As India reached the halfway point in the 21-day coronavirus lockdown on Saturday, some states and rail and airline operators were considering measures to relax restrictions in phases from April 15. Simultaneously, the Centre has drawn up a cluster containment strategy to contain the coronavirus pandemic within a defined geographic area by early detection of cases, breaking the chain of transmission and thus preventing its spread to new areas.
'The future looks quite bleak unless we ramp up testing and start vaccinating on a war footing.'
'His contributions in setting up transparent precedents of governance are still basically intact despite the cynicism of several of his successors,' notes Jamini Bhagwati.
'Chances of getting the disease are not reduced, either after one dose or both doses of the vaccine.' 'And the probability of getting the infection -- you need to differentiate infection from disease -- by getting vaccinated is almost unaltered, be it single dose or two doses.' 'But your chances of developing moderate to severe disease, after getting infected, gets reduced with every dose you receive.'
India is the fourth worst-hit nation by the pandemic after the United States, Brazil and Russia.
'Since many people are vaccinated, this virus is now concentrating on the throat and the nose and replicating fast and transmitting also very fast.' 'That's because the current vaccines will not be able to fight it when it is in the throat, nose or the mouth.'
The Supreme Court on Thursday put the ball in Centre's court to take a call on providing reservation in appointment for faculty posts in speciality and super speciality posts in medical colleges including the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
Former president A P J Abdul Kalam was admitted to a hospital in Shillong following a sudden illness on Monday.
Sleeplessness is increasingly becoming a lifestyle disorder, says Amrita Singh.
Jammu and Kashmir and Odisha on Tuesday recorded their first cases of the Omicron variant of COVID as the count of the new strain in 14 states and union territories crossed 200 even as the Centre said there is a need to 'activate' war rooms, take 'pro-active' action and consider night curfews.
Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi on Monday said that the questioning of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor in connection with the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar is "possible in the next couple of days".
One of the most prominent leaders of the socialist movement in the 1970s, George Fernandes was a senior Janata Dal leader before he founded the Samata Party.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi set a historic moment for Andhra Pradesh, as he laid the foundation stone of capital Amaravati at the Uddandarayuni Palem on Thursday. More than 10,000 police personnels were deployed for the even in the city.
Doughty frontline workers say this is what they signed up for and that is what they do.
As the global debate on booster shots gathers momentum, several scientists in New Delhi said the priority must be to ensure that more people are inoculated with at least their first jab.
'If done well, the containment measures can help minimise the impact of the epidemic.'
The union government was taking effective steps to rid the country of corruption and nepotism, he said.
The B.1.617 variant of SARS-CoV2, also being called a 'double mutant' or the 'Indian strain', has been found prevalent largely in Maharashtra and Delhi that have been severely hit by a devastating second wave of the pandemic.
A consensus builder, Jaitley was regarded by some as Modi's original 'Chanakya'.
The NPPA letter was issued to GSK on Wednesday.
A group of public health experts, including doctors from All India Institute of Medical Sciences and members from the national taskforce on COVID-19, have said that mass, indiscriminate and incomplete vaccination can trigger emergence of mutant strains and recommended that there is no need to inoculate those who had documented coronavirus infection.
Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, however, had no qualms about overturning the judgements of father Y V Chandrachud on hot- button issues like adultery and the right to privacy.
The controversial claim by head of the forensic medicine department at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences that pressure was brought upon him to manipulate the post mortem report on Shashi Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar was debunked on Wednesday by the hospital in a new twist surrounding the mysterious death.
China has given conditional approval for a single dose COVID-19 vaccine, touted to be a rival to Johnson & Johnson's one-jab shot cleared by the United States drug regulator on Sunday.
'We cannot be naughty and expect the government to do good!' 'We have to behave ourselves and then we can expect the government to support us.' 'If we are able to protect ourselves well, then we should not be having deaths.' 'Unfortunately, people have gotten into this super scary event participation (mode) -- birthday parties, large gatherings.' 'Among the people who have attended those, 80 to 90 per cent of them have come down with COVID-19.'
The man, who identified himself as 'Rambhakt Gopal', was subsequently overpowered by police and detained. The gunman went live on Facebook before the brandishing the gun.
The Congress, which is the single-largest party with 16 MLAs, has already staked claim to form the government in the coastal state.
Patients have been waiting for days, weeks and sometimes months for appointments for dialysis, chemotherapy and other emergency procedures.
The highest number of confirmed cases are from Maharashtra (748), followed by Tamil Nadu at 571 and Delhi with 523 cases. Cases in Telangana have gone up to 321, in Kerala to 314, in Uttar Pradesh to 305, while the number of cases has gone up to 274 in Rajasthan.
'We must not compromise with the standard, the quality. We don't need to be the first to launch a drug but what we need is a Made in India vaccine that the entire world can rely on'
The Chief Minister's Free Medicine Scheme in Rajasthan is probably the most successful scheme introduced by the Ashok Gehlot government in the state. Now poll politics has cast a shadow over the scheme
India is in the midst of its biggest crisis since Independence. It is a national emergency and begs to be dealt with. Politics can wait. Lives need to be saved. We need to vaccinate India at a pace faster than any country in the world, asserts Ramesh Menon.
The Tamil chief minister suffered a heart attack on Sunday evening.
Epidemiologists worry there's little or no data being shared on mortality by age group and contacts traced, which makes it difficult to understand how the effects of Covid-19 might be different in the Indian population, reports Ruchika Chitravanshi
Thousands of mourners jostled and some clambered on trees to capture the moment on their phones as former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's cortege left the Bharatiya Janata Party's headquarters for Rashtriya Smriti Sthal.
'People had said it will explode and everyone will die. Nothing of that sort has happened.' 'Our government has done a splendid job so far.'
There was no trace of alcohol in the body of Sunanda Pushkar though some evidence of presence of anti-depressant drug was likely, sources in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences said on Sunday.
The cost of not vaccinating the entire population quickly will be far higher than bearing the entire cost of vaccination, points out Prosenjit Datta.
'Unfortunately, during this pandemic, everybody started saying that well, these are desperate times and desperate times need desperate solutions.' 'Purely out of fear, anxiety, panic, this knowledge that people started acquiring from WhatsApp University and social media, it pushed science completely to the backseat.'
The budgetary allocation for the sector is Rs 60,908.22 crore, with Rs 6,400 crore earmarked for the centre's flagship health insurance scheme Ayushman Bharat- Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (AB-PMJAY).
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