New Delhi, Aug 2: Union Home Minister Amit Shah today tested positive for COVID-19 coronavirus infection and has been admitted to a hospital.
Shah took to social media today to inform about his infection. “I have tested positive but my health is fine," he said, adding that he has been hospitalised on the assistance of doctors.
The Union Home Minister also appealed to those who came into close contact with him in the last few days to get themselves tested for COVID-19.
Johannesburg, Feb 22: To meet shortage of skilled nursing staff, private hospitals in South Africa are recruiting senior Indian nurses for their good work ethics and ability to become efficient trainers for the local staff, according to a media report.
A report at a 2018 jobs summit indicated that the country had a shortage of more than 47,000 nurses.
The shortage of the skilled nursing staff has been attributed to several factors, including preference of highly qualified nurses to emigrate or take up contract employment in countries such as the UK, the United Aarb Emirates, Saudi Arabia or New Zealand for want of higher salaries, a report in the weekly Business Times said.
Mediclinic, one of South Africa's largest private hospital groups, confirmed that it is recruiting 150 nurses from India this year.
“To supplement our training, as an internal strategy, we will continue to recruit senior registered nurses from India,” a Mediclinic spokesperson told the Business Times.
Mediclinic started recruiting nurses from India in 2005 but could not provide details about how many among the more than 8,800 nurses it employs at its hospitals are from India.
Another company, Life Healthcare SA, said it employed 135 Indian nurses between 2008 and 2014.
Top managements at the hospital groups lauded senior Indian nurses as being very efficient trainers for local staff.
“But we find that many of them prefer coming here on short-term contracts due to family commitments," a hospital executive said on the basis of anonymity.
The official said that the few who apply for long-term positions are usually young newly-qualified nurses, which is not the group in demand.
“They work hard, with a patient-oriented work ethic, and do not have the nine-to-five approach of many local nurses, especially those who are unionised," the official said.
“We would be very happy to take in more nursing staff from India," the official added.
Ayodhya, Aug 4: Various religious ceremonies have been conducted for the past 108 days by saints in Ayodhya and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take part in `muhurat puja' at 12.44 pm on Wednesday as part of 'bhoomi pujan' for construction of a grand Ram temple.
PM Modi will arrive at 12:30 pm at the Ramjanmbhoomi and take part in various prayers including the main "bhoomi pujan".
Govind Giriji Maharaj, treasurer of Shri Ramjanmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, said that the religious ceremonies will begin from 8:30 am in the morning and will continue till 12:30 pm.
"The Prime Minister will arrive at 12:30 pm and he will offer `puja' for 15 minutes and take 'sankalp'. First Lord Ganesh will be worshipped then he will offer prayers of eight shilas. Some prayers at shilas we have conducted already," Giri told said.
"The muhrat of pooja is at 12: 44 pm. He will say words 'prathisthapayami' and it is crucial to be done in that muhrat," he said.
Elaborating on the rituals to be performed tomorrow by the Prime Minister, the trust member said that most important is `Kurm Shila' .
"The most important is Kurm Shila - this is right beneath the place where Ram Lalla will be seated. It is this ceremony that we are conducting tomorrow. A cone of Bakul tree wood will be kept in ceremony. This isn't an ordinary cone, it is made of various metals including gold and silver.
A lotus with nine gems too will be part of pujan which will be offered to this cone by the Prime Minister," he said.
"These are intrinsic to main bhumi pujan. The first religious ceremony was of Devi Kali. There are two devi kalis here, `choti' and `badi'. She is kuldevi, family's goddess of Sita. Today we held Ramarchan ceremony," said Giri.
The Vedic pundits who are involved in religious ceremonies have come from Delhi, Mathura and Kashi.
Asked about the absence of Nepal's religious head of Janaki Mandir, he said that there are many, including 20 religious heads, who would not able to come because they can't leave their seat in Chaturmas.
On the design of temple, Giri said, the old design will remain as it is except a rise in height.
"The structure has become popular and we will keep it. Keeping in mind the modernisation of architecture, we have raised height from 128 feet to 161 feet and instead of three peaks we will have five peaks," he said.
Kanchi Pithadhishvar Maharaj has sent silver coins as souvenirs for every sadhu participating in it, Giri said.
Invitations have been sent to 175 people, including 135 saints of 35 religious organisations to attend the foundation stone-laying ceremony of Ram temple.
The construction of Ram temple will begin in Ayodhya after the ceremony to lay the foundation stone.
Domestic flights resumed operations on a truncated schedule on Monday with the first aircraft departing from the Delhi Airport for Pune, more than two months after a nationwide lockdown was announced to combat COVID-19.
The first flight to take off was an IndiGo aircraft to Pune, flying passengers stranded in the national capital since the lockdown was announced on March 24.
Passengers were screened at the airport with electronic thermometers, and revised protocol for air travel that included santisation of luggage through ultra-violent scanners, and maintaining physical distancing.
Only asymptomatic passengers were allowed to enter the airport.
Passengers were also seen wearing face masks and face shields given to them at the embarkation point by the airline to minimise the chances of infection while onboard.
The first flight arrived at Delhi Airport from Ahmedabad – a SpiceJet aircraft – at around 8:00 am.
BJD Lok Sabha member Anubhav Mohanty was among those who took the Air Vistara flight to Bhubaneshwar that departed Delhi airport at 6:50 am.
The first flight to take off from Mumbai was an IndiGo aircraft that departed for Patna at 6:45 am, while passengers from Lucknow were the first to reach the financial capital on an IndiGo aircraft that touched down at 8:20 am.
The food & beverage and retail outlets, which were closed for the past 63 days, opened at Terminal 3 of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport.
The flight services resumed after a day of long and hard negotiations between the Centre and the states on Sunday.
All states finally agreed to accept at least some flights but announced different quarantine and self-isolation rules for arriving passengers to address apprehension about infections being brought in from other cities.
The Centre had issued guidelines for all modes of domestic travel that advised all asymptomatic passengers to self-monitor their health parameters for 14 days on completion of the journey and report to health authorities if they displayed any symptoms for COVID-19.
However, the Centre had allowed state governments to prescribe their own health protocols for disembarking passengers which led to differential guidelines across the country.
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