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Coronavirus in India
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Bhaijaan
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But South Indians on this forum claim be way more sensible than north Indians
cricket.mad
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It needn't happen everytime...south Indians are more more civilised and sensible than u guys..period..
pillionrider
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[MENTION=76058]cricketjoshila[/MENTION] Your silence is
)Is this person on twitter a fake? Or known for her agenda. Please shed some of your priceless gems here.
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Sellers are demanding for Azadpur Mandi, one of Asia's largest wholesale fruit and vegetable markets, to be closed after a trader died of Covid-19 on Tuesday.
The 57-year-old man, who sold jackfruits and peas, tested positive on Monday, officials told the Hindustan Times newspaper.
They added that a team was looking at all the people the trader was in contact with.
Meanwhile, some traders want a complete lockdown of the market. “The authorities are being very negligent about Covid-19 spread in the market. We urge the government to shut the market for the time being," one of them said.
The market is spread across 78 acres in capital Delhi and would often attract more than 200,000 people on any given day.
It has remained open during India's lockdown and has been operating with social distancing measures in place, authorities say.
The 57-year-old man, who sold jackfruits and peas, tested positive on Monday, officials told the Hindustan Times newspaper.
They added that a team was looking at all the people the trader was in contact with.
Meanwhile, some traders want a complete lockdown of the market. “The authorities are being very negligent about Covid-19 spread in the market. We urge the government to shut the market for the time being," one of them said.
The market is spread across 78 acres in capital Delhi and would often attract more than 200,000 people on any given day.
It has remained open during India's lockdown and has been operating with social distancing measures in place, authorities say.
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The lockdown was extended last week to 3 May - but it's still unclear exactly how effective it has been since experts don't know if cases in India have peaked yet.
But the time it takes for cases to double is growing - there are nearly 20,000 infections, and it took eight days to get there from 10,000. India has confirmed 640 deaths, according to data from the health ministry.
Testing rates have also dipped - which is not as good news. A shipment of faulty rapid antibody testing kits from China has forced Indian states to pause their antibody testing for two days.
Meanwhile, 69% of all positive cases in the country so far were asymptomatic, India's apex medical council said on Tuesday.
This ratio has raised questions over the future of India's testing strategy and whether the current one - focused mostly on those showing symptoms - needs an overhaul.
But the time it takes for cases to double is growing - there are nearly 20,000 infections, and it took eight days to get there from 10,000. India has confirmed 640 deaths, according to data from the health ministry.
Testing rates have also dipped - which is not as good news. A shipment of faulty rapid antibody testing kits from China has forced Indian states to pause their antibody testing for two days.
Meanwhile, 69% of all positive cases in the country so far were asymptomatic, India's apex medical council said on Tuesday.
This ratio has raised questions over the future of India's testing strategy and whether the current one - focused mostly on those showing symptoms - needs an overhaul.
Navdeep Srivastava
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They did 35000 on Monday and around 26500 on Tuesday, Tuesday testing was less because of faulty kits.
I think there are less kits available so they can't afford to go over 40000 in a day, MYlabs is going to increase production soon so situation may get better, right now they are producing 150000 a week.
Indian low numbers in death and infection are costing them big times as labs across the world are saying India don't need urgent kits now, they are sending to UK, USA, Spain etc because situation there is more worst
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I don’t believe they are producing 150k a week yet. They were in talks with Serum to enhance their production numbers but there has no updates if that has gone ahead successfully. There are a few more articles on supply chain issues, which could be hampering them
Navdeep Srivastava
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[MENTION=143407]GBK_Fan[/MENTION] don't know much used this article as a source
https://www.forbes.com/sites/anurag...pproves-slew-of-local-and-foreign-makers/amp/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/anurag...pproves-slew-of-local-and-foreign-makers/amp/
cricketjoshila
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[MENTION=76058]cricketjoshila[/MENTION] Your silence is
Is this person on twitter a fake? Or known for her agenda. Please shed some of your priceless gems here.
These people were arrested. I condemned this and the nihangs in another thread.
https://www.rediff.com/news/report/lockdown-unlikely-to-contain-covid-19-surge-in-india/20200422.htm
Lockdown unlikely to contain COVID-19 surge in India
India extending the nationwide lockdown by nearly three more weeks to May 3 is unlikely to stem the surge in coronavirus infections and economic and humanitarian crisis will exacerbate due to slow response by the government so far, according to Fitch Solutions.
While India's lockdown has been extended to May 3 from April 14 to stem the virus' spread, Fitch Solutions said it believes "this will fail to stem the continued surge in infections and also fail to flatten the infection curve."
It cited four reasons for its downbeat view, including that carriers of the virus can be asymptomatic, which means that many carriers can go undetected and still spread the virus.
Secondly, large crowds of rural migrant workers have gathered at the transport depots in hopes of getting a ride back to their rural villages upon the announcement of the lockdown extension on April 14, and also back when the lockdown was first announced on March 24.
"This, in itself, poses significant risk of contagion and could also spread to the rural areas which have poor access to healthcare," it said.
Thirdly, squalid living conditions in many parts of India such as in the shanty towns also put the residents at high risk of contagion despite lockdown measures being in place, Fitch Solutions said.
"Finally, the low number of cases in India relative to its large population is likely due simply to a low testing rate thus far, with cases very likely to surge as testing is increased over the coming weeks," it added.
Lockdown unlikely to contain COVID-19 surge in India
India extending the nationwide lockdown by nearly three more weeks to May 3 is unlikely to stem the surge in coronavirus infections and economic and humanitarian crisis will exacerbate due to slow response by the government so far, according to Fitch Solutions.
While India's lockdown has been extended to May 3 from April 14 to stem the virus' spread, Fitch Solutions said it believes "this will fail to stem the continued surge in infections and also fail to flatten the infection curve."
It cited four reasons for its downbeat view, including that carriers of the virus can be asymptomatic, which means that many carriers can go undetected and still spread the virus.
Secondly, large crowds of rural migrant workers have gathered at the transport depots in hopes of getting a ride back to their rural villages upon the announcement of the lockdown extension on April 14, and also back when the lockdown was first announced on March 24.
"This, in itself, poses significant risk of contagion and could also spread to the rural areas which have poor access to healthcare," it said.
Thirdly, squalid living conditions in many parts of India such as in the shanty towns also put the residents at high risk of contagion despite lockdown measures being in place, Fitch Solutions said.
"Finally, the low number of cases in India relative to its large population is likely due simply to a low testing rate thus far, with cases very likely to surge as testing is increased over the coming weeks," it added.
Have always maintained this. The lockdown was done without giving it any thought and planning. Even after a month of lockdown, we are nowhere near to tame it. On the other hand, there are so many people who have suffered immensely due to this hastily imposed lockdown.
If only lockdown could defeat this virus!
If only lockdown could defeat this virus!
Sure mate, if not lockdown what do you recommend? Please don’t say enforce social distancing as even with a lockdown we see that’s impossible. You can say the central government has not planned things well, but almost all countries around the world are locked down. There is no real substitute to that.
Lockdown was required but not what we have in India. It was totally without any direction, thought, planning.
How can someone forget about our crores of poor and underprivileged while saying, stay where ever you are? Is it that easy for so many who used to eat whatever they earned during the day?
Seriously? This lockdown has only
gone on to enhance their troubles while may not have helped us much in finding
any tangible solutiona due to our rhetorical dispensation.
How can someone forget about our crores of poor and underprivileged while saying, stay where ever you are? Is it that easy for so many who used to eat whatever they earned during the day?
Seriously? This lockdown has only
gone on to enhance their troubles while may not have helped us much in finding
any tangible solutiona due to our rhetorical dispensation.
globalcitizen
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That was a brief spike earlier, now it looks good
Active cases to testing Ratio at 3.3% now
Navdeep Srivastava
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Only two options, either go for lockdown and delay it's peak by getting patients before lockdown ends or go for herd immunity and ready to sacrifice 2 to 4 percent population.
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Bhaag Viru Bhaag
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Nobody will think about it.
New Delhi: Approval ratings for Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the global coronavirus pandemic are the highest among 10 world leaders, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tweeted this afternoon, referring to a survey conducted between January 1 and April 14 by Morning Consult, a US-based survey research firm.
"Prime Minister leads India's fight against coronavirus from the front. Consistent high approval ratings for PM Narendra Modi. Nation has confidence in its leadership in an extraordinary situation due a pandemic," Ms Sitharaman claimed in her tweet.
The Finance Minister shared two graphs to back her claim, each of which showed "net approval (approval minus disapproval) among adult residents of each country".
"Prime Minister leads India's fight against coronavirus from the front. Consistent high approval ratings for PM Narendra Modi. Nation has confidence in its leadership in an extraordinary situation due a pandemic," Ms Sitharaman claimed in her tweet.
The Finance Minister shared two graphs to back her claim, each of which showed "net approval (approval minus disapproval) among adult residents of each country".
The Aztecs killed children and slaves at the altar of their gods to appease them. We sacrifice the most deprived and impoverished among us to the Corona god, in a pitiless, poorly thought out lockdown.
The Viper
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The Indian government has passed a law by which those who are found guilty of attacking doctors or health workers can be sentenced to up to seven years in jail.
Doctors, nurses and community health workers from across the country have reported being attacked - some of the assaults happened in neighbourhoods while health workers were in the process of contact-tracing suspected positive patients, and others occurred in hospitals.
In some cases doctors have also been chased away by their neighbours who feared contracting the virus from them.
The new law was introduced in an ordinance on Wednesday. It's now part of The Epidemic Diseases Act, a 123-year-old colonial-era law, and also carries a hefty fine that could run up to $6,500 (£5,200).
"We have zero tolerance and will not allow this," Prakash Javadekar, a central minister told local media.
India has so far recorded 15,474 active cases and 640 deaths.
Doctors, nurses and community health workers from across the country have reported being attacked - some of the assaults happened in neighbourhoods while health workers were in the process of contact-tracing suspected positive patients, and others occurred in hospitals.
In some cases doctors have also been chased away by their neighbours who feared contracting the virus from them.
The new law was introduced in an ordinance on Wednesday. It's now part of The Epidemic Diseases Act, a 123-year-old colonial-era law, and also carries a hefty fine that could run up to $6,500 (£5,200).
"We have zero tolerance and will not allow this," Prakash Javadekar, a central minister told local media.
India has so far recorded 15,474 active cases and 640 deaths.
Itachi
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You should goto villages and the remote areas to see how the system is actually working. I am surprised you are criticizing so much of the policies yet, you lack basics of how it is being implemented.
It's really an insult to the people who is trying their best to provide the poor with resources provided from the govt.
Rosy picture painted by you is insult to those people who died due to pig headedness of this regime. Not for the first time that happened, won’t be the last time either. So many helpless people have to suffer due to illiteracy and megalomaniac nature of one idiot.
As for basics, save me the sermons, I know where they are coming from.
I know enough number of villagers who are hugely inconvenienced by this totally directionless and unplanned act. I have seen so many migrants who are stuck at isolation camps where the conditions are worse than hell.
I have seen so many businesses around me shutting shop overnight. Do you even know their plight? No you don’t.
We have already wasted one month, with 2nd lockdown coming to an end in another 11 days. Will there be another extension?
What does one call it when your FM takes pride in her PM’s approval ratings even during these catastrophic times?
Or your food minister talks of converting rice into ethanol and sanitizer?
Only blind followers will believe what this government is upto.
What does one call it when your FM takes pride in her PM’s approval ratings even during these catastrophic times?
Or your food minister talks of converting rice into ethanol and sanitizer?
Only blind followers will believe what this government is upto.
After Row With Centre, Mamata Banerjee Unblocks COVID-19 Inspection Team
A central team sent to Bengal to investigate coronavirus lockdown violations waited for hours today before being allowed by the Mamata Banerjee government to tour Kolkata. It took a home ministry warning before the state government budged after keeping the teams in Kolkata and Jalpaiguri on hold.
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/cor...19-teams-5-in-opposition-ruled-states-2215529
Why is she scared if centre team does investigation in Bengal? Unless she is hiding the actual covid 19 cases there.
Wait....that is exactly what she is doing.
Mamata Govt hiding exact figures of COVID-19 cases in Bengal: Gov Jagdeep Dhankhar
https://www.indiatvnews.com/video/n...9-cases-in-bengal-gov-jagdeep-dhankhar-610158
Easily the most self contained and selfish CM in India. Good thing is only 10 more months left for Didi....getting booted out in next years bengal election.
A central team sent to Bengal to investigate coronavirus lockdown violations waited for hours today before being allowed by the Mamata Banerjee government to tour Kolkata. It took a home ministry warning before the state government budged after keeping the teams in Kolkata and Jalpaiguri on hold.
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/cor...19-teams-5-in-opposition-ruled-states-2215529
Why is she scared if centre team does investigation in Bengal? Unless she is hiding the actual covid 19 cases there.
Wait....that is exactly what she is doing.
Mamata Govt hiding exact figures of COVID-19 cases in Bengal: Gov Jagdeep Dhankhar
https://www.indiatvnews.com/video/n...9-cases-in-bengal-gov-jagdeep-dhankhar-610158
Easily the most self contained and selfish CM in India. Good thing is only 10 more months left for Didi....getting booted out in next years bengal election.
