Former Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Akhtar, who has been lately making videos on Chinese coronavirus, has declared that the work of all the doctors who are fighting the Chinese pandemic is doing nothing short of ‘Jihad’.
Shoaib Akhtar took to his YouTube channel on Thursday to express his gratitude to the frontline health workers across the world who have risked their lives to limit the spread of the Chinese pandemic COVID-19. Akhtar also urged the people to express their gratitude by hosting a white flag on top of their houses on Friday.
“We should salute our sisters, nurses, paramedics and all the health workers for the service they have rendered. As today is the day of ‘Jummah’ (weekly Friday prayers), we shall hoist white flags on top of our houses to express our gratitude to these people,” said the former Pakistan fast bowler.
Akhtar also praised the health workers for risking their lives. “We stand in solidarity with you. You are not alone in this war. You have sacrificed yourself on the line of duty. I salute you,” he added.
However, Akhtar called the noble work of saving lives as ‘Jihad’, or Islamic religious war.
“What you are doing is nothing less than ‘Jihad’, you are fighting to save humanity. The doctors who are fighting to save people across the world are following the real principles of ‘Jihad’,” said Shoaib Akhtar as he indirectly referred doctors as ‘Mujahid’ – the Arabic word for Jihadists.
Just a week back, Shoaib Akhtar had shared another video slamming the Chinese. Akhtar had taken to his YouTube channel to question the Chinese for eating ‘non-halal’ animals like bats and then spreading the virus across the globe.
“When Allah has given so many halal animals, why eat bats and spread the virus?”, Shoaib Akhtar had questioned Chinese for their food behaviour which is largely being held responsible for the Chinese COVID-19 pandemic.
Shoaib Akhtar had also stoked a controversy after he had compared coronavirus related preventive lockdown to the curfew in Kashmir for internal security reasons.
The number of coronavirus patients in Pakistan has reached to 1,179, according to the latest official data. It is reported that at least 8 people have died due to Chinese Coronavirus in Pakistan.
A man in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon was arrested by the police for defying curfew orders. He was reportedly shooting a video of himself riding a bike during the lockdown.
Maharashtra: A man was taken into custody by Police yesterday in Jalgaon's Azad Nagar, after he shot a video of himself riding a motorcycle during the curfew imposed in the state in the wake of #CoronavirusLockdownpic.twitter.com/8681kz9gSr
The man’s video had gone viral on social media where he was seen riding a bike without a helmet, shooting the video with one hand while a child, the man’s son as per the video, was seen riding pillion, holding a bunch of bananas.
In a video uploaded by popular Twitter handle ‘Political Kida’, the man is seen saying, “See the whole world is under lockdown but father and son are roaming free, without any worries. We are out to buy bananas and we are roaming around the town. We have nothing to be afraid of. We are fearless because my name is Kala Dada”
Later, in another video, the man is seen inside a police station, holding his ears while police personnel are present around him. The man is saying, “I committed a big mistake. I should not have done it. I realised my mistake now. I will never do such a thing again. I am thankful to the police personnel, who are on duty 24 hours.”
Pictures and videos of people wilfully defying lockdown orders issued in the wake of coronavirus and in several cases, abusing, attacking police personnel when stopped, are doing rounds in social media. Recently, a Kolkata girl was seen abusing, and spitting on a policeman when her car was stopped. On Wednesday, two miscreants in Sanjay Nagar, Bangalore, were arrested for assaulting police personnel and hurling stones at them when their bike was stopped.
It is notable here that Maharashtra tops the list of states in India with the over 130 confirmed cases and 4 deaths.
The very first case of the Wuhan Coronavirus that originated in China, according to reports, was detected on the 17th of November. While China hid the outbreak for weeks and the WHO along with China downplayed the severity of the virus, soon, the entire world was reeling under the Coronavirus pandemic. In India, the outbreak reached later than several other countries. The first case in India was reported on the 30th of January. The first case came from Kerala of a student who was studying at the Wuhan University. Since then, the pandemic has grown manyfold. As of today, in India, there have been 724 positive cases of the Wuhan Coronavirus, including 66 cured and 17 dead.
