Month: April 2021

With India reporting 96,982 cases new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the country has over 7.8 lakh active cases.

According to the union health ministry, the total number of COVID-19 cases in the country has reached 1,26,86,049. With 446 new deaths, the death toll in India has gone up to 1,65,547. Furthermore, 50,143 people were discharged after recovery on Monday, taking the nationwide recovery tally to 1,17,32,279.
According to the Centre, COVID-19 is spreading at a faster rate than the previous wave in India.

“The pandemic is spreading faster as compared to the previous wave. In some states, it is worse than others but the upswing is happening all across the nation,” said Dr VK Paul, Member (Health), Niti Aayog on Tuesday.

The Centre also mentioned that of the top 10 districts having the most active COVID-19 cases in the country, seven are from Maharashtra, one from Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, and Delhi, each.

Maharashtra reported 55,469 new COVID-19 cases, 34,256 recoveries, and 297 deaths in the last 24 hours, the state health department informed on Tuesday.

According to the state government’s data, the active number of COVID-19 cases in the state stands at 4,72,283.

Out of 55,469 new COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra, 10,030 cases were reported in Mumbai. The total count of COVID-19 cases in Mumbai now stands at 4,72,332.

Delhi reported as many as 5,100 new Covid-19 cases and 17 related in the last 24 hours, as per the latest figures released by the health department of the National Capital on Tuesday. This was the highest single-day spike of coronavirus infections in the national capital this year.

The Delhi government has imposed a night curfew in the national capital from 10 pm to 5 am. The order will be imposed with immediate effect till April 30.

Punjab reported 2,924 fresh COVID-19 cases, 2,350 discharges, and 62 deaths today. The cumulative COVID-19 cases in the state stand at 2,57,057.

Union Health Minister Dr Harshvardhan on Tuesday said that 80 per cent of Covid-19 cases in Punjab has UK variant of the virus and asserted that the reasons behind the surge in fresh infections could be marriages, local body elections and farmers protest.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan also said that the number of deaths due to COVID-19 being reported in Punjab and Chhattisgarh is a cause of extreme concern.

Punjab has registered 62 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 7,216.

With 3,722 new cases reported in Madhya Pradesh, the active cases in the state now stand at 24,155.

There are 14,080 active cases in Haryana. The state has recorded 2,099 new cases of COVID-19 taking the total count of the infection to 3,02,272 while the death toll mounted to 3,208.

The cumulative cases of COVID-19 in Gujarat have mounted to 3,24,878, while the active cases in the state are 17,348.

The Gujarat government on Tuesday have announced that a night curfew will be imposed in 20 cities of the state between 8 pm to 6 am from April 7.

Meanwhile, the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 8.40 crore on Tuesday.

According to a provisional report issued by the union health ministry on Tuesday, a total of 5,62,807 vaccine doses was given till 8 pm today. (ANI)

Amid the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Pakistan, a report published in an American publication has said that Islamabad will take around a decade to vaccinate 75 per cent of its population in contrast with the developed countries which would take a much shorter period.

According to a Bloomberg report cited by Arab News, countries like the US, Britain and Israel were likely to reach the 75 percent target within three months while others like Pakistan were expected to immunise the same level of their population in about a decade. As per the same report, India will acquire herd immunity through vaccination in a little over three years.
This comes amid the rising number of cases in Pakistan which has lead to increased restrictions, broader lockdowns and stronger standard operating procedures.

“Increased restrictions, broader lockdowns and stronger sops (Standard operating procedure) enforcement are starting to have effect. Initial signs of positivity slowing. However, due to momentum of last 2 weeks patients on critical care and mortality will stay at high levels for some time. Please follow sops and be safe,” Asad Umar, chairman of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) tweeted.

The latest report also said that countries like Germany and France were likely to acquire herd immunity through vaccination in about a year.

Taking Pakistan’s current situation in account, the report also raised concern over the issue due to the “general indifference to medical problems once they stop bothering rich countries.”

As many as 3953 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours. The total number of COVID-19 cases in the country has reached 696,184.

Amid the growing concerns over the spread of COVID-19 ahead of Ramadan, Pakistan last Sunday had reported 3,568 coronavirus patients, who are under critical care. This is the highest number ever since the pandemic started. (ANI)

Justice Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana, who will take over as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India on April 24, guided the legal service authorities to provide assistance to vulnerable groups during the challenge posed by COVID-19 as executive chairman of NALSA (National Legal Services Authority).

The Legal Service Authorities (LSAs) were at the forefront of providing legal, non-legal, and financial assistance under the leadership of Justice Ramana.
They swiftly adapted to revaluate their operating model in view of the COVID-19 situation.

