News Analysis India

Tag: COVID19

  • Liv Tyler reveals testing positive for COVID-19 on New Year’s Eve

    By PTI
    LONDON: Actor Liv Tyler on Saturday shared that she tested positive for coronavirus on New Year’s Eve and has since recovered. The “Lord of The Rings” star opened up about her COVID-19 diagnosis in a lengthy Instagram post.

    “I tested positive for covid 19 on New Year’s Eve day. Sh*t I had made it all the way through 2020 keeping myself and my family safe. Doing everything I could to protect my wolf pack and follow the rules to protect others. Suddenly on The morn of the last day of 2020…boom it took me down,” Tyler wrote alongside a photograph of her cuddling her kids — daughter Lula Rose, four, and son Sailor Gene, five, whom she shares with partner Dave Gardner.

    The 43-year-old actor also has a 16-year-old son Milo William with ex-husband Roy Langdo. Tyler went on to detail the “emotional and psychological” effect of COVID-19 on her. “It F’s with your body and mind equally. Everyday different. Being isolated in a room alone for 10 days is trippy to say the least. Waking up to news of our capital being under attack. Was it real or the twilight zone. Ohhh no it was real the first days of 2021 have been scary for everyone in the world. The unknown so great,” she said.

    The actor, daughter of rock legend Steven Tyler and model Bebe Buell, revealed that none of her family members tested positive for COVID-19.

  • ‘Media totally neglected LGBT community during pandemic’

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: The Covid-19 pandemic has worsened the discrimination being faced by the LGBTQ community in India, experts working for the welfare of queer people said on Friday. Activists, journalists and gender experts emphasised on the need to have a greater representation from the community in the media. They were speaking at a webinar “Covid-19 and Beyond: LGBTI in the Media” organised by the High Commission of  India in association with India Writes Network.

    Deputy High Commissioner of Canada to India Deirdre Kent said the media can play a key role in ensuring equal rights for all and Canada is committed to improving the rights of LGBTI community, not just in Canada but across the world, and to combat all acts of violence that are targeting the community.

    CEO of India Writes Network Manish Chand said many members of the community were reduced to utter penury and starvation. Rights activist and actor Rudrani Chhetri, who identifies herself as a transgender woman, stressed upon the urgency to highlight issues being faced by the community but lamented that the community was “totally neglected” by the media during the pandemic. 

    “I worked with the community. These people had nowhere to go. I have seen people losing hope and 1-2 even committed suicide,” Chhetri said. Former journalist and communications consultant Sharif Rangnekar said the press is largely driven by high caste people and that this is reflected in the way the press looks at people. “There are sensitive journalists but there aren’t enough who are aware. The press doesn’t really understand the diversity within our community and that’s problematic,” Rangnekar said. 

  • No foreign head of State to attend Republic Day event this year as chief guest due to COVID: MEA

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI:: India on Thursday said that there will be no foreign head of State as the chief guest for the Republic Day celebrations on January 26 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

    “Due to the global COVID-19 situation, it has been decided that this year, there will not be a foreign head of state or head of government as the chief guest for our Republic Day event,” said Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Anurag Srivastava during a virtual press briefing.

    Last year, India had invited UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to be the chief guest at the Republic Day parade later this month. UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who visited India in December, had announced that Johnson has accepted the invitation to visit India.

    However, on January 5, Johnson cancelled his planned trip to India, stating that it was important for him to remain in the UK to focus on the domestic response to COVID-19, in the wake of a more contagious variant of the virus. “The PM spoke to Prime Minister Modi this morning to express his regret that he will be unable to visit India later this month as planned,” the spokesperson said.

    The cancellation of the visit was announced a day after Johnson imposed the third lockdown in the country amid rising coronavirus infections.

  • “Nonsense”: Babul Supriyo slams West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee’s ‘free COVID vaccine’ promise

    By ANI
    ASANSOL: Lashing out at Mamata Banerjee for her “free vaccine” claim, BJP’s Member of Parliament Babul Supriyo on Tuesday urged the West Bengal chief minister to refrain from such “nonsense.”

    Addressing mediapersons here on Tuesday, Supriyo further said that the Central government has already announced vaccines free of cost to people. “Prime Minister held video conferencing with Chief Ministers of all states. Of course, all state health workers will have to do the on ground inoculation. I request Mamata Banerjee to not say nonsense like providing free vaccine.”

    Banerjee had on January 10 announced that the state government is making arrangements to vaccinate all the people in the state against COVID-19 vaccine without any cost.

    Yesterday West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh had lambasted Mamata Banerjee and accused her of ‘publicising Centre’s schemes and vaccine under her own name’ in the poll-bound state. Ghosh said she wants to publicise the vaccine by renaming it as “Tikashree” or “Mamatashree” ahead of the elections.

    West Bengal is gearing up for the upcoming Assembly Election for 294 seats this year. The tenure of the current government in the state of West Bengal is coming to an end on May 30.

  • Elon Musk’s girlfriend and Canadian singer Grimes contracts COVID-19

    By ANI
    WASHINGTON: Elon Musk’s girlfriend and Canadian musician Grimes has recently revealed that she has contracted COVID-19. According to Page Six, Grimes said that she has “finally,” caught COVID-19 and it has been a trippy experience for her.

    “Finally got COVID but weirdly enjoying the Dayquil fever dream 2021,” she announced as she wrote in her Instagram stories. The 32-year-old singer shares a baby boy with Musk. She has been with the founder of SpaceX since 2018 and they welcomed their first child together in May 2020.

    The musician did not reveal if her partner or her son has contracted the virus or not.

