Tag: World Health Organisation (WHO)

Coronavirus scare: Cases in India climb to 125

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The number of novel coronavirus cases in the country rose to 125 on Tuesday after fresh cases were reported from several states.

The cases include 22 foreign nationals and two persons who died in Delhi and Karnataka. Delhi has so far reported seven positive cases while Uttar Pradesh has recorded 13 cases including one foreigner.

Karnataka has 8 coronavirus patients while Maharashtra 39 including 3 foreigners.?Ladakh has reported four cases while Jammu and Kashmir three. Telangana has reported four cases.

Rajasthan has also reported four cases including that of two foreigners. Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab have reported one case each. Odhisha reported its first case on Monday.

In Haryana all the fourteen infected with the virus are foreigners while Uttarakhand has reported one case. Kerala has recorded 24 cases including two foreign nationals. The number also includes three patients who were discharged last month after they recovered from the contagious infection with flu-like symptoms.

According to the ministry’s data, 13 people have been discharged so far, including the three Kerala patients. Two persons infected with the virus have died so far. While a 76-year-old man from Kalaburagi who returned from Saudi Arabia died on Tuesday last, a 68-year-old woman in Delhi who had tested positive for coronavirus passed away at the Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital on Friday night.

Amid rising coronavirus cases in India, the government has said no community transmission of the virus has been observed and there have only been a few cases of local transmission so far.

With the World Health Organisation (WHO) declaring COVID-19 a pandemic, a health ministry official said over 52 000 people who had come in contact with the 125 positive cases have been identified through contact tracing and were under vigorous surveillance.

He said all essential facilities like community surveillance, quarantine, isolation wards, adequate personal protective equipment (PPEs), trained manpower, rapid response teams are being strengthened further in all states and union territories.

With the positive cases of COVID-19 showing an increase, the government has proposed a set of social distancing measures to be in force till March 31.

“Travel of passengers from member countries of the European Union, the European Free Trade Association, Turkey and United Kingdom to India is prohibited with effect from 18th March 2020,” Lav Aggarwal, the Joint Secretary in the ministry said on Monday.

“No airline shall board a passenger from these nations to India with effect from 1200 GMT on 18th March 2020. The airline shall enforce this at the port of initial departure,” he had said.

Both these instructions are temporary measures and shall be in force till March 31 2020 and will be reviewed subsequently, he had said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Coronavirus scare: India’s Dr Gagandeep Kang on key facts that you should know

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus, also known as the COVID-19, has now infected more than 92,000 people across 70 countries. However, it is important to note that more than half of those infected have recovered, that is over 47,000 people and over 3,000 have died.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has already declared the outbreak as a ”global emergency” but has not declared it as pandemic yet and has warned that we are entering into “unchartered territory”.

Data shows that daily new cases outside China are three times more than the case inside mainland China.

In India, over the last 24 hours, 3 people have tested positive in Delhi, Hyderabad and Jaipur. A school in Noida has been shut for 3 days and 40 students are in isolation. Six people in Agra are suspected to have come into contact with the Delhi patient, they are also in isolation.

The Indian government has expanded universal screening to cover all passengers coming in from 12 countries. Italy and Iran are the latest additions to the list. The government has also suspended all visas and e-visas granted to nationals from Italy, Iran, South Korea and Japan. Visas from China have already been suspended.

Amidst, all these developments, Dr Gagandeep Kang answered all the queries related to the coronavirus outbreak in an interview with CNBC-TV18. Dr Kang is the director of the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute. She is also the vice chair at ‘the coalition for epidemic preparedness innovations’.

Dr Kang is a leading researcher with a major research focus on viral infections in children, and the testing of rotaviral vaccines. She has been awarded the prestigious Infosys prize in life sciences in 2016. In 2019, she became the first Indian woman to be elected as a royal society fellow.

When asked about how one could distinguishing the symptoms of COVID-19 from that of flu, she said, “You cannot distinguish the symptoms of flu from the symptoms that you have with COVID-19 disease. They are very similar. It is fever predominantly with coughs and colds. You can develop additional symptoms including diarrhoea and liver and kidney failure. Anytime you start feeling sick or you have a high fever, it is a good idea to go to a doctor and get yourself tested. This is particularly important if you have underlying conditions such as diabetes or hypertension or cardio-vascular disease or are an older individual. The treatment is almost identical, it is a supportive therapy.”

