Veiled attack on Team Rahul by section of Cong leaders

New Delhi, Apr 20: The Centre on Monday said that India's COVID-19 doubling rate has improved to 7.5 days from 3.4 days before the lockdown was enforced to check the spread of the coronavirus.

"India's doubling rate before the lockdown was 3.4 days. It has now improved to 7.5 days. As per data on April 19, in 18 States, the rate is better than the national average," said Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry, at a daily briefing here.

"The number of districts where no case has been reported in the last 14 days has increased to 59 in 23 States and UTs. Goa is now COVID-19 free," he said.

India's total number of coronavirus positive cases has risen to 17,656 including 14,255 active cases, 2,842 cured/discharged/migrated and 559 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

"Mahe in Puducherry, Kodagu in Karnataka and Pauri Garhwal in Uttarakhand have not reported any COVID-19 case in last 28 days," said Agarwal.

Let us take a look at the top developments of the day regarding the COVID-19 situation in the country:

1. There are 23 active COVID-19 cases in Himachal Pradesh. 11 patients have recovered, four migrated out of the State and one person succumbed to the disease. A total of 2,902 people have been tested for COVID-19 so far, said Himachal Pradesh Health Department.

2. The number of COVID-19 cases has risen to 408 in Karnataka including 16 deaths and 112 discharges, according to the state Health Department. 18 new cases have been reported in the last 24 hours.

3. "14 new COVID-19 cases reported, all from Kashmir. The total number of cases now stands at 368, Jammu-55 and Kashmir-313," said Rohit Kansal, Principal Secretary, Planning, Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir administration.

4. According to Punya Salila Srivastava, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry wrote to Kerala government yesterday, expressing concerns over modified guidelines regarding lockdown. "Kerala has allowed some activities that violate the Ministry's instructions issued under the Disaster Management Act," she said.

5. Five more police personnel from Chandni Mahal police station have tested positive for COVID-19. Till now eight personnel from the police station have tested positive for the virus, according to the Delhi Police.

6. Total 57 new COVID19 cases and two deaths have been reported today. Cumulative positive cases now stand at 1,535, and toll at 25, said Rajasthan's Health Department.

7. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has said that RTPCR kits are US FDA approved and have good standards and these should be stored under 20-degree temperature for better result.

8. "A total of 283 more COVID-19 cases have been reported in Maharashtra, taking cumulative positive cases in the State to 4,483, as of 11 am today. Of the 283 new cases, Mumbai has recorded 187," said Rajesh Tope, Maharashtra Health Minister.

9. One new COVID-19 positive case was reported today in Bokaro, taking the total number of cases in the State to 42, said Nitin Madan Kulkarni, Jharkhand's Health Secretary.
10. According to Punjab's Health Department, only one person has been tested positive for COVID-19 in the State today. The person is a contact of the COVID-19 patient.

11. "There is only one red zone district in Chhattisgarh. For the last 72 hours, no COVID-19 positive patient has been found even in that red zone district. I am hoping that whole of Chhattisgarh will be green zone soon," said Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.

12. Six new COVID-19 cases were reported in Kerala, all from Kannur, of which 5 have foreign travel history. Total cases in the State at 408, including 114 active cases, said Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Meanwhile, the Centre has constituted six Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCTs), two each for West Bengal and Maharashtra and one each for Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to make an on-spot assessment of the situation and issue necessary directions to the state authorities for their redressal and submit a report to the Central government in the larger interest of the general public.

United Nations, Apr 16: WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has welcomed the world health body's cooperation with India to leverage strategies that helped the country win its war against polio into the response to COVID-19 outbreak, saying such joint efforts will help defeat the pandemic.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said it will work with India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to leverage the strategies that helped the country eradicate polio to fight the pandemic.

Migrants who returned to UP and Bihar were hurriedly housed in schools and panchayat buildings, which were turned into quarantine centres. However, unhygienic conditions and people running away have proved to be a problem

The WHO's national polio surveillance network will be engaged to strengthen COVID-19 surveillance and its field staff will continue to support immunization and elimination of tuberculosis and other diseases.

“Great news: @MoHFW_INDIA & @WHOSEARO initiated a systematic engagement of @WHO's national polio surveillance network, and other field staff, for India's #COVID19 response, tapping into the best practices & resources that helped win its war against polio,” the WHO director-general tweeted, referring to India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and World Health Organization Regional Office for South-East Asia.

