The Central Reserve Police Force has contributed its salary of one day worth 33 Crores and 18 lacs to the Prime Minister relief fund in view of countrywide lockdown due to Wuhan Coronavirus spread worldwide.
CRPF sets an example yet again. CRPF personnel unanimously have decided to make a humble contribution of one day salary (33cr 81lac) to Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund. ‘We are dutifully committed to stand firmly with our Nation in this challenging time of #COVID19 spread.’ pic.twitter.com/dGfhANh0ML
The Central Reserve Police force unanimously decided to make a humble contribution of one day salary of CRPF personnel from across the country that is worth 33 Crores 18 lacs to the Prime Minister Relief Fund. The CRPF stated while making a contribution, “We are dutifully committed to stand firmly with our nation in this challenging time of COVID-19 spread.”
The Central and State governments are collectively taking various important decisions as well as investing to fight the spread of deadly contagion in the country. Several companies from across sectors, as well as many organizations, have come forward to extend assistance to the government in their fight against the coronavirus. The government is spreading its healthcare sector using innovative ideas and every possible assistance to tackle the epidemic that has infected 649 people across India and claimed 13 lives so far.
According to the global index data at the time of writing this report, the total Coronavirus cases worldwide has surged to 491,120 with 22,165 people succumbing to the infection. As the incidence of reported positive coronavirus cases continues to increase, countries across the globe are imposing stay-at-home orders in attempts to curb the disease’s spread.
India joins nearly a dozen countries facing extended national lockdowns. Hoping to counter the virus’ spread, Italy, France, Spain, Belgium, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Colombia, Bolivia, Jordan and Tunisia have already implemented countrywide quarantine policies.
India:
In a live video address on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced India would become the latest impose a three-week “complete lockdown,” to tackle the scourge of the epidemic. The government’s tedious attempt to keep 1.3 billion citizens indoors began at midnight on March 24 and will continue for 21 days. Before that, most states in India had announced individual lockdowns of one week, but now the entire country has entered nationwide lockdown of three weeks.
Credits: Reuters
Italy:
After a surge in COVID-19 cases in Italy, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte put the entire country on lockdown on March 10, restricting travel, leisure, work, churchgoing, and other aspects of life for its 60 million citizens. Italy has so far reported 74,386 positive cases with 7503 deaths so far.
Credits: AFP
Spain:
Spain’s streets have turned eerily empty since the government declared the state of emergency and imposed a nationwide lockdown for two weeks on March 14- aiming to stop the spread of the coronavirus in the country.
“We will eventually return to the routine of our jobs and again visit our friends and loved ones,” prime minister Pedro Sanchez said in a nationally-televised conference.
“Until that time comes, let’s not waste energies that are essential now. Let’s not lose our way,” he added, urging all to stay home.
Those disobeying the conditions of the state of alert could face fines starting from €100 or imprisonment should they “resist or seriously disobey the authorities or officers when they are carrying out their functions”.
Spain until now has recorded 56,188 confirmed cases with 4089 people succumbing to the deadly virus.
Credits: AFP
United Kingdom:
The UK is banned people from leaving their homes apart from for a few “very limited” reasons, Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a broadcast announced on March 21 (Monday), as he imposed the most stringent restrictions seen in Britain since the end of World War II.
Shops, gyms, and places of worship were all closed, and social events including weddings but not funerals were postponed.
The United Kingdom has thus far recorded 9,529 cases and a total of 465 deaths.
Credits: AFP
Australia:
Prime Minister Scott Morrison imposed a lockdown on Monday (March 23). He said that he wanted to keep Australian schools open, but parents could keep children at home if they wanted. “We are not putting in place lockdowns that put people in and confine them to their homes: Morrison said. “That is not a measure that has been contemplated at this point.”
On March 24 evening PM Scott Morrison outlined a further set of restrictions on businesses and individual behaviours to combat the coronavirus outbreak. Some of these were revised again on March 26 morning.
Australia has recorded 2799 cases so far and confirmed that 13 people have died so far because of the deadly coronavirus.
