News Analysis India

Tag: Pandemic

  • 125 passengers on charter flight from Italy test positive for Covid in Amritsar

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: A total of 125 passengers on a Milan-Amritsar charter flight were found to be Covid-positive when tested on arrival, government officials said on Thursday.

    Officials said there were a total of 179 passengers on the charter flight YU-661 that landed at the Amritsar airport at around 1.30 PM on Wednesday.

    ALSO READ: Cases rising, poll rallies not feasible, Covid Task Force chief tells EC

    Since Italy is one of the “at risk” countries according to the Union Health Ministry, all eligible passengers — 160 in this case — were tested for COVID-19 and 125 of them were found to be positive, they mentioned.

    Out of total 179 passengers, 19 were children or infant so they were exempt from on-arrival RT-PCR testing, they said.

    The charter flight between Milan in Italy and Amritsar in Punjab was operated by Portuguese company EuroAtlantic Airways, they mentioned.

  • Full vaccination or COVID-19 negative report must for going to parties, restaurants in Goa: CM

    The Goa government decided not to impose night curfew in the coastal state for now so that the tourism business amid the Christmas-New Year festival season is not affected.

  • 60-plus population with co-morbidity will not require doctor certificate for precaution dose: Centre

    Such persons are expected to obtain the advice of their doctor before deciding to avail of the precaution dose or third dose.

  • After wife tests positive for COVID-19, Akhilesh takes break from public programmes

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: With his family members testing positive for COVID-19, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday said he will keep away from public programmes for three days as a precautionary measure.

    Taking to twitter, he wished the joint rally of alliance partners SP-Rashtriya Lok Dal in Iglas “immense success”.

    “Due to family members testing positive for coronavirus, I will not attend public programmes for three days as a precaution.

    “Best wishes for the immense success of today’s Iglas joint rally and appeal to all the workers to participate with full enthusiasm and energy,” Yadav tweeted in Hindi.

    He also attached his negative RT-PCR test certificate. The former chief minister’s wife and former SP MP Dimple Yadav had tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. “I am fully vaccinated and not showing any symptoms yet. I have isolated myself…I request all those who met me recently to get themselves tested,” she had said in a tweet.

    According to a government release, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath telephoned Yadav and inquired about the health of his “wife and daughter”, besides wishing them a speedy recovery.

    The SP, however, has not officially confirmed whether Yadav’s daughter has tested positive for the virus.

  • Normalisation of international flights will depend on Omicron situation: Civil Aviation Minister 

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Normalisation of international flight services will depend on the Omicron scenario and authorities concerned will watch the situation as it unfolds, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Tuesday.

    On November 26, aviation regulator DGCA decided to restart scheduled commercial international flights to and from India from December 15. However, the decision was put on hold in less than a week in the wake of the emergence of Omicron, the new COVID variant.

    ALSO READ: WHO expects increase in number of deaths, hospitalisations from COVID variant Omicron

    Last week, the watchdog said the flights will remain suspended till January 31. Scheduled commercial international passenger flights remain suspended since March 23, 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

    Currently, the flights are being operated under bilateral air bubble arrangements with various countries in a restricted manner.

    Speaking at a summit organised by industry body CII on Tuesday, Scindia said normalisation of international flights would depend on the Omicron situation. “Keeping in mind the health, we cannot dissociate ourselves from COVID. We are working closely with the health ministry. When we tide over Omicron, we can look at going back to normalcy even vis-a-vis international travel but I cannot give you the date today.

    ALSO READ: First Omicron death in UK, variant spreading rapidly

    “It is not incumbent on me, there are host of other factors, other ministries that I have to coordinate with and watch the situation as it unfolds over the next couple of weeks,” he said. Talking about the domestic air traffic, Scindia said today it is ranging between 3.7 to 3.9 lakh passengers per day.

    Pre-COVID, the highest was close to 4.2 lakh passengers per day. The domestic capacity was increased in a “very gradual and monitored process” and on October 18, the government allowed 100 per cent capacity for domestic airlines.

    “Today, we are running 3.7 to 3.9 lakh passengers per day and on a seat load factor basis of 75-81 per cent, which is a very healthy seat load factor.

    ALSO READ : Omicron cases in India climb to 49; spreads to more countries

    Keeping that in mind, I was looking at opening up international travel but as you all are aware, just on the anvil of that the world got hit by Omicron,” Scindia said.

    Replying to a query, the minister said every country has different rules with regard to international travel right now and understandably so.

    “It depends on various countries’ risk appetite and you cannot disagree with what each individual country determines its risk appetite is that decision is best left to individual countries rather than for us to impose a world wide sort of rules,” he noted.

  • Prioritize investments in primary health care for universal health coverage: WHO

    At the meeting, ministers emphasized the importance of the PHC approach to achieve UHC and health system resilience.

  • COVID-infected UK returnee tests negative for Omicron variant

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: A woman, who was found infected with COVID-19 here after returning from the UK, tested negative for the Omicron variant of coronavirus, a health department official said on Monday.

    She contracted the Delta Plus strain of coronavirus, he said. The woman was found positive for the disease on December 10, and her sample was sent for genome sequencing to ascertain whether she had contracted the new Omicron variant, which has been classified as a highly transmissible virus of concern.

    “We have received the report of the UK returnee. She is infected with Delta Plus which is prevalent in the state,” the official said. The woman, a resident of Alipore area of the city, is undergoing treatment at a private hospital here.

