India News

Nationwide Lockdown Should be Replaced With Isolation & Quarantine Strategies to Fight Covid-19: Virologist

Published

4 years ago

May 23, 2020

The nationwide lockdown will no longer help India in its fight against COVID-19, and in its place community-driven containment, isolation and quarantine strategies have to be brought into play, leading virologist Shahid Jameel said.

The recipient of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology also stressed that testing should be carried out vigorously to identify coronavirus hotspots and isolate those areas.

“Our current testing rate at 1,744 tests per million population is one of the lowest in the world. We should deploy both antibody tests and confirmatory PCR tests. This will tell us about pockets of ongoing infection and past (recovered) infection. This will provide data to open up gradually and let economic activity resume,” Jameel told PTI in an interview.

He stressed that testing has to be dynamic to continuously monitor red, orange and green zones and change these based on that data.

About community transmission of COVID-19 in India, Jameel said the country reached that stage long ago.

“We reached community transmission a long time ago. It’s just that the health authorities are not admitting it. Even ICMR’s own study of SARI (severe acute respiratory illness) showed that about 40 per cent of those who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 did not have any history of overseas travel or contact to a known case. If this is not community transmission, then what is?” he posed.

Lockdown bought India time in its fight against coronavirus, but continuing it is unlikely to yield any further dividend, Jameel said.

“Instead, community-driven local lockdowns, isolations and quarantines have to come into play. Building trust is most important so that people follow rules. A public health problem cannot be dealt with as a law-and-order problem.”

The nationwide lockdown, initially imposed from March 25 to April 14, has been extended thrice and will continue at least till May 31. The virus has claimed 3,720 lives and infected over 1.25 lakh people in the country so far.

Jameel has expertise in the fields of molecular biology, infectious diseases, and biotechnology. He is the CEO of Wellcome Trust/Department of Biotechnology’s India Alliance and is best known for extensive research in Hepatitis E virus and HIV.

He said COVID-19 will eventually be controlled through herd immunity, which is acquired in two ways when a sufficient fraction of the population gets infected and recovers, and with vaccination.

“It is estimated that for SARS-CoV-2 at least 60 per cent of the population would have to be infected and recovered, or vaccinated. This will happen over the course of the next few years,” Jameel said.

Herd immunity is reached when the majority of a population becomes immune to an infectious disease, either because they have become infected and recovered, or through vaccination. When that happens, the disease is less likely to spread to people who aren’t immune, because there just aren’t enough infectious carriers.

“India has 1.38 billion people, a population density of about 400/sq km and a healthcare system ranked at 143 in the world. If we allow 60 per cent people to get infected quickly in the hopes of herd immunity, that would mean 830 million infections,” Jameel said.

“If 15 per cent need hospitalization that means about 125 million isolation beds (we have 0.3 million). If five per cent need oxygen and ventilatory support, this amounts to about 42 million oxygen support and ICU beds; we have 0.1 million oxygen support beds and 34,000 ICU beds. This would overwhelm the healthcare system causing mayhem,” he said.

Jameel said if the population level mortality is 0.5 per cent that would mean 40 lakh deaths. “Are we prepared to pay this price for herd immunity in the short term? Clearly not,” he said.

He said it is unlikely that a vaccine would be available by the end of the year.

“Even then, we don’t know yet how long it would give protection weeks, months, one year, a few years? I don’t think we will return to pre-coronavirus days for at least the next 3-5 years. This is also a chance to evaluate if we want to return to those unsustainable, environment-damaging ways. COVID-19 is a timely warning to reform our way of living,” he said.

Jameel said it is hard to predict but plausible that COVID-19 would return in second or third wave.

“Later waves come when we don’t understand the disease and become lax. A comparison to Spanish Flu is not entirely valid because in 1918 no one knew what caused it. No one had seen a virus till the mid-1930s as the electron microscope needed to view those was invented in 1931,” he said.

“Today we know a lot more about the pathogen, its genetic makeup, how it transmits and how to prevent it. We need to be sensible and follow expert advice,” he said.

