The United States has reported 2,108 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours, the highest daily increase in the country since the outbreak began, pushing the total US death toll to 18,777 on the one-month anniversary of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.
Meanwhile, the number of confirmed cases in the US topped 501,000 on Saturday, as the worldwide death toll surpassed 102,000.
The US is soon expected to overtake Italy in the grim position as the country with the highest number of fatalities. To date, Italy has registered at least 18,800 deaths.
With the number of infections worldwide now close to 1.7 million, including more than 376,000 recovered patients, the WHO has urged caution to countries considering easing restrictions put in place to stem the outbreak. “The way down could be as dangerous as the way up if not managed properly,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
New Delhi: As scores of daily wage workers have moved back to their hometowns due to the spread of coronavirus, the impact of migration can be seen affecting the medicine distribution chain in the capital.
Ashish Grover, General Secretary of Drug Dealer Association from Bhagirath Palace market told ANI that the supply chain of medicines has got disturbed as there is a dearth of labourers.
“We have the medicines, masks, gloves, but we do not have workers to pack the consignment and deliver it to the retailers. Earlier, daily wage workers used to stay in the market but now they have left for their homes and a handful of them who are here are also facing problems in the commute as there is a limited option for the transport,” he said.
“We are not able to supply medicines to other states also because of the shortage of labourer, limited transport services. There are also very fewer truck drivers and helpers available. We have the products but only a few retailers are able to reach out to us,” he added.
The Bhagirath Palace market is also a largest hub of import and export trade of medicine of the country
When asked about the availability of masks, Grover assured that there will be no shortage of masks and added “wholesalers have enough stocks. The only problem is of the distribution. The government must provide these protective gear through hospitals and Kendriya bhandars.” The government on March 24 announced a complete lockdown of the entire country for 21 days to fight COVID-19.
All road, rail, and air services will remain suspended during the lockdown. However, freight movement will continue to carry essential commodities across the country. Essential services like Medical shops, Petrol pumps, grocery stores milk booths, and online shopping have also been exempted from the lockdown.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen wearing a mask during a video conference on Saturday. He was holding a video-conference with the Chief Ministers. He was seen wearing a mask during the interaction.
In his earlier interaction with the Chief Ministers of states, the Prime Minister discussed measures to combat COVID-19.
Modi thanked the states for supporting the decision of 21-day nationwide lockdown. He praised how all the states have worked together as a team to check the spread of the virus.
The Prime Minister, however, forewarned that the global situation remains far from satisfactory and informed about speculations of a possible second wave of the virus spread in some countries.
When the world is aloof being quarantined, there are a number of books to be read, at least to create a positive vibe and to boost our mental health. According to Ezra Pound “Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one’s hand”.- Listing countless benefits of reading, it improves empathy, staving off dementia, improves mental flexibility. Reading is a key to creativity as the readers of fiction is found to accept more ambiguous thoughts.
Every reader possess an inner self of a child,thus let us begin our reading session with Totto- Chan, the Little Girl at the Window. It is an autobiographical memoir written by Japanese television personality and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Tetsuko Kuroyanagi. It is a series of childhood recollections tells about the ideal school in Tokyo during World War II. The school Tomoe Gakuen was founded by headmaster Sosaku Kobayashi. He consider children as free souls and great personality, believed in freedom of expression and creativity. Totto Chan is expelled from the public school because she kept disrupting her class and her mother was forced to put 6her to Tomoe Gakuen. The classroom trains where destroyed by Tokyo air raids,but Headmaster promises to rebuild it. A sentence that captures our mind from the book, “He wanted to teach the children that all bodies are beautiful”. It changes our perception towards the childcare.
The second book is an epic novel written by K.R.Meera, Hangwoman or Arachar, which is translated by J Devika. The novel is about 22 year old Chetna Grdha Mullick, who is hailed from a family of hangmen and the clan claims an exotic pride on their professional lineage, which had historic relevance since 400 BCE. Her 88 year old father has done 451 hangings, at the course of time Chetna was appointed as the hang woman. She is visualized as the symbol of strength and self respect for woman, but she is a utensil of the patriarchal society. The family is hit by a number of tragedies. The novel is enriched with symbolism. History and myth recoils and play a major role in the power production of the story line. The novel also details with poverty ,gender ,society ,media manipulation and the place of woman in in society. “Twenty seconds…Declared dead!” the magistrate announced loudly. My body was tensed and overwrought ,like a stretched rope.” The novel possess powerful language of feelings.
Freedom at Midnight is a non-fiction by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre. It describes events around Indian Independence and partition in 1947-48. The book compresses the story to a tight one year time frame. The novel beginning with appointment of Lord Mountbatten of Burma as the last Viceroy of British India and ending with the death and funeral of Mahatma Gandhi. The book is a result of deep research into events often neglected by other historians. The book was an International Best Seller. The whole chronicle is illustrated with masterful character sketches of how Briton had come to India, how they ruled it and how they had been forced to leave it divided. Readers create a hard feel against Jinnah. It is a horrifying and realistic account of tragedy of partition and its bloody aftermath. The discourse could be exemplified in the quote ‘On 23 June 1757,marching through a drenching rainfall at the head of bare foot and 2000 Indian Sepoys, an audacious general named Robert Clive routed the army of a troublesome Nawab in the rice paddies outside a Bengali village called Plassey.
