliation is taking place,” Sajeesh said.

Sajeesh’s father said, “We are concerned about the developments in Israel. Sajeesh keeps saying that the people are safe there, but we are in fear.”