If there is any scientific evidence linking deforestation, rapid urbanisation, climate change with pandemics like COVID-19, he said zoonotic viruses — those that jump from animals to humans — happen so when wild animal human contacts increase.

“Deforestation destroys animal habitats bringing them closer to humans. When you cut forests, bats come to roost on trees closer to human habitations. Their viruses in secretions/stool get transmitted to domestic animals and on to humans. This happened clearly with Nipah virus outbreak in Malaysia in 1997-98 from fruit bats to pigs to humans,” he said.

“COVID-19 possibly arose in wet animal markets due to dietary habits that bring all kinds of live and dead wild animals in close contact with humans,” Jameel added.

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(Note: This is a Article Automatically Generated Through Syndication, Here is The Original Source

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Prajwal Revanna, Sitting Member Of Parliament (MP) Sparks Controversy Over Alleged Private Video

Published

36 mins ago

April 27, 2024

Priyadarshi Shastri

Prajwal Revanna, Sitting Member of Parliament (MP) sparks controversy over alleged private video

A private video allegedly featuring Prajwal Revanna, a Member of Parliament (MP) from Hassan district in Karnataka, has been leaked on the internet.

As this news began to dominate the media, his election agent filed a police complaint claiming that the videos were morphed to defame his public image and influence the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

#ElectionsWithTOI | Hassan JD(S) candidate Prajwal Revanna offers prayers at a temple before casting his vote

Track updates here: https://t.co/r7PgoqaWa5 #LokSabhaElections2024 #Election2024 #Karnataka pic.twitter.com/PHg6Itt29e— The Times Of India (@timesofindia) April 26, 2024

Prajwal Revanna, a Sitting Member of Parliament (MP), Allegedly Has Private Video Leaked Online

On Tuesday, Poornachandra Tejaswi MG, the election agent for both the JD(S) and the BJP, filed a police complaint alleging that Naveen Gowda and others were responsible for the leak.

They reportedly circulated the video to voters in the Hassan Lok Sabha segment via WhatsApp, pen drives, and CDs. The FIR states:

“Naveen Gowda and others morphed videos and images and circulated them to the voters in the Hassan Lok Sabha segment through pen drives, CDs and WhatsApp to put Prajwal Revanna in bad light. These accused are going door to door and showing obscene photos and videos, provoking people not to vote for Prajwal in the Lok Sabha elections. These efforts are being made to disrupt the polling.”

In response, the police have filed a complaint under the sections of the Information Technology Act of 2008 and the Indian Penal Code.

Prajwal Revanna is the son of Holenarasipura MLA and former minister H D Revanna, and the grandson of former Prime Minister H D Devegowda. He is seeking a second term and is currently running against Congress candidate Shreyas M Patel, the grandson of G Puttaswamy Gowda.

In the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, Puttaswamy Gowda won against Devegowda on a Congress ticket. On April 26, the Hassan constituency will participate in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections.

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India News

Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha Election Phase 2 : Key seats, candidates in the fray

Published

1 day ago

April 26, 2024

Manoj Nair

Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha Election Phase 2 : Key seats, candidates in the fray

The massive electoral exercise of the Lok Sabha Elections for 2024 is in full swing and the second phase of the election has commenced. In the second phase the fate of the candidates of 89 constituencies spread across 13 states will be decided by the voters. Uttar Pradesh is the most important state with more than 80 Lok Sabha seats. In the second phase of the election voters will vote for eight Lok Sabha seats.

Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha seats which will go for the polls include Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Amroha, Meerut, Aligarh, Bulandshahar, Mathura, and Baghpat. Amroha, Meerut, Baghpat, and Gautam Buddh Nagar will see a triangular contest between NDA bloc, the Opposition INDIA alliance, and the Bahujan Samaj Party. Mathura and Ghaziabad will see a straight contest between BJP and Congress. In Aligarh and Bulandshahr the BJP will lock horns with the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party.