Credits: AFP
South Africa:
South Africa is eying at a 21-day lockdown from March 26. “While this measure will have a considerable impact on people’s livelihoods, on the life of our society and on our economy, the human cost of delaying this action would be far, far greater,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said.
In an address to the nation, Ramaphosa said the army would be deployed to assist the police during the lockdown.
South Africans will still be able to leave their homes to buy food, seek medical care and collect social grants.
The total number of cases in South Africa has reached 709 and thankfully it has not recorded a single death due to the infection as of now.
South Africa gearing up for a lockdown, Credits: Reuters
Last week Jordan had started one of the strictest lockdowns in the world to stop the spread of the coronavirus, forcing most people to stay indoors and temporarily shutting down even grocery stores and pharmacies. The country had completely banned people going outdoors, even banning going for walks and walking pets. On Tuesday, the country relaxed the lockdown a bit, allowing some grocery stores to open.
Yesterday New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern declared a state of emergency from Thursday over the coronavirus outbreak, announcing a four-week lockdown. During this period, only essential services – including banks, supermarkets and pharmacies – will open. People have been warned to stay at home as much as possible, and although they are allowed to go out for essential reasons, they must maintain a distance of two metres from another person.
Auckland’s empty road on day one of the Covid-19 lockdown.
A coronavirus is a virus that is found in animals and, rarely, can be transmitted from animals to humans and then spread person to person. The Novel Coronavirus originated from a seafood and meat market in Wuhan, China, in December and since then spread to over 70 locations internationally.
As India entered the second day of its three-week national lockdown to fight the national lockdown, today the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a ₹1.70 lakh crore welfare package for the poor in the country to help them tide over the financial problems that they are expected to face due to the lockdown. But immediately after the package was announced, the usual suspects in media have gone into overtime to criticise, terming it as inadequate. In an effort to do that, India Today journalist Geeta Mohan posted a chart comparing India’s package with packages announced by some other countries in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, and concluded that India’s package is too less.
The chart prepared by the so-called ‘Data Intelligence Unit’ of the India Today group shows that today’s package of ₹1.7 lakh crore or USD 22.5 billion comes at mere $19 per capita, which is far less than the per capita number of packages announced by other countries, like $7,281 for Germany, $6,246 for the UK, $6,042 for the USA etc.
There
are too many errors in the comparison made by the infamous Data Intelligence
Unit of India Today, as there is no compatibility in the packages announced by
various countries, and that’s why they are not directly comparable. While the most
packages announced by other countries are comprehensive measures to help the economy
to combat the losses incurred due to the Covid-19 outbreak, India’s package is
not an economic package, but it is a welfare package targeted only a section of
the society.
The welfare package of India includes subsidised food grain, direct cash transfers, enhancement of MNREGA wages, pensions, free cooking gas etc, apart from insurance for healthcare workers fighting the pandemic, and it has nothing for businesses and individuals like salaried class and traders. On the other hand, the $424 billion package announced by UK is a rescue package for businesses. It includes loans and grants for businesses, support for airlines, shops and the hospitality industry, apart from help for citizens like in mortgage payments.
Similarly,
the $2 trillion package announced
by the United States is also a massive comprehensive package which includes
direct payment to individuals, suspension of student loans, hike in unemployment
benefits, a $500 billion lending program for businesses hit by the Covid-19
pandemic, grant for airlines and airports, and a grant of $117 billion for
hospitals. The $610 billion package
of Germany is also a stimulus package for companies, and not just a welfare
package for the poor.
Shockingly,
while India Today’s ‘Data Intelligence Unit’ claims that France has announced a
package of USD 335 billion, French media reports
that the package is actually worth $50 billion (€45 billion), and this package also
aims to help businesses and employees. The $335 billion is the bank guarantee
that French govt has promised for companies to avail bank loans.
Similarly,
the other countries mentioned by India Today have also announced massive packages
to help revive their economies devasted by the Chinese virus, and they are not
at all comparable with India’s scheme announced today, neither in absolute amounts,
nor in per capita basis as they have done. Other countries have announced economic
stimulus packages, which India is yet to do. India’s package targets only a
specific section of the population, so to use the entire population of India to
calculate the per capita is simply wrong.
