News Analysis India

Tag: COVID19

  • Britney Spears gets COVID-19 vaccine with beau Sam Asghari

    By ANI
    WASHINGTON: A vaccinated pop queen! American singer-songwriter Britney Spears has become the latest celebrity to receive the coronavirus vaccine.

    On Thursday, Spears shared that she got the COVID-19 vaccine alongside her boyfriend Sam Asghari. The singer took to her Instagram handle to share a video documenting her experience after getting a shot of the vaccine.

    “What did you think of the vaccine?” Asghari can be seen asking Spears on camera. She responded, “The people on the internet said it was really bad like a bullet through your arm.” Spears added, “It was nothing. I felt nothing. I’m fine and I hope I continue to stay fine.”

    The couple then gives each other a high-five. Spears captioned the post by quoting Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Great success!” line from ‘Borat’. “Got the COVID vaccine, Great success…High-five!!!!!! @samasghari,” she wrote in the caption.

    It’s unclear which vaccine Spears received, but fans thanked her in the comments for “encouraging others to get it” too. Spears’ video about getting vaccinated comes several days after singer Mariah Carey shared a video of herself receiving a dose.

    According to the Los Angeles Times, more than 35 per cent of California residents have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. 20 per cent are fully vaccinated as cases continue to fall in the Golden State. But that’s not to say the third-largest state in the United States is COVID free, reported E! News.

    Spears isn’t the first celebrity to share her vaccine experience with fans. On April 7, Today’s show co-hosts Savannah Guthrie, Craig Melvin, Sheinelle Jones, Dylan Dreyer and Jenna Bush Hager each bared an arm on live TV as they received their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine from a group of Walgreens pharmacists.

    Ryan Reynolds, Martha Stewart, Dolly Parton and many more have also posted their vaccine experience online.

  • At least we’re getting to do what we like, says Rohit Sharma on bio-bubble life 

    By ANI
    CHENNAI: While many cricketers have talked about how difficult life becomes inside the bio-secure environment, Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma on Thursday spoke about the positives which a player can take while he is in the bubble amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The IPL 2021 will commence on Friday with Mumbai Indians locking horns against Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

    And Rohit is happy that he is getting to play cricket which is the only thing matters for him at the end of the day.

    “A lot of people are going through hard times, a lot of people are not able to work. Not able to do what they like to. At least we’re lucky that we’re getting to do what we like. But I am happy playing cricket which is what I love at the end of the day,” said Rohit in the video posted on Mumbai Indians’ Twitter handle.

    The 32-year-old also pointed out how bubble life helped him create good memories during the 13th edition of the cash-rich league which wasn’t the case before the pandemic grappled the entire world.

    “If we have to adjust, we have to adjust. And try and see how you can get the best out of this bubble life as well. Like we’ve had some good times in the bubble. Especially during the IPL in the UAE, we had some solid memories that we created in the UAE,” said Rohit.

    “Plus the bubble life in Australia and now in India, when we played against England, it was good. We got to know a lot of players, who usually don’t come out of their room,” he further said on the eve of the IPL opener.

    “So we had the team room, where we used to go out and chill. Where we used to go out and chill and talk about a lot of stuff, which was always nice. Which is something I feel has changed from the previous year. It’s nice to have the company around and have that bonding going,” Rohit signed off. 

  • Oscar nominees, guests will qualify as essential workers to attend ceremony amid COVID-19

    By ANI
    WASHINGTON: Oscar nominees and their guests will qualify as essential workers to attend the upcoming Academy Awards amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

    As per Variety, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced in a letter on Tuesday that those involved in the Oscars ceremony, which will include nominees and guests, will qualify for the essential work purpose waiver.

    They will also be allowed to travel to and from the testing center, rehearsals, and other Academy-organized activities during the lead up to the award show.

    “Those involved in the Oscars production, like nominees and their guest, qualify for the essential work purpose waiver, and therefore are permitted to travel to and from the testing center, rehearsals, and Academy-organized activities during the lead up to the Oscars production, including, of course, the award show. The organizers of the Oscars are implementing a required quarantine to capture the risk of each person attending the event,” the announcement letter read.

