CASE POSITIVITY DECLINE REPORTED SINCE LAST 2 WEEKS: GOVT

After a consistent increase in Covid-19 case positivity for 10 weeks, a decline has been reported since the last two weeks, the government said on Thursday.

The number of districts reporting a decline in case positivity increased from 210 in April 29-May 5 to 303 districts in May 13-19, it said. But seven states still have more than 25 per cent case positivity, while 22 states have more than 15 per cent case positivity.

An advisory issued by the principal scientific advisors said that the aerosol can travel up to 10 metres from the infected person. Aerosol and droplets are key mode of transmission of the virus," it said.

"Ventilation is a community defense that protects all of us at home or at work. Introducing outdoor air in offices, homes and larger public spaces is advised. Introduction of cross ventilation and exhaust fans will be beneficial in curtailing the spread of the disease,” the advisory said.

KEY COVID NUMBERS

Current Active Cases Countrywide: 30,22,955

New Cases in last 24 hours: 2,59,242

Recovered in last 24 hours: 3,57,218

Change in no. of Active cases in last 24 hours: -1,02,185

No. of deaths in last 24 hours (Total Covid Deaths so far): 4,209 (2,91,365)

Daily Tests: 20,55,010

Daily Positivity Rate (Proportion of Positives among total Tested): 13.4%

Most Affected States:

(S. No. / State / No. of Active Cases / New Cases in last 24 Hrs / Deaths in Last 24 Hrs)

1          Karnataka                     5,34,954           /           ↑28,869 /           ↑548

2          Maharashtra     3,83,253           /           ↑29,911 /           ↑984

3          Kerala              3,17,858           /           ↑30,491 /           ↑128

4          Tamil Nadu       2,63,390           /           ↑35,579 /           ↑397

5          Andhra Pradesh            2,09,134           /           ↑22,610 /           ↑114

6          Rajasthan                     1,43,974           /           ↑7,680  /           ↑127

7          West Bengal     1,31,510           /           ↑19,091 /           ↑162

8          Uttar Pradesh   1,16,434           /           ↑6,681  /           ↑236

9          Odisha             96,942  /           ↑11,498 /           ↑25

10        Gujarat             89,018  /           ↑4,773  /           ↑64

11        Chhattisgarh     81,466  /           ↑5,212  /           ↑113

12        Madhya Pradesh           72,725  /           ↑4,952  /           ↑88

13        Uttarakhand      68,643  /           ↑3,658  /           ↑159

14        Punjab              67,041  /           ↑5,469  /           ↑191

15        Haryana                       62,352  /           ↑6,457  /           ↑129

16        Bihar                54,406  /           ↑5,871  /           ↑98

17        Assam              51,818  /           ↑6,573  /           ↑74

18        Jnk                   50,554  /           ↑4,169  /           ↑67

19        Telangana                    45,757  /           ↑3,660  /           ↑23

20        Delhi                40,214  /           ↑3,231  /           ↑233

21        Himachal Pradesh         33,448  /           ↑2,648  /           ↑65

22        Jharkhand        26,511  /           ↑2,056  /           ↑60

23        Goa                  20,808  /           ↑1,582  /           ↑44

24        Puducherry       18,277  /           ↑1,957  /           ↑28

25        Manipur                        6,904    /           ↑644     /           ↑11

26        Meghalaya        6,477    /           ↑1,183  /           ↑10

27        Tripura             6,362    /           ↑720     /           ↑3

28        Chandigarh       6,073    /           ↑404     /           ↑10

29        Nagaland                      4,519    /           ↑326     /           ↑11

30        Sikkim              3,130    /           ↑249     /           ↑3

GLOBAL POLITICS COMPETITIVE, INDIA WILL USE ALL TOOLS TO STAY STRONG: JAISHANKAR

Speaking at an Indian Express-Financial Times event yesterday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said: “I think the relationship is at a crossroads. And which direction we go, depends on whether the Chinese side would adhere to the consensus, whether it would follow through on the agreements, which we both have done for so many decades. Because what is very clear in the last year is that border tensions cannot continue with, you know, cooperation in other areas.”

According to the Union Minister, China departed from the “1988 consensus” when the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi went to Beijing, 26 years after the 1962 war, and established an understanding to maintain peace at the border. “Now, if you disturb the peace and tranquility, if you have bloodshed, if there is intimidation, if there is continuing friction in the border”, it would obviously impact the relationship, he said.

