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Archives for January 2022

NeoCov: India to monitor deadlier Covid variant found in South Africa

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NEW DELHI:  India is keeping an eye on reports of a Chinese study on coronavirus type NeoCov, which spreads among bats in South Africa. Speaking to this newspaper, the Indian Council of Medical Research’s Head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases, Dr Samiran Panda, said, “It has been reported from China. India is keeping an eye on this. It is too early to comment on how much of a real threat it poses for India or the world. Every country is keeping an eye on it,” Dr Panda said.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can cause diseases ranging from common cold to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. But researchers, who recently highlighted the new variant, have warned that NeoCoV could spread using a similar technique used by Covid-19-causing SARS-CoV-2 with a higher transmission rate. Some reports also say that NeoCoV is not a “new” variant and was discovered much earlier. However, not much about the new variant is known at the moment.

India reports over 2.35 lakh Covid cases, 871 fatalities

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NEW DELHI: With 2,35,532 people testing positive for the coronavirus infection in a day, India’s total tally of cases increased to over 4.08 crore, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday.

The death toll has climbed to 4,93,198 with 871 fatalities reported during the 24-hour period, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The active cases decreased by 1,01,278 to reach 20,04,333 — 4.91 per cent of the total infections — while the country’s recovery rate stands at 93.89 per cent, the ministry said.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 13.39 per cent, while the weekly positivity rate was 16.89 per cent, according to the health ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,83,60,710, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.21 per cent, the ministry said. After the Saturday update, the total number of infections stands at 4,08,58,241, it said.

Meanwhile, the cumulative number of anti-Covid vaccine doses administered in the country so far has crossed 165.04 crore. India’s surpassed the one-crore mark in the number of cases on December 19, 2020. It crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.

Over 71K recoveries, 31,198 new COVID-19 cases, 50 deaths in Karnataka

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Bengaluru: With 31,198 fresh cases, Karnataka’s COVID-19 caseload reached 37,23,694, while 50 deaths took the death toll to 38,804, the health department said.

Fresh infections saw a dip by about 7,000 cases compared to Thursday when the number was 38,083, the department said in its bulletin.

It added that 71,092 people were discharged, taking the total number of recoveries to 33,96,093.

The positivity and case fatality rates for the day were at 20.91 per cent and 0.16 per cent, respectively.

Active cases stood at 2,88,767.

Bengaluru contributed about 50 per cent of the infections of the day with 15,199 cases. The city also reported eight deaths.

Other districts too had fresh cases including 1,877 in Mysuru, 1,500 in Dharwad, 1,315 in Tumakuru and 1,037 in Hassan.

There were zero fatalities in 11 districts.

A total of 1,49,174 samples were tested in the state including 1,06,749 RT-PCR tests on Friday, taking the cumulative number of specimens examined to 6.14 crore.

There were 1,97,361 inoculations done taking the total vaccinations to 9.47 crore, the department said.

Azam Khan’s son, wife file nomination from same seat as SP candidates

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Noida: Jailed Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan’s son and wife have filed their nominations from the same assembly constituency as the party’s candidates for the Uttar Pradesh polls.

Both Mohammad Abdullah Azam Khan, who was released from jail recently, and his mother Tazeen Fatma have filed their affidavits from the Suar assembly seat in Rampur district, according to the Election Commission (EC) website.

Azam Khan, who was a cabinet minister in the previous Akhilesh Yadav-led government, had on Thursday filed his nomination papers, while being in jail, for the assembly polls from the Rampur seat.

“We have seen the BJP government framing a former minister, who had developed Rampur, in frivolous cases of goat and cycle theft. They can manipulate even nomination of our candidates and not let them contest the polls and because of political vendetta,” Samajwadi Party (SP) spokesperson Abbas Haider told PTI on the dual nomination from Suar seat.

The SP, he said, is resolved to “rooting out” the BJP and its “jungle raj” from Uttar Pradesh in the elections.

According to the SP’s list of candidates, Mohammad Abdullah Azam Khan is its nominee from Suar.

Suar goes to polls on February 14 during the second of the seven-phase Uttar Pradesh elections.

While Saturday is the date for scrutiny of nominations for the seat, candidates can withdraw their nomination till January 31, according to the official schedule.

Azam Khan, his son and his wife had surrendered in a Rampur court in 2020 after they were booked under multiple charges, including cases of forgery and land grab.

While Fatma got bail in 2020, Mohammad Abdullah Azam Khan was released in January this year after almost a two-year jail term, even as Azam Khan, an eight-time MLA and Lok Sabha MP, continues to be imprisoned.

The family has often claimed that they are being framed because of political vendetta.