The Details are as follows-

Amroh -Kanwar Singh Tanwar(BJP) ,Danish Ali (Congress).Mujahid Hussain(BSP)
Meerut – Arun Govil (BJP),Sunita Verma Pradhan (Samajwadi Party),Mujahid Hussain(BSP)
Mathura-Hema Malini (BJP),Mukesh Dhangar (Congress) —
Baghpat-Rajkumar Sangwan (RLD),Amarpal Sharma (Samajwadi Party),Praveen Bansal(BSP)
Aligarh-Satish Kumar Gautam (BJP),Bijendra Singh (Samajwadi Party) —
Ghaziabad-Atul Garg (BJP) ,Dolly Sharma (Congress) —
Budh Nagar-Dr Mahesh Sharma (BJP),Mahendra Nagar (Samajwadi Party),R.S.Solanki(BSP)
Bulandshahar-Bhola Singh (BJP),Shivram Valmiki (Samajwadi Party) —

Many prominent personalities will find their fate locked in the EVM machines and this includes Hema Malini who will be eying for her third win from Mathura. She is pitted against Mukesh Dhangar from the Congress party.

Another star Arun Govil is standing from the BJP from Meerut and he is pitted against Sunita Verma from the SP and Devvrat Tyagi from the BSP. Arun Govil had played the character of Lord Rama in the Ranananda Sagar 1987 serial Ramayan

MP Kunwar Danish Ali has changed party and is now standing as a Congress candidate Amroha, a constituency historically without a strong allegiance to any particular party. He stood and won as a BSP candidate in 2019. He will be pitted against Kanwar Singh Tanwar of the BJP and Mujahid Hussain of the BSP.

As per reports in the first four hours a voter turnout of 24.31 per cent was recorded in the eight parliamentary constituencies of Uttar Pradesh in phase two of the Lok Sabha elections on Friday. The polling began at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm.

Viral

Video of Isha Arora, Saharanpur Polling Agent Takes the Internet By Storm

Published

7 days ago

April 20, 2024

Priyadarshi Shastri

Video of Isha Arora, Saharanpur Polling Agent taking the internet by storm

A video is currently going viral on the internet, showing Saharanpur polling agent Isha Arora doing the rounds in the Gangoh assembly constituency during the Saharanpur Lok Sabha elections. Since then, netizens have been going gaga over her charm and personality.

Meanwhile, many are curious to know more about her. A wide range of memes and reels are also being shared on Twitter and Instagram.

According to social media, Isha Arora is a State Bank of India (SBI) employee, currently employed on polling duty for the Saharanpur Lok Sabha Election 2024 in Madari village of the Gangoh assembly constituency.

#WATCH | Saharanpur, UP: Polling Agent Isha Arora says, "I think that if you get any duty, you should be punctual and that's the reason I have assumed my duty on time. Every man and woman should be punctual to let the functioning be smooth."

Regarding her video going viral, she… pic.twitter.com/Xo44vVeYyQ— ANI (@ANI) April 19, 2024

Video of Isha Arora dominates the internet

There she serves as the first polling officer at Garhi village’s polling booth. It got to a point that national news agencies were trying to get her on camera.

Images of UP polling officer #IshaArora are widely circulating on various social media platforms. Her pictures, captured by media cameras in #Saharanpur with necessary election materials, have caught the public's eye.#viral #viralvideo pic.twitter.com/IqW3EQuuWz— Madhuri Adnal (@madhuriadnal) April 19, 2024

Many of Isha Arora’s photos and videos are circulating on various social media platforms, generating millions of clicks and views. While talking to ANI, she stated:

“I think that if you get any duty, you should be punctual and that’s the reason I have assumed my duty on time. Every man and woman should be punctual to let the functioning be smooth.”

On being asked about her election duties, she said:

“I’ll say that people should be punctual and they are, otherwise conducting such big elections wouldn’t have been possible. I didn’t get time to watch it (comments) in the video. It’s election time and it was my duty to come on time hence I was busy. It goes viral due to my punctuality and devotion…”

Back in 2019, during the Lok Sabha elections, a clerk from the Public Works Department in Lucknow, Reena Dwivedi, gained national media attention because of her beauty. Her pictures in a yellow saree on duty went viral on various social media platforms.

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