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India plans wristband patient surveillance
India plans to manufacture thousands of wristbands that will monitor the locations and temperatures of coronavirus patients, help perform contact tracing and aid health workers delivering essential services.
Broadcast Engineering Consultants India, a government-owned company, will present wristband designs to hospitals and state governments next week and work with Indian start-ups to manufacture them.
George Kuruvilla, the company's chairman, said the wristbands are likely to be rolled out in May.
India plans to manufacture thousands of wristbands that will monitor the locations and temperatures of coronavirus patients, help perform contact tracing and aid health workers delivering essential services.
Broadcast Engineering Consultants India, a government-owned company, will present wristband designs to hospitals and state governments next week and work with Indian start-ups to manufacture them.
George Kuruvilla, the company's chairman, said the wristbands are likely to be rolled out in May.
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Itachi
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Inconvenience???? Who stated that the people from every category will have the happiness of their lifetime in these turbulent times? There's ideal scenario and there is pratcical scenario. You are complaining yet you still haven't wrote what steps you will take differently.
Let's make a start. What are the changes that you would have made if you were in the planning committee?
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New Delhi: With the second biggest spike since the beginning of the pandemic, India registered 1,486 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, taking the total to 20,471. With 49 more people dying in the last 24 hours, the number of deaths rose to 652, the Health Ministry said.
Coronavirus cases had jumped by 1,540 on Monday when the government also reported an improvement in the number of people who have recovered. The recovery rate stood at 19.36 per cent this morning, with 618 patients recovering in a day.
While the total number of confirmed infections continues to climb, government health officials have said the speed of transmission is slowing thanks to the nationwide lockdown that began on March 25 and in place until at least May 3.
The "doubling rate" - the number of days it takes infections to multiply by two - had increased to 7.5 days, up from 3.4 days before the lockdown, Health Ministry joint secretary Lav Agarwal said on Monday. "This is an extremely positive trend," he said.
The disease has now spread to 403 districts, up from 211 on April 2, while six major cities account for about 45 per cent of the total cases across the country.
Mumbai tops the chart with over 3,000 cases, followed by Delhi at 2,081, Ahmedabad at 1,298, Indore at 915, Pune at 660 and Jaipur 537.
More than 60 percent of the cases are from just the top five states - Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.
Such an uneven spread allows health officials to focus their efforts on the top affected areas, or red zones, such as Delhi and Mumbai, while allowing other states to re-start activities, the government has said.
On Monday, the government allowed some factories and businesses to open in rural India as part of a staggered exit from the lockdown that has left crores out of work and short of food even though absent staff and broken supply chains scuppered the efforts.
In one of the world's toughest lockdowns, people across the country have been forbidden from stepping out of their homes except for food and medicines until May 3. Telangana has already announced an extension of the lockdown till May 7.
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/cor...-hours-49-deaths-2216403?pfrom=home-topscroll
Coronavirus cases had jumped by 1,540 on Monday when the government also reported an improvement in the number of people who have recovered. The recovery rate stood at 19.36 per cent this morning, with 618 patients recovering in a day.
While the total number of confirmed infections continues to climb, government health officials have said the speed of transmission is slowing thanks to the nationwide lockdown that began on March 25 and in place until at least May 3.
The "doubling rate" - the number of days it takes infections to multiply by two - had increased to 7.5 days, up from 3.4 days before the lockdown, Health Ministry joint secretary Lav Agarwal said on Monday. "This is an extremely positive trend," he said.
The disease has now spread to 403 districts, up from 211 on April 2, while six major cities account for about 45 per cent of the total cases across the country.
Mumbai tops the chart with over 3,000 cases, followed by Delhi at 2,081, Ahmedabad at 1,298, Indore at 915, Pune at 660 and Jaipur 537.
More than 60 percent of the cases are from just the top five states - Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.
Such an uneven spread allows health officials to focus their efforts on the top affected areas, or red zones, such as Delhi and Mumbai, while allowing other states to re-start activities, the government has said.
On Monday, the government allowed some factories and businesses to open in rural India as part of a staggered exit from the lockdown that has left crores out of work and short of food even though absent staff and broken supply chains scuppered the efforts.
In one of the world's toughest lockdowns, people across the country have been forbidden from stepping out of their homes except for food and medicines until May 3. Telangana has already announced an extension of the lockdown till May 7.
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/cor...-hours-49-deaths-2216403?pfrom=home-topscroll
Start? Have stated the same at quite a few places in quite a few threads. Can't be bothered to list them out again.
As for inconvenience, you possibly couldn't decipher simple English, so forget it.
However, one fresh start could be pradhan sevak not keeping himself at forefront of something which he doesn't have any idea about. One more will be less of his nautanki and more of substantial measures on the ground like procurement of PPE and test kits, something which he was exporting as late as till 20 March. There are so many medicos who are treating patients in raincoats.
Announce something substantial for small scale industries and for lowest strata of society.
There are so many people whose existence has escaped this sarkar's attention.
So many people are still going hungry despite tall claims by all governments in India of having fed crores of Indians every day. So many people aren't getting any ration just because they don't have a ration card.
As for inconvenience, you possibly couldn't decipher simple English, so forget it.
However, one fresh start could be pradhan sevak not keeping himself at forefront of something which he doesn't have any idea about. One more will be less of his nautanki and more of substantial measures on the ground like procurement of PPE and test kits, something which he was exporting as late as till 20 March. There are so many medicos who are treating patients in raincoats.
Announce something substantial for small scale industries and for lowest strata of society.
There are so many people whose existence has escaped this sarkar's attention.
So many people are still going hungry despite tall claims by all governments in India of having fed crores of Indians every day. So many people aren't getting any ration just because they don't have a ration card.
Itachi
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So far, what you have is,
1. More PPE kit. Fair enough point.
2. Something substantial for SMEs. Fair enough. But how much and where will do this money come from which will count as aid? Someone has to pay for it.
3. As for ration card, most states already has declared that people without ration card will also get rice the amount of which will vary from state to state.
Here's the question in this point, what would you have done for the people who doesn't have ration card on contrary to what the state govt are doing?
Read your post again. It again comes off just complaints without any solution.
And the only solution you brought up has no base to sustain it unless you want to give out the details about how you will give financial aid to SMEs.
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In his last pictures, Muhammad Husain Siddiqui, wearing a brimless cap and brown tunic, is peering into the camera.
It is the last day of February. Siddiqui has just returned to India after a month-long stay with his younger son, who works as a dentist in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The 76-year-old Islamic scholar and judge looks visibly tired. Smiling wanly, he accepts a bouquet from the family driver outside the airport in the southern city of Hyderabad.
They get into their Chevrolet sedan, and head home to Gulbarga some 240km (150 miles) away in neighbouring Karnataka state. They take lunch and tea breaks and drive past forts and cotton farms in a journey that takes four hours.
"My father said he was fine. He looked good, having spent a month with my brother and his family. He asked about us," his eldest son, Hamid Faisal Siddiqui, told me.
But 10 days later, his father was dead - India's first official Covid-19 fatality.
He first began feeling sick a week after his return. He died three days later, gasping for air in a moving ambulance. Anxious family members had ferried him between two cities and four hospitals in less than two days. Rejected by four hospitals, he died on his way to the fifth, where he was declared "brought dead".
The day after Siddiqui died, authorities announced that he had tested positive for the virus.
"We still do not believe he died of Covid-19. We haven't even got the death certificate," Ahmed Faisal Siddiqui told me.
In many ways, the story of his father's death underlines the chaos and confusion often marring the treatment of Covid-19 patients in India.
Siddiqui was fine on his return to his two-storey home in Gulbarga, where he lived with his eldest son and his family.
He had given up working five years ago. His wife had died from cancer since then. His friends said he mainly spent his time in his well-appointed office room with its book-lined shelves. He was also the caretaker of the biggest local mosque. "He was a generous, erudite man," said Ghulam Gouse, a friend.
He complained that he was feeling sick on the night of 7 March. He woke up early the next morning, coughing violently and asking for water.
The family doctor, a 63-year-old local physician, had arrived promptly, given him a tablet for a cold and gone away.
The cough worsened and that night he slept fitfully. Now, he also had a fever.
On the morning of 9 March, the family took Siddiqui to a private hospital in Gulbarga, where he spent 12 hours under observation.
Here is where the story gets confusing.
The discharge note from the private hospital provided to the family says Siddiqui was suffering from pneumonia in both lungs. The patient also suffered from hypertension, the examining doctor wrote. He referred him to a leading super-speciality hospital in Hyderabad for "further evaluation" - but did not mention a suspected Covid-19 infection.
However, a statement released after his death by India's health ministry, says the hospital in Gulbarga "provisionally diagnosed" him as a "suspected Covid-19 patient".
Why India cannot afford to lift its lockdown
The statement also says a swab sample was taken from Siddiqui during his stay in the hospital and sent to the city of Bangalore, 570km (354 miles) away, to test for the virus.
It then put the blame on the patient's family for moving him out from the Gulbarga hospital.
"Without waiting for the test results," the statement said, "the attendees [of the patient] insisted [on taking him away] and the patient was discharged against medical advice and attendees took him to a private hospital in Hyderabad."
"I don't know why we are being blamed for this. If they told us to keep my father here, we would have taken him to the local government hospital. We went by what the private hospital told us and we have evidence of that," Hamid Faisal Siddiqui said.
But senior district officials I spoke to maintained that they had asked the family to agree to move Siddiqui to a local government hospital which had a designated Covid-19 ward. "But the family members were adamant about taking him away," an official said.
On the evening of 10 March, Siddiqui was wheeled out on a gurney and put into an ambulance where a paramedic gave him oxygen and hooked him up to an IV. His son, daughter and a son-in-law accompanied him.
They drove through the night and reached Hyderabad the next morning.
There they moved Siddiqui from one hospital to another seeking treatment.
A neurological clinic denied admission, and referred the patient to a government hospital in Hyderabad that had a designated Covid-19 ward. The family waited there an hour. "No doctor showed up, nobody turned up, so we moved again", a family member said.
Siddiqui was slowly sinking in the sweltering ambulance.
They finally took him to the super-speciality hospital.
Doctors examined him for a couple of hours. They noted that the patient "had been coughing for two days, followed by shortness of breath for two days". He had been given paracetamol, nebulised and was on IV fluids. They "advised admission for further evaluation".
But, the hospital noted in its discharge note, that the "patient attendant was not willing for admission for further evaluation despite risks [to patient] being explained".
Again, the family insists that was not quite true. They said the super-speciality hospital asked them to "take the patient back to the government hospital, have him tested there for coronavirus and come back".
"We were so confused, we left the place and decided to return to Gulbarga," a family member said.
When the ambulance returned to Gulbarga early next morning, Siddiqui had stopped breathing. After travelling more than 600km (372 miles) on the road, he had given up.
"From the day of onset of symptoms till his death, patient has not visited any government facility," the official report on his death said.
The next day, his son says, they found out "from TV that my father had become India's first coronavirus casualty". In the afternoon, they buried him quietly in a family graveyard.
Since Siddiqui's death, Gulbarga has reported more than 20 cases and two more deaths from Covid-19. Siddiqui's 45-year-old daughter and the family doctor were among those who tested positive. (They have recovered.)
More than 1,240 people are under home and hospital isolation. A total of 1,616 samples had been tested by Monday morning.
"Give me some water, I am feeling thirsty. Take me home," Siddiqui had told his son in the ambulance that fateful night.
His family returned home, but he didn't make it.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52343241
It is the last day of February. Siddiqui has just returned to India after a month-long stay with his younger son, who works as a dentist in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The 76-year-old Islamic scholar and judge looks visibly tired. Smiling wanly, he accepts a bouquet from the family driver outside the airport in the southern city of Hyderabad.
They get into their Chevrolet sedan, and head home to Gulbarga some 240km (150 miles) away in neighbouring Karnataka state. They take lunch and tea breaks and drive past forts and cotton farms in a journey that takes four hours.
"My father said he was fine. He looked good, having spent a month with my brother and his family. He asked about us," his eldest son, Hamid Faisal Siddiqui, told me.
But 10 days later, his father was dead - India's first official Covid-19 fatality.
He first began feeling sick a week after his return. He died three days later, gasping for air in a moving ambulance. Anxious family members had ferried him between two cities and four hospitals in less than two days. Rejected by four hospitals, he died on his way to the fifth, where he was declared "brought dead".
The day after Siddiqui died, authorities announced that he had tested positive for the virus.
"We still do not believe he died of Covid-19. We haven't even got the death certificate," Ahmed Faisal Siddiqui told me.
In many ways, the story of his father's death underlines the chaos and confusion often marring the treatment of Covid-19 patients in India.
Siddiqui was fine on his return to his two-storey home in Gulbarga, where he lived with his eldest son and his family.
He had given up working five years ago. His wife had died from cancer since then. His friends said he mainly spent his time in his well-appointed office room with its book-lined shelves. He was also the caretaker of the biggest local mosque. "He was a generous, erudite man," said Ghulam Gouse, a friend.
He complained that he was feeling sick on the night of 7 March. He woke up early the next morning, coughing violently and asking for water.
The family doctor, a 63-year-old local physician, had arrived promptly, given him a tablet for a cold and gone away.