On China’s growing footprint, he said: “…you know it’s one thing to compete, it’s another thing to have violence on the border. So, I would make a differentiation here. Look, I am fairly confident, I’m not a small country, I have my capabilities, I have a high degree of cultural comfort and natural connectivity and societal contacts in my neighbourhood. And not just in my neighbourhood. I will go beyond. I mean, today my interest extends all the way deep into the Indo-Pacific on one side and then on to Africa and Europe on the other. So, I’m ready to compete. That’s not the issue. The issue for me is — how do I manage a relationship, if the basis of the relationship has been violated by one side.”

Jaishankar however refused to be drawn into criticism of China’s actions against the Uyghur in Xinjiang.

PM DOES NOT ALLOW ANY CM TO SPEAK: MAMATA

The BJP on Thursday slammed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on her “behaviour” at a Covid meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing her of “disrupting” and “trying to derail” it at a time when everyone should be speaking in one voice.

The West Bengal CM has accused the Prime Minister “for not allowing” her and her counterparts from other states to speak in the meeting.

Countering her allegations, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the West Bengal CM “needs to look within herself to see if her behaviour was appropriate”. “But nothing better can be expected of Mamatadi, she rarely attends a meeting called by the PM. She has not attended several meetings in the past. You don’t attend a meeting that is entirely your call…but you come to the meeting and try to derail it, that is unacceptable,” Prasad said.

Alleging that all CMs have been “reduced to puppets” and are “not allowed to speak” during the meetings with Prime Minister Modi, Mamata said, “The meeting was casual and a super flop. We were astonished that the Chief Ministers were made to sit like puppets in the meeting. If we are not allowed to speak, then how could we raise people’s issues?”

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

======================

ISRAEL AND HAMAS AGREE TO GAZA TRUCE

Israel and Hamas will cease fire across the Gaza Strip border as of 2 am on Friday (2300 GMT Thursday), an official with the Palestinian Islamist faction said yesterday, bringing a potentially tenuous halt to the fiercest fighting in decades.

Israel’s security cabinet said it had voted unanimously in favour of a “mutual and unconditional” Gaza truce proposed by mediator Egypt, but added that the hour of implementation had yet to be agreed.

The development came a day after US President Joe Biden urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek de-escalation, and amid mediation bids by Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations.

A Hamas official said that the ceasefire would be “mutual and simultaneous”.

VIRUS LAB LEAK THEORY GAINS TRACTION

The hypothesis that the coronavirus which causes Covid-19 was engineered by researchers and came out of a lab in Wuhan — either by accident or design — has been around for months, almost from the time the pandemic began. Largely sidelined by the mainstream media because it was mostly aired by Trump supporters who are seen as conspiracy theorists, the theory is now scorching public discourse with renewed attention on the upper echelons of the US scientific establishment, including Anthony Fauci, for reportedly having funded the dangerous research.

A May 5, 2021 article in the highly reputed Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has given ballast to the virus’ escape from Wuhan hypothesis.

Reports in credible scientific journals, including Bulletin, which examined the issue in depth have called “a Wuhan origin for the virus and its lab escape scenario” a “no-brainer”.

“Wuhan is home to China’s leading centre of coronavirus research where... researchers were genetically engineering bat coronaviruses to attack human cells. They were doing so under the minimal safety conditions of a BSL2 lab. If a virus with the unexpected infectiousness of SARS2 had been generated there, its escape would be no surprise,” the Bulletin article said citing the work of Chinese researcher Shi Zhengli who it said had conceded that her work on gain-of-function in coronaviruses was performed at what the scientific community regards as sub-par safety levels. The Bulletin article alleged the Chinese researchers were not vaccinated and the virus was already well adapted to humans, as expected for a virus grown in humanised mice.

Gain of function research is a field of medical research that places positive selective pressure on the microorganisms to effect mutations that would increase their pathogenicity, transmissibility, and antigenicity.

THE REST

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DECLARE 'BLACK FUNGUS' AS NOTIFIABLE DISEASE: CENTRE TO STATES

As cases of 'black fungus' among COVID-19 patients in the country rise to cross 7,000, the Centre on Thursday urged all states and union territories to declare it as a notifiable disease under the Epidemic Diseases Act to ensure mandatory surveillance to tackle the 'new challenge'. Mucormycosis is a fungal infection in which sinuses or lungs are affected after fungal spores in the air are inhaled. The infection that affects the nose, eyes, sinuses, and sometimes even the brain is being detected among some patients who are recovering or have recovered from COVID-19.