“Right now, it appears that children are less susceptible to COVID-19 disease. At least the data that we have seen coming out of China so far – it is the older adults that get the more severe infections and younger adults see less severe disease. Children seem to be spared and the few studies that are available on very young children don’t seem to show a lot of signs of disease. So, I think in terms of children, there does appear to be a better ability to handle infection if they are being exposed,” said Dr Kang.

In terms of number of government centers doing the testing, she added, “If you think about stratification, I did mention that you should go to doctors if you are feeling ill and that really is to get the right kind of medicine and the supportive therapy. It is not possible for everybody who has a cold, cough and fever to get tested with the limited amount of testing that is available in India and in fact, available around the world. So, in terms of testing to determine the burden of disease, we need a different strategy.”

“In terms of individuals, currently the strategy that we are following is risk based testing. So, if you have a prior exposure or you have come from a region where there is known disease, people are being tested. I think the government is doing the right thing in expanding testing. The US has also allowed for every laboratory that is accredited to institute testing, not just the labs that the CDC were supporting previously.’

“This might be something that we will need to think about in the coming days if cases and contacts of cases go up significantly,” she further mentioned.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Budget 2020 was bit disappointing; maintain year-end Sensex target of 44,500, says BNP Paribas

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Manishi Raychaudhuri of BNP Paribas discussed fundamentals of the market as well as shared his views and outlook on union budget 2020.

“Budget 2020 was a bit disappointing. We were expecting much stronger degree of attempts at growth stimulation. Even the personal income tax cuts that the finance minister (FM) talked about they would be more than neutralised by the fact that to opt for them some would have to give up pretty much all the exemptions. So the person may actually end up paying more,” said Raychaudhuri in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

According to him, the encouraging part of the budget was the incentives given to start-ups in the form of tax breaks on ESOPs. Also the incentive to sovereign wealth funds on infrastructure investments till March 2024 and the increase of 18 percent on capital expenditure – these were the three main points in the budget that were positive.

“At the same time, we think the dividend distribution tax (DDT) passed on to recipients would have an impact on the disposable incomes of the higher income bracket. All in all, the budget was a bit underwhelming, which is reflected in the market reaction,” he said.

The government had taken many steps previously and the most important one being the corporate tax cut, which came outside the budget. So, while the budget is just one step, economic reforms are a continuous ongoing process, he said. However, at the same time, I think the budget was an opportunity for the government to make a strong statement as far as longer-term economic policy is concerned. Going forward, one would expect pretty much – what we have seen of late – more of the same to continue,” he added.

“We would basically look forward to implementation of the steps that have been talked about and in particular, would look at that disinvestment number. It is a very tall promise that the government has made in this budget. That is the key number to be focused on going forward,” said Raychaudhuri adding that is a pretty significant aggressive target that the government has fixed for itself. If it does come through, I would be happy but at the outset looking at the numbers, we are a bit sceptical.

With regards to markets, he said, “The spread of the coronavirus is far more rapid than we had seen during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) episode. We have had data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and we know that in about 6-8 months of the SARS episode in 2002-2003 we had about 8,000 cases. Now in just a couple of months we have around 15,000-17,000 cases.”

However, the silver lining is that the present coronavirus is much less fatal than SARS – it was a 10 percent fatality rate at that point of time, this time around it seems to be about 2 percent.

“We think that the economic and market impact just like during SARS would be relatively short-lived. It can last for about one-two quarters, we have seen a pretty significant downside particularly to the north-Asian markets and we also think that this would have an economic rub-off particularly in north-Asia and particularly in greater China. However, just like the SARS episode, where we had about one to one and a half quarters of downside and then a pretty rapid recovery from April to July of 2003, we would expect this particular episode to be similar,” he said. Therefore, investors should brace for pretty sharp impact on economy and the markets but at the same time it could be short-lived. So long-term investors who are in this for about 2-3 years or longer should see that claw back or markets moving up eventually.

Sector specific, he said, “At this point in time I would still be relying on Indian private sector banks, on Indian insurance companies. I would also look at Indian tech, some of the Indian oil and gas companies – particularly the gas sector. Even some of the auto, some select consumer staples companies are looking interesting at this point of time.”

In terms of targets on Sensex, he said, “For the Sensex, we have a target of 44,500 by the end of this year, 2020. That is sometime away and we would expect the impact of the coronavirus spread or concerns surrounding it to die down, to subside by that time. We are not making any change to our targets for now.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Last given in 2014, government confers Gandhi Peace Prize for 2015-2018

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The government on Wednesday announced the names of the winners of the Gandhi Peace Prize, which was last conferred to the Indian Space Research Organisation in 2014, for 2015-2018.

