Tag: Covid 19

News & Politics Viral

Narendra Modi Appreciated Bhutanese And Nepalese Contribution Towards COVID-19 Fund

HT News

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to thank Bhutan and Nepal for their contribution to the COVID-19 emergency fund to help SAARC countries in battling coronavirus outbreak.

PM Modi proposed emergency funds

On March 15, Prime Minister Modi proposed setting of an emergency fund for SAARC members. Also, he donated USD 10 million for the purpose. He suggested setting of COVID-19 fund while addressing the SAARC leaders and representatives via video conferencing.

He said that it was wonderful to see SAARC leaders taking initiatives that were adding strength to the collective fight against coronavirus. He further said that it shows their commitment to the collective fight against the pandemic.

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News & Politics Viral

Myths Surrounding The Intensity Of COVID-19

HT News

COVID-19 became a known thing to science within a few months of coming into the world. It arrived from oblivion and spread like a wildfire. Today, it has taken the entire world in its grip but there seems to be no end to this pandemic.

Some most important and unanswered questions about COVID-19

Q.How does it spread?

The SARS-CoV-2 has infected over 2 million people in the world and resulted in over 10,000 deaths. It is passed through tiny droplets from coughing and sneezing.

Q: Is there any fear of reinfection

It is largely unknown but some people in China and Japan got re-infected from the virus. But it could be a low level of infection from the earlier infection.

Q: What is the number of coronavirus cases in the US?

Until the US start mass testing for COVID-19, determining number of infected cases could be anybody’s guess. There could be people with mild infection or the number could be scary.

Q: How deadly COVID-19 is?

Presently, some countries are facing higher deaths than others. Wuhan, the epicentre of infection, has a death rate of 1.4% but it was 5.8% in late February. On the contrary, South Korea’s due to COVID-19 is less than 1%.

Q. Is it seasonal?

Some viruses become less transmissible in high temperature and it is expected that COVID-19 will also become less intense in the coming months but it would be too early to say anything about this deadly virus.

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News & Politics

All Exams In The Country Postponed Till March 31

HT News

The educational ministry asked all educational institutions including Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to postpone all exams till March 31 in view of coronavirus outbreak.

HRD secretary Amit Khare, in an official communication, said that the while maintenance of academic calendar and exam schedule was important, equally important was safety and security of students that were appearing in various exams as also of their teachers and parents.

Exams postponed

The order applies to CBSE-affiliated schools that are conducting tests of 10 and 12 classes; National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE Main) and all autonomous organisations under the education ministry.

But the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (ICSE) is allowed to conduct board exams for 10 and 12 classes.

The announcement of postponement of exams was made amid the increasing number of coronavirus cases in India. It was the latest in the curbs put across the country to contain spread of COVID-19.

Fresh coronavirus cases reported

There were only 14 coronavirus cases reported since Tuesday but what is more worrisome is that the Indian Army also reported a coronavirus case. The armed forces have decided to strengthen their measures to check spread of COVID-19.

The soldiers coming from home will be checked for flu-like symptoms. Also, non-essential leaves of soldiers including leaves for conferences are cancelled till further order. Meanwhile the Human Resource Development Ministry announced to hold e-classes on Swayam Prabha DTH channels for school students.

Source: https://bit.ly/2Uj8sg2

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International

University Of Hawaii Athletics Refunding Tickets Of Cancelled Matches Due To COVID-19

HT News

Following the NCAA announcement on March 12, 2020, the Big West Board of Directors decided to cancel all spring conference and non-conference competition and championship events for the 2020 season. The NCAA announced cancelling of all 2020 spring championships.

Athletics Director David Matlin’s opinion on the cancelling of championships

He said he was truly heartbroken for his student-athletes, especially seniors, many of whom won’t be able to experience their senior day game. Be he supported the decision of NCAA and the Big West Conference to cancel the winter and spring seasons. He further said that it was a disappointing news but their top priority was for the health and safety of student-athletes and staff. Also, he thanked the fans that supported UH Athletes. Updated information is provided on HawaiiAthletics.com.