    Producers have maintained that the ceremony is being shot like a film so implementing essential worker status follows the protocol for movie and television shoots during the pandemic.

    The organisers also are implementing a required quarantine period for each person attending the event depending on risk assessment. Arrival dates for the Oscars are April 20 for domestic travelers and low-risk international travelers, and April 17 for high-risk international travelers.

    “If you travel into Los Angeles County from outside of California, you need to self-quarantine for 10 days after you arrive and may not interact with anyone during those 10 days except the people in your household, i.e. people with whom you live,” the letter read.

    The letter further stated, “If you travel into Los Angeles County solely for essential work purposes, you still need to self-quarantine (when not working) for 10 days and may not interact with people other than those necessary to conduct your essential work.”

    All the nominees and guests must have a minimum of two COVID-19 PCR tests performed by the Academy’s vendor and a total of three tests in the week leading up to the ceremony.

    The letter also offered travel and testing examples. For instance, someone who flies in from London can arrive as late as April 20. It also included a chart for nominees and guests to best figure out their specific restrictions.

    Apart from these guidelines, each nominee and their guests must present a travel and quarantine plan to the Academy for approval. Information is due no later than April 8, with revisions submitted by April 12. All information will be reviewed by the Oscars’ COVID consultant, Dr Erin Bromage. It will “remain private and be destroyed on or before May 10,” the letter read.

    Produced by Jesse Collins, Stacey Sher and Steven Soderbergh, Oscars 2021 will primarily be held at Los Angeles’ historic Union Station, with additional events at the show’s traditional home, Dolby Theatre. The 93rd Oscars will be broadcast live on April 25 on ABC.

  • COVID-19 surge: Government orders closure of schools in Jammu & Kashmir

    Express News Service
    SRINAGAR: A day after inaugurating the six-day Tulip festival in Srinagar, the Lt Governor administration in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday ordered closure of schools upto 9th class for two weeks and 10th, 11th and 12th classes for one week.

    “In view of rising trend in COVID cases in Jammu and Kashmir and likelihood of young children getting infected and transmitting infection in large numbers, all classes upto and including Class 9 in schools will be closed for 2 weeks in all schools beginning on Monday (April 5) till 18 April 21 in J&K,” announced Lt Governor’s office.

    It further said classes 10, 11 & 12 will also be closed for one week in all schools from Monday (April 5) till April 11 in the entire Jammu & Kashmir territory. The government also announced that all gatherings for social and customary functions will be restricted to 200 members and after following due COVID SOPs and protocols.

    There has been a surge in COVID-19 cases across Jammu and Kashmir. with the U/T  recording 3408 cases since March 25.

    The closure of schools will come as a major relief for the parents, who had been urging the government to order closure of schools and going back to online mode of teaching in view of the surge in COVID-19 cases.

    The total number of positive cases in Jammu and Kashmir has risen to 132439. Of them, 3574 are active positive, 126860 have recovered. Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed 2005 deaths due to COVID-19. Of the total deaths, 740 have been reported in Jammu region and 1265 in Kashmir.

  • Ex-Jammu & Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah hospitalised days after testing COVID-19 positive

    By PTI
    SRINAGAR: Veteran politician and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, who tested positive for COVID-19 recently, was on Saturday admitted to a hospital as a precautionary measure. Taking to Twitter, his son Omar Abdullah said Farooq Abdullah has been admitted to hospital in Srinagar based on the advice of doctors “to enable them to better monitor” him.

    “Our family remains grateful to everyone for their messages of support and their prayers,” he added. The 85-year-old NC president tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday. He was kept in home-isolation initially, but doctors on Saturday decided to shift him to a hospital for better medical care.

    Several leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, wished him a speedy recovery after news of his testing positive for the disease came to light. Farooq Abdullah received his first dose of COVID-19 vaccine on March 2.

  • Eight states witness steep rise in COVID cases, account for 81.42 per cent of single-day infections

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Eight states witnessed a steep rise in daily new COVID-19 cases and accounted for 81.42 per cent of the infections reported on Saturday, the Union Health Ministry said.