Silent Spring is an environmental science book by Rachel Carson. It documents the adverse environmental effects caused by the indiscriminate use of pesticides. ‘A heron lay in frozen stubble. Its wings were stud to the ground by frost. Its eyes were open and living,the rest of it was dead. As I approached, I could see it whole body craving into flight. But it couldnot fly. I gave it peace and saw the agonised sunlight of its eyes slowly heal with cloud. “Rachel Carson was the first to give voice to the ecological concern, in a way that came through loyal and clear to the society. Powerful synthetic insecticide such as DDT were poisoning food chains, from insects upwars. The book created a wide awareness to the west. Thus the book is a must read in reader’s cart.
Final Solutions is a breaking play from Contemporary Indian Theatre, by Mahes Dattani, which has an increasing relevance in the current Indian political scenario. It is an authentic expression of the first hand experience and knowledge of socio-cultural environment. He holds a mirror to make reality visible to the audience. The theme of communalism, Dattani applies the religion consciousness and the prejudices towards different religions. “Should we be swallowed up? Should we be swallowed up? Till they cannot recognize us? A drop of oil cannot merge with an ocean of milk.One reality cannot accept another reality. Dattani question it by deliberately stick to the plural solutions, thereby questioning the final. This is a short list of books of different genres which opens a mere window to the world of reading, widens the perspectives of quarantined minds and light the rays of hope.
(Athilais currently pursuing her MA in English from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi)
Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee has said it is the impetus of the govt. to provide the basic necessities of food, cash and shelter to the country’s urban poor. Just a day after the lockdown the nation witnessed migrant workers moving to their homes in huge numbers.
Hanan Ibrahim
The coronavirus pandemic which originated in the Hubei province of China has now affected 181 countries across the world and the new cases are rising exponentially. The virus has overwhelmed health systems and governments across the world. As every country in the world is trying to tackle this crisis in their own way, India entered into a 21 – day lockdown so as to slow down the spread of the virus. In India the growth rate has lowered to 4.7% in the last quarter of 2019 which is a six- year low for the country. India therefore is looming at a social and economic crisis like never before.
The $23 billion fiscal stimulus package announced by the Indian government is inadequate compared to other countries like the United States which has announced a $2 trillion infrastructure package. Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee has said it is the impetus of the govt. to provide the basic necessities of food, cash and shelter to the country’s urban poor. Just a day after the lockdown the nation witnessed migrant workers moving to their homes in huge numbers.
The economic cost of the lockdown for the poor is massive and the reverberations, quite unpredictable. South Korea has shown a model to the world in terms of handling the crisis through rapid testing and by early announcement of a stimulus package of $10 billion which is aimed at the vulnerable group of small businesses and the workers who are laid off.
In this situation the state governments in India are stressed of their resources and several state governments have decided to either cut or defer salaries of their employees. The Reserve Bank of India has also taken a number of steps, including a significant reduction in policy rates, infusing liquidity, and moratorium on interest payments. But this may not be enough to save businesses, especially the small and medium enterprises. Businesses would also need government support.
While lockdowns save lives we need policy measures to sustain livelihoods. The government needs to support the small and medium enterprises and ensure that financial stress isn’t amplified. According to a FICCI survey conducted before the large-scale shutdowns that came into effect over the weekend, 53 per cent responding business units said that business operations have been impacted; 80 per cent said that cash flows had declined; 60 per cent said supply chains have been impacted. Forty- two per cent believed that it would take three months to return to normalcy.
It is significant to keep credit flowing to businesses and households and mitigate the economic turmoil caused by mass quarantines put in place to slow the spread of the virus. India needs to improve its testing capacity so as to detect and isolate the cases as a lockdown alone will not suffice the crisis the country is facing now.
The world is walking through a precarious state since the past few months and India needs to learn to respond better. At least, before making hasty policy measures like a 21- day lockdown just 4 hours before, it needs to envisage the catastrophic implications on the different sections of the population.
(Hananis an M.Com. student in Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi)
The United Kingdom’s coronavirus death toll rose by 881 in 24 hours, officials said on Thursday, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson was moved out of intensive care but remained in hospital to receive treatment for COVID-19.
Meanwhile, Spain reported 683 additional deaths, a lower number compared to the previous two days, while the overall number of fatalities in the United States linked to the coronavirus topped 15,000.
There are now more than 1.5 million confirmed cases of coronavirus around the world. More than 90,000 people have died and some 339,000 have recovered.
Pakistan has asked the Afghan government to hand over custody of the regional chief of the ISIL (ISIS) armed group for “further investigations”, less than a week after he was arrested in connection with a bombing at a Sikh gurudwara that killed more than 25 people.
Atif Mashal, Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan, was summoned to the Pakistani foreign ministry to convey the request on Thursday, a Pakistani statement said.
“It was emphasised that Pakistan had been expressing its concerns over the activities of this group, which were clearly detrimental to Pakistan,” said the statement.