2020 Baseball & Men’s Volleyball Refund Policy and Procedures

Season Ticket Holders for Baseball & Men’s Volleyball

Viewers are provided 3 prorated refund options

  1. Prorated refund: A refund cheque to the tune of the amount for tickets bought with cash or cheque will be mailed to address of the buyers in 6-10 weeks from the April 10 deadline.
  2. Credit towards 2021 season tickets in the same sport.
  3. Buyers can credit their refund towards 2020-2021 H-Club membership.

Buyers are asked to choose their options before April 10, 2020.

Season Parking and MVB VIP Lounge Pass Refunds

Purchaser will get refund through cheques mailed to their addresses in 6-8 weeks starting April 10, 2020.

Single Game Ticket Purchasers

Buyers will get full refund of their tickets for the cancelled games.

Source: https://bit.ly/2xPyVtX

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International Viral

United Way Creating Pandemic Response Fund To Fight COVID-19

HT News

The United Way of Miami is working with funders to create a fund to help combat the ongoing outbreak of COVID-19. The President & CEO Maria Alonso of this nonprofit said in an email that the organization was working with funders to activate a Miami-Dade Pandemic Response Fund to help individuals, organizations and charities.

Maria Alonso explained the fund

He said that the fund would be used to allocated resources to those battling the COVID-19 pandemic in different ways from short-term impacts to long-term resilience of the community. The community invited hundreds of seniors to identify people that need home meal-delivery services. The organization is also working Miami-Dade County Public Schools with the district’s meal outreach.

The volunteers and staffers of the organization provide help in sorting, packing and handout meals to students and families of different schools including Comstock Elementary School, Miami MacArthur Educational Center, North Miami Elementary School and Santa Clara Elementary School.

Also, the United Way has created a web page for convenience of its users. The page will provide information about volunteer needs. Also, it will allow people to sing up for volunteer service for future events.

United Way findings

The nonprofit organization found that 59% of community families were living on one emergency away from poverty that make them potential to COVID-19. Reduced hours, business closures and potential layoffs are really worrisome and it highlights the existing needs of families. The United Way wants to serve all these families.

Source: https://bit.ly/3a2HsYJ

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Viral

British Study Predicts 22 Million Dying Of Coronavirus In US And 5 Million In Britain

HT News

A crucial projection study by Neil Ferguson, a professor of mathematical biology at Imperial College London prompted the British government to impose more stringent measures to contain COVID-19 outbreak.

Study on COVID-19

The study compares the coronavirus epidemic with the devastating flue of 1918 and draws strong parallels between the two outbreaks. The report paints a worse picture of COVID-19. Based on data collected from Italy that is the worst hit country after China, the report predicts about half a million deaths in Britain and 2.2 million in the US, if no mitigating measures are taken at all.

The report further says that even the government’s previous measures – home isolation of suspects – could result in 250,000 deaths and the health system crumbling under the pressure. But the new measures by the British government could flatten the peak.

Britain announces new measures to curb COVID-19

Prime Minister Boris Johnson closed down social life to save the world’s fifth largest economy from the outbreak. Also, people over 70-years with health issues are advised to go in isolation. People are advised to follow social distancing by avoiding clubs, pubs and theaters.

The study helped the British government changed its position on the outbreak. Those in the government said that it had acted on the advice of the experts.

British government criticized

Earlier the government was criticized for not taking swift actions to contain the spread of COVId-19. Some health experts said that Italy, Spain and France were taking better lock-down measures in comparison to Britain.

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Viral

What Are Different Stages Of Coronavirus Outbreak?

HT News

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that India was at the second stage of coronavirus pandemic. At this stage, there’s no fear of community transmission.

Stage 2 of coronavirus outbreak

ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava explained that India was on Stage 2 of the outbreak and not on Stage 3 where there was fear of community outbreak. Also, Mr. Bhargava hoped that Stage 3 would never arrive in India.

He further said that preventing the outbreak from reaching to Stage 3 depended on India’s response like closing borders and proactive stage. But he said that it was difficult to say that community transmission won’t happen.

Different stages of an outbreak

Stage 1: Transmission is imported from foreign nations through air traffic.

Stage 2: Local transmission starts after people start coming into contact with affected persons. For example, family members, friends, neighbors and colleagues of infected persons are tested positive for the infection.

