More than 15 crore 21 lakh doses of Corona vaccine administered in the country so far

India has administered over 15 crore 21 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccine in the country so far. These include over 93 lakh 85 thousand Healthcare Workers who have taken the 1st dose and more than 61 lakh Health care workers who have taken the 2nd dose, over one crore 24 lakh Frontline Workers have taken the 1st dose and more than 67 lakh front line workers have taken the 2nd dose.
 
India had launched the world’s largest Vaccination Drive on 16th January this year. Union Health Ministry said that more than 20 lakh 84 thousand beneficiaries were inoculated with Covid-19 vaccine doses till 8 PM yesterday. Out of which around 12 lakh beneficiaries were vaccinated for 1st dose and more than nine lakh beneficiaries received 2nd dose of the vaccine. The total registrations on Co-Win portal for Phase-3 Vaccination has crossed two crore 28 lakh in just two days.

Prices of Covaxin for State govts reduced from 600 to 400 rupees

Bharat Biotech reduced the cost of COVAXIN vaccine for State governments. It will now cost 400 rupees per dose for State Governments instead of earlier announced price of 600 rupees per dose. 

Bharat Biotech has said the decision has been taken recognising enormous challenges being faced by the public health care system. The COVAXIN will cost 1200 rupees per dose for Private Hospitals. The price of vaccine for export is 15 to 20 dollar. Earlier, the price of Covishield vaccine for states was also reduced from 400 to 300 rupees.

Health Ministry issues revised guidelines for home isolation of mild, asymptomatic Corona patients

Union Health Ministry has issued revised guidelines for Home isolation of mild and asymptomatic COVID-19 cases. As per the guidelines, the patients who are clinically assigned to be mild or asymptomatic are recommended for home isolation. As per the guidelines, for home isolation, the patient should be clinically assigned as mild or asymptomatic case by the treating Medical officer and such cases should have the requisite facility at their residence for self-isolation and for quarantining the family contacts.
 
It says, a care giver should be available to provide care and a communication link between the caregiver and hospital is a prerequisite for the entire duration of home isolation. It also said that elderly patients aged more than 60 years and those with co-morbid conditions shall only be allowed home isolation after proper evaluation by the treating medical officer. It said, patients suffering from immune compromised status like HIV, Transplant recipients and Cancer therapy are not recommended for home isolation and shall only be allowed home isolation after proper evaluation by the treating medical officer.
 
According to the revised guidelines, the Health Ministry has said that patient must isolate himself from other household members, stay in the identified room and away from other people in home, especially elderlies and those with co-morbid conditions. The patient should be kept in a well-ventilated room with cross ventilation. Patient should at all times use triple layer medical mask. The patient has been advised self-monitoring of blood oxygen saturation and health and must be in communication with a treating physician and promptly report in case of any deterioration.
 
The decision to administer Remdesivir or any other investigational therapy must be taken by a medical professional and administered only in a hospital setting and not attempt to procure or administer Remdesivir at home. As per the guidelines, patient under home isolation will stand discharged and end isolation after at least 10 days have passed from onset of symptoms or from date of sampling for asymptomatic cases and no fever for three days. The Ministry said, there is no need for testing after the home isolation period is over.

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PM Modi to chair Council of Ministers meeting today to review Covid-19 situation in country

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a meeting of Council of Ministers at 11 am today to review the COVID-19 situation in the country. This will be the first meeting of the Council of Ministers in the aftermath of the second wave of the pandemic. During the meeting, the ongoing vaccination drive, which has now been opened for those in the 18 to 45 age group, is likely to be discussed among others.
 
Health Secretary yesterday submitted a report to the Home Secretary regarding the Corona situation in the worst-affected nine states. Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh are some of the worst affected states and major contributors to the sharp rise in COVID cases in the country.
 
PM Modi has been holding a series of meetings with several stakeholders and key personnel to continuously review the COVID-19 situation in the country. He previously held meetings with chief ministers of states, vaccine manufacturers, top brass of the pharmaceutical industry discussing various aspects of how to bring the COVID-19 under control. The prime minister also held a meeting with oxygen manufacturers across the country to discuss the ramping up of oxygen generation and its transport amid the shortage of oxygen reported in several states.
 
The vaccine manufacturers have been asked to ramp up their production as well as attract new national and international players. The manufacturers have been directed to release 50 per cent of their stock for the state governments and in the open market at a pre-declared price. At present 45 years and above are eligible to administer vaccine the COVID-19 vaccine, while the vaccination for 18 years and above will begin from May 1 as the registrations for the same have begun on CoWIN portal and Aarogya Setu app.

