Kerala floods: 33,000 people rescued; 6.33 lakh people in relief camps

Agencies
August 19, 2018

New Delhi, Aug 19: The NDMA  on Sunday said there will be no heavy rains in the flood-hit Kerala for the next four days, giving a ray of hope to the distraught people of the state.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) also said more than 33,000 people have been rescued by different agencies from the flood-affected areas of the state. Over 6.33 lakh people are currently staying in relief camps, it added.

"Rainfall will further decrease during the next five days. Heavy rain at one or two places in Idukki, Konnur and Kozhikode districts likely today. No heavy rain from tomorrow for the next four days," the NDMA said quoting a bulletin of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

There is no red or amber colour code warning for any district of Kerala today. A yellow warning has been issued in three districts.

The IMD has four colour codes to signify the intensity of weather. Red means authorities need to take action and one could expect extreme weather conditions, amber means government agencies need to be prepared to handle exigencies. Yellow colour code means the situation needs to be watched, while green signals the weather would be normal.

The central government has also decided to give ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the family of those killed in the floods and Rs 50,000 to the injured.

The compensation will be provided from the Prime Minister's Relief Fund.

A total of 6,33,010 people are staying in 2,971 relief camps. As of now, 33,179 people have been evacuated in rescue operations, the NDMA said.

So far 129 metric tonnes of rice and 30 MT milk powder (20 MT to Idukki and 10 MT to Wayanad) have been dispatched to Kerala, it said.

The Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation has dispatched necessary medicines to the affected areas, which is in addition to more than 150 truckloads of relief materials from the civil society and NGOs.

Altogether 100 tonnes of food materials like biscuits, rusks and drinking water are being airlifted to Kerala from Jalandhar and Patiala in Punjab.

At least 197 people have been killed in Kerala in the last 10 days in the second spell of monsoon fury since August 8 as floods and landslides triggered by incessant rain have wreaked havoc in many parts of the state.

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SMR
 - 
Sunday, 19 Aug 2018

Kerala’s natural disaster has affected the collective conscience of a large group of people across the world with foreign countries such as Qatar and UAE coming forward to help the flood victims.

 

Humanity in Kerala floods is pouring in for all direction. Even 

Pakistanis give up one day wage for victims in UAE is in news.

Bollywood actors, certain politicians such as BJP MP Varun Gandhi, Congress party and Aam Aadmi Party have risen to the occasion to do their bit to help their fellow Indians in Kerala.

 

However, not everyone has been as generous towards the flood victims as some known right-wing bigots launched a vicious campaign to promote Hindutva and mock the plight of the victims.

One US-based NRI and a staunch proponent of vicious Hindutva agenda, Rajiv Malhotra wrote urging his Hindutva supporters to only donate for Hindus and not victims of other faith. His vile tweet read, “Please donate to help Kerala Hindus. Christians and Muslims worldwide raising lots of money to help mainly their own ppl & agendas.

Soon it emerged that Malhotra’s tweet was not in isolation as this was retweeted by Mohandas Pai, a known supporter of the BJP and the RSS. Pai is also an investor in Arnab Goswami’s Republic TV. Mohandas Pai is one of the advisors to the government of India on many areas.

Remember that a flood does not discriminate. It does not see religion, caste, gender.

Right-wing Hindutva bigots launching hate campaign amidst nature’s fury in Kerala is condemable. Personalities like Mohandas Pai joining this hate campaign is unacceptable.

 

Is our responsible media will wake up and teach this hate mongers what is the meaning of humanity?

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News Network
April 3,2020

New Delhi, Apr 3: The total number of coronavirus cases in Delhi has risen to 384, including 259 who were evacuated from Nizamuddin Markaz, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Friday.

In last 24 hours, 91 new cases were reported in the national capital and one more person evacuated from the Markaz died due to coronavirus, taking the total number of deaths in the city to five, he said.

Of the 384 cases, 58 had recent foreign travel history and 38 contracted the virus after coming in contact with them, he added.

Kejriwal said community spread of the virus is not taking place in Delhi yet and there is no need to panic as the situation is under control.

The government has made preparations if the virus starts spreading among people, he said.

The chief minister also launched a WhatsApp helpline - 8800007722 for people to enquire about COVID-19, food banks, shelters among others.

Meanwhile, Kejriwal, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and experts will interact with students and answer their queries related to the virus at 3 pm on Saturday.

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News Network
March 31,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 31: Kerala reported its second COVID-19 death after a 68-year-old man being treated for the virus, died at the Government Medical College Hospital here in the early hours on Tuesday.

The victim, Abdul Aziz, a retired ASI hailing from Pothencode here, was admitted to the isolation ward on March 23 with the symptoms of the Corona infection. He was also suffering from lung and kidney diseases.

Though his first test result for COVID-19 turned negative, the second test result confirmed positive, official sources said.

However, it was not known from where he caught the virus infection. leaving chances for a secondary contract of a COVID-19 patient.

His funeral will take place as per the protocol, the sources added.

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News Network
March 29,2020

Mumbai, Mar 29: Virologist Minal Dakhave Bhosale led from the front to create India's first coronavirus testing kit even when she was in the last stage of her pregnancy.

Bhosale's efforts paid the price with her team delivering the testing kit in a record time of six weeks.

Bhosale gave birth to a baby girl just a day before submitting the kit to the authorities for evaluation.

"It was like giving birth to two babies," Bhosale told PTI over the phone.

The virologist said both the journeys - that happened in parallel - were not without challenges.

"There were complications in the pregnancy while work on the test kit was on. The baby was delivered through cesarean," she said.

Bhosale said she felt that it was the right time to serve the people to help them in combating the coronavirus threat.

"I had been working for five years in this field and if I don't work in emergency situations when my services are needed the most, then what is the use?" she said.

Though Bhosale was not able to visit the office due to the pregnancy, she was guiding a team of 10 persons working on the project at Mylab Discovery in Pune.

The strong bonds forged with the team over the years and their support made it possible, she said.

Company's co-founder Shrikant Patole said just like drug discovery, test kits too go through a lot of quality checks to improve the precision.

He credited Bhosale for the success of the project.

The COVID-19 testing kit delivered by Bhosale's team will reduce the time taken for delivering a result to 2.5 hours from the prevalent practice of eight hours.

A pioneering approach to testing without compromising on the results was adopted, Bhosale said.

The Maylab test kit will cost Rs1,200, a quarter of Rs 4,500 per kit that the government has been spending on testing so far.

"I'm happy that I could do something for the country," Bhosale said.

As of Friday, only 27,000 of the 1.3 billion people were tested for the virus in the country.

According to experts, high scale testing is essential because it alone can ensure an early diagnosis of COVID-19 and lower down the fatalities.

The company is confident of ramping up the capacity at its plant in Lonavala to deliver 100,000 kits a week, Patole said.

He said the authorities are helping the company, including giving priority for shipping of the raw materials.

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