RECOVERY RATE AT 90% OR ABOVE IN 14 STATES, UTS

14 states and UTs have now reached a Covid recovery rate of 90% and above. This has also significantly brought down the total active caseloads across the country to less than 26 lakh on Tuesday, from a peak of 37 lakh earlier this month. The highest recovery rate is in Delhi at 97%, followed by UP, Bihar and Haryana at 94% each. Maharashtra, Telangana, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and MP have a recovery rate of around 93%.

The worst, however, is in Uttarakhand, where the recovery rate is 80.7%. Only north-eastern states of Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Sikkim have a far worse recovery rate ranging from 70-76%. Though it is improving in Karnataka and others like J&K, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Manipur, Odisha and Assam, they are still far away from the comfort zone with recovery rate ranging from 80-84%, lower than the national average of 89%.

Bihar, Jharkhand and UP have largely been successful in containment efforts with their daily positivity rate, i.e. confirmed positives per 100 tests, declining to below 5% from double digit last month. The better ones with declining positivity rate include Haryana, Delhi, Maharashtra, MP, Gujarat and Telangana.

The daily positivity rate is on the higher side in Goa, Maharashtra, Kerala, Sikkim, Chandigarh, Nagaland, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal — ranging from 11-19%.

COVID VACCINE DOSES ADMINISTERED IN COUNTRY CROSSES 20 CRORE

In a significant landmark, the cumulative Covid vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 20 crore, the Union health ministry said on Tuesday.

In the age group of 18-44 years, the ministry said, 9.42 lakh people received their first vaccine dose on Tuesday, and cumulatively, 1.28 crores have received vaccine doses across the country since the start of the phase-3 of the vaccination drive.

The country has administered 20,04 crore vaccine doses so far, as per the 7 pm provisional report, the ministry said. Of these, about 43. Crores have been second doses.

KEY COVID NUMBERS

Current Active Cases Countrywide: 24,90,876

New Cases in last 24 hours: 2,08,846

Recovered in last 24 hours: 2,95,539

Change in no. of Active cases in last 24 hours: -90,865

No. of deaths in last 24 hours (Total Covid Deaths so far): 4,172 (3,11,421)

Daily Tests: 20,58,112

Daily Positivity Rate (Proportion of Positives among total Tested): 9.5%

Most Affected States:

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

1          Karnataka                     4,24,381           /           22,758  /           588

2          Maharashtra     3,14,368           /           24,136  /           1,137

3          Tamil Nadu       3,06,652           /           34,285  /           468

4          Kerala              2,55,404           /           29,803  /           177

5          Andhra Pradesh            1,98,023           /           15,284  /           106

6          West Bengal     1,26,376           /           17,005  /           157

7          Odisha             98,785  /           10,939  /           33

8          Rajasthan                     87,539  /           3,404    /           105

9          Uttar Pradesh   69,828  /           3,723    /           157

10        Gujarat             62,506  /           3,255    /           44

11        Chhattisgarh     56,474  /           3,506    /           77

12        Assam              53,541  /           5,767    /           92

13        Punjab              53,127  /           4,756    /           174

14        Madhya Pradesh           48,634  /           2,422    /           68

15        Uttarakhand      45,568  /           2,756    /           93

16        JnK                  44,918  /           2,964    /           53

17        Telangana                    38,318  /           3,821    /           23

18        Bihar                35,129  /           3,306    /           104

19        Haryana                       34,088  /           2,817    /           128

20        Himachal Pradesh         23,053  /           1,999    /           60

21        Delhi                21,739  /           1,568    /           156

22        Goa                  15,706  /           1,549    /           39

23        Jharkhand        15,641  /           1,247    /           20

24        Puducherry       15,475  /           1,237    /           26

25        Tripura             8,339    /           773       /           5

26        Meghalaya        7,971    /           957       /           19

27        Manipur                        6,785    /           824       /           15

28        Nagaland                      4,806    /           276       /           18

29        Chandigarh       4,063    /           258       /           5

30        Sikkim              3,378    /           278       /           5

31        Arunachal Pradesh        3,323    /           429       /           2

32        Mizoram                       2,427    /           289       /           1

33        Lakshadweep    2,320    /           264       /           2

SUBODH KUMAR JAISWAL APPOINTED CBI DIRECTOR

Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, a 1985-batch IPS officer of Maharashtra cadre, has been appointed as the next regular Director of the CBI, said an order issued by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC).