There
is another problem in direct comparison of India with other countries, which is
Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). As the currencies of different countries have
different purchasing powers, even similar packages of different countries need
not be same on per capita basis.
It is important to note that while the European countries and the United States have been devasted by the Wuhan Coronavirus, the pandemic has been largely constrained in India. The virus has affected almost 700 people in India so far, and 13 persons have lost their lives. The numbers for other countries in India Today’s list is significantly higher than India. The total Coronavirus positive cases in the other eight countries is more than 3.66 lakhs, accounting for 74% of worldwide numbers, while the number of deaths is above 18000 in those countries, 81% of global deaths. Therefore, if India manages to contain the numbers, the requirement of an economic revival package may not be as big as the other countries.
Also, other countries announced their packages after they have already faced a massive number of coronavirus cases, while the numbers are still low in India, therefore it may be too early to announce an economic package for the industry in India. It is possible to govt will India will announce an economic revival package after evaluating the damages caused by the pandemic, and hence at present India’s response can’t be compared with other countries. This means that the calculation done by the ‘Data Intelligence Unit’ of India has made not just one, but several errors.
Government sources say a stimulus package is in the works. Meanwhile, @IndiaToday Data Intelligence Unit looks at how today’s economic relief compares with what’s been announced by other countries so far. pic.twitter.com/ZxWVeIM6cv
After several social media users had pointed out the errors in the chart, India Today’s news Director Rahul Kanwal posted a revised version of the chart, omitting the per capita column. But it still remains wrong, as the chart still compares India’s specific welfare scheme with other nations’ economic revival schemes.
There are so many things wrong about this chart that one can write a full thesis on it. This “Data Intelligence Unit” neither understands Data, nor has any Intelligence and certainly doesn’t understand Units. Indian journalists never surprise. https://t.co/mtOpmedbuy
Two young siblings, including one aged eight-months and the other seven, have become the latest positive cases of Covid-19 in Srinagar Thursday. The eight-month-old is probably the youngest novel coronavirus patient in India so far.
The Jammu and Kashmir government spokesperson Rohit Kansal today took to Twitter to announce: “Two more positive cases in Srinagar. Siblings (7 years old and 8 months old)- grandchildren of a confirmed case from Srinagar with travel history to Saudi Arabia who had tested positive on 24th. Total number of active positive cases now 11”.
#COVID19#JammuAndKashmir Two more positive cases in Srinagar. Siblings (7 years old and 8 months old)- grandchildren of a confirmed case from Srinagar with travel history to Saudi Arabia who had tested positive on 24th. Total number of active positive cases now 11. @diprjk
The two children are the grandchildren of the Saudi-Arabia return 65-year-old Islamic preacher who had succumbed to the infection in Srinagar. The man, who was an Islamic preacher affiliated to the Tableeghi Jamaat, was tested positive for COVID-19 on March 24 (Tuesday) and died in hospital this morning. This is the first coronavirus death in Kashmir.
The entire neighbourhood has been sealed by the police and contact tracing is underway.
Official sources say over 70 people, including seven doctors, had come in contact with him and at least four have tested positive so far. All the rest have been shifted to different quarantine facilities.
The man had an extensive history of travel in the country and travelled to various different parts of the country before returning to Kashmir on March 16. The organisation he belonged to is headquartered at Banglwali Masjid in Delhi’s Nizamuddin neighbourhood and has a vast network of mosques around the world.
The man had also visited Andaman and Nicobar and a mosque in Jammu’s Samba before flying to Srinagar. Back in Srinagar, he visited a neighbourhood mosque and the Jamaat centre in Sopore in north Kashmir, all the while coughing and sneezing.
It is also reported that of Jammu and Kashmir’s eleven Wuhan Coronavirus patients, five of them had attended a religious event where this deceased religious preacher was also present. It is, however, not yet clear how this person contracted the virus.
With the two new cases, the total number of people who have tested positive for Covid-19 in Jammu and Kashmir now stands at 11. All these 11 patients are active cases.
