1. Govt Plans to Double Capacity With 40,000 Ventilators, Flags Gap in Screening to States
The Union government ordered for the acquisition of 40,000 new ventilators and separately shot off a letter to all states to enhance efforts to track down the tens of thousands of people who have come back from abroad, intensifying on Friday surveillance and disease mitigation measures to tackle the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Both approaches have been identified by scientists and policy makers as the most crucial in the fight against the pandemic, which has the potential to spread silently and lead to an explosion of cases that could then overwhelm health care facilities and cause an acute shortage of ventilators. The breathing devices can make a difference of life and death for severely ill patients.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
2. India to Join WHO’s COVID-19 Trials
India is all set to join World Health Organisation’s “Solidarity trial” aimed at rapid global search for drugs to treat COVID-19. The country has stayed away so far from this multi-country trial “due to its small sample size and because our contribution would have looked minuscule,” said Head of Epidemiology and Communicable diseases at Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) R. Gangakhedkar on Friday.
The Solidarity Trial will test four different drugs or combinations — remdesivir, a combination of two drugs, lopinavir and ritonavir, the two drugs plus interferon beta, and chloroquine — and will compare their effectiveness to what is called standard of care, the regular support hospitals treating COVID-19 patients use now.
(Source: The Hindu)
3. One of 4 Terrorists in Kabul Sikh Attack is a 29-Year-Old Kerala Man
Indian intelligence agencies have confirmed that the terrorist killed in the Kabul Gurudwara attack, who was identified by the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) as Indian national Abu Khalid Al Hindi, is indeed an Indian, and from Kerala, although he left the country around six years ago and was radicalised by Pakistani Islamists in Dubai.
According to the Islamic State, Al Hindi carried out the March 25 Gurudwara attack to avenge the alleged plight of Muslims in Kashmir, but Indian intelligence officials say there is enough evidence to indicate that this is a classic case of a covert false flag operation with Pakistani deep state involvement.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
4. US Announces Additional $174 Million Aid to 64 Countries, Including $ 2.9 Million to India
The United States on Friday announced $174 million financial assistance to 64 countries including $2.9 million to India to help them fight the coronavirus pandemic.
This is in addition to the $100 million aid announced by the US in February.
The newly announced assistance is part of a larger American global response package across multiple departments and agencies, including the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The funding is for 64 of the most at-risk countries facing the threat of the global pandemic.
The US State Department said it is providing $2.9 million to help the Indian government prepare laboratory systems, activate case finding and event-based surveillance, and support technical experts for response and preparedness, and more.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
5. Mumbai Surgeon Whose Father Died Tests Positive, Search on for His Patients
An 85-year-old general surgeon died hours after he tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Mumbai on Thursday night. The primary test reports of his son, a cardiac surgeon in his late fifties, and grandson are positive; their confirmatory test reports are awaited.
The 85-year-old, who had underlying conditions of diabetes and heart disease, is suspected to have caught the infection from his grandson, who returned from the UK on 12 March. While his son was quarantined at their home in Girgaum, the cardiac surgeon continued his consultations at Sir HN Reliance Hospital and Saifee Hospital. He has claimed he stopped doing surgeries a week ago. Local authorities are now trying to trace his patients.
(Source: The Indian Express)
6. CM Leading Virus Fight: Welcome Centre’s Package, but Kerala Will Need Much More
The Centre’s announcement of a financial package to address the economic distress set off by the coronavirus crisis is a welcome step, but a state like Kerala cannot overcome the crisis in the long run unless liberal assistance is provided, the state’s Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, said.
Kerala, the chief minister told The Indian Express, hopes that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be “positive enough to understand the gravity” of the situation.
Vijayan said the state government fears major job losses in the Middle East, and that any global slowdown has a fallout on Kerala’s economy. The crisis in the United States and Europe too, will adversely impact Kerala’s IT and tourism industries, the chief minister said.
(Source: The Indian Express)
7. In Foreign Waters, Navy Prepares: Refuelling at Sea, Monitoring on Board
Just like the Army has set in place contingency plans at 6-hour notice to counter the coronavirus, the Navy, too, has put in a series of precautionary measures to prevent any outbreak on its ships by minimising port calls at foreign shores and continuous medical monitoring of its sailors.
This, even as it continues with its operations in international waters, including missions of geostrategic importance such as anti-piracy patrols off the coast of Africa.
“We have more than 20 ships out at sea at any point in time which includes coastal patrols and harbour patrols, besides the mission-based deployments in international waters. More than 3,000 Naval personnel are on board these vessels and all precautions are being taken in view of the Covid-19 pandemic,” a government official told The Indian Express.
(Source: The Indian Express)
8. First Electron Microscope Image of COVID-19 Virus From India Released
The first images from India of what the coronavirus looks like are out. The images of the coronavirus have been taken by a team of ICMR-NIV scientists in Pune. The images have been captured using a transmission electron microscope and have been published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research.
The images of Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, are from the throat swab of the first laboratory confirmed case in India reported on January 30. The woman, among three students studying medicine in Wuhan in China, was diagnosed with COVID-19 after returning to India.
The gene sequencing of the samples from Kerala done at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune found that the virus was a 99.98 per cent match with the virus in Wuhan.
(Source: NDTV)
9. Infosys Employee Arrested Over ‘Spread-The-Virus’ Post, Company Sacks Him
An Infosys employee in Bengaluru has been arrested by the City Crime Branch (CCB) for a shocking social media post urging people to "go out and sneeze" and spread the highly contagious COVID-19 virus that has infected over 700 people across the country and killed at least 17 others.
"Let's join hands, go out and sneeze with open mouth in public. Spread the virus," Mujeeb Mohammed, a resident of the city for 25 years, wrote on Facebook.
"The person who put this post, saying people should go out and sneeze and spread the virus, has been detained. His name is Mujeeb and he works in a software company. A case has been registered," Sandeep Patil, Joint Commissioner (CCB, Bengaluru).
(Source: NDTV)
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