During the meeting of the high-powered selection committee comprising of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, had shortlisted three names, including SSB DG Kumar Rajesh Chandra (1985-Bihar cadre IPS) and Special Secretary (Internal Security) in the MHA VSK Kaumudi (1986- Andhra Pradesh cadre) besides Jaiswal, who is currently holding the office of DG CISF.

Jaiswal, has also worked as Director General of Maharashtra Police.

GST PANEL REJECTS DEMAND FOR TAX WAIVER ON COVID-19 VAX, VENTILATOR

The goods and services tax (GST) fitment panel, comprising officers from the Centre and some states, has recommended a short-term rate cut on four Covid-19 related items, according to the detailed agenda note for the upcoming Council meeting. The lowest GST slab of 5 per cent has been proposed for oxygen concentrators, medical grade oxygen, pulse oximeters and testing kits, down from 12 per cent currently.

However, the committee, which recommends rate changes to the GST Council, has rejected the popular demand for exemption or rate reduction on Covid-19 medicines, vaccines, ventilators, temperature equipment, RT PCR machines, ambulances, etc. on feasibility grounds.

The proposal by the rate panel will be placed before the GST Council on Friday. The 43rd Council meeting, to be held through video-conferencing, will be held after a gap of seven months.

State finance ministers are expected to strongly pitch for GST exemption on Covid-19 related medical supplies including medicines and equipment as the country battles an intense second pandemic wave.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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U.S. CALLS FOR ‘TRANSPARENT’ NEW PROBE INTO COVID-19 ORIGINS

U.S. intelligence agencies are examining reports that researchers at Wuhan Institute of Virology were seriously ill in 2019 a month before the first cases of COVID-19 were reported, according to U.S. government sources who cautioned on Monday that there is still no proof the disease originated at the lab.

“Phase 2 of the COVID origins study must be launched with terms of reference that are transparent, science-based, and give international experts the independence to fully assess the source of the virus and the early days of the outbreak,” U.S. Health Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a video message to the annual ministerial meeting of the World Health Organization.

Mr. Becerra did not mention China directly, where the first known human cases of COVID-19 emerged in the central city of Wuhan in December 2019.

A WHO spokesman, Tarik Jasarevic, asking about a follow-up mission, told Reuters on Monday that the agency was reviewing the recommendations from the report at the technical level.

MODERNA SAYS ITS VACCINE IS HIGHLY EFFECTIVE IN ADOLESCENTS

The possibility of children returning to normal life in the U.S. became stronger on Tuesday with vaccine manufacturer Moderna announcing that its COVID-19 vaccine mRNA-1273 is 100% effective in preventing symptomatic infections in 12-17 year olds after two doses. The company said that it would approach the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to extend the use of its vaccine to this age group, in early June.

Two thirds of 3,732 individuals aged 12-17 received two doses of the vaccine in Moderna’s latest clinical study. None of them developed serious COVID-19 ( equivalent to 100% efficacy) while four developed COVID-19 in the placebo group, the company said. A single dose of the vaccine resulted in 93% efficacy. The teenagers in the study will be monitored for a year after their second dose, the New York Times reported.

THE REST

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YAAS INTENSIFIES INTO VERY SEVERE CYCLONIC STORM

Cyclone Yaas intensified into a very severe cyclonic storm on Tuesday evening, India Meteorological Department Director General M Mohapatra said, even as the states of West Bengal and Odisha evacuated over 12 lakh people to storm shelters by late evening.

The IMD also issued a red-coded warning alert to the Odisha and West Bengal coasts.

`Yaas', which was positioned 160 km south-southeast of Paradip in Odisha and 240 km south-southeast of Digha in West Bengal over north-west and adjoining west-central Bay of Bengal on Tuesday evening, is likely to gain a maximum speed of 155 kmph to 165 kmph gusting to 185 kmph during landfall on Wednesday morning, the Met department said.