Central government standing counsel Kirtiman Singh and Amit Mahajan informed the court that as on May 19, there are 7,251 patients of black fungus in the country and this includes 200 in Delhi.

Some states have also reported fatalities due to this disease with Maharashtra recording 90 deaths.

BARGE TRAGEDY: ONGC, AFCONS SAY IT WASN’T THEIR CALL

Barge P305, the vessel doing work for the ONGC that crashed into a rig off Mumbai during Cyclone Tauktae and sank, leading to the death of at least 49 people on board (apart form the 26 still missing), had broken free of its anchor shortly after midnight on May 16. Had this information been passed on to the Mumbai-based Digital Communication (DGCOM) Centre of the Ministry of Shipping, a rescue effort could have been mounted much earlier, top sources in the ministry say.

The DGCOM Centre was informed only at 10 am on May 17, by which time the cyclone had already entered the Mumbai coastal area. The barge finally sank around 5 pm.

Asked about the DGCOM Centre not being informed, ONGC spokesperson Harish Awal said he was not aware of the matter. Instead, both ONGC, and its contractor Afcons Infrastructure, that was doing building work for the state-owned company and had chartered P305, laid the blame at the door of the Master of the barge, who is among the 26 from the vessel still missing.

Awal said ONGC had 99 vessels in the sea, of whom 94 had come back paying heed to weather warnings, but not P305. It said it has an emergency management system and warnings from statutory bodies, including the Coast Guard, had been forwarded to all the vessels.

“We are not mariners, we are oil and gas experts,” an ONGC official said, noting that besides sharing the advisories, the company had recommended that all vessels move to a safe location.

In a statement, Afcons said that the Master of P305 decided to move the barge only 200 metres away from the platform where it was operating even as other vessels moved closer to safe harbours based on its advice. The predicted maximum wind speeds of 40 knots and the barge’s location being about 120 nautical miles from the anticipated eye of the storm led the Master to believe they were safe, the company said.

Afcons also said that decisions regarding safety of the vessel were the responsibility of Durmast Enterprises, the owners of the barge.

However, officials at the Shipping Ministry are asking why ONGC and Afcons allowed the Master to have his way when both the IMD and Coast Guard had issued several warnings.

The Chief Engineer of the barge, Rahman Shaikh, who was rescued on Wednesday and is hospitalised, told reporters that 14 of the 16 rafts that the men checked were unusable as they had holes in them.

Apart from 26 on barge P305, 11 crew members of tugboat Varaprada are also still missing.

NARADA CASE: CALCUTTA HC DEFERS HEARING TO FRIDAY

The Calcutta High Court on Thursday postponed the hearing in the alleged Narada bribery case by a day even as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee labelled as “political vendetta” the arrest of three Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders and a former Kolkata mayor. State ministers Subrata Mukherjee, Firhad Hakim, TMC MLA Madan Mitra, and former Mayor Sovan Chatterjee were arrested from their homes on Monday morning.

“The matter is sub judice and I do not want to comment. However, I will say whatever happened to them is wrong. It is a clear instance of deliberate political vendetta. Bobby [Firhad Hakim] and his team were fighting Covid from the streets. He even volunteered for a trial of Covishield [vaccine] with risk to his life. Now he and others are kept behind bars day after day. Three to four days have passed. They could not work for days. I hope we will get justice from the court,” the chief minister told reporters.

TWITTER TAGS SAMBIT PATRA’S TWEET ON CONG ‘TOOLKIT’ AS ‘MANIPULATED’

Twitter tagged BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra’s tweet about an alleged toolkit by the Congress as “manipulated media” late on Thursday.

Patra’s tweet, posted on May 18, included the screenshot of a word document, which contained instructions to amplify the BJP’s apathy towards Covid-19 relief work. Congress had alleged that the toolkit Patra had shared was “fake” and had threatened legal action against BJP members, including senior politicians.

“Friends look at the #CongressToolKit in extending help to the needy during the Pandemic! More of a PR exercise with the help of “Friendly Journalists” & “Influencers” than a soulful endeavour. Read for yourselves the agenda of the Congress: #CongressToolKitExposed,” wrote Patra.