Now, the data has revealed that out of the several cases in India, 300+ cases are of those who had a travel history abroad and out of those 300 cases, 142 positive cases in India were of those who had returned from the Middle East. Dr Anupam Singh analysed raw data from a voluntary effort called Covid19IndiaOrg that was collecting data in an attempt to build a verified tracker of the Wuhan Coronavirus cases in India.
Delhi based Dr Anupam Singh, who is a doctor of internal medicine and dabbles in public health data science, after analysing the raw data that has been made public by Covid19IndiaOrg analysed that so far, there have been 300 such cases where the patients had a direct travel history to another affected country and they were tested positive once they returned to India.
Where have these guys travelled from? almost 100+ patient from dubai. we should have qurantined more aggressively in early march pic.twitter.com/R3cM5ioP23
The data that was analysed by Dr Anupam Singh provides a unique window in the spread of the Wuhan Coronavirus in India. Interestingly, out of the 300 patients that had a travel history, almost 50%, 142 cases, had travel history to the Middle East.
The countries that they had travelled from where Dubai, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Mecca and Iran.
Out of the countries in the Middle East, people who returned from Dubai topped the chart in testing positive in India. 105 patients out of the 300 patients who had a travel history had travelled back to India from Dubai.
There were many who suggested that the number of positive cases who had a travel history to Dubai may be higher because Dubai acts as a transit point for several people travelling back to India from other countries. However, that does not seem to be the case. Generally, a transit airport is entered in travel history as ‘transit airport’ and it seems unlikely that a transit airport would have been erroneously entered as the airport of origin.
The analysis done by Dr Singh shows that the mortality rate in India is about 2% with senior citizens at higher risk. This finding is in tune with what global experts have found.
Fatality rate in India by age (source: Dr Anupam Sigh)
In the known patients and whose gender details are available, Dr Singh also found the the ratio of positive patients in India is 60:40, Male to female.
What is male/female distribution of cases? According to literature Male:Female ratio is 60:40. In known patients (with gender details) Males higher in India as well around 65* pic.twitter.com/emKAv52TgF
Dr Singh also found some super-spreaders some of whom travelled back to India and spread the virus to 16 people.
List of super-spreaders (source: Dr Anupam Singh)
The raw data that Dr Singh used to analyse and reach these conclusions had been made freely available by Covid19IndiaOrg, the voluntary organisation that is trying to build a database tracking Coronavirus cases in India. The full raw data based on which Dr Singh conducted his analyses can be accessed here.
From the findings of Dr Anupam Singh, there are certain facts that become acutely clear. Firstly, the fact that the lockdown that India has announced is extremely essential to arrest the spread of the virus even in the face of hardships. One can see from Dr Singh’s research how in India, one person who does local transmission ends up spreading the infection to anywhere between 2 to 2.7 people on average.
What is also apparent is that the decision of the government of India to stop all International passenger flights in and out of India till the 14th of April seems essential given the number of patients in India who had a travel history especially to the Middle East.
As the coronavirus pandemic ravages through the world, nations worldwide are taking steps to battle the spread of the viral infection. The anti-malaria drug Hydroxychloroquine has reportedly shown promising results in the treatment of the COVID-19.
The ICMR had recently prescribed the use of Hydroxychloroquine as a preventive measure in high-risk cases, like healthcare workers who are exposed to confirmed COVID-19 patients. Thereafter the government had also banned the export of the drug and its formulations.
Now, the central government’s ministry of health and family welfare has ordered that the retail sale of the anti-malaria drug in any preparation containing it has to strictly be in accordance to the Schedule H1 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945.
The Central govt hereby directs that sale by retail of any preparation containing the drug Hydroxychloroquine shall be in accordance with the conditions for sale of drugs specified in Schedule H1 to the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare pic.twitter.com/1YWElo7T4d
The notification dated 26 March 2020 reads “Whereas the central government is satisfied that the drug Hydroxychloroquine is essential to meet the requirement of emergency arising due to pandemic COVID-19, and in the public interest, it is necessary and expedient to regulate and restrict the sale and distribution of the drug Hydroxychloroquine and preparation based thereon for preventing their misuse.