NARADA CASE: SC QUESTIONS CBI, AND RAPS MAMATA

Even as the Supreme Court posed tough questions to the CBI, forcing the agency to withdraw its plea challenging the Calcutta high court’s decision to put four Narada scam chargesheeted Trinamool Congress leaders under house-arrest, the bench questioned the “partial approach” of the bureau in arresting a set of persons named in the FIR while sparing another set of TMC leaders who have now defected to BJP.

At the same time, the bench of Justices Vineet Saran and B R Gavai dampened the joy for TMC by strongly disapproving the dharnas by Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, her law minister and others to protest the arrests on May 17.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the West Bengal government, National Human Rights Commission and the National Commission for Women to respond to a PIL seeking relief and rehabilitation of lakhs of people allegedly displaced by the post-election violence said to have been orchestrated by Trinamool Congress supporters against BJP workers.

RSS BACKED FARMERS UNION AT LOGGERHEADS WITH SKM

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha has condemned RSS-affiliated Bhartiya Kisan Sangh, saying that the right-wing farmers' organisation “has eroded its public support through baseless allegations against the protesting farmers”.

The BKS had on Monday issued a scathing statement against the SKM’s proposed “Black Day” on Wednesday.

The SKM said it was sad that “a so-called farmers' union had stooped down to denigrating a historical farmers' struggle led by it”. ‘

The BKS had claimed that the “real intent of those sitting at Delhi’s borders in the name of farmers was demonstrated when they spread fear and terror in the most undemocratic way on January 26”. BKS general secretary Badri Narayan Choudhary said the entire farming community is “feeling angry and questioning that who gave these people the right to defame farmers in such a way”.

“Ever since the inception of this so-called farmer’ agitation, genuine farmers are ashamed of the undemocratic, anti-people way of these so-called farmer leaders who are being financed by anti-India agencies outside India and terrorising people with the help of terrorist elements”, said the leader of the farmers’ organisation associated with the Sangh.

Choudhary said that the BKS had objected to the “presence of anti-social, anarchic elements in this agitation from day one itself” and that “after January 26, it was confirmed that the so-called farmers' agitation has been completely hijacked by anti-social, anti-democracy and anarchic people”.

Terming the BKS’s allegations “baseless”, the SKM said it is “apparent that political and party affiliations are coming in the way of BKS’s understanding of the three black central laws, as well as the fight for MSP as a legal right”.

EXCESSIVE ANTIBIOTICS USE IN COVID-19 CASES ADDS 'FUEL TO FIRE' IN INDIA

Excessive use of the world’s most potent antibiotics has stoked drug-resistant infections in India for years. Now the country’s Covid crisis has put the calamity into hyperdrive.

Doctors battling to save lives amid a dearth of effective treatments are turning to the medicines they have on hand -- often antibiotics that aren’t used in other countries for Covid-19. What’s more, the chaos of overrun hospitals means staff can’t always take precautions to ensure infections don’t spread from one patient to the next.

The use of antibiotics -- especially some that the WHO recommends reserving for the most difficult-to-treat cases -- may be “adding fuel to the fire of the already alarming antimicrobial resistance levels,” Kamini Walia, a microbiologist with the Indian Council of Medical Research, and colleagues said Monday in a study. “Fear of missing a secondary infection and lack of specific therapy for Covid-19 leads to over-prescription of antibiotics.”

TARUN TEJPAL’S ACQUITTAL DUE TO BENEFIT OF DOUBT

Acquitting Tarun Tejpal, former editor-in-chief of Tehelka, of the charges of sexually assaulting his then colleague in a Goa hotel in 2013, the District and Sessions judge held that the complainant “did not demonstrate any kind of normative behaviour” that a victim of sexual assault “might plausibly show”.

Ruling there was no medical evidence and there were “facts” that “create doubt on (her) truthfulness,” the court said the woman’s messages to the accused “clearly establish” that she was neither “traumatised nor terrified” and this “completely belies” the prosecution’s case.

In her 527-page judgment made available Tuesday, Additional Sessions Judge Kshama Joshi wrote: “Upon considering evidence on record…benefit of doubt is given to the accused because there is no corroborative evidence supporting the allegations made by the complainant girl.”

