Official sources said that while preparations to tend to patients needing hospital care — as a result of a cumulatively higher number of cases — were on, evidence provided by domestic and global studies pointed to India’s expanding vaccination coverage and hybrid immunity delivering a high level of protection against serious disease.
Scientists at the Pune-based Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Virology (ICMR-NIV) have successfully isolated the Omicron strain of the novel coronavirus. The exercise will also find an answer to another critical question: Will the new variant outsmart existing antibodies in those who have had Covid from old strains?
Prominent seers in Haridwar have condemned the provocative statements that were made at the ‘Dharma Sansad’ held recently in the holy city. Several speakers at the meeting had then lashed out at the minority community, with one even threatening to kill former PM Manmohan Singh for his alleged “appeasement views”.
The explosion of cases has been sudden and widespread since overall Covid numbers had been falling till last week. At least 18 state and Union territories, spread across the country except the northeast, have registered a rise in cases this week as compared with the corresponding days of the previous week.
Germany has arrested prominent Khalistani terror plotter Jaswinder Singh Multani in what marks a breakthrough for India’s counter-terror effort to foil plans of Pakistan’s Inter State Intelligence to engineer terror attacks in Punjab and other parts, including Mumbai. He is currently in German custody and will be questioned by Indian investigators.
Children between 15 and 18 years can register online on CoWin from January 1 or onsite at vaccination centres to receive Covaxin shots from January 3. They can register themselves online through an existing account or create a new one. Among healthcare workers and those aged 60 and above with comorbidities, prioritisation and sequencing would be based on completion of 9 months from the date of the 2nd dose as of Jan 10.
“Courts do not have the power of the purse or the sword. Court orders are only good when they get executed. The executive needs to assist and cooperate for the rule of law to prevail in the nation. However, there appears to be a growing tendency to disregard, and even disrespect court orders by the executive,” the CJI said.
The Union home ministry has constituted a five-member committee headed by registrar general of India Vivek Joshi to examine the possibility of withdrawing the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act from Nagaland in the wake of the botched December 3 Army operation in Mon district that resulted in 14 civilian deaths. The committee will submit its report within 45 days.
Nearly three crore health and frontline workers will be eligible in January for the ‘precaution dose’ of Covid vaccine that will be administered after a gap of nine months from the second dose, official sources said on Sunday. As of now, the third jab that will also be given to around three crore people above 60 with co-morbidities will be of the same vaccine that one had got in the first and second instances.
Khalistani elements based in Pakistan may have radicalised dismissed Punjab police head constable Gagandeep Singh, the lone casualty and suspected perpetrator of Thursday’s Ludhiana court complex blast, when he was in prison for heroin possession for two years, DGP Siddharth Chattopadhyaya said on Saturday. A woman cop once attached to the Khanna SP’s office and suspected to have been Gagandeep’s girlfriend was detained.
Gujarat has topped states in the overall Good Governance Index (GGI) for 2020-21 in the indicators launched by Union home minister Amit Shah on the occasion of Good Governance Day. Delhi topped the list among all UTs. The GGI 2021 framework covered 10 sectors and 58 indicators. These include agriculture and allied sectors, commerce and industries, human resource development, public health, public infrastructure and utilities.
In the wake of rising Omicron cases and low vaccination coverage in some states, the Centre on Saturday deployed multi-disciplinary teams in 10 states to assist them in addressing hurdles and suggest remedial measures. These 10 states are Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Mizoram, Karnataka, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Punjab.
PM Narendra Modi announced on Saturday that “precaution doses” (boosters) of Covid vaccines for health and frontline workers as well as for those above 60 with co-morbidities will begin from January 10. He also said vaccination for children aged 15-18, using Covaxin, will begin from January 3.
The Centre on Friday expressed concern over high Covid-positivity in Kerala (6.1%) and Mizoram (8.2%) even as the rate for the country has been below 1% for the past two weeks. The overall average daily new cases in the country, however, continues to remain below 7,000.
After his public rumblings of discontent, Congress on Friday said veteran Harish Rawat will lead the party campaign in poll-bound Uttarakhand. After a meeting that involved Rahul Gandhi and senior leaders of the state, Rawat said it has been decided that he will lead the Congress campaign as the chairman of the campaign committee. He clarified that the CM will be decided by the legislature party after the polls .
Nearly two dozen Punjab farm groups are expected to form a political front, or even a party, on Saturday and join electoral politics. According to reliable sources, the new political entity is likely to carry the word “Sanyukt” in its name just as the Haryana-based BKU, led by Gurnam Singh Charuni, named its political wing the Sanyukt Sangharsh Party.
The winter session of Parliament was adjourned sine die on Wednesday, a day ahead of schedule. While Lok Sabha lost 18 hours due to disruptions and productivity dipped to 82%, far less than previous sessions, Rajya Sabha, where 12 opposition MPs were suspended, lost nearly 50 hours to disruptions and saw just 48% productivity.
The Centre is likely to table in Parliament this week the Bill to raise the marriageable age for women from 18 to 21 years. The government is not averse to the idea of letting a parliamentary committee scrutinise the Bill. The winter session is scheduled to end on December 23.
Copyright @ 2013 ATC __News.