“Pakistan’s position in this regard was being regularly shared with the Government of Afghanistan and others concerned.”
Afghanistan is yet to officially respond to the request. Aslam Farooqi, also known as Abdullah Orakzai, is the chief of ISIL’s “Khorasan Province” chapter, which operates in South Asia and Afghanistan, and was arrested by Afghan authorities on Saturday.
Farooqi, a Pakistani national, took over as chief of ISIL’s regional chapter in July 2019. The group has claimed responsibility for several attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan that killed tens of civilians.
Pakistan’s statement said the two countries “should coordinate actions against the menace of terrorism, including through established mechanisms”. It asked that Farooqi be handed over to Pakistani authorities because “[he] was involved in anti-Pakistan activities in Afghanistan”.
Rome, Italy: Tensions are rising on the Italian island of Lampedusa, where dozens of refugees and migrants have continued to arrive despite a recent government order closing domestic ports to international charity refugee boats wishing to dock.
Italian ministers on Tuesday ruled that at least until July 31, for the duration of the national health emergency sparked by the coronavirus pandemic, domestic ports can no longer be considered a “place of safety” – a move which caused concern among some refugee rights groups.
But although international rescue vessels such as the Alan Kurdi are being kept offshore by this new measure, small ships setting sail from Libya and Tunisia have continued to arrive towards the the Italian coastline.
“We cannot stop migrants: if they set sail, it means that they have to dock somewhere,” Salvatore Martello, the anti-migration mayor of Lampedusa, told Al Jazeera.
Lampedusa is Italy’s southernmost island, closer to Tunisia than to Sicily. Three wooden boats, carrying 34, 67 and 57 asylum seekers, have disembarked on the island this week. Italy requires all arrivals to undergo a two-week quarantine.
When the first 34 refugees docked on Monday, before the new restrictions at the ports, they went into quarantine at a local reception centre, which can host a maximum 96 people in normal times. After social distancing became a requirement for every public facility, there is even less room available.
But the next arrivals, who came after the new measures were in place, were made to wait the whole night in the harbour. Half were subsequently let into the centre, while the others were transferred to the mainland on a regular ferry line.
Mass gatherings at churches across the country were suspended on the occasion of Good Friday, amid the nationwide lockdown imposed to stem the spread of coronavirus.
The doors of the St. Michael’s Church situated in Mahim area of Mumbai were shut in the morning. In Delhi, the Sacred Heart Cathedral situated in Gol Dak Khana was closed to avoid gathering during the lockdown.
In Kerala too, St Joseph Metropolitan Cathedral situated in Palayam area of Thiruvananthapuram was closed in the view of COVID-19 outbreak on Good Friday. Good Friday, also known as Holy Friday or Black Friday, marks the day when Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross. Each year, scores of people gather in churches across the country to offer prayers to the lord.
The country is under a 21-day lockdown which came into effect on March 24 midnight. With 547 new positive COVID-19 cases reported in the last 12 hours, India’s tally of positive coronavirus cases crossed the 6,000 mark as the number of cases rose to 6,412. Out of the 6,412 cases, 5,709 are active patients and 504 people have been cured/discharged and migrated. With 30 new deaths reported in the last 12 hours, the death toll stands at 199.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has dismissed as “propaganda” a report on Union Minister Smriti Irani helping migrant workers from her parliamentary constituency Amethi allegedly stranded in Wayanad because of the coronavirus lockdown.
The report added another layer to the Smriti Irani versus Rahul Gandhi row since the Congress leader lost his three-time constituency Amethi in last year’s national election. While Smriti Irani won from Amethi, Rahul Gandhi won his second election contest at Wayanad in Kerala.
On Monday, the RSS mouthpiece ”Organiser” carried a report titled ”Smriti Irani helps starving daily wagers of Amethi stranded in Rahul Gandhi’s Wayanad Constituency”.
RSS or Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is the ideological mentor of the ruling BJP. The report said Ms Irani’s “timely intervention” had saved 35 migrant workers stranded in Malappuram, which is part of the Wayanad parliamentary constituency. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who met the media after the COVID-19 evaluation meet yesterday, refuted the report and said the workers were fine.
“When we enquired about it, we found that 41 guest workers (migrant workers) were staying together at a place and the panchayat officials had provided 25 kits to them as they had stated that they would cook for themselves. There was no shortage of food there,” he said.
“We saw a propaganda piece being circulated through ‘Organiser’ of RSS saying that the timely intervention of Smriti Irani helped the starving workers from Amethi. Just want to make one thing clear. The state has been assisting the guest workers and all other hard-hit people of the state,” said Mr Vijayan.
“There should be no competition or misleading propaganda that might disrupt or undermine the efforts of the state,” he added.
The Amethi vs Wayanad politics has been playing out on social media in the middle of the nation’s coronavirus crisis. On Saturday, a report said Rahul Gandhi had sent 12,000 sanitisers, 20,000 face masks and 10,000 soaps to Amethi. The Congress MP had also sent wheat to his former constituency, said reports. These reports were trashed by BJP leaders.