The Wuhan Coronavirus has claimed 13 lives in India with the positive cases going up to 649. Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered a full lockdown of India in the wake of the deadly Wuhan Coronavirus spreading across the country.
On 25th March, 2020, Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) professor Dr Abrar Ahmad tweeted that he failed 15 non-Muslim students in his class as they supported the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Hours after OpIndia reported it, the University administration suspended him pending inquiry. Prof Ahmad also claimed later that his tweet was ‘parody’ and that he did not fail any non-Muslim student for supporting CAA. Even if one concedes that the particular tweet was ‘parody’, the professor’s various social media posts reveal a very problematic mindset. This raised the question that even if the tweet was ‘parody’ as Prof Ahmad claims, it could still fall under bullying tactics a professor could use his position of power to intimidate students.
OpIndia reached out to a few current and former non-Muslim JMI students who revealed a shocking scenario which pulls down their veil of ‘solidarity’ of their students and teachers’ community.
“Communal riots are not new to India. But what was different about these recent Delhi riots? Difference being the intellectual support provided by Jamia teaching community and students. Teachers deliberately try to draw communal, minority and majoritarian lines in the minds of the students and provide them an identity which is alien to India.” This victimhood implanted in them isolates them and then they easily fall prey to ideas like ‘the police is state-sponsored terrorist and that the police only carries out encounters of Muslims’, the Jamia alumni revealed.
“That is why the ‘yeh jo gundagardi hai, uske peechhe vardi hai(there are goons under the uniform)’ slogans were chanted. Not only that. Many students from places like Kupwara and Sopore from Kashmir use the same language as the separatists. They have no rationale for democracy,” another former student from JMI revealed. “Hatred is so deep-rooted that ‘radicalised’ is a mild word. More than the students, it is the teachers who are deeply hateful. Students come and go, but the banyan tree of hatred is busy growing deep roots on campus as teacher,” the alumni revealed.
Elaborating on this, the ex-student explained that under the UPA, former Union Home Minister P Chidambaram launched the Operation Green Hunt. Maoist terrorists were eliminated and terror camps were destroyed. “The professors in Jamia were also questioned by Police but they never revealed students with Maoists and Naxalite links,” a former student who studied on campus around this time revealed.
As per the alumni, these teachers are ‘handlers’. “The students are pushed in the front line. If police takes action, then they are on the receiving end of the lathis. That way, they play victimhood all the while keeping their hands clean. On the basis of this, they will write opinion pieces in international publications to show India and Indian government in bad light. Modi is their current enemy, but they dislike anyone in power. They only hate Modi a little more,” the alumni explained. “People will forget Sharjeel Imam some day, but he will be used by these teachers to write opinion pieces in international papers that freedom of speech in India is dead,” a student tells OpIndia on condition of anonymity.
Narendra Modi swore in as the Prime Minister of India for the first time in 2014. Prior to that he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. “When I was a student, UPA was in power. They still hated Modi. Why? 2002 riots. In my first year, my internal marks were great and I scored very well. But in my second year, I pointed out that the Godhra carnage preceded the riots. In my second year, my viva and internal marks were so low that if you compare my mark sheets of two years you won’t believe they belong to same person,” the alumni said.
“Dalit-Muslim unity is the biggest joke they tell. Jamia is a minority institute and hence does not have reservation for SC/ST. We had one Dalit student as a classmate and not a single Muslim student sat with him and had lunch with him. It was only us, who were anyway in a minority, who would talk to him. And forget Dalits, one of our classmates was a Shia. Jamia is a Sunni dominated university. Nobody talked to her. Nobody even acknowledged her,” said the Jamia alumni.
“Food-jihad is too strong a term but that is exactly what happens there. I dare you to take your Jagrate ka prasad and offer it to any of the Muslim student or professor there. ‘Humare mein yeh mana hai (this is forbidden for us)’, they will say. And if you say no to their sevaiyan or biryani on Eid, you will be called a ‘Sanghi’ and looked down upon,” a student currently studying in the varsity said.