The cough worsened and that night he slept fitfully. Now, he also had a fever.
On the morning of 9 March, the family took Siddiqui to a private hospital in Gulbarga, where he spent 12 hours under observation.
Here is where the story gets confusing.
The discharge note from the private hospital provided to the family says Siddiqui was suffering from pneumonia in both lungs. The patient also suffered from hypertension, the examining doctor wrote. He referred him to a leading super-speciality hospital in Hyderabad for "further evaluation" - but did not mention a suspected Covid-19 infection.
However, a statement released after his death by India's health ministry, says the hospital in Gulbarga "provisionally diagnosed" him as a "suspected Covid-19 patient".
Why India cannot afford to lift its lockdown
The statement also says a swab sample was taken from Siddiqui during his stay in the hospital and sent to the city of Bangalore, 570km (354 miles) away, to test for the virus.
It then put the blame on the patient's family for moving him out from the Gulbarga hospital.
"Without waiting for the test results," the statement said, "the attendees [of the patient] insisted [on taking him away] and the patient was discharged against medical advice and attendees took him to a private hospital in Hyderabad."
"I don't know why we are being blamed for this. If they told us to keep my father here, we would have taken him to the local government hospital. We went by what the private hospital told us and we have evidence of that," Hamid Faisal Siddiqui said.
But senior district officials I spoke to maintained that they had asked the family to agree to move Siddiqui to a local government hospital which had a designated Covid-19 ward. "But the family members were adamant about taking him away," an official said.
On the evening of 10 March, Siddiqui was wheeled out on a gurney and put into an ambulance where a paramedic gave him oxygen and hooked him up to an IV. His son, daughter and a son-in-law accompanied him.
They drove through the night and reached Hyderabad the next morning.
There they moved Siddiqui from one hospital to another seeking treatment.
A neurological clinic denied admission, and referred the patient to a government hospital in Hyderabad that had a designated Covid-19 ward. The family waited there an hour. "No doctor showed up, nobody turned up, so we moved again", a family member said.
Siddiqui was slowly sinking in the sweltering ambulance.
They finally took him to the super-speciality hospital.
Doctors examined him for a couple of hours. They noted that the patient "had been coughing for two days, followed by shortness of breath for two days". He had been given paracetamol, nebulised and was on IV fluids. They "advised admission for further evaluation".
But, the hospital noted in its discharge note, that the "patient attendant was not willing for admission for further evaluation despite risks [to patient] being explained".
Again, the family insists that was not quite true. They said the super-speciality hospital asked them to "take the patient back to the government hospital, have him tested there for coronavirus and come back".
"We were so confused, we left the place and decided to return to Gulbarga," a family member said.
When the ambulance returned to Gulbarga early next morning, Siddiqui had stopped breathing. After travelling more than 600km (372 miles) on the road, he had given up.
"From the day of onset of symptoms till his death, patient has not visited any government facility," the official report on his death said.
The next day, his son says, they found out "from TV that my father had become India's first coronavirus casualty". In the afternoon, they buried him quietly in a family graveyard.
Since Siddiqui's death, Gulbarga has reported more than 20 cases and two more deaths from Covid-19. Siddiqui's 45-year-old daughter and the family doctor were among those who tested positive. (They have recovered.)
More than 1,240 people are under home and hospital isolation. A total of 1,616 samples had been tested by Monday morning.
"Give me some water, I am feeling thirsty. Take me home," Siddiqui had told his son in the ambulance that fateful night.
His family returned home, but he didn't make it.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52343241
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India reports second biggest daily spike as cases soar
With 1,486 new infections confirmed on Wednesday, India has seen its second sharpest daily spike.
The health ministry also said 49 people had died in the last 24 hours, taking the total death toll to 681.
With the new cases, the total official tally in India has crossed 20,000 infections.
The sharpest spike yet was reported on Monday, when authorities said more than 1,500 people tested positive.
But there is also some good news. Officials have said that the doubling rate - the number of days it takes for infections to multiply by two - had increased to almost eight days, up from 3.4 days before the lockdown.
With 1,486 new infections confirmed on Wednesday, India has seen its second sharpest daily spike.
The health ministry also said 49 people had died in the last 24 hours, taking the total death toll to 681.
With the new cases, the total official tally in India has crossed 20,000 infections.
The sharpest spike yet was reported on Monday, when authorities said more than 1,500 people tested positive.
But there is also some good news. Officials have said that the doubling rate - the number of days it takes for infections to multiply by two - had increased to almost eight days, up from 3.4 days before the lockdown.
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Alleged health care worker attackers test positive
Five people who were accused of pelting stones at health workers in India's Uttar Pradesh state recently have tested positive for coronavirus.
Officials have now quarantined more than 70 police officers who may have come in contact with them.
The five are among 17 men who were arrested earlier this month in Moradabad district. The mob were trying to prevent healthcare workers from taking an infected patient to an isolation ward.
Police told local media that 73 officers have undergone tests so far.
Several healthcare workers in India have been attacked as they battle to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
On Wednesday, the government passed a new law by which those who are found guilty of attacking doctors or health workers can be sentenced to up to seven years in jail.
Five people who were accused of pelting stones at health workers in India's Uttar Pradesh state recently have tested positive for coronavirus.
Officials have now quarantined more than 70 police officers who may have come in contact with them.
The five are among 17 men who were arrested earlier this month in Moradabad district. The mob were trying to prevent healthcare workers from taking an infected patient to an isolation ward.
Police told local media that 73 officers have undergone tests so far.
Several healthcare workers in India have been attacked as they battle to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
On Wednesday, the government passed a new law by which those who are found guilty of attacking doctors or health workers can be sentenced to up to seven years in jail.
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NEW DELHI (Reuters) - One recent morning in his two-room New Delhi home, sanitation worker Dev Dutt Sharma drank tea before putting on an orange jacket and bidding goodbye to his two sons, wife, and elderly mother.
He rode his motorbike to government offices in South Delhi, where he suited up in protective gear and strapped a container full of disinfectant on his back.
Then he ventured out to disinfect some of Delhi’s crowded slums and neighborhoods deemed at risk from the coronavirus, which has infected more than 20,000 people and killed 652 in India.
“I do feel afraid, because I have a family,” said Sharma, 38, who is one of more than 3,500 workers usually tasked with combating malaria for the South Delhi Municipal Corporation.
“But then I think that, along with my own family, I will also save other families.”
The plight of India’s under-protected medical workers has drawn widespread attention, but workers disinfecting cities are also at risk as they venture into designated containment zones.
“Wherever we get more than three or four cases from a single locality, we are taking special measures in those areas,” said N.R. Tuli, a doctor in charge of disinfections in a South Delhi area.
Such measures boost sanitation and strengthen awareness of government actions, said virologist Shahid Jameel.
“The latter increases the level of trust that is so important for people to follow instructions,” added Jameel, the chief executive of health charity the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance.
India’s population of 1.3 billion has been subjected to one of the world’s toughest lockdowns, confining people to their homes except for trips to buy food and medicine until May 3.
To help rein in the virus, Sharma disinfects as many as 80 homes a day. But when the work ends, anxiety returns to haunt him.
“When I come back home, I also feel, ‘What if this virus is inside me and might get transmitted to my children?’,” he said. “But we are helpless, we have to perform our duty.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...-disinfect-coronavirus-hotspots-idUSKCN2250D0
He rode his motorbike to government offices in South Delhi, where he suited up in protective gear and strapped a container full of disinfectant on his back.
Then he ventured out to disinfect some of Delhi’s crowded slums and neighborhoods deemed at risk from the coronavirus, which has infected more than 20,000 people and killed 652 in India.
“I do feel afraid, because I have a family,” said Sharma, 38, who is one of more than 3,500 workers usually tasked with combating malaria for the South Delhi Municipal Corporation.
“But then I think that, along with my own family, I will also save other families.”
The plight of India’s under-protected medical workers has drawn widespread attention, but workers disinfecting cities are also at risk as they venture into designated containment zones.
“Wherever we get more than three or four cases from a single locality, we are taking special measures in those areas,” said N.R. Tuli, a doctor in charge of disinfections in a South Delhi area.
Such measures boost sanitation and strengthen awareness of government actions, said virologist Shahid Jameel.
“The latter increases the level of trust that is so important for people to follow instructions,” added Jameel, the chief executive of health charity the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance.
India’s population of 1.3 billion has been subjected to one of the world’s toughest lockdowns, confining people to their homes except for trips to buy food and medicine until May 3.
To help rein in the virus, Sharma disinfects as many as 80 homes a day. But when the work ends, anxiety returns to haunt him.
“When I come back home, I also feel, ‘What if this virus is inside me and might get transmitted to my children?’,” he said. “But we are helpless, we have to perform our duty.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...-disinfect-coronavirus-hotspots-idUSKCN2250D0
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- Oct 2, 2004
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The 125,000 slum-dwellers living under a lockdown so strict that drones monitor their moves and alert police if they attempt to leave home are at the heart of India's push to contain coronavirus.
But with only a handful of people tested so far in the country's biggest slum, fears are growing that "Mission Dharavi" -- a term coined by officials working there -- may not prevent the virus from raging across the densely packed neighbourhood.
Dharavi is home to an estimated one million people, who eke out a living as factory workers or maids and chauffeurs to the financial capital Mumbai's well-heeled residents.
Its narrow alleys, crowded housing and poor sanitation offer the perfect breeding ground for the virus.
"The biggest challenge is Dharavi itself... 10 to 15 people stay in one room. How is it possible to enforce social distancing?" asked city official Kiran Dighavkar.
He is overseeing an effort involving some 2,500 people, including medical workers, cleaners and volunteers, who are fighting to keep cases -- at nearly 200, with 12 deaths -- from spiralling out of control and overwhelming hospitals.
The severe lockdown imposed in five virus hotspots in the slum since the first cases were reported in early April is a key part of that undertaking.
"No-one is allowed to go in or out," Dighavkar told AFP, adding that "everything, including grocery shops, is shut".
"Police are using drones to make sure people obey the rules," he said.
A state-run school, a sports complex and a formerly defunct hospital are being used to house patients and as quarantine facilities.
Around 40,000 people have undergone thermal screening over the past week at so-called fever camps.
And Dharavi's 225 public toilets -- a lifeline for its residents -- are disinfected daily, he said.
- 'In a panic' -
Mumbai is even considering handing out hydroxychloroquine -- an anti-malarial drug touted by US President Donald Trump -- "as a preventive measure" to Dharavi residents in quarantine facilities, said Daksha Shah, a senior health official with the city authority.
"Right now the community is in a panic... so we have to be a bit careful," she told AFP, adding that they were awaiting approval from New Delhi.
Officials have partnered with non-profits to distribute food and medicine in the area, also home to thousands of migrant workers left jobless by a weeks-long nationwide lockdown.
Although the restrictions ordered across India are less severe than those imposed in Dharavi's hotspots, they have had a lethal impact on the poor.
The Roti Bank Foundation's operations manager Jayandrath Tambe told AFP the non-profit organised 4,500 meals daily for Dharavi's confined residents and was feeding 32,000 people across Mumbai with the help of local hotels.
Social worker Imran Idris Khan turned to YouTube to upload videos explaining relief efforts in Dharavi and used WhatsApp to inform residents about where to find food.
"Many families are still sitting at home or people are stuck in factories without any idea about food-packet distribution drives and therefore going hungry," he told AFP.
"This should not be happening."
- 'I feel helpless' -
The capital of Maharashtra state, which has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in India, Mumbai has recorded over 3,000 infections among its 18-million-strong population.
The central government has reported more than 20,000 cases so far in the nation of 1.3 billion people.
Maharashtra's chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday tweeted that around 70-75 percent of coronavirus cases in the state "have very mild symptoms or are asymptomatic".
'
Officials in Dharavi tried to ramp up testing by including residents without symptoms, but Mumbai city authority spokesman Vijay Khabale-Patil told AFP New Delhi rejected the move.
Under the central government's guidelines, asymptomatic people are tested only if they are high-risk or have come into direct contact with an infected person.
Just 657 people have been tested in the slum, raising fears that hospitals -- reportedly already at full capacity -- might struggle to cope if there's an unexpected spike in severe cases.
One Dharavi resident receiving treatment for coronavirus said he had no symptoms for three weeks spent almost entirely indoors, before developing a sore throat and fever which refused to subside.
He has now been in hospital for nine days.
"I feel helpless at times and worry about my family and neighbourhood," the 24-year-old told AFP on condition of anonymity as he fears being stigmatised for being sick.
"Looking at so many people losing lives due to infections makes me feel terrible. Will we ever recover from this?"
https://www.afp.com/en/news/15/mission-dharavi-virus-battleground-indias-biggest-slum-doc-1qq5qo1
But with only a handful of people tested so far in the country's biggest slum, fears are growing that "Mission Dharavi" -- a term coined by officials working there -- may not prevent the virus from raging across the densely packed neighbourhood.
Dharavi is home to an estimated one million people, who eke out a living as factory workers or maids and chauffeurs to the financial capital Mumbai's well-heeled residents.
Its narrow alleys, crowded housing and poor sanitation offer the perfect breeding ground for the virus.
"The biggest challenge is Dharavi itself... 10 to 15 people stay in one room. How is it possible to enforce social distancing?" asked city official Kiran Dighavkar.
