News Analysis India

Tag: coronovirus

  • Did China manufacture Coronavirus as a man-made bioweapon?

    Since the covid-19 virus have struck the world, many theories have come out that the virus was created in a particular country as a biological weapon. Now, Chinese military scientists allegedly investigated weaponising coronaviruses five years before the COVID-19 pandemic and may have predicted a World War III fought with biological weapon.

    A document written by Chinese scientists and health officials before the pandemic in 2015 states that SARS coronaviruses were a “new era of genetic weapons” that could be “artificially manipulated into an emerging human disease virus, then weaponised and unleashed, reported Weekend Australian.

    Peter Jennings, the executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), told news.com.au that the document is as close to a “smoking gun” as we’ve got.

    The paper titled The Unnatural Origin of SARS and New Species of Man-Made Viruses as Genetic Bioweapons suggested that World War Three would be fought with biological weapons. The document revealed that Chinese military scientists were discussing the weaponisation of SARS coronaviruses five years before the COVID-19 pandemic. The report by Weekend Australian was published in news.com.au.

  • How Did Coronavirus Enter IPL Bio-Bubble? What Sourav Ganguly Said

    Days after the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 was postponed, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly defended the board’s decision to stage the T20 tournament in the country amid the coronavirus pandemic. The former India captain, while explaining it is difficult to contain the virus even inside a bio-secure environment, cited the example of virus breaching Premier League bubble and affecting football players in the UK. 

    Speaking about a potential breach in the bio-bubble, Ganguly, in an interview with the Indian Express, said the report received by the board suggests there was no breach. 

    “I don’t think so. The report we got is that there’s no breach of the bubble. How it happened is very difficult to say. How so many people are getting (infected) in the country is also very difficult to say,” Ganguly was quoted as saying. 

    Four franchises, Kolkata Knight Riders, SunRisers Hyderabad, Delhi Capitals and Chennai Super Kings, reported positive Covid cases within their camps after which the 14th edition of the IPL was postponed indefinitely. 

    “Professional hands around the world can’t control it (virus penetrating the bubble). When it was happening in England (second wave of the pandemic), there were cases in the English Premier League. Manchester City, Arsenal players got infected,” Ganguly said. 

    The former India skipper mentioned that due to a rigid schedule, it is difficult for the board to reschedule games easily. 

  • Three Members of MS Dhoni-Led Chennai Super Kings Contingent Test Positive For Coronavirus Amid IPL 2021

    Chennai Super Kings are now in trouble as three members of their contingent – not players – have tested positive for the novel virus. As per a report on Cricinfo, the members who tested positive are not players. The three members who tested positive are Chief Executive Officer Kasi Viswanathan, bowling coach L Balaji and a bus cleaner. According to the same report, the others in Delhi currently have tested negative. Also Read – Karnataka Lockdown: Left With no Resource, Hungry Man Searches For Food in Garbage Dump Yard

    The trio underwent a test on Monday as well just to confirm that it was not a false test. The three would now have to isolate themselves for 10 days and then return with two negative tests. After that, they can join the CSK bubble. Also Read – IPL 2021 May Shift Entirely to Mumbai Amid Covid-19 Crisis in India: Report

    Earlier in the day, the KKR-RCB match that was scheduled to be played today was postponed after two KKR players tested positive. Varun Chakravarthy and Sandeep Warriers are the two KKR players who contracted the virus and they have been isolated immediately following the development. The new date is expected to be announced today. Meanwhile, Cricket Australia interim CEO Nick Hockley on Monday said that there are no immediate plans for arranging charter flights to bring back Australian players once the Indian Premier League (IPL) concludes on May 30. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison had last week announced a ban on passenger flights from India till May 15 and he also said that there would be no special privileges given to the Australian players in India.

  • Prince Harry, Meghan Reflect On 2020 In ‘holiday Season’ Podcast

    On December 29, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan released their first podcast for the holiday season in which they thanked the frontline workers and medics who battled the coronavirus pandemic in the forefront. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex released the 33-minute show titled ‘holiday special’ on Spotify as a part of a $US40million ($52.5m) project with the streaming service.

    In the podcast, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex reflect on the year of the mounting challenges and give encouraging messages of hopes for the new year ahead as they play tunes of Elton John. In an excerpt released by the admirable couple, Meghan uplifts the spirit of the people, saying, “From us, I’ll say no matter what life throws at you guys, trust us when we say, love, wins.” Harry adds, “Love always wins.” Further, the Duke of Sussex called 2020 “a year we could have never imagined.”

    According to CNN, Duke and Duchess of Sussex had scores of celebrities and artists ‘on mute’ on the show that later appeared to share stories about their struggles and hardships that they had overcome in the face of a very challenging year. Among the several notable artists was the author of the couple’s favourite book Notes on a Nervous Planet who came onboard the show and spoke to the listeners about the year 2020.

  • Andhra Woman Who Escaped Isolation Tests Positive For New UK Strain Of Coronavirus

    An Anglo-Indian woman, who had returned from the United Kingdom to Delhi and later reached Andhra Pradesh by a special train after escaping from an isolation centre in Delhi, has tested positive for the new UK strain of Coronavirus, said Katamneni Bhasker, Commissioner of Health and Family Welfare Department of Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday. Speaking further, Bhasker said that there is no evidence of the spread of the new UK strain in the state. 