Azam Khan had won from the Rampur assembly seat in the 2017 elections, bagging over 47 per cent of polled votes. He was later elected to Lok Sabha in 2019 and Fatma replaced him as Rampur MLA in the state assembly in the bye-election.

Their son Abudullah had won the Suar assembly seat in 2017 in his first election, bagging over 51 per cent of the votes polled in the constituency.

BJP’s candidates were second in both the seats during the last elections.

TV actor Shweta Tiwari apologises for her controversial remark, says statement was ‘misconstrued’

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TV actor Shweta Tiwari apologises for her controversial remark, says statement was 'misconstrued'
Actress Shweta Tiwari

Bhopal/Mumbai: Popular TV actor Shweta Tiwari has apologised after she received backlash for allegedly hurting religious sentiments with her remark on God.

Her apology comes on the day an FIR was registered against the actor in Bhopal for her statement.

The 41-year-old actor had made the controversial statement in Bhopal on Wednesday during the promotion of her web series “Show Stopper”.

A video of Tiwari’s statement has gone viral on social media, in which she purportedly referred to God while speaking about her innerwear. Her co-actors were also present when she made the remark during an interaction with media persons.

The TV star, best known for her role in shows Kasautii Zindagii Kay and Parvarrish , said her statement was misconstrued .

It has come to my notice that a certain statement of mine referring to a colleague’s previous role has been taken out of context and has been misconstrued. When put in context, one will understand that the statement in reference to Bhagwan’ was in context with Sourabh Raj Jain’s popular role of a deity.

“People associate character names to actors and hence, I used that as an example during my conversation with the media. However, it has been completely misconstrued which is saddening to see, Tiwari said in a statement issued on Friday.

She said she would never intentionally or unintentionally say or do any anything that would hurt sentiments of people at large.

I have, however, come to understand that when taken out of context, it has unintentionally hurt feelings of people. Please be assured that it has never been my intention to hurt anyone, with my words or actions. Hence, I would like to humbly apologise for the hurt that my the statement has unintentionally caused to a lot of people, she added.

Police officials in Bhopal on Friday registered a case against Tiwari for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.

The case was registered following Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra’s directions to the city police to investigate her remark and submit a report.

Delta dominates Covid third wave in Karnataka, shows genome sequenced samples: Minister K Sudhakar

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Delta dominates Covid third wave in Karnataka, shows genome sequenced samples: Minister K Sudhakar
Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar

Bengaluru: The deadly delta strain that had wreaked havoc during the second wave continues to dominate in the third wave of COVID in Karnataka, according to Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar.

“Which strain is dominating the third wave in Karnataka? As per the 6,000 samples that were genome sequenced, Delta and it’s sub lineages make up for 3/4th of the cases followed by Omicron,” the minister tweeted on Friday.

The data shared by Sudhakar shows that of the 6,000 samples used for genome sequencing during the ongoing third wave, 73.89 per cent were Delta and its sub-lineage, 18.59 were Omicron, 4.77 were ETA, Kappa and Pango, 2.6 were Alpha/B1.1.7 and 0.13 were Beta/B.1.351.

Ever since the outbreak of COVID in 2020, the state has reported 36,92,496 infections and 38,754 deaths.

Temples in Karnataka will be freed from government control: Minister V Sunil Kumar

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Temples in Karnataka will be freed from government control: Minister V Sunil Kumar

Mangaluru: Temples in Karnataka will be provided autonomous status and freed from the control of the government, state Minister for Energy, Kannada and Culture V Sunil Kumar said on Friday.

Addressing a felicitation function, organised by the district BJP on his appointment as the new Dakshina Kannada district-in-charge minister, Kumar said the BJP government has already enacted legislations against forcible religious conversion and cow slaughter.

The government will also free the temples from the state government’s control. A scheme will be chalked out for the comprehensive development of DK district within ten years after consultation with people’s representatives, he said.

BJP DK unit chief Sudarshan Moodbidri, MLAs Vedavyas Kamath and Dr Bharat Shetty and city mayor Premanand Shetty were among those present.

Girl not property to be donated, Bombay HC observes in case of man giving away daughter to godman

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Mumbai: A girl is not a property that can be given in donation, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court observed, while taking strong objection to a case wherein a man had given his 17-year-old daughter in “daan” to a self-styled godman.

A single bench of Justice Vibha Kankanwadi made the observation earlier this month while hearing a bail application filed by the godman Shankeshwar Dhakne and his disciple Sopan Dhanke, arrested for allegedly raping the minor girl.

The two accused lived in a temple at Badnapur in Jalna district along with the girl and her father. The girl on August 2021 filed FIR against the duo for allegedly raping her, following which they were arrested.