A current student studying at Jamia was critical of the teacher’s political opinion. He had to pay the price with his marks. “While rest of the class got A+ or A, I got C. When I asked the professor, he asked me to be happy with this otherwise he’d fail me,” the student said. While there is no official prohibition on celebration of Hindu festivals, the students who wish to celebrate them get strong resistance from the administration. “They can’t tell us we cannot celebrate Holi or Saraswati Puja. But they will try to resist these celebrations on campus,” a student said.
There is also soft subversion of the Indian constitution. “They will never say that Sharia is above Constitution, but they will always tell you how the Middle East has a better system in place for law. They will glorify Middle East to subtly justify the Sharia. They will praise the Quran and say how the Constitution is inspired from the Quran. They will lace it with hyperbole to undermine the importance and significance of Constitution,” a former student told OpIndia.
Speaking on the bullying by teachers and some students, another alumni explained, “If you disagree with what they say, you will be marked. They will make sure to show you your place.”
The world is struggling to grapple with the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic. It has spread across the world within a very short span of time and is overwhelming the healthcare facilities of some of the most developed countries in the world. Italy is being ravaged by the virus. People are dying in great numbers in France and Spain as well. Iran has been devastated by the virus.
The USA is struggling to tackle the virus as well. Large parts of the world are currently under lockdown as countries took severe measures to curb the spread of the pandemic. One country, however, that has been extremely lax in its approach and is contributing immensely to the spread of the Wuhan Coronavirus is Pakistan.
Even as Iran cancelled the weekly prayers and Saudi Arabia suspended the Ummah pilgrimage by the end of February, Pakistan permitted the Tableeghi Ijtema organized by Tableeghi Jamaat to play out as planned. It was ultimately called off on the 12th of March but by then, around 2,50,000 people had already attended the event.
The event drew participants from numerous countries across the world. Even more bewilderingly, by the end of February, Pakistan had already recorded its first cases of the Wuhan Coronavirus. Nevertheless, the event which was scheduled to occur between the 11th of March and the 15th was not postponed despite numerous calls.
Raiwind in Lahore hosts the annual Tableeghi Ijtema. When it was called off on the 12th of March, the reason cited was not the pandemic but ‘rainy weather’. All the while, Islamic Clerics in Pakistan were issuing diktats that Islam will somehow protect the country from the Wuhan Coronavirus. Some claimed that the cure for the disease was the recital of certain Quranic verses which had been revealed in someone’s dream.
Another person said that he has the cure for the infection but won’t reveal it because he was afraid to be mocked like Aristotle and Socrates were. The Chief Minister of Punjab in Pakistan, Usman Bazdur, assured a delegation of Islamic clerics that Mosques will not be shut down to curb the Wuhan Coronavirus.
The end result of it all is that Pakistan is becoming a breeding ground of ‘super-spreaders’ of the Wuhan Coronavirus. On Sunday, Palestinian authorities revealed that two of its citizens with a recent history of travel to Pakistan had tested positive for the virus. They had attended the congregation in Raiwind.
A resident of Kyrgystan, who was staying with the Tableeghi Jamaat, has tested positive for the same. Even within Pakistan, the congregation has assisted the spreading of the infection greatly. Islamabad’s union council of Kot Hathial was placed under quarantine after six members of the Tableeghi Jamaat who live in the area tested positive for the Wuhan Coronavirus. Earlier, four people in Sindh had tested positive after attending the Tableeghi Ijtema.
In India, a member of the Tableeghi Jamaat with an extensive history of travel in the country died of the Wuhan Coronavirus in Srinagar. It’s not clear yet if he visited the congregation in Pakistan. However, it is reported that the Islamic preacher had travelled in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Samba, Jammu, Srinagar and Sopore to participate in religious events. Four others contracted the virus from him.
It is also reported that of Jammu and Kashmir’s eleven Wuhan Coronavirus patients, five of them had attended a religious event where the deceased religious preacher was also present. It is not yet clear how the person contracted the virus. According to reports, he was not cooperative during the investigation. “He wasn’t very forthcoming…not cooperative,” said a government health department official. However, it is speculated that he either travelled abroad or came into contact with those who had travelled abroad.