On Thursday, Congress also wrote to Twitter, asking the microblogging giant to suspend the handle of BJP president JP Nadda, Union minister Smriti Irani, Sambit Patra and BL Santosh for “large scale dissemination of false information”.

PUNE LAB DEVELOPS INDIA’S FIRST HOME COVID TEST KIT; AT CHEMISTS’ FOR RS 250

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has given its approval to the country’s first home-based, self-use rapid test for Covid-19, the creators of the test, MyLab Discovery Solutions, announced on Thursday.

The self-use test kit can be used by symptomatic individuals and immediate contacts of confirmed cases as per the ICMR’s guidelines. The test kit, named CoviSelf, will cost Rs 250, and can be bought without a prescription from pharmacies and online.

The test will require the user to download an app on their mobile phone, but will not need a healthcare professional to collect a swab sample.

“One can download the mobile app, test yourself, click the image, and upload it on the mobile phone that gives the result,” ICMR Director General Dr Balram Bhargava said.

MyLab Managing Director Hasmukh Rawal said: “Each kit will be provided with all testing materials, an instructions for use (IFU) leaflet, and a biohazard bag to safely dispose of test materials afterwards. The test is designed to be done using a nasal swab (not the deep nasopharyngeal swab) to reduce the discomfort. CoviSelf will provide results in 15 minutes.”

GOVT EXTENDS TIMELINES FOR INCOME TAX COMPLIANCE

The government on Thursday announced an extension in deadline for several income tax related compliances, including filing of returns by individuals.

Individuals can now file returns up to September 30, instead of the prescribed July 31. Even last year, filing had been delayed due to the national lockdown.

The CBDT said that it has also extended the income tax return filing deadline for companies by a month to November 30.

LIVE-IN COUPLES DESERVE EQUAL PROTECTION: HC

A bench of the Punjab and Haryana high court has ruled that societal sanction for a live-in relationship shouldn’t matter in deciding whether any such couple seeking state protection from family members opposed to their union is entitled to it or not. The order passed by Justice Sudhir Mittal contradicts two recent judgments by separate benches of the same court, both rejecting protection pleas filed by live-in couples on the ground that the law can’t stand up for relationships that aren’t socially acceptable.

Stating that the Constitution grants every citizen the right to choose one’s life partner, Justice Mittal said it was an individual choice to formalise that relationship or go for a live-in arrangement. He said a live-in couple has the same right to protection as a married couple.

The May 18 order came in response to a petition filed by a live-in couple allegedly facing intimidation by the girl's family. The petitioners had first approached the police after being threatened with “bodily harm” for choosing to go ahead with their relationship.

On May 11, the singlejudge bench of Justice H S Madaan had dismissed a petition filed by a live-in couple from Tarn Taran, saying that granting protection to a relationship that was “morally or socially not acceptable” could lead to trouble.

‘DOGS CAN SNIFF COVID ALMOST AS WELL AS PCR TESTS’

Dogs are able to detect Covid-19 in humans, a new study showed, paving the way for the broader use of sniffing canines in a global effort to contain the pandemic. The dogs’ detection reached 97% sensitivity in the French study, meaning that’s how well the canines could identify positive samples. The sniffing was also 91% specific, which rates the dogs’ ability to identify negatives. The sensitivity rating beats that of many 15-minute antigen tests, which tend to be better at ruling out infection than at finding it. The results mean that dogs could be more widely deployed in airports or stations to screen people. Using dogs also means Covid could be identified at just a fraction of a second in a non-invasive manner, and at a low cost. The trial was conducted at National Veterinary School in Maisons Alfort near Paris. There were 335 people tested, of which 109 were positive in a PCR test that served as a control. Nine dogs participated.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

It's frightful that people who are so ignorant should have so much influence.  - George Orwell

OFF TRACK

Tom was a slow worker and found it difficult to hold down a job. After a visit to the job center he was offered work at the local Zoo. When he arrived for his first day, the keeper aware of his reputation told him to take care of the tortoise section.

Later, the keeper dropped by to see how Tom was getting on and found him standing by an empty enclosure.

"Where are the tortoises?" he asked him.

"I can't believe it," said Tom. "I just opened the door and then.....Whooooosh!"