Many of its activities, imperative for achieving access to justice for all, had to be shifted from offline to online mode.

Through technological interventions, the LSAs provided legal advice and assistance, carried out outreach and legal awareness activities and coordinated with other government departments and NGOs.

Assistance to vulnerable groups became the prime focus of LSAs and during the COVID-19 pandemic (lockdown and unlock period) the LSAs provided legal aid and assistance in 2,878 domestic violence cases.

The LSAs also assisted around 60 lakh migrant workers along with 36,435 stranded persons across the country. Over 1,04,084 senior citizens were also assisted by the LSAs.

Justice Ramana was designated as the Executive Chairman of the National Legal Services Authority on November 27, 2019. At the inception of his tenure, on December 6, 2019, he released a ‘Vision 2020’ document which chalked out the roadmap for future activities of NALSA.

During Justice Ramana’s tenure, NALSA introduced new programmes and visions for LSAs and activities and systems already adopted by the authorities were also strengthened.

The LSAs also assisted around 60 lakh migrant workers along with 36,435 stranded persons across the country. Over 1,04,084 Senior citizens were also assisted by the LSAs.

Despite the pandemic, the LSAs successfully conducted National and State Lok Adalats, wherein over 48 lakh cases were disposed of in State and National Lok Adalats. In such Lok Adalats, over 21 Lakh cases were disposed of at pre-litigation stage. The total settlement amount in the cases settled at Lok Adalats was over Rs 16,900 crores.

During such period LSAs also implemented the Victim Compensation Scheme. Compensation amounting to Rs 2,18,81,99,800 was awarded.

Justice Ramana highlighted the need to enhance the quality of the legal services provided to the marginalized sections of the society. LSAs developed measures to standardize the performance of the workforce engaged to provide such legal services. ‘Handbook of Formats: Ensuring Effective Legal Services’ was prepared.

Alternate Dispute Resolution Mechanisms regularly organised by the LSAs including Lok Adalats and Mediations were also shifted online. Transformed into e-Lok Adalats, over 24 organised the online form of the ADR mechanism. From June 2020 to February 2021, more than 4.11 lakh cases were settled in e-Lok Adalats. Out of these cases 1.23 lakh cases were pre-litigative and 2.88 lakh were pending cases.

Justice Ramana had focused on early access to justice at all stages of criminal proceedings.

Legal assistance was provided at pre-arrest, arrest and remand stages. Legal assistance was provided to 4,313 suspects at pre-arrest stage, 5,031 arrestees, and 76,087 persons at remand stage.

A total o f36,233 bail applications were filed wherein bail was granted to 20,825 accused. Moreover, appeals of 3,756 convicts were filed in High Courts.

President Ram Nath Kovind appointed Justice Ramana as the next Chief Justice of India on April 6. He will be the 48th CJI of the country and will have a term till August 26, 2022.

Justice Ramana, born in an agricultural family on August 27, 1957, is a first-generation lawyer and hails from Ponnavaram Village in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh.

He enrolled as an advocate on February 10, 1983 and practiced in the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, Central and Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunals, and the Supreme Court of India in Constitutional, Civil, Labour, Service and Election matters.

During his practice years, he was a panel counsel for various government organizations and as additional standing counsel for Railways in the Central Administrative Tribunal at Hyderabad before rendering services as Additional Advocate General of Andhra Pradesh.

Justice Ramana was appointed as a permanent judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on June 27, 2000. He also functioned as acting Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court from March 10, 2013 to May 20, 2013.

Thereafter, he was transferred to Delhi as its Chief Justice before he was elevated to the Supreme Court.

He has been the judge in the Supreme Court since February 17, 2014.

Justice Ramana had also worked as a journalist for a leading Telugu newspaper for a brief time before becoming a full-fledged lawyer.

As a Supreme Court judge, Justice Ramana rendered many major judgments including that which brought an end a year-long internet ban in Jammu and Kashmir in 2020 after the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution in August 2019.

Justice Ramana had said that the Internet ban in Jammu and Kashmir without limiting it to a particular duration is not only a violation of the telecom rules but also of the freedom of speech and expression granted by the Constitution.

In another judgement, Justice Ramana breathed transparency into the office of the Chief Justice of India and brought it under the ambit of the Right to Information Act.

In Shiv Sena vs. State of Maharashtra case, his judgment to conduct a floor test paved way for reducing horse-trading.

He gave a judgment directing that the pending corruption cases against politicians were to be decided in a time-bound manner.

While dealing with the issue of inordinate delays in criminal investigations and trials relating to elected politicians (MPs and MLAs) in the case of Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay vs Union of India, Justice Ramana has passed numerous directions to streamline and expedite the same.