He is overseeing an effort involving some 2,500 people, including medical workers, cleaners and volunteers, who are fighting to keep cases -- at nearly 200, with 12 deaths -- from spiralling out of control and overwhelming hospitals.
The severe lockdown imposed in five virus hotspots in the slum since the first cases were reported in early April is a key part of that undertaking.
"No-one is allowed to go in or out," Dighavkar told AFP, adding that "everything, including grocery shops, is shut".
"Police are using drones to make sure people obey the rules," he said.
A state-run school, a sports complex and a formerly defunct hospital are being used to house patients and as quarantine facilities.
Around 40,000 people have undergone thermal screening over the past week at so-called fever camps.
And Dharavi's 225 public toilets -- a lifeline for its residents -- are disinfected daily, he said.
- 'In a panic' -
Mumbai is even considering handing out hydroxychloroquine -- an anti-malarial drug touted by US President Donald Trump -- "as a preventive measure" to Dharavi residents in quarantine facilities, said Daksha Shah, a senior health official with the city authority.
"Right now the community is in a panic... so we have to be a bit careful," she told AFP, adding that they were awaiting approval from New Delhi.
Officials have partnered with non-profits to distribute food and medicine in the area, also home to thousands of migrant workers left jobless by a weeks-long nationwide lockdown.
Although the restrictions ordered across India are less severe than those imposed in Dharavi's hotspots, they have had a lethal impact on the poor.
The Roti Bank Foundation's operations manager Jayandrath Tambe told AFP the non-profit organised 4,500 meals daily for Dharavi's confined residents and was feeding 32,000 people across Mumbai with the help of local hotels.
Social worker Imran Idris Khan turned to YouTube to upload videos explaining relief efforts in Dharavi and used WhatsApp to inform residents about where to find food.
"Many families are still sitting at home or people are stuck in factories without any idea about food-packet distribution drives and therefore going hungry," he told AFP.
"This should not be happening."
- 'I feel helpless' -
The capital of Maharashtra state, which has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in India, Mumbai has recorded over 3,000 infections among its 18-million-strong population.
The central government has reported more than 20,000 cases so far in the nation of 1.3 billion people.
Maharashtra's chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday tweeted that around 70-75 percent of coronavirus cases in the state "have very mild symptoms or are asymptomatic".
'
Officials in Dharavi tried to ramp up testing by including residents without symptoms, but Mumbai city authority spokesman Vijay Khabale-Patil told AFP New Delhi rejected the move.
Under the central government's guidelines, asymptomatic people are tested only if they are high-risk or have come into direct contact with an infected person.
Just 657 people have been tested in the slum, raising fears that hospitals -- reportedly already at full capacity -- might struggle to cope if there's an unexpected spike in severe cases.
One Dharavi resident receiving treatment for coronavirus said he had no symptoms for three weeks spent almost entirely indoors, before developing a sore throat and fever which refused to subside.
He has now been in hospital for nine days.
"I feel helpless at times and worry about my family and neighbourhood," the 24-year-old told AFP on condition of anonymity as he fears being stigmatised for being sick.
"Looking at so many people losing lives due to infections makes me feel terrible. Will we ever recover from this?"
https://www.afp.com/en/news/15/mission-dharavi-virus-battleground-indias-biggest-slum-doc-1qq5qo1
What idiots ruling us! Even at this time, their first task is to praise the lord,
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/cor...-covid-19-crisis-2216733?pfrom=home-topscroll
New Delhi: Home Minister Amit Shah today praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his handling of the COVID-19 outbreak, declaring the "truth is self-evident" and that "every Indian is feeling safe and trusts his leadership".
In his tweet Mr Shah referred to a survey of world leaders and their performance during this pandemic by a US-based research firm that claimed the Prime Minister was ahead of Donald Trump, Angela Merkel, Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron in approval ratings in their respective countries.
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/cor...-covid-19-crisis-2216733?pfrom=home-topscroll
New Delhi: Home Minister Amit Shah today praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his handling of the COVID-19 outbreak, declaring the "truth is self-evident" and that "every Indian is feeling safe and trusts his leadership".
In his tweet Mr Shah referred to a survey of world leaders and their performance during this pandemic by a US-based research firm that claimed the Prime Minister was ahead of Donald Trump, Angela Merkel, Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron in approval ratings in their respective countries.
Rae Bareli: Doctors and paramedical workers treating COVID-19 patients in Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli district were relocated by the Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday night hours after they released videos highlighting filthy living conditions at a quarantine centre set up in a government-run school.
The staff, who are under "active quarantine" (they can't go home due to fear of the virus spreading) also wrote to the chief medical officer of the district, which has reported 43 active COVID-19 cases so far
In response, the chief medical officer, Dr SK Sharma, after visiting the school to check on the allegations, ordered that the doctors be shifted to a guest house.
The staff, who are under "active quarantine" (they can't go home due to fear of the virus spreading) also wrote to the chief medical officer of the district, which has reported 43 active COVID-19 cases so far
In response, the chief medical officer, Dr SK Sharma, after visiting the school to check on the allegations, ordered that the doctors be shifted to a guest house.
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India freezes salary rises for more than 11 million to combat coronavirus
India has frozen inflation-linked increases in salaries and pensions for more than 11 million federal employees and pensioners to generate nearly $10 billion to help combat the coronavirus outbreak, officials said.
Last month, the government announced a 4 per cent rise in allowances for employees and pensioners with effect from January, estimated to have cost 271 billion rupees ($3.56 billion) in the current financial year beginning April. That rise will not now go ahead.
Reuters quoted a finance ministry official as saying: "The total savings could be more than 700 billion rupees ($9.19bn) from an 18-month freeze."
India has frozen inflation-linked increases in salaries and pensions for more than 11 million federal employees and pensioners to generate nearly $10 billion to help combat the coronavirus outbreak, officials said.
Last month, the government announced a 4 per cent rise in allowances for employees and pensioners with effect from January, estimated to have cost 271 billion rupees ($3.56 billion) in the current financial year beginning April. That rise will not now go ahead.
Reuters quoted a finance ministry official as saying: "The total savings could be more than 700 billion rupees ($9.19bn) from an 18-month freeze."
Lol and the clown was asking private sector enterprises, factories etc to pay full wages of their employees.
MRSN
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1,486 in India and 742 in Pakistan in a single day...and people were saying hot weather of Pakistan and India is stopping Covid 19 when it's the lack of tests. It does not look like this virus has problems with the weather.
India's lockdown has been a joke. There was no proper planning on essential goods and services, food for the needy, no rapid tests. We have simply wasted 30-40 days and now have no choice but to open up the country. The clown show continues.
Navdeep Srivastava
Local Club Regular
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Yeah, we will not be given any raise due to inflation, I calculated, I am loosing around 64000 in 18(around 3.5 k per month) month in form of DA
But everybody will get fully paid salaries and their yearly increments.
Syed1
ODI Captain
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Sir did you manage to reunite with your family?
Navdeep Srivastava
Local Club Regular
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No, but my wife bleeding has stopped for now, so a good news for me
Syed1
ODI Captain
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That's great to hear
cricket.mad
Local Club Regular
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Except testing thing all others you mentioned have been done reasonably well in india ....testing thing is very slow..donno if it's so difficult to produce testing itself or what..but testing hasn't been great for sure
True.
The illiterates were busy banging thalis and bursting crackers while our industries were bleeding, poor were sleeping hungry, our medical staff was crying for at least basic facilities to treat the ever increasing number of patients.
https://theprint.in/india/governanc...ents-with-national-anthem-rose-petals/407496/
Bhopal: A shower of rose petals, a police band and a gaggle of reporters — a hearty welcome awaited 44 recovered Covid-19 patients who were discharged from Bhopal’s Chirayu Medical College and Hospital Wednesday evening.
The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh pulled out all the stops to “celebrate” the patients’ recovery.
Bhopal: A shower of rose petals, a police band and a gaggle of reporters — a hearty welcome awaited 44 recovered Covid-19 patients who were discharged from Bhopal’s Chirayu Medical College and Hospital Wednesday evening.
The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh pulled out all the stops to “celebrate” the patients’ recovery.
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Nobel Prize-winning economist Abhijit Banerjee has told the BBC that India needs to be "much more generous" in providing relief to the millions that have been directly hit by the ongoing lockdown.
"We haven't done anything close to enough," the Indian-American academic said in an interview.
After imposing the lockdown on 24 March, India announced a $23bn (£18bn) relief package.
Much of it involves cash transfers and food security for the poor.
Prof Banerjee, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2019 with co-researchers Esther Dufflo and Michael Kremer, said the "government was right in its thinking to throw a shock in the system" to contain the spread of the Covid-19 infection.
"But the lockdown is not the end of the story. This disease is going to be with us for a long time until a vaccine arrives, which is not anytime soon," the economist added.
"We haven't done anything close to enough," the Indian-American academic said in an interview.
After imposing the lockdown on 24 March, India announced a $23bn (£18bn) relief package.
Much of it involves cash transfers and food security for the poor.
Prof Banerjee, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2019 with co-researchers Esther Dufflo and Michael Kremer, said the "government was right in its thinking to throw a shock in the system" to contain the spread of the Covid-19 infection.
"But the lockdown is not the end of the story. This disease is going to be with us for a long time until a vaccine arrives, which is not anytime soon," the economist added.
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Surge in cases in India’s Maharashtra state
A surge in cases of the coronavirus in the central Indian state of Maharashtra has propelled the country to a record 24-hour high.
Health authorities said Friday that Maharashtra recorded 778 new cases on Thursday, bringing India’s total of confirmed cases of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus, to 22,930.
India’s 1,680 new cases Thursday marked its biggest single-day jump since April 19, a day before India relaxed some restrictions for industry in a bid to help employ some of the millions of migrant workers who fled cities for their homes villages when the ongoing lockdown was announced March 24.
Fearing rampant spread of the disease in the city’s crowded slums, officials in India’s financial capital of Mumbai, the state capital of Maharashtra, are developing a plan to administer doses of the Donald Trump-backed anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic against COVID-19 among some slumdwellers.
A surge in cases of the coronavirus in the central Indian state of Maharashtra has propelled the country to a record 24-hour high.
Health authorities said Friday that Maharashtra recorded 778 new cases on Thursday, bringing India’s total of confirmed cases of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus, to 22,930.
India’s 1,680 new cases Thursday marked its biggest single-day jump since April 19, a day before India relaxed some restrictions for industry in a bid to help employ some of the millions of migrant workers who fled cities for their homes villages when the ongoing lockdown was announced March 24.
Fearing rampant spread of the disease in the city’s crowded slums, officials in India’s financial capital of Mumbai, the state capital of Maharashtra, are developing a plan to administer doses of the Donald Trump-backed anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic against COVID-19 among some slumdwellers.
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Decreasing death rate in India amid virus pandemic baffles experts
While death rates in some countries have risen sharply in recent weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic, in India the opposite seems to be happening, at least in some places, leaving hospitals, funeral parlours and cremation sites wondering what is going on.
“If we’re not seeing an increase in deaths, the suspicion that there may be more Covid-19 fatalities out there is not true,” said Giridhar Babu, professor of epidemiology at the Public Health Foundation of India.
“It’s very surprising for us,” said Shruthi Reddy, chief executive officer of Anthyesti Funeral Services, which operates in the eastern city of Kolkata and the southern tech hub of Bengaluru.
While death rates in some countries have risen sharply in recent weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic, in India the opposite seems to be happening, at least in some places, leaving hospitals, funeral parlours and cremation sites wondering what is going on.
“If we’re not seeing an increase in deaths, the suspicion that there may be more Covid-19 fatalities out there is not true,” said Giridhar Babu, professor of epidemiology at the Public Health Foundation of India.
“It’s very surprising for us,” said Shruthi Reddy, chief executive officer of Anthyesti Funeral Services, which operates in the eastern city of Kolkata and the southern tech hub of Bengaluru.
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Surge in coronavirus cases in New Delhi
A surge in cases of the coronavirus in the central Indian state of Maharashtra has propelled the country to a record 24-hour high, according to AP.
Health authorities said that Maharashtra recorded 778 new cases, bringing India's total of confirmed cases to 22,930.
India's 1,680 new cases on Thursday marked its biggest single-day jump since April 19, a day before India relaxed some restrictions for industries in a bid to help employ some of the millions of migrant workers who fled cities for their homes villages..
A surge in cases of the coronavirus in the central Indian state of Maharashtra has propelled the country to a record 24-hour high, according to AP.
Health authorities said that Maharashtra recorded 778 new cases, bringing India's total of confirmed cases to 22,930.
India's 1,680 new cases on Thursday marked its biggest single-day jump since April 19, a day before India relaxed some restrictions for industries in a bid to help employ some of the millions of migrant workers who fled cities for their homes villages..
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India's Lower Mortality Rate Defies Coronavirus Trend, Suggests There is No Undetected Surge in Deaths
While death rates in some countries have risen sharply in recent weeks, in India the opposite seems to be happening, at least in some places.
Parts of India have recorded dramatic falls in mortality rates after a nationwide lockdown was imposed to fight the new coronavirus, suggesting there has not been an undetected surge in virus-related deaths.