  • Bihar: 22 students, three teachers in Munger school test positive for COVID-19

    By ANI
    MUNGER: About 22 students and 3 teachers of a school in Asarganj here were found COVID positive on Friday, said the health department. After receiving the information, a medical team rushed to the area and announced it as a containment zone.

    Speaking to ANI, Dr Ajay Kumar Bharti, Civil Surgeon at Sadar Hospital, Munger said, “We are prepared and have created a containment zone in Asarganj. For precaution, medical teams have been constituted for screening.”

    The incident came to light after a health department team conducted random tests of students and teachers after the opening of the school. The students in the school are in the age group 11 years to 14 years. As the news of COVID-19 infection spread, there was anxiety among the villagers. The district administration alerted them and asked to take all precautionary measures.

  • COVID-19: First vaccine jab by January 13?

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  The Union health ministry on Tuesday said the government is prepared to roll out vaccines against Covid-19 within 10 days of granting emergency use authorisation. Since regulatory approval came on January 3, the first jabs could be administered by January 13.

    “The government is ready to introduce Covid-19 vaccine within 10 days from date of emergency use authorisation,” said Rajesh Bhushan, health secretary. Describing the vaccine delivery management plan using the specially designed CoWin platform, he said healthcare and frontline workers need not register themselves on it as beneficiaries, as their data has been pre-populated on the portal.

    “There are four primary vaccine stores called GMSD in Karnal, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata and 37 vaccine stores. They store vaccines in bulk and distribute them further,” he said.

    Automated session allocation, SMS in 12 languages, 24×7 helpline, chat box with pattern recognition to help navigate the portal, digital locker for integrated data retrieval and storing vaccine data are some of the salient features of CoWIN. 

  • Bharat Biotech setting up four COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing facilities

    By PTI
    HYDERABAD: Bharat Biotech, which has been accorded Emergency Use Authorisation from the drug regulator for its COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin, on Monday said they are setting up four vaccine manufacturing facilities with a combined capacity of 700 million doses per annum.

    Denying allegations that the city-based vaccine maker lacks data of Covaxin, Krishna Ella, chairman of Bharat Biotech, said sufficient data has already been revealed and is available on the net.

    “We have four facilities coming up. We are planning around 200 million doses (per annum) in Hyderabad, 500 million doses in other cities. By 2021 we will have 7,600 million doses capacity…as we speak we have 20 million doses”, he told reporters.

    He said Covaxin is currently undergoing phase 3 clinical trials with 24,000 volunteers.

    “I think we are the only company I can categorically say has got extensive research experience and extensive publication peer reviewed journals. Many people say that I am not transparent in my data. I think people should have the patience to read internet and look at what our articles are,” he said on the allegations of data availability.

    He said Indian companies are being targeted as inferior ones and said his companys work is no less than Pfizer, which also came out with a vaccine for coronavirus.

  • Dry run for COVID19 vaccine administration underway across India

    The dry run for COVID19 vaccine administration is being conducted in all States/Union Territories today in 116 districts across 259 sites.

    According to Union Health Ministry, the objective of the dry run for COVID-19 vaccine introduction is to “assess operational feasibility in the use of COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network (Co-WIN) application in field environment, to test the linkages between planning and implementation and to identify the challenges and guide way forward prior to actual implementation”. This is also expected to give confidence to programme managers at various levels, it said.

    Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain will attend the vaccine trial program (Dry Run) conducted by the Union Health Ministry at the Maternity ND Child Welfare (MCW) centre in Daryaganj here at 10 am on Saturday.

    The activity is proposed to be conducted in all State Capitals in at least 3 session sites. Some States will also include districts that are situated in difficult terrain/have poor logistical support. Maharashtra and Kerala are likely to schedule the dry run in major cities other than their Capital

    In Delhi, the drive will be conducted at three locations – the Daryaganj primary health centre, the government-run Guru Teg Bahadur hospital, and the private Venkateshwara hospital.

    Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had on Friday chaired a high-level meeting to review preparedness at session sites across the country for COVID-19 vaccination trial run on Saturday and said just like preparations during elections, each member of medical teams should be trained responsibly.

    The minister urged every official to ensure that the vaccination sites and officials in-charge abide by the detailed checklist and Standard Operating Protocols (SOPs) for vaccination that has been prepared by the Union Health Ministry.

  • COVID19 pandemic has adversely affected the economy: FM Nirmala Sitharaman |

    Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today (October 13) addressed the media. She said the pandemic has affected economy. Under LTC Cash Voucher Scheme, government employees can opt to receive cash amounting to leave encashment plus 3 times ticket fare, to buy items which attract GST of 12% or more. Only digital transactions allowed, GST invoice to be produced: FM Nirmala Sitharaman

    Govt to give cash to employees in lieu of LTC ticket fare component for buying items attracting 12 pc or more GST: FM

    To stimulate demand, expenditure will be front-loaded; new schemes include LTC cash voucher scheme and special festival advance: FM

    Indications are that the savings of govt. and organized sector employees have increased, we want to incentivize such people to boost demand for the benefit of the less fortunate: FM Sitharaman on LTC Cash Voucher Scheme to stimulate consumer spending

    Consumer spending related proposal has two components- LTC Cash Voucher scheme and Special Festival Advance Scheme: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

    The proposals being presented are designed in a way that they can stimulate demand by front-loading/advancing some of the expenditure with some offsetting changes. Others are directly linked to an increase in the GDP: FM Sitharaman

    The pandemic has adversely affected the economy. The needs of the poor and weaker sections addressed in various announcements by the govt. Supply constraints have somewhat eased but consumer demand still needs to be given a boost: FM Nirmala Sitharaman