Now, therefore, in the exercise of the powers conferred by the Section 26B of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 the central government hereby directs that the sale by retail of any preparation containing the drug Hydroxychloroquine shall be in accordance with the conditions for the sale of drugs under the Schedule H1 to the Drugs and Cosmetics rule 1945.”
The Schedule H1 of the Drugs and Cosmetics rule 1945 was added in 2013 and contained certain 3rd and 4th generation antibiotics, anti-TB drugs, and certain habit-forming drugs. These drugs are required to be sold under the following conditions:
The supply of a drug specified in Schedule H1 shall be recorded in a separate register at the time of the supply giving the name and address of the prescriber, the name of the patient, the name of the drug and the quantity supplied and such records shall be maintained for three years and be open for inspection.
2. The drug specified in Schedule H1 shall be labelled with the symbol Rx which shall be in red and conspicuously displayed on the left top corner of the label, and shall also be labelled with the following words in a box with a red border:
“Schedule H1 Drug-Warning: -It is dangerous to take this preparation except in accordance with the medical advice. -Not to be sold by retail without the prescription of a Registered Medical Practitioner.”
The ministry’s order is to prevent self-medication, panic buying and OTC selling of the drug
A case has been lodged against Kollam Sub Collector Anupam Mishra for jumping home quarantine and leaving for Uttar Pradesh during the nation-wide lockdown. According to the reports, IAS officer Anupam Mishra had come back from Singapore last week and was asked to self-quarantine due to the global spread of Wuhan Coronavirus. However, the young officer left for his hometown Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
Mishra is believed to have returned to Kanpur on March 21, a few days before a three-week countrywide lockdown began to check the spread of Wuhan Coronavirus. The officer was under home quarantine since March 18 after returning from abroad. District Collector B Abdul Nazer had directed the sub-collector to remain under observation at his official residence.
Describing the officer’s behaviour as “a serious lapse on part of an IAS officer” the spokesperson said that the Kerala government is in touch with the UP government.
The Kollam administration has put Mishra’s driver, personal security guard and secretary in isolation after his disappearance came to light.
Kerala is one of the worst-affected states due to the Chinese COVID-19 outbreak in the country. The state was already in a lockdown state when on Tuesday evening, the central government announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown beginning midnight.
More than 78,560 persons are under surveillance in the state in the view of suspected exposure to novel Coronavirus. Nineteen more persons in Kerala were tested COVID-19 positive in Kerala on Thursday alone taking the total number of Chinese virus active patients now to 126 in the state. Among the total of 137 infected persons in the state so far, 11 have been found negative.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked his ministers to come forward and take charge of their states and play a vital role in defeating the Wuhan Coronavirus epidemic.
As per reports, a letter from the PMO has been sent to all the ministers telling them to play an effective role in stemming the growing disease. The Ministers have been asked to maintain a constant touch with the local administration and keep themselves updated on the status of COVID-19 in their respective constituencies as well.
As per reports, the letter of PM says, “Be in contact with local district administration, make sure all those who have returned from abroad follow quarantine rules and maintain a data of coronavirus positive people and those who have died due to the disease.”
A minister informed, “The elected representatives have been asked to ensure that poor and underprivileged get food, that the PDS shops in their area do not run out of ration, essential commodities are available in local markets and people are not overcharged for the same.”
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has been given charge of Jharkhand, Nitin Gadkari and Prakash Javedekar will look after Maharashtra. Uttar Pradesh will be taken into cognizance by Rajnath Singh, Mahendra Nath Pandey, Sanjeev Balyan and Krishna Pal Gujjar.
The responsibility of Bihar has been given to Ravi Shankar Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan. Rajasthan and Punjab will be looked after by Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.
The senior leadership of the political parties is also taken into confidence. The Prime Minister wants to ensure that there is no community outbreak of the disease.
The country is in a 21-day lockdown to break the chain of COVID-19 and stop the expansion of the deadly contagion by maintaining social distancing.
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.