All over the world, mortality rates are being scrutinised to determine the true impact of the coronavirus, which emerged in China late last year and is known to have infected more than 2.7 million people globally, with nearly 190,000 deaths.
While death rates in some countries have risen sharply in recent weeks, in India the opposite seems to be happening, at least in some places, leaving hospitals, funeral parlours and cremation sites wondering what is going on.
"It's very surprising for us," said Shruthi Reddy, chief executive officer of Anthyesti Funeral Services, which operates in of Kolkata and the southern tech hub of Bengaluru.
The company handled about five jobs a day in January but has only had about three a day this month. "We've declared employee pay cuts if revenue falls below a threshold," Reddy said.
Other numbers tell a similar story.
Central Mumbai, home to some 12 million people, saw deaths fall by about 21% in March compared with the same month of 2019, according to municipal data.
Overall deaths plummeted 67% in Ahmedabad, the biggest city in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat, over the same period.
Data from at least two other cities, along with accounts from state health officials, show a similar pattern. Half a dozen funeral businesses and crematoriums also reported slumps in business, especially in April.
"If we're not seeing an increase in deaths, the suspicion that there may be more COVID-19 fatalities out there is not true," said Giridhar Babu, professor of epidemiology at the Public Health Foundation of India.
FEWER ACCIDENTS
Modi imposed a lockdown of India's 1.3 billion people on March 25 in a bid to stop the spread of the coronavirus, which has infected some 23,077 people, killing 718 of them, according to the latest figures.
India has tested about 525,000 people, meaning some 4% were positive. In the United Sates, about 18% of tests are positive, according to the COVID Tracking project.
India's apparently lower death rates stands in contrast to what has been seen elsewhere.
The Netherlands recorded about 2,000 more deaths than normal in the first week of April, for example, while in Indonesia's capital of Jakarta the number of funerals rose sharply in March. Some towns in Italy also saw a jump in recorded deaths.
Indian doctors, officials and crematorium employees suspect the lower death rate is in large part attributable to fewer road and rail accidents.
"Road accident cases, and even patients with alcohol or drug abuse, stroke and heart attacks have been coming in fewer numbers," said Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma, health minister for Assam.
Accidents on India's chaotic roads killed more than 151,400 people in 2018, according to official data, the world's highest absolute number. The coronavirus lockdown, which is due to end on May 3, will cut road deaths by at least 15% this year compared with 2018, Paresh Kumar Goel, a director at the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, said.
With passenger trains halted, fatalities from all-too-common rail accidents have also plunged. In Mumbai alone, for example, more than half a dozen people typically die every day on the rail network.
FEWER MURDERS TOO?
Neeraj Kumar, who is in charge of a crematorium on the banks of the holy Ganges river in Uttar Pradesh, said victims of crime were also not being brought in. "We used to get at least 10 accident-related bodies every day and many related to murder cases. But after the lockdown we're only receiving natural death cases," Kumar said.
The site used to perform up to 30 cremations a day but in the month since March 22, only 43 people had been cremated, Kumar said after leafing through the crematorium's record book.
But the lower rates might also reflect difficulties in reporting deaths during the lockdown, officials said.
"There could be an increase when the lockdown ends," said Dr Bhavin Joshi, a senior health department official with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.
Requests for India-wide data from the national registrar went unanswered, while an official at the New Delhi Municipal Council said they could not provide numbers.
Reuters was also unable to obtain data for West Bengal, where some doctors have accused the government of understating coronavirus deaths. Only a state-appointed committee is allowed to declare that a patient has died from the virus.
Source: https://www.news18.com/news/india/i...is-no-undetected-surge-in-deaths-2590925.html
While death rates in some countries have risen sharply in recent weeks, in India the opposite seems to be happening, at least in some places.
Parts of India have recorded dramatic falls in mortality rates after a nationwide lockdown was imposed to fight the new coronavirus, suggesting there has not been an undetected surge in virus-related deaths.
All over the world, mortality rates are being scrutinised to determine the true impact of the coronavirus, which emerged in China late last year and is known to have infected more than 2.7 million people globally, with nearly 190,000 deaths.
While death rates in some countries have risen sharply in recent weeks, in India the opposite seems to be happening, at least in some places, leaving hospitals, funeral parlours and cremation sites wondering what is going on.
"It's very surprising for us," said Shruthi Reddy, chief executive officer of Anthyesti Funeral Services, which operates in of Kolkata and the southern tech hub of Bengaluru.
The company handled about five jobs a day in January but has only had about three a day this month. "We've declared employee pay cuts if revenue falls below a threshold," Reddy said.
Other numbers tell a similar story.
Central Mumbai, home to some 12 million people, saw deaths fall by about 21% in March compared with the same month of 2019, according to municipal data.
Overall deaths plummeted 67% in Ahmedabad, the biggest city in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat, over the same period.
Data from at least two other cities, along with accounts from state health officials, show a similar pattern. Half a dozen funeral businesses and crematoriums also reported slumps in business, especially in April.
"If we're not seeing an increase in deaths, the suspicion that there may be more COVID-19 fatalities out there is not true," said Giridhar Babu, professor of epidemiology at the Public Health Foundation of India.
FEWER ACCIDENTS
Modi imposed a lockdown of India's 1.3 billion people on March 25 in a bid to stop the spread of the coronavirus, which has infected some 23,077 people, killing 718 of them, according to the latest figures.
India has tested about 525,000 people, meaning some 4% were positive. In the United Sates, about 18% of tests are positive, according to the COVID Tracking project.
India's apparently lower death rates stands in contrast to what has been seen elsewhere.
The Netherlands recorded about 2,000 more deaths than normal in the first week of April, for example, while in Indonesia's capital of Jakarta the number of funerals rose sharply in March. Some towns in Italy also saw a jump in recorded deaths.
Indian doctors, officials and crematorium employees suspect the lower death rate is in large part attributable to fewer road and rail accidents.
"Road accident cases, and even patients with alcohol or drug abuse, stroke and heart attacks have been coming in fewer numbers," said Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma, health minister for Assam.
Accidents on India's chaotic roads killed more than 151,400 people in 2018, according to official data, the world's highest absolute number. The coronavirus lockdown, which is due to end on May 3, will cut road deaths by at least 15% this year compared with 2018, Paresh Kumar Goel, a director at the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, said.
With passenger trains halted, fatalities from all-too-common rail accidents have also plunged. In Mumbai alone, for example, more than half a dozen people typically die every day on the rail network.
FEWER MURDERS TOO?
Neeraj Kumar, who is in charge of a crematorium on the banks of the holy Ganges river in Uttar Pradesh, said victims of crime were also not being brought in. "We used to get at least 10 accident-related bodies every day and many related to murder cases. But after the lockdown we're only receiving natural death cases," Kumar said.
The site used to perform up to 30 cremations a day but in the month since March 22, only 43 people had been cremated, Kumar said after leafing through the crematorium's record book.
But the lower rates might also reflect difficulties in reporting deaths during the lockdown, officials said.
"There could be an increase when the lockdown ends," said Dr Bhavin Joshi, a senior health department official with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.
Requests for India-wide data from the national registrar went unanswered, while an official at the New Delhi Municipal Council said they could not provide numbers.
Reuters was also unable to obtain data for West Bengal, where some doctors have accused the government of understating coronavirus deaths. Only a state-appointed committee is allowed to declare that a patient has died from the virus.
Source: https://www.news18.com/news/india/i...is-no-undetected-surge-in-deaths-2590925.html
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India must be self-reliant against virus: PM Modi
India’s prime minister says the country’s 1.3 billion people are bravely fighting the coronavirus epidemic with limited resources and the lesson they have learned so far is that the country has to be self-sufficient for meeting its needs.
Addressing the country’s village council heads through video conferencing on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi says the country can’t afford to look outward to meet a crisis of this dimension in future.
Self-reliance is the biggest lesson taught by the epidemic, Modi said.
India has so far reported 22,358 positive novel coronavirus cases and 718 deaths. India has been importing critical medical supplies, including protective gears, masks and ventilators from China.
India’s prime minister says the country’s 1.3 billion people are bravely fighting the coronavirus epidemic with limited resources and the lesson they have learned so far is that the country has to be self-sufficient for meeting its needs.
Addressing the country’s village council heads through video conferencing on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi says the country can’t afford to look outward to meet a crisis of this dimension in future.
Self-reliance is the biggest lesson taught by the epidemic, Modi said.
India has so far reported 22,358 positive novel coronavirus cases and 718 deaths. India has been importing critical medical supplies, including protective gears, masks and ventilators from China.
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Coronavirus India Latest News Live Updates: With 1,752 new positive Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, India recorded its highest single-day spike in cases on Friday, taking the country’s tally to 23,452. While the death toll stood at 723, as many as 4,813 persons have been cured and discharged so far. In a press briefing, the Health Ministry said that no new cases were reported in 15 districts in the last 28 days. The govt, meanwhile, said the lockdown announced by PM Narendra Modi was a timely step, without which there would have been an estimated one lakh COVID-19 cases in India by now.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami announced a complete lockdown in 5 cities. The lockdown will be enforced in Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai from April 26 to April 29 between 6 am to 9 pm. In Salem and Tiruppur, the lockdown will be enforced from April 26 to April 28 between 6 am to 9 pm.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami announced a complete lockdown in 5 cities. The lockdown will be enforced in Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai from April 26 to April 29 between 6 am to 9 pm. In Salem and Tiruppur, the lockdown will be enforced from April 26 to April 28 between 6 am to 9 pm.
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Indians try to flee 'unsanitary' coronavirus quarantine centres
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020...virus-quarantine-centres-200424123723059.html
Thousands of people in overcrowded coronavirus quarantine centres in government buildings across India are complaining of poor food and sanitation and lack of physical distancing, inmates and officials say.
Some are trying to escape.
People who have tested positive but show no symptoms of COVID-19 or those who came into close contact with them or had travelled abroad were sent to the centres initially for 14 days.
But many centres have since been flooded with tens of thousands of migrant workers who tried to flee the big cities of New Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad after a lockdown announced last month sapped their earnings and they were stopped by police on their way to their home villages.
Weeks on, officials overseeing these centres say they are unable to cope.
"I have been flooded with demands - people need better beds, clean toilets ... all I can tell them is 'please adjust, please calm down'," said Hemangi Worlikar, deputy mayor of Mumbai's municipal corporation, which has one of the country's highest coronavirus caseloads.
At a school in Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh state, 25 youths clashed with staff over poor conditions and then escaped through a window, police said. They were tracked down in nearby villages and brought back.
India has reported 23,076 cases of coronavirus, according to government data on Friday, and there are worries there could be a surge as testing is ramped up, putting further pressure on quarantine centres.
'Mounting frustration and anxiety'
A federal Ministry of Home Affairs official said there had been reports of 27 clashes in quarantine centres since April 16. "Mounting frustration and anxiety were the main causes," the official said. "People are getting angry."
Front line medical staff have also complained. Doctors released videos showing stale food, dirty toilets and a shortage of bed linen at a quarantine centre in Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli district.
"The complaints made by doctors were legitimate and we have now relocated doctors to a guest house," said SK Sharma, a chief medical officer in Rae Bareli.
Ishita Debnath, a tailor, said she was quarantined in a community hall in the eastern city of Kolkata, one of 80 women with just two toilets available to them.
"We have been huddled like cattle here," she told Reuters News Agency by telephone.
The government has said it is doing everything possible and that people must be patient.
"There are people here who are trying to steal items and they abuse the staff," said a senior official in Sultanpur, who is managing a quarantine centre of 140 people.
Some are trying to escape.
People who have tested positive but show no symptoms of COVID-19 or those who came into close contact with them or had travelled abroad were sent to the centres initially for 14 days.
But many centres have since been flooded with tens of thousands of migrant workers who tried to flee the big cities of New Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad after a lockdown announced last month sapped their earnings and they were stopped by police on their way to their home villages.
Weeks on, officials overseeing these centres say they are unable to cope.
"I have been flooded with demands - people need better beds, clean toilets ... all I can tell them is 'please adjust, please calm down'," said Hemangi Worlikar, deputy mayor of Mumbai's municipal corporation, which has one of the country's highest coronavirus caseloads.
At a school in Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh state, 25 youths clashed with staff over poor conditions and then escaped through a window, police said. They were tracked down in nearby villages and brought back.
India has reported 23,076 cases of coronavirus, according to government data on Friday, and there are worries there could be a surge as testing is ramped up, putting further pressure on quarantine centres.
'Mounting frustration and anxiety'
A federal Ministry of Home Affairs official said there had been reports of 27 clashes in quarantine centres since April 16. "Mounting frustration and anxiety were the main causes," the official said. "People are getting angry."
Front line medical staff have also complained. Doctors released videos showing stale food, dirty toilets and a shortage of bed linen at a quarantine centre in Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli district.
"The complaints made by doctors were legitimate and we have now relocated doctors to a guest house," said SK Sharma, a chief medical officer in Rae Bareli.
Ishita Debnath, a tailor, said she was quarantined in a community hall in the eastern city of Kolkata, one of 80 women with just two toilets available to them.
"We have been huddled like cattle here," she told Reuters News Agency by telephone.
The government has said it is doing everything possible and that people must be patient.