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True name: On Armenian genocide

Us president recently  has fulfilled a long-pending American promise byrecognising the mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks in 1915-16 as “an act of genocide”, but the move has clearly infuriated Turkey, a NATO ally. In 2019,both Houses of the U.S. Congress passed resolutions calling the slaughter by its true name, but former President Donald Trump, like his predecessors, stopped short of a formal recognition of the genocide, mainly because of Turkish opposition. Ankara has challenged the “scholarly and legal” basis of Mr. Biden’s announcement and warned that it will “open a deep wound”. Up to 1.5 million Armenians were estimated to have been killed during the course of the First World War by the Ottoman Turks. When the Ottoman Empire suffered a humiliating defeat in the Caucasus in 1915 at the hands of the Russians, the Turks blamed the Armenians living on the fringes of the crumbling empire for the setback. Accusing them of treachery, the Ottoman government unleashed militias on Armenian villages. Armenian soldiers, public intellectuals and writers were executed and hundreds of thousands of Armenians, including children, were forcibly moved from their houses in eastern Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) to the Syrian desert. Many died during this exodus and many others, after reaching the concentration camps in the deserts. Turkey has acknowledged that atrocities were committed against Armenians, but is opposed to calling it a genocide, which it considers as an attempt to insult the Turks.

Mr. Biden’s move comes at a time when the relationship between the U.S. and Turkey has been in steady decline. In 2016, Ankara accused the U.S.-based Turkish Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen of being the mastermind of a failed coup, and asked the U.S. government to extradite him, a demand Washington paid no attention to. Turkey’s decision to buy the S-400 missile defence system from Russia, despite strong opposition from the U.S., prompted American leaders to oust Turkey from the F-35 fighter jet training programme and impose sanctions on their ally. When Mr. Biden assumed office, Turkish President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan had sent feelers for a reset, saying Turkey needed help from the West to resolve the Syrian crisis. But Mr. Biden’s move on the Armenian killings appears to have widened the cracks. For Turkey, this overreaction to anyone calling the Armenian massacre a genocide is not doing any good in foreign policy. Instead of being defensive about the crimes of the Ottoman empire, the modern Turkish republic should demonstrate the moral courage to disown the atrocities. It shouldn’t allow the past to ruin its present interests.

Right priorities: On U.S. COVID-19 aid to India.

l with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden said that his government would quickly deploy a number of COVID-19-related supplies to help India battle its current crisis with the pandemic. The move comes after what many saw as a delay in the U.S.’s response to the situation. After a few days, where the Biden administration seemed to dither, making the point that protecting Americans first was in the world’s interest, it appears to have amended its stand, in some part due to pressure from U.S. Congressmen, business chambers and academics. Over the weekend, senior U.S. officials reached out to India and made public comments expressing concern and sympathy for the people affected as India sees over 3 lakh new cases a day and a record number of deaths. In the short term, what India needs from abroad is two-fold: medicines and oxygen-management devices, including containers, concentrators and generators. It is heartening that more than a dozen countries, including the U.S., have promised to supply these within a week, and some of those supplies have already begun to arrive. In addition to the U.S. government’s supplies, the U.S. private sector has also mobilised aid for various COVID-19 resources in India. In the longer term, New Delhi wants Washington to consider a shift in its long-held state policies for the duration of the pandemic, which may be a more difficult proposition as it includes setting aside patent rights for pharmaceuticals produced in the U.S. and supporting the India-South Africa petition at the World Trade Organization for waiving all TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) so vaccines can be manufactured generically for the next few years. The U.S. should consider its assistance to India both in light of their relationship and of the fact that as a key global supplier of pharmaceuticals and vaccines, India’s faltering steps in the fight against COVID-19 will impact the world.

There is no denying that the perceived delay in the U.S.’s response to the crisis in India, which is not just a bilateral strategic partner but key to the U.S.’s Indo-Pacific strategy as a member of the Quad, has caused some disappointment in South Block. However, it is unlikely that this will seriously impact the partnership, nor should such matters affect the broader relationship. There is also a kernel of truth in the U.S.’s earlier assertion that the American government has a “special responsibility” to American citizens first and addressing their COVID-19 needs was also in the world’s interests. Instead of chiding the U.S. for its delay, New Delhi would do well to learn from this prioritisation, and complete its vaccination programme for all Indians, even as it uses all its resources and those received from the U.S. and other countries to rescue the nation from the current ravages of the pandemic.

Oscars this year saw many firsts, and also a fair amount of continuity and predictability

Parasite, there were those who peddled the myth that lightning will not strike the same place twice. It kind of did in the 93rd Academy Awards, when the Best Supporting Actress award went to South Korean Youn Yuh-jung, for her role as granny Soon-ja in the heart-warming Minari, beating off competition from Glenn Close’s mad-haired Mamaw in Hillbilly Elegy. Anthony Hopkins winning his second Best Actor Oscar (he first won for The Silence of the Lambs) for The Father was disappointing, even if deserving. The sentimental favourite was the late Chadwick Boseman, who turned in an incendiary performance as the mercurial trumpeter, Levee Green, in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. As expected, Nomadland won big with Best Picture, Best Director for Chloé Zhao and Best Actress (Frances McDormand). It is a historic win for Zhao as she is only the second woman to win the award and the first woman of colour to do so. While elegiac in its beauty, Nomadland should have looked at privilege. Only a white person can feel safe enough to drop off the grid. Wandering white people, even if they are hulking ex-military policemen, are enlightened and definitely not lost, while a homeless black person will always be looked at with suspicion.