In local transmission, the virus spread remains limited to certain pockets. Since its source is visible, it is easier to contain the virus at this level as opposed to community transmission.

Stage 3: It is the stage of community transmission where people start getting infection even without coming into contact with infected persons or getting exposed to infection.

At this stage, it becomes very difficult to track source of infection. Italy and Spain are in the Stage 3 of coronavirus spread.

Stage 4: It is the worst stage where disease becomes an endemic and there seems no end point. China is at the Stage 4 of COVID-19.

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Viral

Tom Hanks Recovers From COVID-19 But His Wife Still Suffers From The Infection

HT News

Tom Hanks, who was recently down with COVID-19 along with his wife Rita Wilson, has been released from the isolation. The couple was in Brisbane, Australia when they got infected with deadly coronavirus. While Tom Hanks was released from quarantine in an Australian hospital, his wife is still under recuperating from the infection.

Tom and Wilson in Australia

He was busy shooting for the biopic of Elvis Presley when he and Wilson, both 63, got COVID-19. Wilson is a singer and songwriter. She performed in many concerts in Sydney and Brisbane before getting infection. The Australian authorities had been tracking people they were in contact with as their contacts could also get infected.

The couple thanked their Australian caregivers and urge their fans to follow the advice of experts. They posted their run-in with COVID-19 on social media.

They were staying in a Gold Coast penthouse while working on the Lurhmann film in which Tom Hanks is essaying the role of Elvis’ long-time manager, Colonel Tom Parker. Tom is believed to have returned to the penthouse after getting discharged from the hospital.

Australia has a total of 400 COVID-19 cases but number of deaths reported is only 5.

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Viral

Coronavirus Infects Spreads To Uttarakhand

HT News

The total number of coronavirus cases in India rose to 110 that includes 17 foreigners – 16 Italian tourists and a Canadian. Uttarakhand reported its first case of COVID-19 on Sunday. The number of people died due to coronavirus is two – one each from Delhi and Karnataka.

Coronavirus spread in the country

With 32 positive cases, Maharashtra has the highest number of COVID-19cases in the country. Kerala has recorded 22 cases and it includes three patients that were discharged last month. Uttar Pradesh has 12 coronavirus patients and Delhi has 7. Ladakh has 3 patients of coronavirus and Jammu and Kashmir and Telangana have two each. Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab have reported one case each.

Steps taken to contain the virus

According to health ministry data, 12,76,046 passengers have been screened at 30 designated airports. The government has traced the 4,000 people that came into contact with 93 COVID-19 patients. Also, there are 42,000 people under community surveillance.

The data further says that are sufficient personal protective equipment (PPEs). Also, that over 80,50,000 N95 masks and PPEs have been procured for health workers.

The government said that there was little need to panic because it wasn’t a community transmission. The infection had been tracked and there had been only a few cases of local transmission. It further said that it wasn’t a health emergency in India.

It also clarified that the suspected case of COVID-19, a 71-year man in Maharashtra, was tested negative. He returned from Saudi Arabia recently and died in a private hospital.

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Viral

COVID-19 Test Only For Selected Persons

HT News

A suspected case of coronavirus was turned back by RML hospital because he had no history of foreign travel and nor was in contact with a coronavirus patient. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has directed the hospitals to test those selected cases.

ICMR guidelines for coronavirus testing

The government body said that all the people with viral symptoms need not to be tested for COVID-19 because there had been on “community transmission” in India. “Community transmission” is a case where the source of a disease remains obscure.

Special Secretary in the Union Health Ministry, Sanjeev Kumar, said that the country is utilizing only 10% of its total capacity to test COVID-19. He further said that the coronavirus test is free and that the country has a much higher capacity but it was utilizing only 10% of it. Also, 80 lakh masks and safety equipment had been bought for health workers.

Experts criticized the approach

Ramanan Lakshminarayan, founder and director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP) criticized the approach saying that the people would spread the disease, if they didn’t know that they were infected. He said that the country was capable in both public and private but the question was that whether the country was deploying that capacity.

The government said that 10,000 tests could be performed daily utilizing 1 lack kits distributed across many centres. But the government should conduct tens of thousands of tests daily before the situation goes out of control.

Source: https://bit.ly/2U99afL

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