    These eight states are Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh. India’s tally of COVID-19 active caseload also increased to 6,58,909 and now comprises 5.32 per cent of the total infections. In a day, there has been a net rise of 44,213 active cases.

    Ten districts — Pune, Mumbai, Nagpur, Thane, Nashik, Bengaluru Urban, Aurangabad, Delhi, Ahmednagar and Nanded — account for 50 per cent of the total active caseload of the country. Maharashtra has shown a nine-fold jump, the maximum increase in the number of active cases in the last two months.

    In percentage terms, Punjab has reported the maximum increase in active cases. Five states — Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Kerala and Punjab –cumulatively account for 77.3 per cent of the total active cases in the country.

    Maharashtra alone accounts for 59.36 per cent of the total active caseload of the country. India on Saturday recorded 89,129 new COVID-19 cases in a day, the highest daily rise in around six-and-half-months, taking the nationwide tally of infections to over 1.23 crore, according to the Union Health Ministry data on Saturday.

    The death toll increased to 1,64,110 with 714 more fatalities in a day, also the highest since October 21. Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 47,913, followed by 4,991 in Karnataka and 4,174 in Chhattisgarh.

    Twelve states –Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Karnataka, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala — are displaying an upward trajectory in daily new cases, the health ministry said.

    Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba chaired a high-level review meeting on Friday with chief secretaries, directors general of police and health secretaries of all states, with a focus on 11 states and Union Territories that have been reporting a very high rise in daily cases and fatality because of COVID-19 in the last two weeks.

    These states and UTs “of grave concern” were advised to take up immediate and effective measures to ensure containment of active cases and daily deaths through enhanced testing, strict containment, prompt contact tracing and enforcement of COVID-appropriate behaviour, and adherence to the standard clinical management protocol shared earlier with all states and UTs.

    India’s cumulative recoveries stand at 1,15,69,241 with 44,202 recoveries being registered in a day. Of the 714 fatalities were reported in a day, six states account for 85.85 per cent of the new deaths. Maharashtra saw a maximum of 481 deaths, followed by 57 in Punjab.

    Thirteen states and UTs have not reported any COVID-19 deaths in a day.

    These are Odisha, Assam, Ladakh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Sikkim, Lakshadweep, Mizoram, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Arunachal Pradesh.

    In a significant development in the fight against COVID-19, the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 7.3 crore mark. Cumulatively, 7,30,54,295 vaccine doses have been administered through 11,53,614 sessions, according to the provisional report till 7 am on Saturday.

    The ministry said that the cumulative vaccination figure includes over 6 crore first doses, while the second dose numbers are also nearing the 1 crore mark.

  • Pune’s district information officer Rajendra Sarag dies due to COVID-19 complications

    By PTI
    PUNE: Pune’s District Information Officer (DIO) Rajendra Sarag succumbed to the coronavirus infection at the Sassoon General Hospital here on Saturday morning, a senior official said. The official said that Sarag (54) had tested positive for COVID-19 recently and was admitted to the hospital, where he breathed his last.

    Sarag, a Maharashtra government official, had served at information offices in different districts of the state.

    Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said, “We deeply mourn the death of Rajendra Sarag due to COVID-19. Over the last few days, doctors and paramedical team of Sasson Hospital tried their best to save his life. It is painful as we have lost such an officer,” he said.

  • COVID-19: Chhattisgarh increases penalty for not wearing masks to Rs 500

    By PTI
    RAIPUR: The Chhattisgarh government has increased from Rs 100 to Rs 500 the amount of penalty for not wearing face mask, to ensure strict implementation of the coronavirus guidelines, an official said on Friday.

    The state health and family welfare department on Thursday issued an order to this effect under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 to contain the spread of the infection, a release by the public relations department said.

    “According to the order, now a penalty of Rs 500 will be imposed if anyone is found not wearing mask or face cover in public places. Earlier, the penalty was Rs 100 for the violation,” it said.

    The state government has also appealed to people to strictly follow the preventive guidelines, including physical distancing and washing hands, apart from the use of masks, it said.