The court observed that such measures were necessary as “legislators are the repositories of the faith and trust of their electorate, there is a necessity to be aware of the antecedents of the person that is/was elected. Ensuring the purity of democratically elected institutions is thus the hallmark of the present proceedings”. (ANI)

Bollywood’s ageless beauty Madhuri Dixit on Tuesday treated fans to a special video of her grooving to the famous ‘Ek Do Teen Char’ on the sets of ‘Dance Deewane’.

Madhuri took to Instagram and shared a fun video as she recreated the choreography of the song with dancers Shakti Mohan and Punit Pathak, and fellow judge Tushar Kalia between a shot.

In the video, the actor is seen dressed in a yellow designer suit and donning a white dupatta and matching jewellery. Madhuri looks drop-dead gorgeous as she gracefully performs the dancing steps, and the fellow judges on the show couldn’t stop themselves from joining in.

Taking to the caption, the 53-year-old noted down the lyrics of the popular song from the 1988 film ‘Tezaab’.

She wrote, ” Ek do teen,” and added a dancing girl emoticon.

Celebrity followers including filmmaker and choreographer Farah Khan Kunder and more than one lakh fans liked the post on the photo-sharing platform. Scores of fans dropped in heart eyes emoticons as they adored the video.

The song ‘Ek Do Teen’ from Madhuri’s starrer ‘Tezaab’ is a much-loved song from the film. Crooned by Alka Yagnik, the song was choreographed by late choreographer Saroj Khan. The song was later remade for ‘Baaghi 2’, with Jacqueline Fernandez. (ANI)

Despite big promises made by Chinese President Xi Jinping to provide safe and effective vaccines as a ‘global public good’, the country’s vaccine diplomacy has not seen the major success that it had expected, at least in Southeast Asia.

Richard Javad Heydarian wrote for Al Jazeera that Chinese-developed vaccines have been met with significant scepticism in the region due to questions about their distribution, effectiveness and pricing. This situation poses a major challenge for China’s vaccine diplomacy.

Last year, trials of Chinese were launched in 18 while it endorsed its overseas aid as a new “Health Silk Road”, part of its much-vaunted Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) investments across the world.

However, Chinese vaccine makers suffered serious production delays and lack of capacity while doubts were raised when Sinovac production levels reached only half of the intended manufacturing capacity in January.

Indonesia, which became a major hub for Chinese clinical trials, suffered a delay in shipments and received smaller amounts of doses. Furthermore, Myanmar is yet to receive around 3,00,000 doses promised by China, instead, it received 1.5 million doses from India, Heydarian wrote for Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, a major point of concern is pointed towards the efficacy of these vaccines, with international criticism focused on Chinese companies’ lack of transparency over results from the final phase of clinical trials, which show an abysmal efficacy rate of 50.4 per cent.

Heydarian also pointed that Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and his health secretary, who are staunch supporters of Beijing, are yet to take a Chinese vaccine.

Meanwhile, Vietnam, which is currently embroiled in maritime disputes with China on control over the South China Sea, has rejected Chinese-made vaccines. Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore are also relying on vaccine imports from other countries.

China’s initial advantage in vaccine diplomacy is likely to disappear over the coming months as other major players are stepping up, Heydarian writes.

US President Joe Biden has pledged to provide up to two billion doses to the poorest nations and launched a new initiative under the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) with Australia, India and Japan.

Moreover, European countries and Russia are also likely to challenge China’s ability to leverage vaccine provision in Southeast Asia and beyond.

China has been criticised widely across the world for its alleged role in the spread of the novel coronavirus that has infected over 131 people across the globe and claimed more than 2.8 million lives. (ANI)

Despite the spike in COVID-19 cases, the Union Health Ministry does not plan to end the holy congregation, Kumbh Mela in Haridwar, prematurely and is hoping that standard operating procedures (SOPs) are being followed there.

On being asked if Kumbh Mela can be a super-spreader of COVID-19, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said, “As the super spreader events are concerned, the union government almost a month ago issued an SOP, specifically for practices to be adopted in Kumbh and had a long meeting with the state government’s officers.”

“One fact that we usually lose sight of is that the duration of Kumbh has already been curtailed, Kumbh wherever it happens is usually for three and a half to four months, the present Kumbh has been curtailed to a month,” he added.

Dr VK Paul, the Member (Health) of the NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog said, “We hope that the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) issued for Kumbh Mela is being followed.”

A senior official in the Central government, during a Secretary-level meeting over the COVID-19 situation in the country on Monday, expressed apprehension that the ongoing Kumbh might become a “super spreader”, according to a top source in the government.

The source said the government is worried about the Kumbh and discussed this at a high-level meeting on Monday.