According to the Johns Hopkins University data, over 2 million people are infected by the virus and more than 136,000 people have died of the disease globally.

Ghebreyesus expressed gratitude to Health and Family Welfare Minister Harsh Vardhan “for his leadership and collaboration” with WHO. “Through these joint efforts we can defeat the #coronavirus and save lives. Together!”

India eliminated polio in 2014.
According to a WHO press release, Vardhan said in New Delhi that “time and again the Government of India and WHO together have shown our ability, competence and prowess to the whole world. With our combined meticulous work, done with full sincerity and dedication, we were able to get rid of polio.”

“All of you in the field – IDSP (Integrated Disease Surveillance Project), state rapid response teams and WHO - are our ‘surveillance corona warriors'. With your joint efforts we can defeat the coronavirus and save lives,” Vardhan added.

WHO South-East Asia Regional Director Poonam Khetrapal Singh said the National Polio Surveillance Project (WHO-NPSP) played a critical role in strengthening surveillance for polio that generated useful, timely and accurate data to guide policies, strategies and interventions until transmission of the poliovirus was interrupted in the country,” adding that the other WHO field staff involved with elimination of tuberculosis and neglected tropical diseases and hypertension control initiative were also significant resources.

Singh added that “it is now time to use all your experience, knowledge and skills, with the same rigor and discipline that you showed while monitoring polio activities, to support districts with surveillance, contact tracing and containment activities.”

The WHO release said strengths of the NPSP team – surveillance, data management, monitoring and supervision, and responding to local situations and challenges – will be utilized to supplement efforts of National Centre for Disease Control, IDSP and Indian Council of Medical Research to strengthen COVID-19 surveillance.

The NPSP team will also support in sharing information and best practices and help states and districts calibrate their response based on transmission scenarios and local capacities.

The WHO field staff will continue to support immunization and surveillance and elimination of Tuberculosis and Neglected Tropical Diseases, Singh said, adding, “disease outbreaks can negatively impact progress in a range of areas, from maternal and child mortality to vaccine-preventable diseases and other treatable conditions. India had been making stupendous progress in these areas and we cannot afford for India's remarkable progress to be set back or reversed.”

New Delhi, Jan 4: "Sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic" is how India is referred to in the preamble of the Constitution. However, J Nandakumar, a key RSS leader and All India Convenor Prajna Pravah, a Sangh offshoot, wants India to reconsider the inclusion of the word "secular", claiming secularism is a "western, Semitic concept".

In an exclusive interview to news agency, Nandakumar said: "Secularism is a western, Semitic concept. It came into existence in the West. It was actually against Papal dominance."

He argued that India does not need a secular ethos as the nation has moved "way beyond secularism" since it believes in universal acceptance as against the western concept of tolerance.

The RSS functionary on Thursday released a book here named "Hindutva in the changing times". The book launch event was also attended by senior RSS functionary Krishna Gopal.

Nandakumar, who has attacked the Mamata Banerjee government in his book for alleged "Islamisation of West Bengal", told IANS: "We have to see whether we need to put up a board of being secular, or that whether we should prove this through our behaviour, actions and roles."

It is for society to take a call on this, rather than by any political class, on whether the preamble to the Indian Constitution should continue to have the word "secular" in it or not, he added.

In between signing his books and obliging wannabe Hindutva cadres with selfies, Nandakumar said that the very existence of the word "secular" in the preamble was not necessary and how the constitution founders too were against it.

"Baba Saheb Ambedkar, Ladi Krishnaswamy Aiyaar -- all debated against it and said it (secular) wasn't necessary to be included in the preamble. That time it was demanded, discussed and decided not to include it," he said.

Ambedkar's opinion was, however, disregarded when Indira Gandhi "bulldozed" the word "secular", in 1976, said the head of the Prajna Pravah, an umbrella body of several right-wing think-tanks

As Nandakumar prepared to return to his base in Kerala, where, he emphasises, the RSS has its work cut out in the "fight against the Kunnor model", he said that the inclusion of "secular" was done with the intent to damage the concept of Hindutva.

"It was to demolish, destroy the overarching principle of Hindutva that binds us together", he said.

Asked whether the Sangh would pressurise the BJP, which has 303 seats in the Lok Sabha, to omit "secular" from the Constitution preamble, Nandakumar smilingly refused to reply.