Meanwhile, Tableeghi Jamaat has surfaced as a great super-spreader of the Wuhan Coronavirus. Malaysian authorities reported that 624 of the 1030 cases in the country as of Friday were linked to a gathering organized by the Islamic missionary movement at a mosque outside of Kuala Lumpur. Over 1,500 foreigners from a dozen countries had attended the event. Most of the 73 cases in Brunei are connected to the event as are 10 cases in Thailand.
Eleven out of twelve people who tested positive for COVID-19 coronavirus on March 16 in Cambodia had attended the Islamic evangelical event in Malaysia. The Muslims attending the event were religious despots who congregated at the Mosque despite the obvious risks associated with it. Seven Indonesian nationals who had tested positive for the virus in India had attended a Tablighi Ijtema in Telangana’s Karimnagar.
It is quite clear that Pakistan has become a breeding ground for the spread of the Wuhan Coronavirus due to the whimsical approach of the authorities and the government in the country. Furthermore, organizations such as the Tableeghi Jamaat are still having an almost free run in the country, thereby, not only putting Pakistanis in jeopardy but citizens of other countries as well. They appear more concerned with ensuring that Islamic clerics are not miffed than with containing the spread of the virus. The predicament of Pakistan is comparable to that of Iran, another country that has been devastated by the Wuhan Coronavirus due to the pervasive religious fundamentalism of its population.
The Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic has the world struggling to grapple with the greatest crisis it has faced in decades. As countries are being overrun by the pandemic, large parts of the world have enforced a lockdown to prevent the further spreading of the virus. But even as countries are working hard to prevent a catastrophe due to the Coronavirus, China is up to its usual tricks again. After silencing whistleblowers and attempting to cover up the pandemic which has resulted in the calamity that the entire world faces today, China is now resorting to what can only be described as daylight robbery and theft.
A Chinese Government-backed Fortune 500 company has raided in bulk Australia’s supplies of masks, hand sanitiser, antibacterial wipes and essential medical supplies and shipped them back to China, the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) reported. The Greenland Group, a real estate giant, has practically drained Australian medical supplies which were to be used in fighting the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic. Three million surgical masks, seven lakh hazmat suits, five lakh pairs of gloves and bulk supplies of sanitizer and wipes were bought up in Australia and other countries where Greenland operates and whisked off.
The entire exercise occurred over January and February. The staff of the company was instructed to halt their regular work and stock essential medical supplies so that the could be shipped off to China. “Basically all employees, the majority of whom are Chinese, were asked to source whatever medical supplies they could,” one company insider was quoted as saying. The accounts department, contract managers, the human resources team and even receptionists were part of the daylight robbery. “There were numerous requests from the HR manager and even our direct reporting line [which] prioritised the assisting of the company in gathering these supplies over other work activities,” a source told the SMH.
A whistleblower from the company told SMH that it was a worldwide effort not limited to Australia alone. The supplies were sourced even from Canada, Turkey and other countries. Meanwhile, the Greenland Group confirmed the scoop in a statement to the newspaper. The company claimed that it “felt compelled … to assist in efforts to mitigate the spread of the virus, which had caused a shortage of crucial medical supplies in China.” Greenland Australia supported the initiative “by arranging for medical supplies to be dispatched to China, which at that time, was the epicentre of the outbreak,” the statement said.
Sherwood Luo, the managing director of Greenland Australia, even posted photographs of this occurring on social media. As per the newspaper, on February 13 he posted on WeChat “#CombatCoronavirus, Greenland Australia is Taking Action. The second batch of non-contact forehead thermometers will soon take off to China! Coronavirus situation is serious, Chinese people, local and overseas, are trying their best, fighting together to combat the virus.”
Meanwhile, China is supplying Wuhan Coronavirus test kits to countries that do not work. The 5.5 million rapid test kits that were bought by Spain recently have been found to be wanting. As per El Pais, the widely circulated Spanish daily, several microbiology laboratories of large hospitals in the country have confirmed that they do not work as they should. “They do not detect the positive cases as expected,” a source who participated in the tests said on the condition of anonymity. One of the microbiologists who has analyzed the Chinese test stated, “With that value, it does not make sense to use these tests.”