About the “formal apology e-mail” sent by Tejpal to the woman on November 19, 2013, that the prosecution relied on, the court said: “The personal apology was not sent voluntarily by the accused but that it was sent due to the explicit pressure and intimidation by the prosecutrix on PW45 (Prosecution Witness 45, then managing director of Tehelka) to act swiftly and also due to the inducement and promise made by the prosecutrix to PW45, which in turn was communicated to the accused, that the matter would be closed at the institutional level if the accused were to tender an apology.

While the woman had stated that Tejpal had castigated her after she disclosed the incident to his daughter and she had left crying, the court found substance in a claim made by Tejpal about his criticism of her work.

The court observed that prior to the lodging of the FIR in the case, the woman had reached out to prominent lawyers, a member of the National Commission for Women and journalists. “With the help of experts, there may be a possibility of doctoring of events or adding of incidents,” the judge wrote.

FB, GOOGLE WORKING ON COMPLYING WITH SOCIAL MEDIA RULES AS DEADLINE LOOMS

As the new IT rules for social media companies take effect today, large digital platforms Facebook and Google on Tuesday asserted they are working towards meeting the compliance requirements.

The new rules, announced on February 25, require large social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to follow additional due diligence, including the appointment of a chief compliance officer, nodal contact person and resident grievance officer.

Non-compliance with rules would result in these social media companies losing their intermediary status that provides them exemptions and specified immunity from liabilities for any third-party information and data hosted by them. In other words, they could be liable for action.

The new rules were introduced to make social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and Instagram -- which have seen a phenomenal surge in usage over the past few years in India -- more accountable and responsible for the content hosted on their platform.

SINGAPORE APPROVES COVID BREATH TEST THAT GIVES RESULTS IN A MINUTE

Singapore authorities have provisionally approved a COVID-19 breathalyser test that aims to show whether someone is infected with the coronavirus in under a minute, according to the local startup that developed the product.

Breathonix, a spin-off company from the National University of Singapore (NUS), said it is now working with the health ministry to run a deployment trial of the technology at one of the city-state's border points with Malaysia.

The breath test achieved more than 90% accuracy in a Singapore-based pilot clinical trial, the company said last year.

The system uses disposable mouthpieces and is designed to ensure there is no cross-contamination. After blowing into the device, the technology assesses the chemical compounds of the breath to determine whether or not a person is infected.

Breathonix said it is in discussion with several local and overseas organisations to use the system, citing strong commercial interest. Other countries, including Indonesia and the Netherlands, have rolled out similar breath tests.

IPL LIKELY TO RESTART ON SEPTEMBER 18 OR 19 IN UAE

While BCCI, as of now, will not give up its hosting rights and wait how the COVID-19 situation in India pans out, there is very little chance that countries will want to travel to India which is facing its worst health emergency since independence.

The IPL was postponed on May 4 after multiple COVID-19 cases inside its bio-bubble came to light.

The postponed Indian Premier League will resume tentatively on September 18 or 19 in the UAE with as many as 10 double-headers expected to be played during a three-week window, a senior BCCI official said yesterday.

The final might be held on October 9 or 10. The three-week window will be enough for the league to complete its remaining 31 games for the season, a win-win scenario for all the primary stakeholders including the BCCI, franchises and broadcasters.

The Indian team's last Test match against England is set to finish on September 14 at Manchester and on the next day, the whole team (save Hanuma Vihari and Abhimanyu Easwaran) will be flown to UAE in a chartered flight for a "bubble to bubble" transfer.

The Indian team and the English players who will be available will fly in the same charter flight from Manchester to Dubai. Similarly, the West Indies players will also fly in after completing the Caribbean Premier League engagements. There will be three-day quarantine for players arriving from UK and the Caribbean.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

He will never have true friends who is afraid of making enemies. - William Hazlitt

OFF TRACK

A man who had just undergone a very complicated operation kept complaining about a bump on his head. Since his operation had been an intestinal one, there was no earthly reason why he should have a bump on his head..

Finally his nurse, fearing that the man might be suffering from some post-operative shock, spoke to the doctor about it.

The doctor assured the nurse, "Don't worry about it. He really does have a bump on his head. About halfway through the operation we ran out of anesthetic."