    A Bangladesh returnee had also tested positive for COVID-19 in the state, and his sample was sent for genome sequencing. “Genome sequencing result of his sample is awaited,” the official said. The man is undergoing treatment at the Beleghata ID and BG Hospital, he added.

  • SC directs Centre to reply on plea seeking revival of vaccine PSUs to boost COVID-19 vaccination

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Monday directed the Centre to file reply on a plea seeking to revive the vaccine public sector units and utilise their full production capabilities by placement of purchase orders.

    A bench comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and A S Bopanna asked the Centre to respond to the plea within four weeks after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said notice is not needed in the matter as this would be in the domain of policy decision.

    “We want to know what is the policy of the government. SG appears for Centre and states that a reply will be filed by four weeks. A rejoinder may be filed within three weeks thereafter. List the matter after the pleadings are complete,” the bench said.

    Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati also appeared for the Centre. Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves appeared for the petitioners. The top court was hearing a plea filed by former IAS Amulya Ratna Nanda, All India Drug Action Network, Low Cost Standard Therapeutics and Medico Friend Circle to grant functional autonomy to vaccine public sector units and put these PSUs to use especially after public funds were spent to make them Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) compliant.

    The plea said these PSUs should be granted “full autonomy” as envisaged in the Javid Chowdhary report, on vaccine production in the public sector units, of 2010 to ensure their complete revival and smooth functioning in the future.

    It stated no PSUs should be excluded from producing any vaccine or from government vaccine procurement, as long as quality and affordability are ensured.

    Referring to a 2016 order of the top court, in which the government had agreed to take action to revive the PSUs, the plea said the vaccine manufacturing facilities that were catering to 80-85 per cent of the demand prior to their suspension continued to languish wastefully despite their modernisation and capacity expansion.

    “India is home to the oldest vaccine PSUs, with 25 of them set up under the British Raj. By the 1980s, 29 PSUs were set up with the sole objective of self-reliance and self-sufficiency in vaccine production for the Universal Immunisation Programme introduced in 1986 to prevent mortality and morbidity amongst children in India as part of the global effort by the World Health Organisation,” the plea said.

  • MP: Dead man gets COVID-19 vaccination certificate in Madhya Pradesh’s Rajgarh

    By PTI

    RAIGARH: A deceased senior citizen allegedly received a message about having taken the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and got a certificate for the same in Madhya Pradesh’s Rajgarh district, an official said on Saturday.

    The authorities have cited computer error as a reason for the goof-up, in which Purushottam Shakyawar (78) of Biaora town, who died in May, received a message on his mobile phone number that he was administered the second dose of the vaccine on December 3.

    According to the deceased man’s son Phool Singh Shakyawar, they received the message on December 3 and were also able to download the vaccine certificate.

    Shakyawar said his father had taken the first dose of the vaccine on April 8, and had died on May 24 while undergoing treatment in Indore.

    When asked about the goof-up, District Vaccination Officer Dr P L Bhagoria said he had received information about the matter and was inquiring into it. A glitch in the computer might have generated such a message, he said.

    Biaora’s block medical officer Dr Sharad Sahu said that since vaccination is being carried out on a large scale, someone might have entered the wrong mobile phone number while making an entry, and the mistake will be rectified.

    Meanwhile, Congress MLA from Biaora Ramchandra Dangi alleged that the state government was misleading people by presenting the wrong data of vaccination.

    Such incidents were exposing the government’s claim and a high-level inquiry should be conducted into all such cases, he said.

  • Maintain strict vigil on Covid situation with focussed district-level measures: Centre to states

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Drawing attention towards three states where eight districts have been reporting over 10 per cent Covid positivity rate, the Centre has asked all states and union territories to maintain strict watch on the situation with focussed district-level measures for containment of clusters of new cases.

    In a letter to states and union territories (UTs), Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said 19 districts in Kerala, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Puducherry, Manipur, West Bengal and Nagaland have been reporting positivity rates between five and 10 per cent in the last two weeks.

    The COVID-19 positivity rate has been more than 10 per cent in eight districts in Mizoram, Kerala and Sikkim in the last two weeks, he said. “Thus, these 27 districts need to be monitored very closely,” Bhushan said in the letter.

    He said that in this context, it is imperative for states and UTs to maintain a strict watch on the situation with focussed district-level measures for the containment of clusters of new COVID-19 cases.

    “In case of any district reporting a surge in cases, or rise in positivity rates, intensive action and local containment as per the containment framework must be initiated,” Bhushan said.

    “The strategic containment interventions in identified areas with test positivity rate of over 10 per cent or over 60 per cent bed occupancy on either two supported or ICU beds, include night curfews, restricting intermingling of people, prohibition of congregations (social, political, sports, entertainment, academic, cultural, religious, festival-related), curtailment of attendees in marriages and funerals or last rites, etc,” he said.

    Testing and surveillance interventions include ramping up testing and active case search, testing of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) cases through rapid antigen tests (RAT) and retesting by RTPCR of symptomatic RAT negative tests, the secretary said.

    “Strict adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour at all places and at all times must also be rigorously enforced and aggressively monitored,” Bhushan said.

    He said that adequate advance information to the community, highlighting the need for stringent containment actions to achieve community involvement and support are also mandated in the framework issued by the health ministry.

    The actions can also be reviewed regularly at the state level to ensure strict adherence to guidelines, Bhushan said.