“If the government does not decide to end Kumbh before the stipulated time, it may become a COVID-19 ‘super spreader’,” a member in the high-level meeting said.

“The government is forming a team that will appeal to all with the help of sadhus and religious leaders to ensure pilgrims, who are visiting the Kumbh, wear masks and follow social distancing,” the source told ANI.

Kumbh is held periodically at four different locations in India — Nashik, Haridwar, Prayagraj, and Ujjain — every four years.

In normal circumstances, Kumbh continues for nearly four months but this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the duration of the congregation has been curtailed to one month. (ANI)

As many as 5,100 new Covid-19 cases and 17 related deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours in the national capital, as per the latest figures released by the health department of Delhi on Tuesday. This was the highest single-day spike of coronavirus infections in the national capital this year.

The city’s positivity rate stands at 4.93 per cent while the cumulative positivity rate is at 4.54 per cent. Total samples tested were 1,03,453 in the last 24 hours. There are 17,332 active COVID-19 cases in Delhi.

The infection tally in the national capital has gone up to 6,85,062 and a total of 11,113 fatalities due to the disease have been recorded so far.

As many 6,56,617 people have recovered from COVID-19 so far with 2,340 recoveries recorded in the last 24-hours.

Over one lakh COVID-19 tests, including around 70,000 RT-PCR, were conducted in the last 24 hours in the city.

The Delhi government has imposed a night curfew in the national capital from 10 pm to 5 am. The order will be imposed with immediate effect till April 30.

“People who want to get Covid-19 vaccination will be exempted but will have to get an e-pass. Shopkeepers selling essential goods like groceries, fruits, vegetables, milk, and medicine will be allowed to move after getting an e-pass. Print and electronic media will also be allowed to move only through e-pass,” the Delhi government’s order stated.

Commuters, who fall in the essential category, will be allowed to travel in Delhi Metro during the night curfew.

“All metro users are requested who not fall in the essential category may complete the journey and reach their destination by 10 pm as you are not allowed to travel after 10 pm to 5 am in the night in metro as per govt order till April 30,” DMRC tweeted. (ANI)

In view of rising Covid-19 cases, the Delhi government of Tuesday imposed a night curfew in the national capital from 10 pm to 5 am.

The order will be imposed with immediate effect till April 30.
Delhi reported 3,548 new Covid-1919 cases, 2,936 recoveries, and 15 deaths on Monday. With this, total cases in the national capital reached 6,79,962, including 14,589 active cases.

Meanwhile, India reported more than 96,982 cases new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, informed the Union Health Ministry on Tuesday. (ANI)

Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Delhi major contributors to COVID-19 cases in last 24 hours

New Delhi [India], April 5 (ANI): Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Delhi accounted for a large number of new COVID-19 cases reported in a span of 24 hours in the country.

Maharashtra has reported 47,288 new COVID-19 cases and 155 deaths in the last 24 hours. At present, the case fatality rate in the state stands at 1.83 per cent. Out of the 2,07,15,793 laboratory samples, which were taken until today, 30,57,885 (14.76 per cent) have tested positive for Covid-19. The state presently has 4,51,375 active cases.
With the new deaths in the last 24 hours, the COVID-19 death toll mounts to 56,033 in Maharashtra.

Karnataka reported 5,279 new COVID-19 cases, including 3,728 cases in Bengaluru Urban. A total of 32 people lost their lives due to the deadly virus and 1,856 people were discharged in the last 24 hours.

Delhi reported 3,548 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours and 15 more people have succumbed to the virus. According to Delhi Health Department, the city’s positivity rate stands at 5.54 per cent while the cumulative positivity rate is 4.54 per cent. A total of 64,003 samples were tested in the last 24 hours.

Rajasthan has reported 2,429 new COVID-19 cases and 12 deaths. A total of 527 recoveries have been reported in the state.

Kerala reported 2,357 COVID-19 cases. The number of active cases now reached 28,372. So far 11,04,225 patients have recovered from the disease in the state.

Andhra Pradesh has reported 1,326 new COVID-19 cases. Five people lost their lives due to a deadly virus. In the past 24 hours, a total of 911 recoveries have been reported in the state.

In Tamil Nadu, as many as 3,672 new COVID-19 cases have been reported here. 11 people lost their lives and a total of 1,842 people got discharged from the hospitals.

Uttarakhand has reported 547 new COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to 1,02,811.

A total of 567 new COVID-19 cases have been reported in Himachal Pradesh. Six people have lost their lives due to a deadly virus. A total of 286 people got discharged.

The Centre has, meanwhile, rushed 50 high-level public health teams to Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, and Punjab for COVID-19 control and containment measures. (ANI)