    In view of the sudden spike in coronavirus cases, the administrations have imposed section 144 of the CrPC, which bars assembly of four or more people, in several districts of Chhattisgarh, including Raipur, Durg, Bastar, Raigarh, and announced various restrictions, including banning all kinds of religious, festivals, cultural and political programmes and sports events, exhibitions and fairs till further orders.

    Chhattisgarh on Thursday recorded the highest single- day spike of 2,419 coronavirus cases in the last four months.

    The state’s COVID-19 caseload stood at 3,32,113 till Thursday.

    Of these, 3,14,769 people have so far recovered, while 4,026 patients have died due to the infection so far, as per official figures.

    The state has reported 11,330 COVID-19 cases in the last one week with most of the infections being reported from Raipur, Durg and Bilaspur districts.

  • Not many takers for Aarogya Setu app, Delhi and Chandigarh see highest users

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  Aarogya Setu has not been a hit. Citizens in bigger and more densely populated states have not downloaded the contacttracing app in large numbers. Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and West Bengal among others have recorded low registrations. Barring Union Territories Delhi and Chandigarh, most states have downloads in the range of 10-15 per cent of their population.

    Government data on Aarogya Setu downloads and its comparison with 2020 projected population (UIDAI) discloses that only 15.7 per cent in Maharashtra and only 5.9 per cent in Kerala have downloaded the app.

    Aarogya Setu is meant to track the spread of COVID-19 in the country through its users and alert those who may have come in contact with a positive person. It can also tell who is a suspect by using location tracking technology. So far, it has recorded over 17 crore downloads. Maharashtra and Kerala are among the states which have seen a large number infections in recent weeks.

    Maharashtra alone is recording over 25,000 daily new cases. Chandigarh is on top in terms of downloads with 48 per cent. National capital Delhi is second with 46 per cent. Similarly, bigger States like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have also registered only 10 per cent, 8.7 per cent and 9.2 per cent downloads of the respective states population.

    Numbers are low in the southern states. Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu have figures of 13.7 per cent, 12.2 per cent, 14 per cent and 6.5 per cent respectively. Aarogya Setu was launched by the government as a major tool of contact-tracing last April.

    As recently stated by the government, the app played a key role by identifying individuals at high risk at an early stage, thereby prioritising their testing and taking necessary medical and administrative measures’. It has helped in identifying more than 1 crore individuals (at risk) through contact tracing.

    The positivity rate of Aarogya Setu is currently around 25 per cent, which means 25 per cent of the users (identified ‘at risk’ through contact tracing) turned out to be COVID-19 positive when tested, said the Ministry of Information Technology in a written reply in the Parliament.

    The app has been developed by National Informatics Centre, with “privacy-first by design” as a key principle and it has implemented some of the best and widely accepted privacy features and practices, including anonymization, data minimisation, purpose and use limitation and data retention principles.

    By default, all contact tracing and location information collected is stored locally on the user’s mobile device. This information is only uploaded to the app server if the user tests positive for COVID-19. The location information is also recorded when the user takes the self-assessment and it is sent to the server along with the user’s response for selfassessment.

  • Jamie Dornan’s father Jim Dornan dies of COVID-19 at 73

    By PTI
    LOS ANGELES: Hollywood actor Jamie Dornan’s father, obstetrician and gynecologist Jim Dornan, passed away at the age 73 following a battle with coronavirus. The Northern Ireland Pancreatic Center (NIPANC), where Jim Dornan had served as president, shared the news of his death on Instagram and remembered him for his dedication towards public service.

    “It is with great sadness that NIPANC has heard of the death of Professor Jim Dornan, who died in the UAE on 15 March. He was internationally renowned as a world-class obstetrician and gynaecologist,” NIPANC’s post read.

    “His relationship with NIPANC was founded on his own family’s experience of this terrible cancer, with the tragic death of his first wife, Lorna, more than twenty years ago. Our thoughts and prayer go out to His family, Samina, Liesa, Jess and Jamie at this difficult time,” it added.

    Jim Dornan also served as as chair of Health and Life Sciences at Ulster University and former chair in Fetal Medicine at Queens University Belfast and patron of Leukaemia & Lymphoma NI (LAL NI).