"There are people here who are trying to steal items and they abuse the staff," said a senior official in Sultanpur, who is managing a quarantine centre of 140 people.
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India has allowed a limited reopening of shops in neighbourhoods and residential areas, a month after the nation went into lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus, officials said.
The federal home ministry announced on Friday that retail shops could start operations from Saturday with a 50-percent reduction in staff, and enforcing appropriate physical distancing, wearing of masks and gloves during work.
The sale of liquor and other non-essential items will continue to be prohibited, and no shops in large market places, multi-brand and single-brand malls will be allowed to open for business till May 3, when the nationwide lockdown is due to end.
The relaxation also would not be applicable in hundreds of hotspots and containment zones across the country.
India has reported 24,530 cases of the coronavirus and 780 deaths, and authorities are setting up new teams to focus on compliance and implementation of lockdown measures.
Last week, the government allowed resumption of manufacturing and farming activities in rural areas as millions of daily wage-earners were left without work.
Al Jazeera's Elizabeth Puranam, reporting from the capital, New Delhi, said: "The Indian government, like many others, say that they are just trying to balance saving lives and livelihood and that is why we are seeing the latest easing of restrictions here."
"But this does not apply to hotspots, so we are not seeing it all anywhere in Delhi, the national capital region," she added.
The federal home ministry announced on Friday that retail shops could start operations from Saturday with a 50-percent reduction in staff, and enforcing appropriate physical distancing, wearing of masks and gloves during work.
The sale of liquor and other non-essential items will continue to be prohibited, and no shops in large market places, multi-brand and single-brand malls will be allowed to open for business till May 3, when the nationwide lockdown is due to end.
The relaxation also would not be applicable in hundreds of hotspots and containment zones across the country.
India has reported 24,530 cases of the coronavirus and 780 deaths, and authorities are setting up new teams to focus on compliance and implementation of lockdown measures.
Last week, the government allowed resumption of manufacturing and farming activities in rural areas as millions of daily wage-earners were left without work.
Al Jazeera's Elizabeth Puranam, reporting from the capital, New Delhi, said: "The Indian government, like many others, say that they are just trying to balance saving lives and livelihood and that is why we are seeing the latest easing of restrictions here."
"But this does not apply to hotspots, so we are not seeing it all anywhere in Delhi, the national capital region," she added.
The number of decreasing casualties might be a false narrative. It's likely that numbers are diluted somewhat by authorities to paint a false narrative either to retain their credential infront of public or maybe intentionally to control spread of panic in the system and not hinder economic activities at grassroot level. It's possible that state and centre have tacit understanding as well. West Bengal for example admitted yesterday officially that casualty numbers are thrice of what is published as they are not considering Covid as a cause for thoae who have underlying conditions like cardiac issue, cancer etc. I am sure that practice is observed in some other parts of the country as well and not just West Bengal . So bottom line numbers are growing fast and so are the casualties.
This is not to say government is all bad, infact lot of things are done well specifically in a country like India where "Jugaad" is an institution itself. However it helps if the centre and state can stop political bickering and collaborate better as there is lot more to be done. General public also needs to show some sense and stop worshipping or demonizing authorities depending on political alignment something which is unfortunately a trademark here as well for most posters .
This is not to say government is all bad, infact lot of things are done well specifically in a country like India where "Jugaad" is an institution itself. However it helps if the centre and state can stop political bickering and collaborate better as there is lot more to be done. General public also needs to show some sense and stop worshipping or demonizing authorities depending on political alignment something which is unfortunately a trademark here as well for most posters .
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NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday appealed to citizens to strictly comply with a nationwide lockdown and maintain social distancing norms, as cases of coronavirus mounted steadily despite over a month-long curfew.
In a radio address, Modi said the country was in the midst of a "war" and urged hundreds of millions of citizens to sustain the "people driven" fight and not be misled into believing the spread of the virus has been brought fully under control.
"I will urge you that we should not be trapped into over-confidence and nurse the belief that in our city, in our village, in our streets, in our office, coronavirus has not reached and that is why it will not reach" Modi said.
India's high population density, poor sanitation infrastructure, and high rates of internal migration has hastened the spread of the virus.
India has reported 26,496 cases of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, and 824 deaths. The authorities have set up teams to focus on compliance with lockdown measures.
Modi imposed a lockdown of India's 1.3 billion people on March 25 but experts fear that the world's biggest lockdown has not been able to reduce the spread of COVID-19, and country was witnessing a surge in cases with testing being ramped up.
"We need to be careful that physical distancing, covering the face with a cover or a mask and washing our hands again and again will be the biggest medicine to fight this disease in the days to come," Modi said.
On Saturday, India allowed small shops in residential areas to reopen although with staff members reduced by half and there were expected to wear masks and gloves during work hours.
In a radio address, Modi said the country was in the midst of a "war" and urged hundreds of millions of citizens to sustain the "people driven" fight and not be misled into believing the spread of the virus has been brought fully under control.
"I will urge you that we should not be trapped into over-confidence and nurse the belief that in our city, in our village, in our streets, in our office, coronavirus has not reached and that is why it will not reach" Modi said.
India's high population density, poor sanitation infrastructure, and high rates of internal migration has hastened the spread of the virus.
India has reported 26,496 cases of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, and 824 deaths. The authorities have set up teams to focus on compliance with lockdown measures.
Modi imposed a lockdown of India's 1.3 billion people on March 25 but experts fear that the world's biggest lockdown has not been able to reduce the spread of COVID-19, and country was witnessing a surge in cases with testing being ramped up.
"We need to be careful that physical distancing, covering the face with a cover or a mask and washing our hands again and again will be the biggest medicine to fight this disease in the days to come," Modi said.
On Saturday, India allowed small shops in residential areas to reopen although with staff members reduced by half and there were expected to wear masks and gloves during work hours.
Modi tells India to remain vigilant
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called on the country to stick to its lockdown as cases in the country continue to rise.
There has been an increase of 2,000 cases registered in the past 24 hours. So far, more than 26,000 cases have been reported and more than 800 people have died.
In a nationwide radio address, Modi called on people to maintain social distancing and to end the habit of spitting in public.
“I will urge you that we should not be trapped into over-confidence and nurse the belief that in our city, in our village, in our streets, in our office, coronavirus has not reached and that is why it will not reach,” he said.
On Saturday, small shops in the country were allowed to open with 50% of staff as long as social distancing can be maintained and staff wear masks.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called on the country to stick to its lockdown as cases in the country continue to rise.
There has been an increase of 2,000 cases registered in the past 24 hours. So far, more than 26,000 cases have been reported and more than 800 people have died.
In a nationwide radio address, Modi called on people to maintain social distancing and to end the habit of spitting in public.
“I will urge you that we should not be trapped into over-confidence and nurse the belief that in our city, in our village, in our streets, in our office, coronavirus has not reached and that is why it will not reach,” he said.
On Saturday, small shops in the country were allowed to open with 50% of staff as long as social distancing can be maintained and staff wear masks.
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Singer Kanika Kapoor, who was the first celebrity in India to be diagnosed with Covid-19 last month, has shared a long note on Instagram about it. She has clarified allegations that she wasn’t responsible when she returned from UK in March and avoided screenings at airport to put others at risk.
Here is her note:
I know there are several versions of stories out there about me. Some of these seem to be fuelled even more because I have chosen to be silent till now. I stayed quiet not because I am wrong but in-fact being fully aware that there have been misunderstandings and wrong exchanges of information. I was giving time for the truth to prevail and for people to reach their own realisation. I thank my family, friends and supporters for allowing me the space to talk when am ready. I hope and pray that you all are safe and being careful during this time.
Some facts that I would like to share with you. I am at home in Lucknow spending some quality time with my parents
Every person that I have come In contact with be It in UK, Mumbai or Lucknow has shown no symptoms of Covid 19, In-fact all those tested have been negative. I travelled from UK to Mumbai on 10th March and was duly screened at the international airport. There was no advisory on that day (UK travel advisory was released on 18 March) that stated that I needed to quarantine myself. I showed no ill health so did not quarantine myself. I travelled to Lucknow the following day on the 11th March to see my family. There was no screening setup for domestic flights.
On the 14th and 15th March I attended a friend’s lunch & dinner. There was no party hosted by me and I was in absolute normal health. I had symptoms on the 17th and 18th March so I requested to be tested. I was tested on the 19th March and on 20th March when informed that my test was positive, I chose to go to the hospital. I was discharged after 3 negative tests and have since been at home for 21 days. I want to especially thank the doctors and nurses who have so graciously taken care of me during a very emotionally testing time. I hope that all can deal with this matter with honesty and sensitivity. Negativity thrown at a person does not change the Reality.
Love, Kanika 26 April 2020
Kanika was discharged from hospital on April 6 after being successfully treated for coronavirus after two consecutive tests came back negative. She garnered more criticism online when she complained about hospital conditions and staff behaviour in media interviews.
Multiple FIRs were also registered against her for hiding her travel history and attending lavish parties after returning from London on March 9. She was charged under IPC Section 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and Section 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life).
The UP police had planned to question her upon her discharge from hospital. The interrogation were to take place after April 20 when she completed her quarantine period. The Lucknow Police will also be cross-checking with the Mumbai airport authorities about Kanika’s claim of having cleared the medical screening at the airport on arrival.
Meanwhile, according to the legal experts, the case registered against her lacks evidence as no one who came in contact with Kanika tested positive
https://www.hindustantimes.com/musi...nge-reality/story-nmAdO91cyadHlbZmmJj6zJ.html
Here is her note:
I know there are several versions of stories out there about me. Some of these seem to be fuelled even more because I have chosen to be silent till now. I stayed quiet not because I am wrong but in-fact being fully aware that there have been misunderstandings and wrong exchanges of information. I was giving time for the truth to prevail and for people to reach their own realisation. I thank my family, friends and supporters for allowing me the space to talk when am ready. I hope and pray that you all are safe and being careful during this time.
Some facts that I would like to share with you. I am at home in Lucknow spending some quality time with my parents
Every person that I have come In contact with be It in UK, Mumbai or Lucknow has shown no symptoms of Covid 19, In-fact all those tested have been negative. I travelled from UK to Mumbai on 10th March and was duly screened at the international airport. There was no advisory on that day (UK travel advisory was released on 18 March) that stated that I needed to quarantine myself. I showed no ill health so did not quarantine myself. I travelled to Lucknow the following day on the 11th March to see my family. There was no screening setup for domestic flights.On the 14th and 15th March I attended a friend’s lunch & dinner. There was no party hosted by me and I was in absolute normal health. I had symptoms on the 17th and 18th March so I requested to be tested. I was tested on the 19th March and on 20th March when informed that my test was positive, I chose to go to the hospital. I was discharged after 3 negative tests and have since been at home for 21 days. I want to especially thank the doctors and nurses who have so graciously taken care of me during a very emotionally testing time. I hope that all can deal with this matter with honesty and sensitivity. Negativity thrown at a person does not change the Reality.
Love, Kanika 26 April 2020
Kanika was discharged from hospital on April 6 after being successfully treated for coronavirus after two consecutive tests came back negative. She garnered more criticism online when she complained about hospital conditions and staff behaviour in media interviews.
Multiple FIRs were also registered against her for hiding her travel history and attending lavish parties after returning from London on March 9. She was charged under IPC Section 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and Section 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life).
The UP police had planned to question her upon her discharge from hospital. The interrogation were to take place after April 20 when she completed her quarantine period. The Lucknow Police will also be cross-checking with the Mumbai airport authorities about Kanika’s claim of having cleared the medical screening at the airport on arrival.
Meanwhile, according to the legal experts, the case registered against her lacks evidence as no one who came in contact with Kanika tested positive
https://www.hindustantimes.com/musi...nge-reality/story-nmAdO91cyadHlbZmmJj6zJ.html
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For the past one month, Mailupalli Polisu has been confined to his boat, which is docked at the Veraval Port in the western Indian state of Gujarat.
Polisu is among the nearly 25,000 fishermen belonging to several Indian states stuck on their boats on the Gujarat coast since March 24 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a lockdown.
Fishermen from states such as Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh (AP), Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar travel to Gujarat every year in August - the start of the fishing season - to earn livelihood.
They were all set to return home in March.
"We barely have any drinking water. There are no toilets on the boat. We get two meals a day. All we want is to go home now," Polisu, who is from AP's Srikakulam district, 2,000km away,told Al Jazeera.
The lockdown has brought the country's public transport to a grinding halt, while states have sealed their borders to contain the pandemic, leaving thousands of fishermen stranded at ports in coastal states of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka.
On April 22, things took a grim turn at the Veraval Portwhen a 28-year-old fisherman, MK Raju, was found dead in his cabin. His post-mortem report revealed that he had suffered a heart attack.
"Ever since he heard that some fishermen in a neighbouring village in Veraval had contracted COVID-19, he had been getting anxiety attacks," Polisu said.
"All of us are in shock, and scared. He had not yet met his four-month-old son back home," Polisu, who is from the same village as Raju, said.
On April 9, another fisherman T Jaganathan, 45, died of stomach complications after he stopped eating, allegedly for fear of contracting COVID-19.
PK Rehman, founder of the Traditional Fish Workers Union (TFWU) that represents some of the fishermen, blamed the death on the lack of potable drinking water option at the port.
