In view of the continuous dip in coronavirus cases, the home ministry has decided to end its all Covid-19 containment measures from March 31, two years after their implementation following the outbreak of the pandemic.
The Union health ministry on Monday reviewed the steps for health screening of international travellers arriving in India at airports and ports after two cases of Monkeypox were reported in the country.
Indian billionaires saw their combined fortunes more than double during the COVID-19 pandemic, and their count shot up by 39 per cent to 142, while the wealth of the ten richest is enough to fund school and higher education of children in the country for 25 years, a new study showed on Monday. In its annual inequality survey released on the first day of the World Economic Forum's online Davos Agenda summit, Oxfam India further said that an additional one per cent tax on the richest 10 per cent can provide the country with nearly 17.7 lakh extra oxygen cylinders, while a similar wealth tax on the 98 richest billionaire families would finance Ayushman Bharat, the world's largest health insurance scheme, for more than seven years. The COVID-19 pandemic saw a huge rush for oxygen cylinders and insurance claims during the second wave last year.
The richest one per cent in India now own more than 40 per cent of the country's total wealth, while the bottom half of the population together share just 3 per cent of wealth, a new study showed on Monday. Releasing the India supplement of its annual inequality report on the first day of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, rights group Oxfam International said that taxing India's ten-richest at 5 per cent can fetch entire money to bring children back to school. "A one-off tax on unrealized gains from 2017-2021 on just one billionaire, Gautam Adani, could have raised Rs 1.79 lakh crore, enough to employ more than five million Indian primary school teachers for a year," it added.
India's COVID-19 cases climbed from 100 to one lakh in 64 days, which is more than twice the number of days when compared to the United States and Spain.
The National Immunisation Day, commonly known as Pulse Polio Immunisation programme, was scheduled for January 17 across India.
With these states imposing lockdowns anew, the health ministry emphasised that the restrictions should be utilised to focus on containment, surveillance and testing in the containment and buffer zones as the key strategy for early detection of cases and fatality management.
'If there are any symptoms/variants of concern, states can prepare accordingly.'
The government can verify 5 per cent of claims in four states -- Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh -- where the gap between number of claims and recorded deaths was wide, said a bench of Justices M R Shah and B V Nagarathna.
Called "Babuji", the former chief minister of undivided Madhya Pradesh and former Governor of Uttar Pradesh in the post-Babri Masjid demolition era was considered as a people's man and was accessible to all.
India's COVID-19 recoveries have reached closer to 2 million (19,19,842), while the actual caseload of the country stands at 6,76,900 on date and currently comprises only 25.57 per cent of the total positive cases.
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While asserting that the CoWIN portal is completely safe with adequate safeguards for data privacy, it said an internal exercise has been initiated to review the existing security measures of CoWIN.
Following is the text of the public interest litigation filed in the Delhi high court
Candidates will be short-listed for interview on the basis of the information provided by them in their online application, the statement said.
As many as 29,557 COVID-19 patients have recuperated in the past 24 hours.
It noted that the government could not accurately anticipate the gravity of the possible resurgence of the pandemic and its subsequent waves.
The Centre told the Bombay high court on Tuesday that a door-to-door COVID-19 vaccination programme for senior citizens, specially-abled, bed-ridden and wheelchair-bound people is currently not possible, but it has decided to start 'near-to-door' inoculation centres.
The chief minister raised these issues when Modi called him up to discuss the state's COVID-19 situation and the measures being taken to tackle the crisis, according to an official statement issued here.
The Centre told the apex court that it has not issued any SOP that makes it mandatory to carry the vaccination certificate for any purpose.
All COVID vaccines do not prevent infection and are primarily disease-modifying, said Dr Balram Bhargava, director general, Indian Council of Medical Research on Thursday.
The number of tests for detection of COVID-19 also crossed the three crore-mark in the country, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The death toll due to COVID-19 climbed to 50,921 with 941 people succumbing to the disease in a span of 24 hours.
In a letter to states and UTs on Monday, Additional Secretary in the Union Health Ministry Arti Ahuja advised them to pay attention to this aspect immediately and increase the testing in a strategic manner keeping in view the trend of case positivity in specific areas.
In the past 24 hours, about 1,80,596 samples were tested on July 5 in the country with a total of 1,00,04,101 samples have been tested till date, said an official.
As per norms, sanction for prosecution of government employees accused of corruption has to be given within four months' stipulated time.
Issuing a travel advisory, the health ministry also called for passengers with travel history to China, Hong Kong, Republic of Korea, Japan, Italy, Thailand, Singapore, Iran, Malaysia, France, Spain and Germany to undergo self-imposed quarantine for a period of 14 days from the date of their arrival, and their employers to facilitate work-from-home for such employees during this period.
The move comes in view of rising cases of the infection, weekly positivity rates and weekly deaths in some districts.
Prasad Bhosale, a football coach residing in Mumbai said that he has been selling vegetables from the past two months and he also opened up about the struggles he has faced in this duration.
The latest consignment from China consisted of about 1,70,000 PPE kits, including donations for the use of healthcare professionals involved in the treatment of COVID-19 patients. Sources said these PPE kits were sent to the Defence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE), Gwalior, for quality testing.
The Centre on Tuesday extended the nationwide COVID-19 containment measures till October 31 in view of localised spreads of the virus in a few states and the disease continuing to be a public health challenge in the country.
The Union home ministry said several steps have been taken to augment the production and supply of Remdesivir injections from 38.80 lakh units per month to 74 lakh units per month by early next month, and asked the states to ensure its seamless supply and transport.
The basic aim behind establishing PSA oxygen plants at government hospitals in the district headquarters is to further strengthen the public health system and ensure that each of these hospitals has a captive oxygen generation facility.
The Budget outlay for health and well being is Rs 2.23 lakh crore in 2021-22 as against BE of Rs 94,452 crore and marks an increase of 137 per cent," she said while presenting 2021-22 Budget in the Lok Sabha.
The third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India may peak by February 3, 2022, claims a modelling study by researchers at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur.
The states and Union territories were also urged not to store, reserve, conserve or create a buffer stock of the COVID-19 vaccines, the Union health ministry said in a statement, a day after the start of the second phase of India's inoculation drive in which the coverage has been expanded to include everyone above 60 and those over 45 with specified co-morbidities.
Extending the ongoing COVID-19 guidelines for one more month till September 30, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said the overall pandemic situation now appears to be largely stable at the national level, except for the localised spread observed in a few states.
Players provide oxygen cylinders, ration to families in need.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday reviewed the preparedness to deal with the situation arising out of the likely formation of Cyclone Jawad that is expected to hit the North Andhra Pradesh-Odisha coast and directed officials to take every possible measure to ensure that people are safely evacuated.
As the number of COVID-19 cases is witnessing a spike in India, religious places across the country remain closed to encourage social distancing, a key component in preventing the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
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