    According to the official data, Andhra Pradesh administration so far has traced 1,406 people out of 1,423 who came from the UK to the state. The Commissioner of Health and Family Welfare Department said that a total of 12 people were tested positive out of 1,406 people who underwent RTPCR test. It also mentioned that 6,364 primary contracts of 1,406 were tested and 12 were positive.

  • Foresee suspension of UK flights to be further extended: Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri

    Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday said that he foresees a “short extension” of the suspension of flights from the United Kingdom to contain the spread of the new variant of coronavirus that was first detected in that country.

    This comes a day after six people who had recently returned to India from the UK were found positive for the new mutant strain of the coronavirus.

    “I foresee a short extension on this temporary suspension. I do not see the extension to be long or indefinite,” Puri said while addressing media at an annual press conference on Civil Aviation.

    The government has imposed a ban on flights coming to India from the UK. All flights originating from the UK to India are suspended till December 31, 2020, with effect from December 22. Puri explained that the Ministry is monitoring developments in other countries too and will take further decisions accordingly.

    “We had imposed temporary suspensions when we had eight to nine flights daily from the UK. The passengers who came in from the time of the announcement to the next day were subjected to compulsory quarantine at the point of arrival. Even those who tested negative were required to go in mandatory quarantine. We went one step further and we did contact tracing and genome sequencing of passengers from the UK who have come to India since November 25,” he said.

  • Russia Admits To World’s Third Highest COVID-19 Fatalities; 186,000 People Have Died

    In a shocking revelation, Russian health authorities, on December 28, said that country’s death toll was three times higher than what was previously reported. While President Vladimir Putin had long boasted about the country’s low COVID-19 death toll, experts have constantly argued that the majority of deaths were caused by the respiratory infection. However, health officials have now admitted that over 186,000 deaths were caused by COVID-19 alone nixing comparatively low numbers, which were reported only when coronavirus was found to be the main cause of death.

    As per the Rosstat statistics agency, the number of deaths from all causes recorded between January and November had risen by 229,700 compared with the previous year. Speaking about the same, Tatiana Golikova, deputy Prime minister reportedly admitted that more than 81 per cent of this spike, that is 186,000, in mortality was due to COVID-19. According to previous records by Russian Heath Ministry, as many as 3,047,335 people have contracted COVID-19 in Russia while only 54,559 people had lost their lives.

  • COVID-19 Outbreak Is Serious But ‘we Need To Be Ready For More Severe’ Pandemics: WHO

    The novel coronavirus has had a catastrophic impact around the globe, but the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that “worse pandemics” could happen in future. Speaking at a recent press briefing WHO emergencies Chief Michael Ryan urged the global communities to take “preparedness” seriously. This comes just two days after the UN agency marked the first-ever International day of pandemic preparedness, highlighting the lessons learnt from the ongoing health crisis.

    The coronavirus crisis which began a year ago in the Chinese city of Wuhan has now spiralled to infect over 81,278, 435 people and kill 1,774,395 out of them, as per latest tally by John Hopkins University. However, terming it as a “wakeup call”, Ryan warned that it was “not necessarily” a big one. Stressing that the fatality rate of COVID-19 is “reasonably low” in comparison to other diseases, he warned that people to need to prepare for “something more severe” in the future.

  • US Preschool Teacher Wins $250,000 Lottery After Losing Job Amid COVID-19

    A North Carolina preschool teacher who had recently lost his job as a teacher and his father to the coronavirus infection has won $250,000 in a lottery. Joe Camp was laid off in September as the schools had to resort to slashing the staff due to the monetary crisis amid the coronavirus crisis. The dad and grandfather bought the NC lottery “Gold Rush” ticket for the family and “fell on his knees” at the gas pump station after he scratched his prize. In a news release to NC, the Charlotte resident said that he plans to buy a new home which will be inherited by his grandkids, and pay for his daughter’s education that he previously was struggling to afford. “It put me in a dark place,” said Camp in the release, adding that he had a lot of friends and family that told him to “keep sticking in there, keep believing in myself.” 

    “Thursday morning, I went to the store and bought a scratch-off ticket like I usually do,” Camp said. “And I bought two tickets. I didn’t win on the first one, so I tried the second and I scratched it off, and I fell to my knees at the gas pump,” Camp said in the release. He added that he had been submerged under the mountain hardships and just when he had thought life couldn’t have been any harder, he won the lottery.

  • Over 100 House Republicans Broke From Trump To Override His Veto On Defence Bill

    In the latest blow for outgoing US President Donald Trump, over a hundred Republicans united with Democrats in the House of Representatives on December 28 to override his veto of a $741 billion Defence bill. If the same suit is followed by Senate later this week, it will also be the first-ever such rebuke of Trump presidency with only three weeks to go before President-elect Joe Biden takes over.

    On Monday, during the ‘high-stakes day’ on Capitol Hill, the Democrat-majority House even voted to boost the coronavirus relief payments to $2,000 per individual, a Trump-endorsed change but as per reports, it is unlikely to pass through Senate. 

    The bill which saw unusual teaming-up of Democrats and Republicans, the National Defense Authorisation Act is aimed at funding the service members’ pay, overseas military operations along with other requirements. It has been passed by Congress every year since 1967 but just last week, Trump had practised his veto power and sent the bill back with his objections that included its proposal of changing the names of 10 military bases that honour Confederate leaders.