"The fish workers are in panic as the MLA [member of state legislature] of Veraval told them about COVID-19 positive cases among fishermen in the neighbouring district. Their current living conditions on the boats make them vulnerable to the disease," Rehman told Al Jazeera over the phone.
Polisu said he was forced to mostly spend last month squeezed into his boat's cabin space with eight others, leaving no room for social distancing.
Mainepalli Ramu, who is also stuck at the Veraval Port, said he is staying with 12 others in a congested cabin of a trawler. "The boat is not moving so it gets boiling hot and suffocating. For how long can we sit inside?" he said.
Rehman pointed out that state governments have been selective in rescuing stranded citizens. "The Gujarat government sent buses to rescue 1,800 pilgrims from the state of Uttarakhand. Migrant fish-workers sustain the Rs 7,000 crore ($918m) fisheries industry in the state. Are they any less important?" he said.
'Without livelihood'
In the first week of April, fishermen from Maharashtra and Gujarat were prevented from returning to their villages by locals on suspicion of carrying coronavirus.
While most of them managed to return home by April 22, aided by activists and politicians, 2,700 fishermen from AP are still stranded at the Veraval Port.
Every year, thousands of fishermen from across the country migrate to Gujarat to find employment on fishing vessels across the state's 1,600km-long coastline.
They stay there till March-April - the end of the fishing season. "There are three categories of work: helpers get paid $131, crew members $197 and boat captains get paid $263 per month," Ramu said.
Most of them have been unable to send money home as the bank branches are shut due to the lockdown.
Kiran Koli, general secretary of Maharashtra Machhimar Kruti Samiti, a fishermen's association, said the shutting down of ice factories, stopping of exports, and the disruption of supply chain had made fishing activity untenable in the country. "Sixteen million people dependent on the industry are currently without a livelihood," Koli told Al Jazeera.
Polisu, who has been coming to Gujarat to work as a child, said he had never seen such a situation before.
Ajay Prakash, the Collector of Gir-Somnath district where Veraval falls, initially told Al Jazeera that Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat state had mutually agreed to send the workers back home through cargo vessels by sea, after screening them for COVID-19.
"After preliminary enquiries, we found that cargo vessels were not suited to transport people. Now we are planning to send them back by buses via land route," he told Al Jazeera.
He claimed it was not clear by when the workers would be sent back, as they were waiting for the Andhra Pradesh government to arrange for the buses. The fish workers complained that the delay had left them in a state of nerves. "They should at least tell us when we can leave. This feels like jail," Polisu said.
They also complained they were getting reduced rations, contrary to Collector Prakash's claims that the state government had been taking adequate care to provide food and rations since the day of the lockdown.
Mainepalli Appanna, another stranded fish worker at Veraval port, countered that they had not received any food or essential supplies from the state government.
"Only the boat owners are giving us food. There's no tea or breakfast. They provide 100 litres of water for eight people for three days, which we use for drinking, cooking, and bathing," Appanna said.
Polisu claimed his family back in Srikakulam - wife, three children and mother - were eagerly waiting for his return.
"Right now they are surviving on rations provided by an organisation. I need to be around my family in this crucial hour," he said.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020...rts-coronavirus-lockdown-200426050800842.html
Polisu is among the nearly 25,000 fishermen belonging to several Indian states stuck on their boats on the Gujarat coast since March 24 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a lockdown.
Fishermen from states such as Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh (AP), Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar travel to Gujarat every year in August - the start of the fishing season - to earn livelihood.
They were all set to return home in March.
"We barely have any drinking water. There are no toilets on the boat. We get two meals a day. All we want is to go home now," Polisu, who is from AP's Srikakulam district, 2,000km away,told Al Jazeera.
The lockdown has brought the country's public transport to a grinding halt, while states have sealed their borders to contain the pandemic, leaving thousands of fishermen stranded at ports in coastal states of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka.
On April 22, things took a grim turn at the Veraval Portwhen a 28-year-old fisherman, MK Raju, was found dead in his cabin. His post-mortem report revealed that he had suffered a heart attack.
"Ever since he heard that some fishermen in a neighbouring village in Veraval had contracted COVID-19, he had been getting anxiety attacks," Polisu said.
"All of us are in shock, and scared. He had not yet met his four-month-old son back home," Polisu, who is from the same village as Raju, said.
On April 9, another fisherman T Jaganathan, 45, died of stomach complications after he stopped eating, allegedly for fear of contracting COVID-19.
PK Rehman, founder of the Traditional Fish Workers Union (TFWU) that represents some of the fishermen, blamed the death on the lack of potable drinking water option at the port.
"The fish workers are in panic as the MLA [member of state legislature] of Veraval told them about COVID-19 positive cases among fishermen in the neighbouring district. Their current living conditions on the boats make them vulnerable to the disease," Rehman told Al Jazeera over the phone.
Polisu said he was forced to mostly spend last month squeezed into his boat's cabin space with eight others, leaving no room for social distancing.
Mainepalli Ramu, who is also stuck at the Veraval Port, said he is staying with 12 others in a congested cabin of a trawler. "The boat is not moving so it gets boiling hot and suffocating. For how long can we sit inside?" he said.
Rehman pointed out that state governments have been selective in rescuing stranded citizens. "The Gujarat government sent buses to rescue 1,800 pilgrims from the state of Uttarakhand. Migrant fish-workers sustain the Rs 7,000 crore ($918m) fisheries industry in the state. Are they any less important?" he said.
'Without livelihood'
In the first week of April, fishermen from Maharashtra and Gujarat were prevented from returning to their villages by locals on suspicion of carrying coronavirus.
While most of them managed to return home by April 22, aided by activists and politicians, 2,700 fishermen from AP are still stranded at the Veraval Port.
Every year, thousands of fishermen from across the country migrate to Gujarat to find employment on fishing vessels across the state's 1,600km-long coastline.
They stay there till March-April - the end of the fishing season. "There are three categories of work: helpers get paid $131, crew members $197 and boat captains get paid $263 per month," Ramu said.
Most of them have been unable to send money home as the bank branches are shut due to the lockdown.
Kiran Koli, general secretary of Maharashtra Machhimar Kruti Samiti, a fishermen's association, said the shutting down of ice factories, stopping of exports, and the disruption of supply chain had made fishing activity untenable in the country. "Sixteen million people dependent on the industry are currently without a livelihood," Koli told Al Jazeera.
Polisu, who has been coming to Gujarat to work as a child, said he had never seen such a situation before.
Ajay Prakash, the Collector of Gir-Somnath district where Veraval falls, initially told Al Jazeera that Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat state had mutually agreed to send the workers back home through cargo vessels by sea, after screening them for COVID-19.
"After preliminary enquiries, we found that cargo vessels were not suited to transport people. Now we are planning to send them back by buses via land route," he told Al Jazeera.
He claimed it was not clear by when the workers would be sent back, as they were waiting for the Andhra Pradesh government to arrange for the buses. The fish workers complained that the delay had left them in a state of nerves. "They should at least tell us when we can leave. This feels like jail," Polisu said.
They also complained they were getting reduced rations, contrary to Collector Prakash's claims that the state government had been taking adequate care to provide food and rations since the day of the lockdown.
Mainepalli Appanna, another stranded fish worker at Veraval port, countered that they had not received any food or essential supplies from the state government.
"Only the boat owners are giving us food. There's no tea or breakfast. They provide 100 litres of water for eight people for three days, which we use for drinking, cooking, and bathing," Appanna said.
Polisu claimed his family back in Srikakulam - wife, three children and mother - were eagerly waiting for his return.
"Right now they are surviving on rations provided by an organisation. I need to be around my family in this crucial hour," he said.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020...rts-coronavirus-lockdown-200426050800842.html
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- 217,991
A woman was allegedly gang-raped in a school in India where she had been quarantined for a night by the police.
The incident was said to have happened in the desert state of Rajasthan last week after the woman sought shelter at a police station.
She became lost on her way home to her village from work and had walked alone for miles before being housed in a school building for the night by police. Local men are believed to have then raped the victim, who is in her 40s.
Parth Sharma, a deputy superintendent in the Sawai Mahopur district, told Reuters: “Three local men who raped the woman inside the school on 23 April have been arrested and sent to jail.”
Sharma said the woman had been sent to a local quarantine facility to be tested for Covid-19, but her test results were not yet known.
A nationwide lockdown was put in place by prime minister Narendra Modi last month to contain the spread of the virus, prompting thousands of workers who lost their jobs in cities to walk for days to reach their homes in rural India.
Many are now in overcrowded quarantine centres as new cases of the virus continue to surge in the country.
Source Guardian.
The incident was said to have happened in the desert state of Rajasthan last week after the woman sought shelter at a police station.
She became lost on her way home to her village from work and had walked alone for miles before being housed in a school building for the night by police. Local men are believed to have then raped the victim, who is in her 40s.
Parth Sharma, a deputy superintendent in the Sawai Mahopur district, told Reuters: “Three local men who raped the woman inside the school on 23 April have been arrested and sent to jail.”
Sharma said the woman had been sent to a local quarantine facility to be tested for Covid-19, but her test results were not yet known.
A nationwide lockdown was put in place by prime minister Narendra Modi last month to contain the spread of the virus, prompting thousands of workers who lost their jobs in cities to walk for days to reach their homes in rural India.
Many are now in overcrowded quarantine centres as new cases of the virus continue to surge in the country.
Source Guardian.
Kashmirilion
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big_gamer007
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Disgusting, I just hope these ******** are burnt alive.
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- Joined
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Singapore and Kuwait have emerged as the countries with the highest number of expatriate Indians infected by the Coronavirus, accounting for more than half of the 6,200 such infections reported from across the world, people familiar with developments said on Monday.
More than 2,300 infections among Indian nationals, most of them workers living in dormitories, had been recorded in Singapore till late last week, and more than 1,300 infections were reported among expatriate Indians in Kuwait, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity.
Other countries where sizeable numbers of Covid-19 infections among Indians have been reported are Bahrain and Qatar (about 500 each) and Iran (about 300), the people said.
Iran was the first country where a large number of Indians were infected by the Coronavirus last month. Most of them were elderly Shia pilgrims from Kashmir and states such as Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, and a majority of the infections occurred in the holy city of Qom.
Indian diplomats worked with Iranian authorities to create a special facility in Qom to treat the infected Indians, who are now expected to be brought back from Iran once the nationwide lockdown is eased next month.
As of April 16, the total number of Indians infected in 53 countries was 3,336 and this almost doubled to 6,200 by last week. The total number of infected Indians who have died abroad currently is around 40, the people said.
The welfare and treatment of infected Indians has figured in conversations between the prime minister and external affairs minister and their counterparts in countries such as Singapore and Kuwait.
During a conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 23, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said his government “will care for Indian migrant workers here, just as we care for Singaporeans”.
Indians now account for almost a quarter of the more than 11,000 Covid-19 cases recorded in Singapore till last week. Most of Singapore’s infections are work permit holders living in foreign worker dormitories and 25 of these dormitories have been designated isolation areas so far, Channel News Asia reported.
The welfare of Indian nationals also figured in Modi’s recent phone conversation with his Kuwaiti counterpart Sheikh Sabah al-Khaled al-Hamad al-Sabah, who said his government “values the contributions of the large Indian community…and would continue to ensure their safety and welfare in the present situation”.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/indi...id-19-cases/story-nNW338HhJdwSu93GC2aCOM.html
More than 2,300 infections among Indian nationals, most of them workers living in dormitories, had been recorded in Singapore till late last week, and more than 1,300 infections were reported among expatriate Indians in Kuwait, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity.
Other countries where sizeable numbers of Covid-19 infections among Indians have been reported are Bahrain and Qatar (about 500 each) and Iran (about 300), the people said.
Iran was the first country where a large number of Indians were infected by the Coronavirus last month. Most of them were elderly Shia pilgrims from Kashmir and states such as Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, and a majority of the infections occurred in the holy city of Qom.
Indian diplomats worked with Iranian authorities to create a special facility in Qom to treat the infected Indians, who are now expected to be brought back from Iran once the nationwide lockdown is eased next month.
As of April 16, the total number of Indians infected in 53 countries was 3,336 and this almost doubled to 6,200 by last week. The total number of infected Indians who have died abroad currently is around 40, the people said.
The welfare and treatment of infected Indians has figured in conversations between the prime minister and external affairs minister and their counterparts in countries such as Singapore and Kuwait.
During a conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 23, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said his government “will care for Indian migrant workers here, just as we care for Singaporeans”.
Indians now account for almost a quarter of the more than 11,000 Covid-19 cases recorded in Singapore till last week. Most of Singapore’s infections are work permit holders living in foreign worker dormitories and 25 of these dormitories have been designated isolation areas so far, Channel News Asia reported.
The welfare of Indian nationals also figured in Modi’s recent phone conversation with his Kuwaiti counterpart Sheikh Sabah al-Khaled al-Hamad al-Sabah, who said his government “values the contributions of the large Indian community…and would continue to ensure their safety and welfare in the present situation”.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/indi...id-19-cases/story-nNW338HhJdwSu93GC2aCOM.html
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- 217,991
The global media reports are a mixture of relief and bafflement.