Similar results have emerged from Czech Republic. It was reported by Czech news site Expats.cz that as much as 80% of the much-touted traunch of Wuhan Covid-19 rapid test kits “donated” by China were faulty, forcing healthcare workers in the country to rely on conventional laboratory tests. While China tried to give the impression that it had ‘donated’ the test kits, in reality it was bought and paid for by the Czech government.
According to Pavla Svrcinova, hygienist for the Moravian-Silesian Region, the region will continue to rely on conventional laboratory testing. “We checked them at the University Hospital in Ostrava, but unfortunately the error rate was quite high. So now we are waiting for the results of further testing across the country, and we are considering using them only with people reach the end of their quarantine and have never tested positive, because it works with antibodies,” she said. “We tested those who searched for a sampling point. Fortunately, we were so farsighted that samples were immediately compared with traditional tests, and that just proved the error rate of the [Chinese rapid] tests,” she added.
Meanwhile, China has upped the ante with regards to its military movement. Times of India reported on the 24th of March that India is keeping a close watch on the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) amid reports that China has deployed underwater drones apart from hydrographic survey and oceanic research ships in the region. China also conducted an anti-submarine drill in the South China Sea this month, apparently in response to patrols by U.S. warships. “Training for war preparedness will not be stopped even in the middle of the COVID-19 epidemic,” Chinese state-controlled Global Times said on March 25 following an aircraft carrier-based exercise in the region. China has continued to assert its presence in the South China Sea in the wake of the Wuhan Coronavirus crisis by deploying maritime militia around disputed islands and reefs in the Spratly island chain, according to vessel tracking data and satellite imagery reviewed by Radio Free Asia.
While the Chinese government is engaging in dubious propaganda in an obvious attempt to shift blame for its disastrous handling of the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak, it has engaged in atrocious behaviour by seeking defective test kits to affected countries and draining others of necessary medical supplies. Simultaneously, China has also ramped up its military exercises in the disputed South China Sea region as the world grapples to combat a crisis of China’s making. Meanwhile, the Chinese regime is accusing everyone who called the virus ‘Wuhan Coronavirus’ or ‘Chinese Virus’ of being racist.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered a full lockdown of India in the wake of the deadly Wuhan Coronavirus spreading across the country. The Wuhan Coronavirus has claimed 13 lives in India with the positive cases going up to 649. While the Government is imposing stringent restrictions to ensure that the spread is contained, several people throughout the country were seen violating the lockdown. A video emerged where Karnataka police was seen thrashing people as they left the Mosque after Namaz, and were violating the lockdown.
In the video, a group of Muslim can be seen coming out of the Mosque after offering Namaz. At that point, the police took action against the congregation in the bid to disperse the crowd that was violating the lockdown. In the lockdown order, it was specifically mentioned that all religious institutions will also remain closed for the period of 21-days of the lockdown.
Earlier today, in yet another shocking act of deliberate violation of lockdown, a Muslim mob not only assembled at a local mosque in Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh but also attacked the policemen for asking to avoid mass prayers (namaz) in the view of nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Muslim had assembled at a local mosque in Bhogaon, Mainpuri on Wednesday to offer namaz at a time when Uttar Pradesh government has issued orders that no religious places will be kept open for prayers during the lockdown. The local administration had also appealed the Muslims to not assemble at the mosque.
However, the Muslims had defied the rules to assemble at the mosque. On receiving information that people had gathered at the mosque located in Mohalla Mohammad Saeed town of Bhogaon, Inspector Pahup Singh reached the mosque with fellow policemen. When asked to open the door of the mosque, the mob became angry and refused to open the doors of the mosque.
Despite all the efforts, the police could not convince the Muslim mob. They tried hard to open the doors but they were not allowed inside the mosque. Then, the Muslim mob unleashed themselves on the policemen as they attempted to disperse the mob. The police had to call for reinforcements to control the mob.
In a circular issued on the 19th of March 2020, the Government of India had imposed a restriction on International flights in and out of India, effective from 22nd March till the 31st of March. In a fresh circular, the Government of India has extended that restriction till the 14th of April in a bid to control the spread of the Wuhan Coronavirus that has till date, 649 positives in the country.