Justice Kankanwadi in her order took note of the prosecution’s case that in 2018, a document styled as “danpatra” on a stamp paper of Rs 100 was executed between the girl’s father and the Dhakne.

It is stated that the father of the girl has given his daughter on donation (daan) to the baba and it is stated that the said ‘kanyadan’ has been made in the presence of god. When the girl as per her own statement is minor, then why the father, who is in all respect guardian, to the girl, give the girl as Daan? the court said in its order.

A girl is not a property, which can be given in donation, Justice Kankanwadi said, adding that this was a disturbing fact.

The court noted that it was concerned about the future of the minor girl and cannot shut its eyes .

This was a fit case where directions needed to be given to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) of Jalna district to hold inquiry on an expeditious basis and find out if the girl was fit to be declared as a child in need of care and protection.

This is in view of the future of the girl and she should not be driven to do any illegal activities, the court said, directing the CWC to hold its inquiry and submit its report to the court.

The court granted bail to the duo on a bond of Rs 25,000 each and posted the matter for further hearing on February 4.

NeoCov coronavirus found in bats may pose threat to humans in future, Chinese scientists caution

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Beijing: A type of coronavirus, NeoCov, that spreads among bats in South Africa may pose a threat to humans in future if it mutates further, according to a study by Chinese researchers.

The yet-to-be peer-reviewed study recently posted on the preprint repository BioRxiv, shows that NeoCov is closely related to the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), a viral disease first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can cause diseases ranging from the common cold to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

Researchers from Chinese Academy of Sciences and Wuhan University noted that NeoCov is found in a population of bats in South Africa and to date spreads exclusively among these animals.

In its current form, NeoCov does not infect humans but further mutations may make it potentially harmful, the researchers noted.

“In this study, we unexpectedly found that NeoCoV and its close relative, PDF-2180-CoV, can efficiently use some types of bat Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and, less favourably, human ACE2 for entry,” the authors of the study noted.

ACE2 is a receptor protein on cells that provides the entry point for the coronavirus to hook into and infect a wide range of cells.

“Our study demonstrates the first case of ACE2 usage in MERS-related viruses, shedding light on a potential bio-safety threat of the human emergence of an ACE2 using “MERS-CoV-2″ with both high fatality and transmission rate,” they said.

The researchers further noted that infection with NeoCov could not be cross-neutralised by antibodies targeting SARS-CoV-2 or MERS-CoV.

“Considering the extensive mutations in the RBD regions of the SARS-CoV-2 variants, especially the heavily mutated Omicron variant, these viruses may hold a latent potential to infect humans through further adaptation,” the authors of the study added.

A receptor-binding domain (RBD) is a key part of a virus that allows it to dock to body receptors to gain entry into cells and lead to infection.

Confident of BJP’s victory in BBMP election: CM Bommai

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Parmesh S Jain

Expressing confidence of BJP winning the forthcoming BBMP election,Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has said,the victory of BJP in BBMP election is as true as the sun rising in the east.

Speaking at a special programme organised at the State BJP office, he said, there is no doubt that people of Bengaluru will support the BJP.

We should convey the work done by the government to the people.Ours is the government that walks the talk.He appealed to the party workers to take up the campaign with confidence.

Responsiveness in every sector

The state government has proved its responsiveness in every sector.Doubling the compensation for crop loss during the floods, increasing the pension under Sandhya Suraksha Yojana,pension for the physically challenged and widows has benefited 58 lakh persons.

Families of those who lost their lives due to Covid have been paid an ex-gratia of Rs1.50 lakh, Construction of 5 lakh houses by state government and sanction of 6.50 lakh houses by the union government,Bommai listed out as he explained the achievements.

All pervasive and all inclusive

Our government is all pervasive and all inclusive. Apart from Rs6000cr provided for development Bengaluru,Rs1500cr for remodeling of main storm water drains,Rs2300cr for development of 12 corridors, development of 75 slums and 75 parks under the Amrith programme have been taken up, Bommai said.

A strong foundation has been laid for development in the last 6 months of our administration.Our government has the strength and the confidence to face tough challenges, Bommai said.

Determined to make Bengaluru an international city

Our government has resolved to complete all round development of Bengaluru and make it an international level city, he said and thanked Prime Minister Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP National President JP Nadda, state president Nalin Kumar Kateel, 3 MPs of Bengaluru, all MLAs and ministers of Bengaluru for their cooperation.

He also recalled the contribution of veteran leader BS Yediyurappa, other leaders of the party and the committed workers for the growth of BJP in Bengaluru. 

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