They talk about the "mystery behind India's lower death rates" from the Covid-19 infection, and say that India is "bucking the coronavirus trend". One talks about the "Indian exception as death rates in major Indian cities are lower compared to global coronavirus hotspots".
Nearly two months after its first recorded case, Covid-19 infections in the world's second most populous country have passed 27,000, with more than 800 deaths.
One way to understand the death rate is to track how many days it takes for total deaths to double.
In India, this is currently at nine days - there were 825 confirmed deaths on 25 April; compared to about half or so of that number on 16 April.
Experts say that's good news. The doubling time for deaths in New York at the same stage of the pandemic was only two or three days, they say.
Many public health professionals and doctors say India's grinding lockdown, which lasted more than a month, could have kept infection and deaths in check.
The medical journal Lancet says the "lockdown is already having the desired effect of flattening the epidemic curve".
Others believe that India's predominantly young population is helping keep fatalities low - elderly people have an elevated risk of death from the infection.
Yet others talk about the possibilities of the presence of a less virulent strain of the virus in India, along with the possibility that its hot weather was diminishing the contagion. Both these claims are not backed by any evidence. In fact, doctors treating critical Covid-19 patients have told me that the contagion is as virulent here as has been reported elsewhere in the world.
So is India an outlier when it comes to novel coronavirus fatalities?
"To be totally frank, I don't know and the world doesn't know the answer," Indian-American physician and oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee told journalist Barkha Dutt recently. "It's a mystery, I'd say and part of the mystery is we are not doing enough testing. If we tested more then we'd know the answer."
He is alluding to both diagnostic tests which determine those who are currently infected and antibody tests to find out whether someone was previously infected and recovered.
The other question is whether India is "missing" Covid-19 deaths.
Most affected countries have inadvertently under-reported deaths. Studying mortality data in 12 countries, The New York Times found that in March at least 40,000 more people died during the coronavirus pandemic than the official death counts. These include deaths from the contagion as well as those from other likely causes.
And a Financial Times analysis of overall fatalities during the pandemic in 14 countries found that the death toll from coronavirus may be almost 60% higher than reported in official counts. None of the two studies feature India.
Prabhat Jha of the University of Toronto, who led India's ambitious Million Death Study, believes that to "do this right, missing deaths have to be considered".
"Since most deaths occur at home - and will be for the foreseeable future - in India, other systems are needed," Dr Jha told me.
Around 80% of deaths in India still happen at home. This includes deaths from infections like malaria and pneumonia. Maternal deaths, and deaths from sudden coronary attacks and accidents are more often reported from hospitals. "A lot of people get some medical attention over time, return and die at home in India," says Dr Jha.
Clearly, counting hospital deaths alone is not going to be sufficient enough to get an accurate number of Covid-19 fatalities.
Trying to get a count from funerals at crematoria and burial grounds would be equally tricky. Many of India's dead are cremated in the open in large swathes of the countryside. Funeral services cater only to a small sliver of the population.
At the same, there are no reports yet of a massive surge in hospital deaths, which would surely have not gone unnoticed, K Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India, told me. (For example, a sharp rise in deaths of children in single hospitals in northern India in recent years has been faithfully reported.)
Similarly, Prof Reddy believes a sharp spike in home deaths over a long period is also not likely to go unnoticed.
In the absence of a robust public health surveillance system, experts say mobile phones could be used to find out whether there was an unusual surge in influenza-related deaths which could be linked to Covid-19.
More than 850 million Indians use mobile phones and they could be persuaded to report any unusual death in their villages on a toll-free number. Authorities could then follow up the deaths by visiting the families and conducting "verbal autopsies".
Counting deaths has always been an inexact science in India.
Some 10 million people die in India every year. The Million Death Study found that some deaths were overestimated (India had only 100,000 premature HIV deaths in 2005, about a quarter of the total estimated by WHO) and some were underestimated (five times as many malaria deaths as the WHO had estimated.) Also, according to the government's own admission, only 22% of deaths in India are medically certified.
Then there's the question of how to define a Covid-19 death.
Some Indian doctors have reported that many people were dying of Covid-19 symptoms without getting tested or "treated". Then there's the question of wrong diagnosis in a country where doctors often misdiagnose the cause of death.
Jean-Louis Vincent, a professor of Intensive Care Medicine at Belgium's Erasme University Hospital, told me there was under-reporting of Covid-19 deaths "in many countries, including India".
"When you are told the person had some fever and some respiratory problems before death, you may suspect Covid-19. But it may be something else," he said.
"Death is often preceded by an infection, sometimes minor. If you do not test, you may attribute many deaths to Covid-19 or deny its role altogether. That is why the mortality rates from 1918 Spanish flu varied so much."
Dr Vincent is not sure whether the death counts tell the whole story about the infection. "Recording the number of deaths due to Covid-19 is not very meaningful to evaluate the severity of the disease. The number of hospital admissions is somewhat better, but it does not include all deaths outside the hospital," he says.
It is also true, as experts say, that most governments are naturally concerned about reporting deaths to avoid scaring people.
"But nobody is trying to hide deaths intentionally. You can't hide mass deaths," says Dr Jha.
"Tracking deaths is far more reliable than cases, which are heavily affected by testing biases. But the key is to make sure all deaths or a good random sample or snapshot of deaths is captured."
India might be missing some deaths and not diagnosing every patient correctly for Covid-19. But the fatalities are unarguably low. Yet, it's too early to say that the country has bucked the trend. "Let's be frank," one expert told me. "We don't know yet."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52435463
They talk about the "mystery behind India's lower death rates" from the Covid-19 infection, and say that India is "bucking the coronavirus trend". One talks about the "Indian exception as death rates in major Indian cities are lower compared to global coronavirus hotspots".
Nearly two months after its first recorded case, Covid-19 infections in the world's second most populous country have passed 27,000, with more than 800 deaths.
One way to understand the death rate is to track how many days it takes for total deaths to double.
In India, this is currently at nine days - there were 825 confirmed deaths on 25 April; compared to about half or so of that number on 16 April.
Experts say that's good news. The doubling time for deaths in New York at the same stage of the pandemic was only two or three days, they say.
Many public health professionals and doctors say India's grinding lockdown, which lasted more than a month, could have kept infection and deaths in check.
The medical journal Lancet says the "lockdown is already having the desired effect of flattening the epidemic curve".
Others believe that India's predominantly young population is helping keep fatalities low - elderly people have an elevated risk of death from the infection.
Yet others talk about the possibilities of the presence of a less virulent strain of the virus in India, along with the possibility that its hot weather was diminishing the contagion. Both these claims are not backed by any evidence. In fact, doctors treating critical Covid-19 patients have told me that the contagion is as virulent here as has been reported elsewhere in the world.
So is India an outlier when it comes to novel coronavirus fatalities?
"To be totally frank, I don't know and the world doesn't know the answer," Indian-American physician and oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee told journalist Barkha Dutt recently. "It's a mystery, I'd say and part of the mystery is we are not doing enough testing. If we tested more then we'd know the answer."
He is alluding to both diagnostic tests which determine those who are currently infected and antibody tests to find out whether someone was previously infected and recovered.
The other question is whether India is "missing" Covid-19 deaths.
Most affected countries have inadvertently under-reported deaths. Studying mortality data in 12 countries, The New York Times found that in March at least 40,000 more people died during the coronavirus pandemic than the official death counts. These include deaths from the contagion as well as those from other likely causes.
And a Financial Times analysis of overall fatalities during the pandemic in 14 countries found that the death toll from coronavirus may be almost 60% higher than reported in official counts. None of the two studies feature India.
Prabhat Jha of the University of Toronto, who led India's ambitious Million Death Study, believes that to "do this right, missing deaths have to be considered".
"Since most deaths occur at home - and will be for the foreseeable future - in India, other systems are needed," Dr Jha told me.
Around 80% of deaths in India still happen at home. This includes deaths from infections like malaria and pneumonia. Maternal deaths, and deaths from sudden coronary attacks and accidents are more often reported from hospitals. "A lot of people get some medical attention over time, return and die at home in India," says Dr Jha.
Clearly, counting hospital deaths alone is not going to be sufficient enough to get an accurate number of Covid-19 fatalities.
Trying to get a count from funerals at crematoria and burial grounds would be equally tricky. Many of India's dead are cremated in the open in large swathes of the countryside. Funeral services cater only to a small sliver of the population.
At the same, there are no reports yet of a massive surge in hospital deaths, which would surely have not gone unnoticed, K Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India, told me. (For example, a sharp rise in deaths of children in single hospitals in northern India in recent years has been faithfully reported.)
Similarly, Prof Reddy believes a sharp spike in home deaths over a long period is also not likely to go unnoticed.
In the absence of a robust public health surveillance system, experts say mobile phones could be used to find out whether there was an unusual surge in influenza-related deaths which could be linked to Covid-19.
More than 850 million Indians use mobile phones and they could be persuaded to report any unusual death in their villages on a toll-free number. Authorities could then follow up the deaths by visiting the families and conducting "verbal autopsies".
Counting deaths has always been an inexact science in India.
Some 10 million people die in India every year. The Million Death Study found that some deaths were overestimated (India had only 100,000 premature HIV deaths in 2005, about a quarter of the total estimated by WHO) and some were underestimated (five times as many malaria deaths as the WHO had estimated.) Also, according to the government's own admission, only 22% of deaths in India are medically certified.
Then there's the question of how to define a Covid-19 death.
Some Indian doctors have reported that many people were dying of Covid-19 symptoms without getting tested or "treated". Then there's the question of wrong diagnosis in a country where doctors often misdiagnose the cause of death.
Jean-Louis Vincent, a professor of Intensive Care Medicine at Belgium's Erasme University Hospital, told me there was under-reporting of Covid-19 deaths "in many countries, including India".
"When you are told the person had some fever and some respiratory problems before death, you may suspect Covid-19. But it may be something else," he said.
"Death is often preceded by an infection, sometimes minor. If you do not test, you may attribute many deaths to Covid-19 or deny its role altogether. That is why the mortality rates from 1918 Spanish flu varied so much."
Dr Vincent is not sure whether the death counts tell the whole story about the infection. "Recording the number of deaths due to Covid-19 is not very meaningful to evaluate the severity of the disease. The number of hospital admissions is somewhat better, but it does not include all deaths outside the hospital," he says.
It is also true, as experts say, that most governments are naturally concerned about reporting deaths to avoid scaring people.
"But nobody is trying to hide deaths intentionally. You can't hide mass deaths," says Dr Jha.
"Tracking deaths is far more reliable than cases, which are heavily affected by testing biases. But the key is to make sure all deaths or a good random sample or snapshot of deaths is captured."
India might be missing some deaths and not diagnosing every patient correctly for Covid-19. But the fatalities are unarguably low. Yet, it's too early to say that the country has bucked the trend. "Let's be frank," one expert told me. "We don't know yet."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52435463
Navdeep Srivastava
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Yesterday India did around 50000 test first time, last three they have really ramped up the testing with 46k, 40k, and 50k in three successive days
Navdeep Srivastava
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West Bengal is hiding intentionally only reported 20 deaths whiles doctor claimed 60, other states are not hiding but there may be some unreported deaths ,still not on large scale as deaths numbers in general has gone down in comparison to last year for the same time reference.
IndianHero
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India's test count could be even higher than 51000/day if some states like Kerala, telangana ,west bengal etc., improve their test counts. They test very less even including rapid test kits.
First of all, centre & ICMR has directed all states (10 days ago) that they can go ahead and buy test kits (including rapid test kits) from other countries. Likewise, karnataka, AP, chattisgarh have bought rapid test kits from south korea.
AP has done total of 75000 tests where as telangana has not even done 24000. Same with kerala not even 24000 , karnataka around 45000 , I don't understand what is stopping these states to test more and more ?? May be their strategy is No tests so no cases !
Andhra pradesh tops the country with number of tests being conducted in a day
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">AP ramped up the testing capacity of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#COVID19</a> in a short time. AP is one of the states in the country with highest numbers of tests on an average per day. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/APFightsCorona?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#APFightsCorona</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19Pandemic?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#COVID19Pandemic</a> <a href="https://t.co/Wt3UrTyOf3">pic.twitter.com/Wt3UrTyOf3</a></p>— ArogyaAndhra (@ArogyaAndhra) <a href="https://twitter.com/ArogyaAndhra/status/1254283392104849409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 26, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
First of all, centre & ICMR has directed all states (10 days ago) that they can go ahead and buy test kits (including rapid test kits) from other countries. Likewise, karnataka, AP, chattisgarh have bought rapid test kits from south korea.
AP has done total of 75000 tests where as telangana has not even done 24000. Same with kerala not even 24000 , karnataka around 45000 , I don't understand what is stopping these states to test more and more ?? May be their strategy is No tests so no cases !
Andhra pradesh tops the country with number of tests being conducted in a day
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">AP ramped up the testing capacity of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#COVID19</a> in a short time. AP is one of the states in the country with highest numbers of tests on an average per day. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/APFightsCorona?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#APFightsCorona</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19Pandemic?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#COVID19Pandemic</a> <a href="https://t.co/Wt3UrTyOf3">pic.twitter.com/Wt3UrTyOf3</a></p>— ArogyaAndhra (@ArogyaAndhra) <a href="https://twitter.com/ArogyaAndhra/status/1254283392104849409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 26, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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