Order issued by the Government of India extending order to stop International flights to control Coronavirus spread
The circular says that in continuation of the previous circular issued on the 19th of March 2020, it has been decided that all scheduled international commercial passenger services shall remain closed till 6:30 PM GMT of April 14th 2020.
The order also says that this restriction will not apply to international all-cargo operations and flights specifically approved by the DGCA.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today held a press conference and announced a financial package which would take care of the welfare concerns of the poor and the suffering migrant workers after the 21-day lockdown has been announced to arrest the spread of Wuhan Coronavirus. The package was called ‘Prime Minister Gareeb Kalyan Yojana and totalled a whopping 1.70 lakh crores. The Finance Minister said that one side of the scheme would focus on cash transfers through DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) and the other would focus on food security as the government does not want anyone to remain hungry.
The Government of India had announced a full 21-day lockdown of India in a bid to arrest the spread of the deadly Wuhan Coronavirus also known as Covid-19. So far, there have been 649 positive cases in India including 13 deaths and 42 people who have recovered.
Despite the fact that the Novel Coronavirus, which has descended as a global catastrophe, originated from Wuhan in China, the Chinese media, international ‘liberals’ and many organisations across the world have been trying to peddle victimhood, claiming that calling the pandemic a Chinese disease and terms like Chinese virus and Wuhan virus is ‘racism’ and ‘bias’.
One such woke journalist, Niha Masih, working as the Indian correspondent for the international media outlet, The Washington Post, today took to Twitter to denounce India for tweeting on “#coronavirus as #ChineseVirus19”. Niha called it a nasty and racist attempt to defame China.
Screenshot of Niha Masih’s Tweet
The visibly irked journalist could not control her emotions and merely a couple of minutes after the first tweet she once tweeted that she is shocked to see even India Today using this racist hashtag.
Screenshot of Niha Masih’s second Tweet
Well, Twitter can be really harsh on people sometimes. An alert Twitter user Harsh Gupta was quick to call out the journalist for her double standards. Sharing a snapshot of The Washington Post’s report where it referred to the Coronavirus as ‘Chinese virus’, Gupta asked Niha Masih to “resign from WaPo”.
Screenshot of Harsh Gupta’s Tweet
The Washington Post, in one of its report dated January 27, 2020, titled: “Chinese coronavirus infections, death toll soar as fifth case is confirmed in U.S.”, had itself called the Novel Coronavirus a ‘Chinese Virus’. It’s funny how one of its own journalists had now taken to Twitter to virtue signal on racism and Chinese virus.
Screenshot of the article by The Washington Post dated January 27, 2020
Well, Niha Masih will be delighted to know that this is not the only instance the American daily newspaper, which she is associated with, has referred to the Novel Coronavirus as the ‘Chinese coronavirus’ or ‘China virus’, but they have used the term multiple times. In another article dated January 22, 2020, titled: “First U.S. case of potentially deadly Chinese coronavirus confirmed in Washington state.” While talking about the first case in the US to be tested positive of the coronavirus, The Washington Post called it the “potentially deadly Chinese coronavirus”.
In yet another article published on 29th January, Washington Post had used the headline “China coronavirus: Party scrambles to avert a Chernobyl moment”, but later they edited the headline and removed the term ‘China coronavirus’.
Screenshot of Google search result showing the original title of WaPo’s 29th January article
It is well known now that the coronavirus infection had started and spread from Wuhan in China as early as November 2019, till January 14. A tweet by WHO, that had gone viral on social media, also revealed how China has been misleading the world about the pandemic.
The negligence and cover-up of Chinese authorities have pushed the world to battle a pandemic that has claimed thousands of lives and impacted global economies heavily. But China is ‘offended’ at the disease being called ‘Chinese’. And now this seems to be rubbing off on many woke ‘liberals’ and organisations across the world. Moreover, several other diseases are already named after places, like Japanese Influenza, Spanish Flu, German Measles etc, but only when a virus is named after China or Wuhan, China feels offended.