The annual award, however, had not seen any winner since then.
It is given to individuals and institutions for their contribution towards social, economic and political transformation through non-violence and other Gandhian methods.

Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari won the award for 2015 for rural development and education, while for 2016, the award has been jointly given to Akshaya Patra Foundation for providing mid-day meals to children across the country and Sulabh International for its work towards emancipation of manual scavengers, a release from the ministry said.

For 2017, the award is given to Ekai Abhiyan Trust for their contribution to education for rural and tribal children and for last year the Gandhi Peace Prize will be given to Yohei Sasakawa, who is Goodwill Ambassador of the World Health Organisation for Leprosy Elimination, for his role in leprosy eradication.

The decision to confer these awards was taken at a meeting of the jury which included Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and L K Advani on Wednesday.

The award was instituted in 1995 during the commemoration of 125th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and is to be given annually.

It carries an award of Rs one crore, a citation a plaque and a handicraft item.
The award was jointly given in 2000 to Nelson Mandela and Grameen Bank of Bangladesh.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu won the award in 2005. After a gap of eight years in 2013, Chandi Prasad Bhatt, noted environmentalist associated with Chipko Movement, received the prize.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

India, 15 other African countries account for 80% of world’s malaria cases: WHO

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

India and 15 other countries in sub-Saharan Africa accounted for almost 80 percent of the malaria cases reported globally last year, according to a WHO report which notes that a whopping 1.25 billion people in India were at the risk of contracting the mosquito-borne disease.

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2018 World malaria report, however, in an encouraging note said that India was the only country to report progress in reducing its malaria cases in 2017 as compared with 2016.

It said five countries to account for nearly half of all malaria cases worldwide were Nigeria (25 percent), Democratic Republic of the Congo (11 percent), Mozambique (5 percent), India and Uganda (4 percent) both.

In all, 15 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and India carried almost 80 per cent of the global malaria burden. In India, 1.25 billion people in the population were at risk of malaria, the report said.

It said that targets to reduce global rates of infections and deaths from malaria were not being met.

The study reveals that while new cases fell steadily up until 2016, the number rose from 217 to 219 million in 2017: the targets set by the WHO Global technical strategy for malaria 20162030 call for a drop in malaria case incidence and death rates of at least 40 per cent by 2020.

The 10 highest burden countries in Africa reported increases in cases of malaria in 2017 compared with 2016.

Of these, Nigeria, Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo had the highest estimated increases, all greater than half a million cases.
In contrast, India reported three million fewer cases in the same period, a 24 decrease compared with 2016.

However, cases in the African countries rose by 3.5 million compared with the previous year.

Nearly 80 percent of global malaria deaths in 2017 were concentrated in 17 countries in the WHO African Region and India, the report said.

Seven of these countries accounted for 53 percent of all global malaria deaths: Nigeria (19 per cent), Democratic Republic of the Congo (11 percent), Burkina Faso (6 per cent), Tanzania (5 percent), Sierra Leone (4 percent), Niger (4 per cent) and India (4 percent).

The report noted that while India “had made impressive gains and was on track” to meet the Global technical strategy for malaria 20162030 targets, it still accounted for 4 percent of the global burden of malaria morbidity and 52 percent of deaths outside of the WHO African Region.

India was among the countries that detected high treatment failure rates and responded by changing their treatment policies, it said.

The report added that India and Indonesia were on track to achieve a 2040 percent reduction in case incidence by 2020.

The WHO, the main United Nations health agency, and its partners have launched a country-led ‘high burden to high impact’ response plan to coincide with the release of the report with the aim of scaling up prevention, treatment and investment to protect vulnerable people, and get reductions in malaria deaths and disease back on track.

The plan builds on the principle that no one should die from a disease that can be easily prevented and diagnosed, and that is entirely curable with available treatments.

“The world faces a new reality: as progress stagnates, we are at risk of squandering years of toil, investment and success in reducing the number of people suffering from the disease,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

“We recognise we have to do something different now,” Ghebreyesus said.
A positive note was struck in Paraguay, which has this year been certified as malaria free, the first country in the Americas to receive this status in 45 years.

The number of countries nearing elimination has now grown from 37 to 46, and three countries Algeria, Argentina and Uzbekistan have requested official malaria-free certification from the WHO.

Domestic financing has been identified as key to the success of the WHO’s malaria strategy.

The UN agency says that funding, which has levelled off, needs to reach at least $6.6 billion annually by 2020 more than double the amount available today.

Malaria kills an estimated 660,000 people each year.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow