Pakistan begins Cambridge exams despite COVID-19 spike

Islamabad: Pakistan on Monday commenced physical examinations for Cambridge O and A Levels despite the surge of coronavirus infections and ignoring protests from students over health concerns.

Pakistani officials assured students that “strict implementation” of health protocols would be followed during the exams. “These are tough times, and difficult decisions have been made keeping the students’ best interest in view,” Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood said.

“British Council is committed to strict implementation of SOPs [standard operating procedures] and we will monitor them closely,” he added, wishing all the students taking exams his very best.

Decision criticized

The decision by the Pakistan government to hold the exams during the deadly third wave of the coronavirus outbreak in the country faced severe criticism from students and parents who demanded to postpone or cancel the tests due to the health emergency.

Students voiced concerns that the presence of a large number of people inside one hall could expose them to the virus, making them carriers who could infect their family back home. “I am more worried about my family. What if I become a virus carrier and put their lives in danger? It is a dangerous precedent that the government won’t cancel exams in the midst of a global pandemic” said a worried student Aleena Qamar. Some students have also complained about the disruption caused by the pandemic affecting the learning process as students constantly switched to online and offline classes.

The students of O and A levels also requested Prime Minister Imran Khan to cancel the Cambridge Assessment International Education examination after four high courts across the country turned down their petitions to cancel physical examinations.

Amid safety concerns, the education minister explained that the students and parents who are still not comfortable can defer and switch to October and November exams without any extra charge. In an April 25 statement, Cambridge International said that it is holding exams in countries where the government allowed and has offered various support options for schools and students through the pandemic.

Third wave

Pakistan government refused to delay exams despite the closure of schools in all regions where the virus positivity rate is beyond 5 per cent. The decision to hold exams astonishingly comes at a time when the country is averaging 5000 cases per day for the last two weeks.

Pakistani health officials have also warned of nationwide lockdown if the COVID-19 situation does not improve this week. Pakistan on Monday reported 70 deaths from the virus and 4,825 new cases in the past 24 hours.

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Hate crime charges filed in Ahmaud Arbery killing in US

Washington: Three Georgia men were indicted on federal hate crime charges in connection with the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was shot to death while jogging through a south Georgia neighborhood last year, the Justice Department announced on Wednesday.

The deadly encounter helped fuel nationwide racial justice demonstrations last year, and the charges are the most significant hate crimes prosecution so far by the Biden administration, which has made civil rights protections a major priority.

The suspects - Travis McMichael, 35; his father, Gregory McMichael, 65; and William Bryan, 51, all of whom are white - were each charged with one count of interference with Arbery’s right to use a public street because of his race. They were also charged with one count of attempted kidnapping.

Travis and Gregory McMichael were also charged with one count each of using, carrying and brandishing a firearm. Travis McMichael is accused of shooting Arbery.

The men intimidated Arbery “because of Arbery’s race and colour,” the eight-page indictment said.

“As Arbery was running on a public street in the Satilla Shores neighbourhood of Brunswick, Georgia, Travis McMichael and Gregory McMichael armed themselves with firearms, got into a truck and chased Arbery through the public streets of the neighbourhood while yelling at Arbery, using their truck to cut off his route and threatening him with firearms,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

Bryan, known as Roddie, joined the chase and used his truck to cut off Arbery, the department said. The three men were accused of chasing after Arbery in their trucks in an attempt to detain him against his will.

Police abuse

The federal indictment in the Arbery case marks the third time in a week that the Justice Department has taken a significant step to address allegations of policing abuses around the country. The department also announced broad investigations into the Minneapolis and the Louisville, Kentucky, police departments, which both fired officers last year who had been involved in two of the highest-profile deaths of Black people that spurred widespread protests.

Those investigations were revealed shortly after a former Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, was convicted of murdering George Floyd, a Black man who died last May. A state investigation in Kentucky into the death of a Black medical worker named Breonna Taylor, who was shot by Louisville police during a botched raid of her home, ended in no charges in her death, only an indictment on a lesser count against one officer.

Taken together, the Justice Department actions indicate that Attorney General Merrick Garland is carrying out his vows to aggressively pursue civil rights matters.

In a meeting this month with civil rights leaders, Garland quoted Martin Luther King Jr. and pledged that the Justice Department would “once again deploy all of its considerable resources to ensure, in the words of King, ‘justice for all people.’”

New video

Months after the shooting, video surfaced that seemed to undercut the idea that McMichael acted in self-defense. The video showed Arbery jogging, then coming upon a man standing beside a truck and another man in the pickup bed. After Arbery runs around the truck, shouting is heard and then he reappears, tussling with the man outside the truck. Three shotgun blasts are then fired.

George Barnhill, the district attorney for Georgia’s Waycross Judicial Circuit, later recused himself from the case, and the state took over the investigation.

Jason Sheffield, a lawyer representing Travis McMichael, said the federal indictment “ignored the totality of the evidence” that his team has presented in defense of his client.

“We all want restorative justice in this country, especially in cases like this that highlight the space in between tragedies and laws, and practices that are problematic,” Sheffield said. “Forcing a case into a narrative that simplifies the problem and creates only two choices is fundamentally unfair and wrong.”

Garland made clear in a March 30 memo to all employees that prosecuting hate crimes was among the Justice Department’s top priorities, as law enforcement data showed a rise in such episodes.

“We will persist in our efforts to investigate and appropriately prosecute those who attack members of our communities, set fire to places of worship or use the internet to threaten bodily injury to other persons because of their real or perceived protected characteristics,” Garland wrote.

He called for more community outreach and data collection so the department could better understand the nature and extent of hate-based crimes, and he said the department had begun a 30-day review to determine how it could best use its tools to more forcefully combat hate crimes.

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Quiet, calm - and going big: Biden's first 100 days

Washington: The daily (hourly) White House melodrama of the Trump era is history, but there has been nothing quiet about Joe Biden's 100 days rush to transform the country he inherited.

Biden will deliver a primetime address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday - the eve of his first 100 days mark - with ambitions to be one of the most consequential presidents since Franklin Roosevelt and the Great Depression.

At 78, he was the oldest man ever to take the job.

And facing the deadliest reported COVID-19 outbreak in the world, a badly shaken economy, and toxic divisions in the wake of four years of Donald Trump, the incoming Democrat had a mountain to climb.

But three months on, he has surprised many with his discipline, his hard negotiating edge, and above all hunger, as he puts it, to "go big".

It's a performance that according to the latest Pew poll wins Biden a 59 pe rcent approval rating - well above anything Trump ever scored.

Going big, going now

Biden vowed to "heal" America and with a Covid vaccine program that last week recorded its 200th million shot, he's fulfilling the promise literally.

The $1.9 trillion stimulus American Rescue Plan that Biden's party rammed through Congress in March likewise injected money into every corner of the Covid-battered economy. A post-pandemic boom is widely expected.

Now Biden's pitching another splurge, a $2 trillion-plus American Jobs Plan which would revamp US infrastructure in almost every way, from traditional roads and bridges to broadband internet and electric car development.

Next? That would be the American Families Plan, costing at least another $1 trillion, to fund child care and education.

Republican politicians complain that Biden has unleashed an avalanche of socialism. However, polls show their voters are far more supportive of Biden, allowing him to claim he's making good on promises to rule in a bipartisan fashion.

Global reach

Given a chance, Biden would like to change the rest of the planet's fate too.

Entering the White House, Biden brought the United States back into the Paris climate accords, which Trump had ditched, and last week he went further, convening a 40-nation summit where he announced a doubling of US targets for greenhouse gas reductions.

Everywhere else on foreign policy, he's moving quickly.

Allies are being reassured that "America is back." Adversaries are being reassessed, with China and Russia classified as frenemies who must be vigorously opposed - except on strategic issues where cooperation is just as important.

Proving he can take decisive and perhaps risky action, Biden reportedly overruled top generals to set a firm date of September 11 for the final, complete withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.

And on Saturday he broke decades of US equivocation by openly recognizing the mass killing of Armenians a century ago as genocide - a categorisation that infuriates Turkey.

Back to normal? 

Perhaps more than anything, Biden was hired by exhausted voters to make America normal again. Or even boring.

And on that, he has delivered.

Gone is rule-by-tweet. Gone is the swearing during presidential speeches. Gone is the daily insulting of the media or belittling of critics. Gone are the cult-of-personality style rallies.

Still, a glimpse at Washington's Capitol when Biden gives his primetime address Wednesday will be enough to remind that the country is still far from really normal.

Lingering nervousness in the aftermath of the unprecedented January 6 riot by Trump supporters means the temple of US democracy remains under a severe lockdown.

And continued threat from the coronavirus means Biden will only be addressing a thinned out crowd, far from the high-energy gathering that usually greets presidents on the big occasion.

"It will not look like or feel like, in many ways, what past joint addresses have," Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.

Political minefields

For the first time in history the two people sitting behind the presidential lectern during the speech will be women - Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, a key Democratic ally of Biden.

But many less friendly faces will also be looking on.

Republicans have been unanimous so far in opposing Biden's big ideas. That leaves him relying on a wafer-thin majority, which midterm congressional elections next year could easily erase.

And that titanic push for vaccinations and passing the American Rescue Plan were arguably the easy part, compared to what's coming.

The political minefields start with the out-of-control situation on the Mexican border, where Biden's rhetoric about bringing humanity to the immigration process is colliding with chaotic reality.

Republicans are piling in on what they see as a sure vote-winning issue at the midterms. And Biden's leftwing base is grumbling over what it considers his flip-flopping on a campaign promise to allow more refugees.

Police brutality, gun control, government health care - the issues that Biden says he wants to tackle, but which have bedeviled his predecessors for years and risk bedeviling him too, are piling up.

And abroad, challenges from the likes of China, Iran, North Korea and Russia are only just beginning.

Biden did bring some calm to the United States in his first 100 days.

He'll just be hoping it isn't the calm before the storm.

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India scrambles to supply oxygen as COVID-19 patients gasp for breath

New Delhi: Indian hospitals and government leaders scrambled for supplies of oxygen and other emergency aid Friday, as the country reported another record number of new coronavirus infections and a rising death toll that has strained the country’s resources.

India recorded more than 330,000 new cases in 24 hours, the health ministry said Friday, the second consecutive day that the country has set a global record for daily infections. The reported death toll Friday was more than 2,200, also a new high for the country.

About half of the cases in Delhi, the capital city of more than 20 million people, are testing positive for a more contagious variant of the virus, first detected last year in India, that is afflicting younger people, said a health ministry official, Sujeet Singh.

It is unclear to what extent the variant is driving the surge in cases around the country, with large gatherings of unmasked people and widespread neglect of preventive measures also suspected.

As India’s catastrophic second wave of the coronavirus deepened Friday, Canada joined Britain, Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand in barring travellers from the country. The US State Department advised people against going to India after the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention raised the country’s risk level to its highest measure.

“Demand for hospital beds and medical supplies have taxed the health care system to capacity in many cities, and critical care bed space is severely limited,” the travel advisory said.

With the mutant strain of the virus racing through Delhi, the capital territory’s government has imposed a weeklong lockdown. That has stranded thousands of people who rely on daily wages, leaving many to camp on the banks of the Yamuna River, where they survive on a Sikh temple’s twice-daily food deliveries.

In Maharashtra, which includes Mumbai and is one of India’s worst-hit states, a hospital fire attributed to a faulty air-conditioning unit killed at least 13 COVID-19 patients Friday. Two days before, at least 22 patients were killed in a hospital in the city of Nashik, also in Maharashtra, after a leak cut off their oxygen supplies.

It is unclear to what extent the variant is driving the surge in cases around the country, with large gatherings of unmasked people and widespread neglect of preventive measures also suspected. Image Credit: Reuters

Facing a barrage of criticism for his government’s handling of the second wave, Prime Minister Narendra Modi cancelled plans to travel to West Bengal for a campaign rally ahead of an election in that state.

Even as cases have climbed, Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party and other parties have continued to hold mass rallies with thousands of people unmasked. The government has also allowed an enormous Hindu festival to draw millions of pilgrims despite signs that it has accelerated the spread of the virus.

“Leadership really matters. We saw the early loosening of appropriate measures. Election rallies continued, and religious festivals turned into superspreader events,” said Krishna Udayakumar, an associate professor of global health and director of the Duke Global Health Innovation Centre.

“There was perhaps a lost opportunity to learn from the first wave,” Udayakumar said.

That initial wave peaked in August and September, months after India abandoned a nationwide lockdown that crippled the economy.

The disaster now consuming India is playing out vividly on social media, with Twitter feeds and WhatsApp groups broadcasting hospitals’ pleas for oxygen and medicines, and families’ desperate searches for beds in overwhelmed COVID-19 wards. With many hospitals short of ventilators, television news reports have shown patients lying inside ambulances parked outside emergency rooms, struggling to breathe.

Swati Maliwal, an activist and politician in Delhi, tweeted that her grandmother had died while waiting outside a hospital in Greater Noida, near New Delhi.

“I kept standing there for half hour and pleading for admission and nothing happened,” she wrote. “Shame! Pathetic!”

55,000 tons in reserve

On April 15, the health ministry said in a statement that India had a daily production capacity of about 7,700 tons of oxygen, with 55,000 tons in reserve. Not all of it goes to medical use - some is used for industrial purposes, including India’s enormous steel-making industry.

On April 21, a government official told the Delhi High Court that medical demand had reached 8,800 tons per day, beyond the daily production capacity.

Modi’s government is in charge of allocating the national oxygen supplies, and Thursday, India’s Supreme Court gave the government a week to come up with a “national plan” for distribution. The health ministry was told to issue a purchase order to import 55,000 additional tons of oxygen.

Oxygen is difficult to store and transport, and it isn’t generally manufactured near India’s biggest cities, which are now reeling from the sudden spikes in cases.

States have accused each other of hoarding oxygen and blocking tankers at border crossings. Looters stole several cylinders of oxygen from a tanker making a delivery to a hospital in the state of Madhya Pradesh.

At least three states, including Madhya Pradesh, have asked Modi’s government to send so-called Oxygen Express trains with large oxygen tanks for hospitals.

On Thursday, Fortis Healthcare, one of India’s top hospital chains, tweeted an SOS message to Modi and his chief deputy, Amit Shah, the minister for home affairs, appealing for more oxygen at a hospital in Haryana state, on the Delhi border.

“Fortis Hospital in #Haryana has only 45 minutes of oxygen left,” the company wrote, asking government officials “to act immediately and help us save patients’ lives.”

Four hours later, the hospital received a tanker, the company tweeted.

It wasn’t clear whether every hospital with a critical need for oxygen was getting it in time.

Arvind Kejriwal, the top elected official in Delhi, said that the city needed a daily supply of 770 tons of oxygen. Modi’s government has allocated 530 tons.

At AIIMS Hospital in Delhi, India’s premier research hospital, contact tracing among health care workers was suspended because there weren’t enough personnel to spare for the exercise, according to Srinivas Rajkumar, a representative for the resident doctors’ association.

Beginning Saturday, all residents of India age 18 or older can register for a COVID-19 vaccine, but demand is expected to far outstrip supply. So far, more than 135 million people have received at least one dose, about a tenth of India’s population of nearly 1.4 billion. Two vaccines have received emergency use authorisation, with at least five others in the pipeline.

A makeshift COVID-19 hospital in Mumbai’s Bandra neighbourhood was well supplied with oxygen, but the nearby vaccination centre halted operations after running out of vaccine.

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US Navy ship fires warning shots after close encounter with Iran boats

Washington: A US military ship fired warning shots after three vessels from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) came close to it and another American patrol boat in the Gulf, the United States military said on Tuesday.

Such incidents have occurred occasionally over the past five years, though there has been a relative lull over the past year.

“The US crews issued multiple warnings via bridge-to-bridge radio and loud-hailer devices, but the IRGCN vessels continued their close range maneuvers,” the military statement said.

“The crew of Firebolt then fired warning shots, and the IRGCN vessels moved away to a safe distance from the US vessels,” the statement added, using the name for the US Navy patrol ship.

The closest the Iranian fast inshore attack craft came to the American ships was 62 metres during the incident, which took place on Monday in international water in the northern Gulf.

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COVID-19: Telangana urged to extend crematorium timings as death toll rises

Hyderabad: With more and more people falling victim to COVID-19 and relatives of the deceased not finding a place to keep the dead bodies over night, Hyderabad Member of Parliament Asaduddin Owaisi has urged the Telangana government to extend the timings of crematoriums.

Presently, they work from 7am to 6pm and some till 7pm. In a SOS to the senior minister K Taraka Rama Rao, Owaisi said that in view of larger number of bodies the timings of crematoriums should be extended beyond 7pm throughout the state.

Social activists say that not only the death toll was very high but the kith and kin of the deceased were also not coming forward to perform the last rites due to the fear of infection and leaving it to the NGOs.

Confusion over figures

According to an official press release 29 people died due to COVID-19 in the state during the last 24 hours ending Friday evening. But calculations by the local media show that in two biggest hospitals of the state capital Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences and Gandhi Hospital alone 80 to 100 people died on a single day on Friday.

Clarifying the confusion over the figures, a senior doctor at the Gandhi Hospital said that not all deaths are attributed to COVID-19 because many are caused by comorbidities.

Whatever the official cause of death, the number of dead bodies coming to cremation grounds and the grave yards were unusually high and the families were founding it a big challenge to perform the last rites.

Even members of Muslim community were forced to run from one corner to the other as grave yard caretakers say there was no open space for any more burials.

With the authorities at the crematoriums refusing to accept the bodies after 6 or 7pm, and hospitals pressurizing the families to take the bodies away immediately, the grieving families were caught in the middle. It has become a heart breaking challenge as the families were not in a position to take the bodies home because of resistance from the neighborhood and in some cases family members themselves were afraid of infection.

While private hospitals were unwilling to keep the bodies because of the space constraint, even a hospital like Gandhi was also expressing its inability to preserve the bodies due to lack of space. “This is an unprecedented situation”, said K Sai Teja, of an NGO Feed the Needy.

In many cases where the near and dear ones of the deceased were abroad, NGOs were receiving requests to perform the last rites.

Costly affair

Preserving the bodies over night was also proving a costly affair. “In one case we had to hire an ambulance and preserve body of COVID-19 victim over night. It cost us Rs 32,000”, Sai Teja said.

In some heart rending cases social activists had to step in to perform the last rites as family members refused to touch the body due to stigma. The problems were more complicated in districts and rural areas.

In Jagatiya district Sarpanch of Madhapur village sought help of a Muslim NGO Immadutal Muslim Youth Association for the last rites of a Hindu woman as there was nobody to ready to do it. “We performed the rites as per Hindu religion as the victim was from the community”, said Association President Wajid Khan.

During last 15 days the Association performed 45 such funerals in different villages of the district. In Tandur near Hyderabad local youth performed two funerals in the same manner.

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Kremlin critic Navalny looks thin and drained after hunger strike

Moscow: Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, looking gaunt and drained after a hunger strike, denounced Russia’s justice system on Thursday as his team said he faced new criminal charges and that it was disbanding a network of regional campaign offices.

In his first appearance since declaring an end to the three-week hunger strike last week, Navalny, his head shaven, remained defiant, though a blurry video link from jail during a legal hearing in a separate case showed he had lost weight.

Rejecting accusations in the separate case of defaming a World War Two veteran, Navalny said: “I demand that people who signed signatures (against him), (and) the prosecutors be brought to criminal justice.” But after weeks of mounting pressure, his allies announced they were disbanding his network of campaign offices across Russia as a court considers whether to declare them and his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) “extremist”.

If the network is declared extremist, authorities will gain the legal power to hand down jail terms to activists and freeze bank accounts. The court said on Thursday it would hold its next hearing in the case on May 17.

“Maintaining the work of Navalny’s network of headquarters in its current form is impossible: it would immediately ... lead to criminal sentences for those who work in the headquarters, who collaborate with them and for those who help them,” Leonid Volkov, one of Navalny’s close allies, said in a YouTube video.

He said many of the offices would try to function as entirely independent regional structures led by their own leaders.

The FBK has already been partially barred from accessing its bank accounts and from organising protests and publishing media articles.

Navalny’s allies also said a new criminal case had been opened against him for allegedly setting up a non-profit organisation that infringed on the rights of citizens.

Nerve agent attack

Navalny, 44, is serving a 2-1/2 year jail sentence for parole violations on an earlier conviction that he says was politically motivated.

He declared his hunger strike in prison on March 31 to demand proper medical care for leg and back pain, but said on April 23 that he would start gradually ending it after getting medical care.

Pressure has been mounting on him and his campaigning against political and business corruption for months.

Last year, Navalny accused President Vladimir Putin of being behind an attack on him with a nerve agent that he survived.

Russian authorities denied any involvement and questioned whether he was even poisoned but Western countries have imposed sanctions on Moscow over its treatment of Navalny.

Navalny recovered in Germany from the nerve agent attack, but was arrested on his return to Russia in January and sentenced the following month.

He has also been convicted of defamation in the separate case against him, which he denies.

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COVID-19: US to export 60m AstraZeneca vaccine doses

Washington: The United States will send up to 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine abroad, officials announced Monday, as President Joe Biden pledged to “be there” for India in its hour of need.

Critics have accused Washington of “hoarding” the British-developed vaccine, which is not authorized in the country and will likely not be required to vaccinate Americans.

The issue has risen to the fore in recent days as India faces a catastrophic new surge that has overwhelmed its health care system and driven crematoriums to full capacity.

“US to release 60 million Astra Zeneca doses to other countries as they become available,” tweeted Andy Slavitt, senior advisor to the White House on Covid response.

An administration official told reporters the first 10 million doses could be available “in the coming weeks” after they pass a quality inspection by the Food and Drug Administration.

“Further, there’s an estimated additional 50 million doses that are in various stages of production, and these could be completed in stages across May and June,” she added.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said at a briefing that the recipient countries have not yet been decided and that the administration was still formulating its distribution plan.

But India appears to be a leading contender after Biden held a telephone call with his counterpart Prime Minister Narendra Modi, pledging US support to fight the Covid surge.

“Today, I spoke with Prime Minister @narendramodi and pledged America’s full support to provide emergency assistance and resources in the fight against COVID-19. India was there for us, and we will be there for them,” Biden tweeted.

Administration officials added Washington was looking at options to supply oxygen — from direct shipments to generation systems — as well as the antiviral drug remdesivir, personal protective equipment, tests, and teams of experts.

Covid cases declining

The vaccine announcement greatly expands a US action from last month to loan four million AstraZeneca doses to Mexico and Canada.

It also comes as US domestic supply appears increasingly assured, making it unlikely AstraZeneca will be required.

Pfizer and Moderna say they are on track to deliver 600 million doses between them by the end of July. Both are two-dose regimens.

The country has also resumed vaccinations with the Johnson & Johnson single shot, the third authorized injection, after a brief pause over suspected links to a rare form of clotting.

More than 53 percent of adults in the United States have so far received at least one dose of vaccine, according to official data, and domestic demand has begun to taper off as many people who wished to get vaccinated have already done so.

The rate of new daily Covid cases in the United States is also in decline, dipping below a seven-day average of 60,000 for the first time in a month.

Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, said one of the main hurdles to sending AstraZeneca doses abroad had been the issue of legal liability, since the original contract was formulated between the company and the United States.

“There may be some adverse events and there may even be events that are not related to the vaccine,” Jha said during a webinar, adding the maker was worried about being sued without the indemnity it enjoyed in the United States.

“These are solvable in my mind by India, offering indemnity and protection to AstraZeneca,” he added.

But he predicted the issue might be politically sensitive in India if the AstraZeneca vaccine comes to be viewed as a second-tier or “discarded” shot.

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Costa Rica hits new daily record of COVID-19 infections

San Jose: Costa Rica registered 1,830 new COVID-19 infections, its highest daily increase since the start of the pandemic, with space for the most critical patients at public hospitals nearly full, health authorities said.

There have been 238,760 cases and 3,143 deaths from COVID-19 in the Central American country of 5 million people, whose tourism-driven economy has been hit by the pandemic’s toll on global travel.

“We are living through the darkest health moment of Costa Rica in modern times,” Health Minister Daniel Salas said in a televised address to the nation.

Severe cases

He added that the 125 beds in intensive care units allocated for severe COVID-19 cases are 94% full, and said the remaining space could be filled in the coming days.

Salas said cars could no longer be on the road from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. as a measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, but authorities would not impose a stricter lockdown to avoid hurting the economy.

“We have to take into account that people need to work,” Salas said, noting that government resources to disburse financial aid were depleted last year.

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India COVID-19 update: Coronavirus infections cross 18 million

India is fighting a devastating surge in COVID-19 infections that has torn through both cities and rural areas alike. Read on for the latest updates on COVID-19 in India.

Fresh spike in coronavirus cases and deaths

India reported on Thursday a record rise in coronavirus cases and deaths over the last 24 hours, with its overall caseload rising above 18 million.

With 379,257 new cases and 3,645 new deaths, India's total number of cases and deaths are now at 18.38 million and 204,832, respectively, according to health ministry data.

Updates from April 28

3,000 COVID-19 patients in Bengaluru 'missing'

Grappling with an unprecedented spike in COVID-19 cases, Karnataka is facing another challenge - of tracking and tracing between 2,000 to 3,000 COVID-19 positive patients who have “gone missing”, state Revenue Minister, R. Ashoka revealed on Wednesday.

After his meeting with various department heads here, Ashoka, who is also Vice-Chairman of the Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority, told reporters that he has already directed the state police to track and trace these missing patients.

“At least 2,000 to 3,000 people in Bengaluru have gone off our radar by switching off their phones and left their houses. We don’t know where they have gone,” he admitted. Read more

Russia to deliver emergency aid

Russia will deliver emergency aid to India, President Vladimir Putin told Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a phone call Wednesday, the Kremlin said.

"Vladimir Putin expressed words of support to Narendra Modi in this difficult period in the fight against the spread of the coronavirus infection and informed him about the decision to provide India with emergency humanitarian aid," the Kremlin said in a statement.

It added that the Russian deliveries will include "20 units of equipment for the production of oxygen, 75 artificial lung ventilation devices, 150 medical monitors and 200,000 packages of medicines". The medicine packages would be favipiravir, an antiviral medication.

Biden: US rushing assistance to India

The US is rushing a whole series of help, including life-saving drugs and machinery, that India needs to combat the massive surge in Covid-19 cases, President Joe Biden has said, as he again recalled New Delhi’s assistance to America when it was in a “bind” due to the pandemic.

“We are sending immediately a whole series of help that he needs, including providing for those Remdesivir and other drugs that are able to deal with this,” Biden told reporters at a White House news conference on Tuesday. “We are sending the actual mechanical parts that are needed for the machinery they have to build a vaccine, and that is being done as well,” he said.

Trudeau: Canada to provide $10 million

Canada will provide $10 million to India to support the country in its fight against pandemic, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced. Addressing a press conference, Trudeau said that Minister of Foreign Affairs Marc Garneau had ‘direct conversations’ with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar about how Canada can best help, including the donation of extra medical supplies.

New Zealand to give NZ$1m to Red Cross

New Zealand will give 1 million NZ dollars ($720,365) to the Red Cross to assist India, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced yesterday.

"We stand in solidarity with India and commend the tireless efforts of India’s frontline medics and healthcare workers who are working hard to save lives," said Mahuta.

India declines UN’s offer of assistance

India has declined assistance offered by the United Nations of its integrated supply chain for COVID-19-related material, saying the country has a “robust system” to deal with the required logistics, a spokesperson for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said. “One of the things we did is we offered the assistance of our integrated supply chain if it was required. We’ve been told at this point that it’s not needed because India has a reasonably robust system to deal with this,” Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for the UN Chief, said.

Photos: Relentless wave pushes death toll higher

Shruti Saha, who had been waiting since Tuesday night for her turn to get an oxygen cylinder refilled for her mother, reacts after she was informed about her mother's death, outside a refilling workshop, in New Delhi.

IT companies scramble to source beds, medicine

India’s giant IT firms in Bengaluru and other cities have set up COVID-19 “war-rooms” as they scramble to source oxygen, medicine and hospital beds for infected workers and maintain backroom operations for the world’s biggest financial firms.

Banks including Goldman Sachs and Standard Chartered, who run much of their global back office operations from large office parks in Bengaluru, Chennai or Hyderabad, have put in place infrastructure to vaccinate thousands of employees and their families when age restrictions are lifted on May 1.

Workers at huge technology service providers Accenture, Infosys and Wipro say teams are working 13-14 hours daily, under growing pressure and struggling to deliver on projects as staff call in sick and take time off to care for friends and relatives. Read more.

Help on Twitter

People in cities across India are relying on Twitter and the kindness of strangers for help during a time of national upheaval.

Some are using the platform to share locations where gas cylinders, which are in limited supply, can be refilled. Others are posting details about patients in urgent need of help. Some posts advertise which hospitals have empty beds and others ask for blood plasma donors. There are tweets that offer advice on how to stay safe and others that beg for ambulances before it is too late.

Kerala cautious as daily cases top 30,000

With adequate oxygen supplies and no run yet on hospital beds, Kerala has painted a distinctly different picture from some of India’s metro cities like New Delhi and Mumbai, but an acceleration in COVID-19 cases this week has triggered more caution in the state.

On Tuesday, for the first time, the number of daily fresh coronavirus cases topped 30,000, with 32,819 cases reported from the 14 districts in Kerala. Read more

Grim milestone

India crossed a grim milestone Wednesday of 200,000 people lost to the coronavirus as a devastating surge of new infections tears through the country.

The health ministry reported 3,293 daily COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing India's total fatalities to 201,187. The country also reported 362,757 new infections, a new global record, which raised the overall total past 17.9 million.

Photos: Mass funeral pyres reflect COVID-19 crisis in India

A worker wearing personal protection equipment (PPE) loads wood onto a cart at a crematorium on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, on Friday, April 23, 2021. Image Credit: Bloomberg

Updates from April 27

A shipment from Britain, including 100 ventilators and 95 oxygen concentrators, arrived in the capital, New Delhi, though a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain had no surplus COVID-19 vaccine doses to spare.

France is sending eight large oxygen generating plants this week and Ireland, Germany and Australia are sending oxygen concentrators and ventilators, an Indian foreign ministry official said, underlining the crucial need of oxygen.

But the crisis in the metropolis of 20 million people, the epicentre of the latest wave of infections, continued unabated. Dr K.Preetham, chief of medical administration at Delhi’s Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, said the scarcity of oxygen was the main concern.

Over the past 24 hours, India recorded 323,144 new cases, slightly below a worldwide peak of 352,991 it reached on Monday. Deaths rose by 2,771 to 197,894.

Rijo M John, a professor and health economist at the Indian Institute of Management in the southern state of Kerala, said the drop in cases was largely due to a fall in testing. “This should not be taken as an indication of falling cases, rather a matter of missing out on too many positive cases!” he said on Twitter.

Life grinds to slow lane in Karnataka

The early months of this year seemed to signal a slow but sure crawl back towards its bustling days of the past for India’s tech stronghold Bengaluru, but another wave of coronavirus has dealt a debilitating blow to those hopes. Read more

Armed forces called in

India has called on its armed forces to help tackle the devastating crisis. Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat said late on Monday that oxygen would be released from armed forces reserves and retired medical personnel would join struggling health facilities.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged all citizens to get vaccinated and exercise caution amid the “storm” of infections. Read more

Australia bans passenger flights from India

Australia on Tuesday announced a temporary ban on direct passenger flights from India, as the South Asian nation grapples with a massive surge in coronavirus infections. Read More

Image Credit: Graphic News

Vaccine demand outpaces supply

India, home to around 1.3 billion people, has so far reported 17.64 million COVID-19 infections, but experts believe the tally runs significantly higher.

Vaccine demand has outpaced supply in India, with companies struggling to boost output, partly because of a shortage of raw materials and a fire at a facility making the AstraZeneca shot.

India’s worst-hit state of Maharashtra, home to the financial capital Mumbai, could postpone inoculation for those between the ages of 18-45 amid supply uncertainties, a government official said.

India plans to open up vaccination to all adults from May 1.

The country is negotiating with the United States, which has said it will share 60 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine with other countries.

“Major lobbying is on at this point of time to secure as much as possible for India,” a senior Indian official part of ongoing negotiations told Reuters, adding that Modi had been assured that India would be given priority.

Bhutan to supply liquid oxygen

Bhutan will supply life-saving liquid oxygen to India, signalling a practical manifestation of the 'uniquely close and friendly' bilateral ties, the Indian embassy in Thimphu said on Tuesday.

Every day, 40 metric tonnes of liquid oxygen produced by the oxygen plant will be exported to Assam using cryogenic tankers, the embassy said in a statement.

The liquid oxygen to India will be supplied from the new plant being set up at the Motanga Industrial Estate, Samdrup Jongkhar district by a Bhutanese company, S D Cryogenics Gases Private Limited, it said.

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COVID-19: Islamabad hospital unable to cope with rising number of patients

Islamabad: The federal capital is being hit by the third wave of COVID-19, with 72,613 cases confirmed so far, and the city’s top hospital - Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) - is under severe pressure since there is no letup in new patients.

Joint Executive Director of the hospital Dr. Siraj says the hospital is under enormous pressure and cannot handle any more patients any longer.

Meanwhile, Islamabad’s operational graveyard in Sector H-11 is fast running out of space due to deaths caused by coronavirus. The graveyard was receiving 20 to 25 dead bodies daily.

Minister for Planning, Development & Special Initiative Asad Umar on Saturday announced the walk-in vaccination for 60-64 year old persons was starting from Sunday, April 25. Walk in vaccination for 65 and above is already open, said Umar in a tweet.

“All those 60 and above who are registered, go to your vaccination center and get vaccinated,” said the minister.

Pakistan’s total cases of COVID-19 have surged to 790,016 while death toll has reached the grim landmark of 17,000.

Saturday turned out to be the deadliest day for Pakistan since the outbreak of COVID-19 last year as the country reported 157 deaths in single day and 5,908 new cases of COVID-19 after 52,402 tests during the last 24 hours.

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Sindh to pay Rs1 million as compensation to families of employees who died of COVID-19

Karachi: The Sindh government has decided that it will pay Rs1 million in compensation to the bereaved family of each of its in-service employees who died due to COVID-19.

A decision to this effect was reached as the Sindh Cabinet met here at the Chief Minister House on Tuesday with Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah in the chair.

The compensation will also be applicable to the contractual employees of the Sindh government.

The cabinet meeting was informed that so far 24 personnel of the Sindh Police had lost their lives due to COVID-19.

The cabinet meeting also gave authorisation to the proposal to deploy troops of Pakistan Army in the province for ensuring implementation of the standard operating procedures (SOPs) against the spread of COVID-19.

The army troops will be deployed to aid the civil administration in Sindh for ensuring compliance with COVID-19 SOPs.

Earlier, on April 25, Federal Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad, announced that army troops were being deployed around the country, except in Sindh, to ensure that the general public should duly observe the SOPs against the spread of coronavirus.

The COVID-19 infection rate in Sindh has not been as alarming as in the upcountry areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. On Tuesday, Sindh reported another 1,084 cases of coronavirus out of 14,465 tests conducted in the last 24 hours. The province also reported another 19 deaths due to coronavirus in 24 hours.

The Sindh government’s coronavirus task force, which met on Monday, decided to impose a strict lockdown to battle the third wave of coronavirus infections. These measures include closure of all educational institutions, 20 per cent attendance of employees in government offices, 50 per cent attendance in private offices, closure of all markets and shopping centres by 6 pm daily, compulsory wearing of masks by shoppers, suspension of inter-city passenger transport service, and ban on both indoor and outdoor dining at the restaurants.

The CM hoped that these measures would prove sufficient in preventing the surge in coronavirus cases in the province.

The Sindh government also wrote to Chief Justice of Sindh High Court requesting him that only cases of urgent nature should be heard by the courts in the province while rest of the judicial work should remain suspended.

The formal letter to this effect was written by Sindh Law Adviser Barrister Murtaza Wahab. He wrote that such measures were required to safeguard the health of judges, lawyers, court staff and litigants.

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UK denies report that PM Boris Johnson said ‘let the bodies pile high’

London: A newspaper report that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that he would rather bodies piled “high in their thousands” than order a third lockdown is not true, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said on Monday.

Johnson is facing a stream of allegations in British newspapers about everything from his muddled initial handling of the COVID-19 crisis to questions over who financed the redecoration of his Downing Street flat.

The Daily Mail newspaper said Johnson said at an October meeting at Downing Street: “No more lockdowns ... let the bodies pile high in their thousands.” “It’s not true - it’s been categorically denied by practically everyone,” Wallace told Sky when asked about the reported remark, adding that Johnson was focused on the COVID-19 response.

“We’re getting into the sort of comedy chapter now of these gossip stories - you know unnamed sources by unnamed advisers talking about unnamed events. You know - look - none of this is serious,” Wallace said.

The Daily Mail did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

After Downing Street named Johnson’s former chief advisor, Dominic Cummings, as the source of leaks about the prime minister, Cummings hit back on Friday, denying he was the source and casting Johnson as incompetent and lacking in integrity.

Cummings, architect of the Brexit campaign for Britain to leave the European Union, left Johnson’s staff suddenly late last year having previously been his most influential adviser over Brexit and a 2019 election campaign.

Cummings said Johnson’s plans to have donors secretly pay for the renovation of his Downing Street plan were “unethical, foolish, possibly illegal and almost certainly broke the rules on proper disclosure of political donations”.

Asked about the refurbishment plans in March, Johnson’s spokeswoman said all donations, gifts and benefits were properly declared and no party funds were being used to pay for the upgrades.

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Look: Under the sea with scientists fighting climate change

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France finds first case of Indian COVID-19 variant

Paris: France has announced its first confirmed cases of the virus variant that is sweeping over India, just as the French president outlined a national reopening plan after six months of virus restrictions.

The Health Ministry announced late Thursday night that three people tested positive for the new variant in the Bouches-du-Rhone and Lot et Garonne regions of southern France. All three had travelled to India, and are under medical observation.

Authorities are seeking to trace their contacts and investigating other suspected cases, the ministry said. It noted that the variant has been detected in at least six other European countries.

French Health Minister Olivier Veran told France info radio on Friday that it was still unclear if available COVID-19 vaccines were effective against the Indian variant, and he added that the danger of this variant must not be underestimated.

France last week stepped up virus controls for travellers arriving from India as well as some other countries where variants are spreading.

The announcement came as French President Emmanuel Macron laid out a four-stage reopening process aimed at boosting the economy, welcoming back tourists and lifting nearly all of France's virus restrictions by June 30.

The vast majority of France's virus cases now involve the more contagious, more dangerous variant first identified in Britain. France has reported more than 103,000 coronavirus deaths.

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COVID-19 cases surge in Kerala, but parties agree on no lockdown

Thiruvananthapuram: Even as Kerala’s daily COVID-19 positive cases are crossing the 28,000 mark, an all-party meeting held here on Monday to discuss this serious issue of widespread surge, however, ruled out the need for a total lockdown.

The all-party meeting, called by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, was held online.

Emerging after the two-hour-long meeting, Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala told the media that all parties were agreeable on not enforcing a total lockdown.

“We also decided to ensure that on counting day, May 2, all the celebrations are kept to the least, given the grave situation that the state is presently passing through,” the Congress leader said.

The meeting also decided to ensure that all the district administrators strictly enforce the guidelines, especially when it came to holding of weddings and funerals with the numbers to be kept at the bare minimum.

Among the other things that was discussed include to watch and wait with the present protocols which include the present night curfew from 9pm to 5am. There was also consensus on continuing with the semi-lockdown protocols that came into force every Saturday and Sunday, when only shops selling essential items will open and all others will remain closed, besides private transport vehicles also will not be allowed and all have to remain indoors.

On Sunday, 28,469 people turned positive taking the total cases in the state to 218,893, the highest ever since the pandemic surfaced last year. Ernakulam district appeared to be the worst-affected with Sunday recording an all-time high of over 4,000 cases.

In the past one week, the state has witnessed a massive testing drive where almost on an average everyday around one lakh tests was being done.

The all-party meeting held Monday in all likelihood would be the last under the present dispensation as now it depends on the results on May 2.

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As virus engulfs India, diaspora watches with despair

Los Angeles: Bad news, knowing no time zones, arrives in a jarring burst of messages, calls and posts informing millions of members of India’s worldwide diaspora that yet another loved one has been sickened or lost to the coronavirus.

Sometimes it comes in a barrage of WhatsApp messages first thing in the morning, and sometimes it lands in the middle of the night, as it did for Mohini Gadre’s father. A 3am call at his San Francisco Bay Area home let him know that his octogenarian mother - who had tested positive in Mumbai - was too weak to say her morning prayers, setting off a mad scramble to find her the hospital bed where she remained for days.

In the US, where half of the adult population has gotten at least one COVID-19 shot, the talk has been of reopening, moving forward and healing. But for Indian Americans, the daily crush of dark news from “desh,” the homeland, is a stark reminder that the pandemic is far from over.

“We’re seeing life slowly start to get back to normal in small ways, and you’re feeling like a bit of hope - like with spring. You know that things are improving, it’s been a year,” Gadre, 27, said. “And meanwhile there’s this tinderbox that’s been ignited in India.”

The more than 4.2 million people like Gadre who make up the Indian diaspora in the US, according to census estimates, have watched in horror as the latest coronavirus surge burns through India, killing thousands of people a day and catapulting the death toll to more than 200,000 - the fourth-highest in the world.

In a culture that generally makes no distinctions between cousin and sibling, biological aunt or close friend, family is family. Many Indian Americans are wracked with guilt over emerging from more than a year of isolation as relatives overseas struggle to find vaccines, hospital beds and, fatefully, their breath.

Frustrated and helpless

Like India itself, the diaspora is striated by religion, caste, class, mother tongue and other factors that continue to divide. But now many of its members are united in frustration and helplessness with little recourse. The State Department has issued a “do not travel” advisory for India, citing COVID-19. That leaves families few options except to try to arrange resources from afar and persuade relatives to keep safe.

In the UK - home to about 1.4 million Indians - the government has added India to its “red list” of countries, banning arrivals for anyone from India except for UK citizens and residents. That adds to a sense of isolation and helplessness for many who feel cut off from loved ones.

“Apart from raising funds, being generous with donations and going to offer prayers, there’s not much else we can do at the moment,” said Yogesh Patel, a spokesperson at one of the UK’s largest Hindu temples. “We can’t go and console family and friends, everything is happening online.”

Compounding the frustration is the struggle by many in the diaspora to convince family and friends in India to abide by basic social distancing and masking protocols.

Cultural problem

The problem is twofold and cultural: A certain generational hierarchy means elders are not inclined to heed the advice of their children, grandchildren or outsiders. And misinformation spreads widely through the same social channels that are vital to coordinating help and bridging the gap across oceans.

“My dad, he was all over the place, and I told him: `You’ve got to stay at home, you’ve got to wear masks,’ but, you know, they don’t listen,” said Ankur Chandra, 38, a New York-based consultant whose father is now recovering from COVID-19, alone in an apartment in India’s national capital region of Gurugram.

Shivani Nath, a Manhattan-based interior designer for hotels who was born and raised in New Delhi, offended relatives when she expressed horror instead of congratulations at pictures of a “complete five-day, traditional Indian Hindu wedding” in the family - no masks in sight.

“My cousin was like, ‘You Americans are so arrogant and look at your own country and you have over 500,000 people who have died.’ And she actually told me - she’s like, ‘Indians have herd immunity. We are born with herd immunity,”’ Nath recounted.

Her cousin later apologised, after several wedding attendees were diagnosed with COVID-19.

Vijaya Subrahmanyam, 58, typically travels to India every six months to see her family, including her older sister and 91-year-old mother in Hyderabad, in the southern state of Telangana. Because of the pandemic, she hasn’t been back in almost two years, and her summer plans to visit were scrapped at her own mother’s advisement.

The same week that the Atlanta-based college professor received her second dose of the vaccine, her mother and sister both tested positive for COVID-19. Her mother had not left her home, but her sister took a two-minute diversion to the mall to purchase a handbag after picking up some medicine, and that’s where Subrahmanyam suspects she got infected.

“Initially, we were like, ‘What’s wrong with you?”’ she said. But Subrahmanyam realised her sister probably felt worse about it than anyone else - and recognised that she was the one still in India, tasked with taking care of their mother.

Some of those who feel similarly helpless are channelling their energies into mutual aid projects.

Anand Chaturvedi, 23, is from Mumbai but now works in New York. Coming from a tech background, he volunteered to help the same websites he himself has used, including an open-source site that helps search for virus-related resources.

Leveraging connections

In Seattle, Sanjay Jejurikar, 58, is leveraging his connections and using his familiarity with India to connect people to assistance, everyone from a 75-year-old mentor to young employees of his India-based education technology startup.

“In India, things are a little bit chaotic, right?” said Jejurikar, whose mother died of COVID-19 in July in India. “I mean, on one hand, they’re very bureaucratic and rule-based, and all that stuff, which is good. But on the other hand, quite a few people are left on their own devices, like they don’t have any support.”

After losing her grandmother to COVID-19 at the start of the pandemic, 23-year-old Farheen Ali, a grad student from Texas, moved back to Hyderabad in August to help her parents.

Having experienced a pandemic peak and a Ramadan in each country, Ali thinks one of the biggest differences is the confidence she had that “it won’t get that bad or the system won’t break as bad” in the US. She also believes she would have been vaccinated by this point if she had stayed in Texas.

While she doesn’t necessarily regret coming to India, the embers of hope are dying out: “I don’t think there’s any trust in the government or the public that they’re going to try to get this down because I still know people that don’t want to take the vaccine because of stupid WhatsApp messages or don’t believe that corona is still a thing, even though people are dying at this rate.”

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COVID-19: Hong Kong, Singapore to start long-delayed travel bubble next month

Hong Kong: A long delayed travel bubble between Hong Kong and Singapore will begin on May 26, the two cities said on Monday, as they moved to re-establish overseas travel links and lift the hurdle of quarantine for visiting foreigners.

The bubble between two of Asia’s biggest financial hubs had been slated to begin last November but was suspended after a spike in coronavirus cases in Hong Kong.

The scheme will start with one flight a day into each city, with up to 200 travellers on each flight, Hong Kong’s Commerce Secretary Edward Yau and Singapore’s Transport Minister Ong Ye Ku said at simultaneous press events.

Those wanting to travel from either city must test negative for COVID-19 before departure and on arrival. Hong Kong residents can also only fly to Singapore at least 14 days after they have had two doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

No restrictions

Travellers on the route - which attracted 15-20 flights a day each way before coronavirus - won’t have to quarantine and there will be no restrictions on the purpose of travel.

However, if the seven-day moving average of the daily number of unlinked local COVID-19 cases is more than five for either Singapore or Hong Kong the scheme will be suspended, Yau and Ong said.

“The re-launch ... signifies that gradual resumption of cross-border travel is achievable through mutual collaborations among different places,” said Yau.

For Hong Kong, which has banned non-residents since March 2020, the deal with Singapore is its first bilateral resumption of travel ties with another city.

Eligible Hong Kong residents in the mainland and Macau will be exempt from quarantine in the Asian financial city from as early as this week, Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip said on Monday.

Singapore already has some pacts on essential business and official travel, and has opened unilaterally to general visitors from countries including Brunei Darussalam, China and New Zealand. Singapore has also been discussing an air travel bubble with Australia.

Under control

Both Hong Kong and Singapore said they are in talks with places including New Zealand and Australia for similar travel bubbles. The Asian cities have brought the local virus situation largely under control compared with other developed cities.

New cases, however, have inched up in the past week, with Hong Kong reporting local transmission of a COVID-19 variant with the N501Y mutated strain and Singapore investigating possible COVID-19 reinfection cases at a migrant worker dormitory. The dormitories were at the centre of Singapore’s outbreak last year with thousands of cases.

Singapore work permit holders employed in construction, marine shipyard or process sectors, many of whom live in dormitories, are excluded from the bubble.

Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines would be the carriers for the initial flights, authorities said.

“To get this bubble up successfully, I think we’ll have a significant signalling effect to the rest of the world,” said Singapore’s Ong.

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COVID-19: France to supply India with medical aid

Paris: France will supply India with “substantial medical aid” to help the country tackle a huge wave of new coronavirus infections that are overwhelming its hospitals, the Elysee presidential palace said on Monday.

The shipments to India will include oxygen generators, respirators and cryogenic containers and will start next weekend.

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COVID-19: New Zealanders face mental health issues in pandemic recovery

Wellington: New Zealanders are still reporting negative impacts on mental health and income from the coronavirus pandemic, despite living in one of the world’s few countries to have largely returned to normal.

The Pacific island nation, which has had only about 2,200 cases and 26 deaths in a population of 5 million, enforced strict lockdowns and social distancing rules that helped to virtually eliminate the virus.

But it’s now undergoing what economists call a ‘K-shaped’ recovery in which wealth inequalities are widening, compounded by surging property prices and a housing shortage.

The survey, released to Reuters, shows 46% of New Zealanders said they or a household member had trouble sleeping because of the spread of COVID-19, higher than the 43% recorded by the survey in June-July last year. About 40% continue to say they feel depressed. “As one of the very few countries in the world that is largely back to ‘normal’, we would have expected mental health to improve,” said Jagadish Thaker, senior lecturer at the School of Communication, Journalism & Marketing at Massey University in Wellington, who published the report.

“But our survey shows that a substantial proportion of the public is still struggling with economic and mental health issues.” The findings highlight the lasting impact of the pandemic on people’s lives, raising concerns about other nations suffering a more severe crisis. One in five who participated in the survey said they or a household member lost income from a job or business, while nearly one in nine said they or a family member lost a job or have filed for unemployment benefits, showing little improvement from last year.

Ethnic minorities

The survey found poorer ethnic minorities were disproportionately affected, with MA ori, Pasifika, and Asians two to three times more likely to have lost a job and filed for employment benefits.

“Together, these findings suggest that government should increase momentum on policies supporting individuals and communities most impacted by COVID-19,” Thaker said.

Failure to do so could mean Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will squander much deserved international recognition from tackling the spread of COVID-19, he added.

New Zealand will hand down its annual budget on May 20, which is expected to focus on tackling COVID-19 and its impact.

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IPL 2021: Rajasthan Royals donate more than $1m to India COVID-19 relief fund

Dubai: Rajasthan Royals, the Indian Premier League franchise, has donated more than $1 million towards aid relief in India from the deadly COVID-19 pandemic that is sweeping the nation.

Players, owners and team management have come forward to raise funds and have been working along with the charitable Royal Rajasthan Foundation (RRF) in partnership with the British Asian Trust (BAT).

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“Rajasthan Royals announce a contribution of over $1 million from their owners, players and management to help with immediate support to those impacted by COVID-19,” the Royals tweeted.

BAT works closely with the Indian Government on many initiatives — especially in the area of skills and education. The Trust’s founder, Prince Charles, launched an emergency “Oxygen for India” appeal, which is currently focused on the acquisition and distribution of oxygen concentrators, devices that can provide enriched gas straight from the air, to treat patients when hospital supplies are under strain.

The funds raised by Rajasthan will help across India, with an initial focus on the state of Rajasthan, where the RRF has numerous initiatives.

Earlier this week, cricketers such as Pat Cummins and commentator Brett Lee donated to aid India’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The surge in the COVID-19 cases continues to affect India as the country recorded 379,257 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. This is the highest single-day spike in the cases since the pandemic began last year.

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India asks Twitter to block posts critical of COVID-19 handling

New Delhi: Twitter Inc. has removed or restricted access to more than 50 posts in the past one month at the behest of the Indian government, including tweets that criticised its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the Indian Express newspaper reported.

Other posts that were removed showed pictures and videos of a recent attack in Chhattisgarh carried out by Maoist guerrillas, the paper reported, citing disclosures made by the social media platform to the Lumen Database, which collects and analyses legal complaints and requests for removal of online materials.

Twitter reviews all “valid legal requests” they receive under the company’s laws and local rules, the spokesperson said in response to a request by Bloomberg News seeking comment.

“If it is determined to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction, but not in violation of the Twitter Rules, we may withhold access to the content in India only,” the spokesperson said in the emailed statement.

Earlier this year the social media giant had to permanently suspend more than 500 accounts and block access to hundreds of others in India, acceding to a government order to restrain the spread of misinformation and inflammatory content related to farmers’ protests.

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COVID-19: France to supply India with medical aid

Paris: France will supply India with “substantial medical aid” to help the country tackle a huge wave of new coronavirus infections that are overwhelming its hospitals, the Elysee presidential palace said on Monday.

The shipments to India will include oxygen generators, respirators and cryogenic containers and will start next weekend.

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COVID-19 update: India sends army to help hospitals hit by coronavirus as countries promise aid

Dubai: India ordered its armed forces on Monday to help tackle surging new coronavirus infections that are overwhelming hospitals, as countries including Britain, Germany and the United States pledged to send urgent medical aid.

In a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat said oxygen would be released to hospitals from armed forces reserves and retired medical military personnel would join COVID-19 health facilities.

And where possible, military medical infrastructure will be made available to civilians, a government statement said, as new coronavirus infections hit a record peak for a fifth day.

Photos: Mass funeral pyres reflect COVID-19 crisis in India

“Air, Rail, Road & Sea; Heaven & earth are being moved to overcome challenges thrown up by this wave of COVID-19,” Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Twitter.

Modi on Sunday urged all citizens to get vaccinated and to exercise caution amid what he called a “storm” of infections, while hospitals and doctors in some northern states posted urgent notices saying they were unable to cope with the influx.

In some of the worst-hit cities, bodies were being burnt in makeshift facilities offering mass cremations.

People queue up for COVID-19 vaccine in Mumbai, India, Monday, April 26, 2021. Image Credit: AP

The southern state of Karnataka, home to the tech city of Bengaluru, ordered a 14-day lockdown from Tuesday, joining the western industrial state of Maharashtra, where lockdowns run until May 1, although some states were also set to lift lockdown measures this week.

The patchy curbs, complicated by local elections and mass festival gatherings, could prompt breakouts elsewhere, as infections rose by 352,991 in the last 24 hours, with crowded hospitals running out of oxygen supplies and beds.

“Currently the hospital is in beg-and-borrow mode and it is an extreme crisis situation,” said a spokesman for the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in the capital, New Delhi.

Fire

Following a fire at a hospital in the western diamond industry hub of Surat, five COVID-19 patients died after being moved to other hospitals that lacked space in their intensive care units, a municipal official told Reuters.

Photos: Anguish and fear as COVID-19 deaths and cases surge in India

Television channel NDTV broadcast images of three health workers in the eastern state of Bihar pulling a body along the ground on its way to cremation, as stretchers ran short.

“If you’ve never been to a cremation, the smell of death never leaves you,” Vipin Narang, a political science professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States, said on Twitter.

“My heart breaks for all my friends and family in Delhi and India going through this hell.” On Sunday, President Joe Biden said the United States would send raw materials for vaccines, medical equipment and protective gear. Germany joined a growing list of countries pledging supplies.

Oxygen Concentrators loaded by Air India at JFK Airport in the US on their way to Delhi. Image Credit: ANI

In Moscow, which expects 50 million doses of its Sputnik V vaccine to be made each month in India this summer, a Kremlin spokesman expressed concern over the situation.

India, with a population of 1.3 billion, has an official tally of 17.31 million infections and 195,123 deaths, after 2,812 deaths overnight, health ministry data showed, although health experts say the figures probably run higher.

The surge in infections hit oil prices amid worries about a fall in fuel demand in the world’s third-biggest oil importer.

Rally backlash

Several cities have ordered curfews, while police enforce social distancing and mask-wearing. Politicians have faced criticism for holding rallies during state election campaigns that draw thousands into packed stadiums.

About 8.6 million voters were expected to cast ballots on Monday in the eastern state of West Bengal, in the final phases of a contest set to wrap up this week. Also voting in local elections was the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, which has been reporting an average of 30,000 infections a day.

Health workers distribute evening tea to patients in a ward at the COVID-19 Care Center set up at the Commonwealth Games (CWG) Village Sports Complex in New Delhi, India, on Sunday, April 25, 2021. Image Credit: Bloomberg

Modi’s plea on vaccinations came after inoculations peaked at 4.5 million doses on April 5, but have since averaged about 2.7 million a day, government figures show.

Virologists said more infectious variants of the virus, including an Indian one, have fuelled the resurgence.

The government told people to stay indoors and follow hygiene protocols. “Please don’t invite people into your home... It has become clearer that the transmissibility of this virus is faster,” said senior health official Vinod Kumar Paul.

Vaccine demand has outpaced supply as the inoculation campaign widened this month, while companies struggle to boost output, partly because of a shortage of raw material and a fire at a facility making the AstraZeneca dose.

However, the federal government will not import vaccines itself but expects states and companies to do so instead, in a step aimed at backing domestic manufacturers, two government officials told Reuters.

Neighbouring Bangladesh sealed its border with India for 14 days, its foreign ministry said, though trade will continue. Air travel has been suspended since Bangladesh imposed a lockdown on April 14 to combat record infections and deaths.

India ‘sends Air Force aircraft to get six cryogenic oxygen containers from Dubai’

India on Monday sent an aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) to transport six empty cryogenic oxygen containers, Indian Ambassador to the UAE Pavan Kapoor told Gulf News. Read more

Madras High court hits out at poll panel

The Madras High Court on Monday lashed out against the Election Commission and said “it is the most irresponsible institution in the country” who have done nothing to prevent political parties from breaching COVID-19 protocol.

“You (EC) are the only institution responsible for the situation we are in today and You have been singularly lacking any kind of exercise of authority. You have not taken measures against political parties holding rallies despite the court saying “Maintain Covid protocol, maintain Covid protocol.” Read more

Switzerland puts India on COVID-19 quarantine list

Switzerland has added India to its list of high-risk countries from which travellers must enter quarantine. Arrivals from India must immediately go into quarantine, under the government restrictions which go into effect at 1600 GMT on Monday, the Federal Office of Public Health said on its website.

Wealthy Indians flee by private jet

India’s mounting coronavirus crisis is prompting wealthy families to flee the country by private jet.

With reports of hospital bed and drug shortages sweeping social media, Indian tycoons and others who are not so well off but fearful for their health are booking flights to bolt holes in Europe, the Middle East and the Indian Ocean, Bloomberg reported

“It’s not only the ultra rich,” said Rajan Mehra, chief executive officer at New Delhi-based private jet firm Club One Air. “Whoever can afford to take a private jet are taking private jets.”

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COVID-19: Telangana urged to extend crematorium timings as death toll rises

Hyderabad: With more and more people falling victim to COVID-19 and relatives of the deceased not finding a place to keep the dead bodies over night, Hyderabad Member of Parliament Asaduddin Owaisi has urged the Telangana government to extend the timings of crematoriums.

Presently, they work from 7am to 6pm and some till 7pm. In a SOS to the senior minister K Taraka Rama Rao, Owaisi said that in view of larger number of bodies the timings of crematoriums should be extended beyond 7pm throughout the state.

Social activists say that not only the death toll was very high but the kith and kin of the deceased were also not coming forward to perform the last rites due to the fear of infection and leaving it to the NGOs.

Confusion over figures

According to an official press release 29 people died due to COVID-19 in the state during the last 24 hours ending Friday evening. But calculations by the local media show that in two biggest hospitals of the state capital Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences and Gandhi Hospital alone 80 to 100 people died on a single day on Friday.

Clarifying the confusion over the figures, a senior doctor at the Gandhi Hospital said that not all deaths are attributed to COVID-19 because many are caused by comorbidities.

Whatever the official cause of death, the number of dead bodies coming to cremation grounds and the grave yards were unusually high and the families were founding it a big challenge to perform the last rites.

Even members of Muslim community were forced to run from one corner to the other as grave yard caretakers say there was no open space for any more burials.

With the authorities at the crematoriums refusing to accept the bodies after 6 or 7pm, and hospitals pressurizing the families to take the bodies away immediately, the grieving families were caught in the middle. It has become a heart breaking challenge as the families were not in a position to take the bodies home because of resistance from the neighborhood and in some cases family members themselves were afraid of infection.

While private hospitals were unwilling to keep the bodies because of the space constraint, even a hospital like Gandhi was also expressing its inability to preserve the bodies due to lack of space. “This is an unprecedented situation”, said K Sai Teja, of an NGO Feed the Needy.

In many cases where the near and dear ones of the deceased were abroad, NGOs were receiving requests to perform the last rites.

Costly affair

Preserving the bodies over night was also proving a costly affair. “In one case we had to hire an ambulance and preserve body of COVID-19 victim over night. It cost us Rs 32,000”, Sai Teja said.

In some heart rending cases social activists had to step in to perform the last rites as family members refused to touch the body due to stigma. The problems were more complicated in districts and rural areas.

In Jagatiya district Sarpanch of Madhapur village sought help of a Muslim NGO Immadutal Muslim Youth Association for the last rites of a Hindu woman as there was nobody to ready to do it. “We performed the rites as per Hindu religion as the victim was from the community”, said Association President Wajid Khan.

During last 15 days the Association performed 45 such funerals in different villages of the district. In Tandur near Hyderabad local youth performed two funerals in the same manner.

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US: Ohio man pleads guilty in 2016 killings of 8 in same family

Ohio: An Ohio man pleaded guilty Thursday to eight counts of aggravated murder in the fatal shootings of his child's mother and seven of her family members in 2016, a crime that spurred rampant speculation that it was tied to drug trafficking but that prosecutors said had stemmed from a bitter custody dispute.

The man, Edward Wagner, 28, apologised for his role in the killings of eight members of the Rhoden family, five years to the date that their bodies were found in several mobile homes and a camper in a sparsely populated area of Pike County in the southern part of the state. Each victim had been shot in the head.

As part of a plea deal reached in Pike County Common Pleas Court, prosecutors agreed not to pursue the death penalty against Wagner, whom they recommended should serve eight life sentences without the possibility of parole. He had previously pleaded not guilty.

In exchange, Wagner, known as Jake, agreed that he would testify against his parents and an adult brother in the homicide case, which took more than two years of an extensive investigation before arrests were made. Wagner confessed to personally causing the deaths of five of the eight victims, according to prosecutors.

"I am deeply and very sorry," said Wagner, who will be sentenced at a later date.

Prosecutors said that Wagner had been embroiled in a bitter dispute with Hanna May Rhoden over the custody of their then-2-year-old daughter, Sophia, when he and his family members planned the murders.

At the time of the killings, Rhoden, 19, had begun seeing someone else and was pregnant with that person's child, according to prosecutors, who said that Wagner had forged court documents maintaining that he would get custody of Sophia in the event of Rhoden's death.

"Jake grew to be upset with Hanna over the fact that Hanna was exposing Sophia to people that he believed that she should not be around," Angie Canepa, a special prosecutor in the case, said Thursday.

Canepa said that Rhoden had told a friend in a Facebook message in December 2015 that she would never sign papers sharing custody of Sophia with Wagner.

"'They will have to kill me first,'" said the message, which was part of hacked material found in possession of Wagner's family, according to Canepa.

Besides Rhoden, her parents, Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40, and his ex-wife, Dana Manley Rhoden, 37, were killed. So were her siblings, Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16, and Clarence (Frankie) Rhoden, 20. The other victims included Frankie Rhoden's fiancEe, Hannah (Hazel) Gilley, 20; Christopher Rhoden's brother Kenneth Rhoden, 44; and his cousin Gary Rhoden, 38.

Brian Duncan, a lawyer for the Rhodens, said in an email Thursday that the family was overcome by emotion over Wagner's guilty plea.

"Mr. Wagner's plea provides at least some semblance of immediate justice, and a glimmer of hope that perhaps all responsible parties will ultimately be held accountable for their respective actions in the near future," Duncan said.

The cases of Wagner's parents, George (Billy) Wagner III and Angela Wagner, and his brother, George Wagner IV, all of whom have pleaded not guilty, are continuing.

Prosecutors said that Wagner had spent several months planning the murders and had purchased materials for making silencers for guns and a cellphone jammer.

Shell casings matching some of those used in the murders were found at the Wagner home, the authorities said, and the tread marks from bloody footprints found at the scene matched those on several pairs of shoes that the Wagners had recently purchased.

The case had appeared that it might involve drugs when sheriff's deputies found three marijuana-growing operations on the premises of at least one of the homes where the victims' bodies were discovered.

In addition to the eight counts of aggravated murder, Wagner pleaded guilty to 15 other criminal counts that included conspiracy, aggravated burglary and tampering with evidence.

"I am guilty, your honor," he repeated when asked if he wanted to change his previous not guilty pleas.

Greg Meyers, a public defender for Wagner, said that his client had gone "eyes wide open" into the plea agreement.

"He knows he's going to die in prison without any judicial release," Meyers said.

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COVID-19: Germany faces lockdown until June as curbs fail to push down cases

Berlin: Germany’s coronavirus infection rate rose at the weekend despite stricter restrictions and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said he did not expect moves to ease curbs before the end of May.

“We need a timetable how to get back to normal life, but it must be a plan that won’t have to be revoked after just a few days,” Scholz said.

The federal government should be able to outline “clear and courageous opening steps” for the summer by the end of May, allowing restaurants to adjust reopening plans and citizens to plan holidays, he said.

Scholz said the steps would also clarify when visits to concerts, theatres and soccer stadiums would be possible.

Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday urged Germans to stick to tougher rules imposed in areas with high infection rates, saying measures imposed at the weekend were needed to break a third wave of infections.

Germany is struggling to contain infections, complicated by the more contagious B117 variant that first emerged in Britain.

It also follows a relatively slow start to Germany’s vaccination campaign.

Tougher measures

Germany’s seven-day average of cases per 100,000 people rose to 166 at the weekend, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said on Sunday.

Parliament approved amendments to the Infection Protection Act last week to give the federal government more powers in the pandemic. Merkel drew up the changes after some of the 16 federal states refused to implement tougher measures.

The new law enables the government to impose curfews between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. in districts where cases exceed 100 per 100,000 residents on three consecutive days. The rules also include stricter limits to private gatherings and shopping.

Schools will have to close and return to online lessons if cases reach 165 per 100,000 residents on three consecutive days.

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551 oxygen generation plants to be setup across India through PM Cares Fund: PMO

New Delhi: As many as 551 dedicated pressure swing Adsorption (PSA) medical oxygen generation plants will be set up inside public health facilities across the country to boost availability of the life-saving gas amid its shortage in several states battling the COVID-19 surge.

The PMO said on Sunday that the PM Cares Fund has given in-principle approval for allocation of funds for their installation, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi directing these plants should be made functional as soon as possible.

He said these plants will serve as a major boost to oxygen availability at the district level.

These dedicated plants will be established in identified government hospitals in district headquarters in various states and union territories, and their procurement will be done through the Health and Family Welfare ministry.

The PM Cares Fund had earlier this year allocated Rs 201.58 crores for installation of additional 162 dedicated PSA medical oxygen generation plants inside public health facilities in the country, the PMO noted.

read more

• India scrambles to supply oxygen as COVID-19 patients gasp for breath
• COVID-19: French oxygen giant diverts supply to India’s overwhelmed hospitals
• India reports another record rise in COVID-19 infections
• India: 20 COVID-19 patients die at Delhi hospital due to lack of oxygen
• Record deaths as India's affluent in cities hit by deadly COVID-19 ‘tsunami’
• India: Lockdown in Delhi extended by a week amid COVID-19 spike

It said the basic aim behind establishing PSA oxygen plants at government hospitals in the district headquarters is to further strengthen the public health system and ensure that each of these hospitals has a captive oxygen generation facility.

Such an in-house captive oxygen generation facility would address the day-to-day medical oxygen needs of these hospitals and the district.

In addition, the liquid medical oxygen (LMO) would serve as a top up to the captive oxygen generation, it said.

Such a system will go a long way in ensuring that government hospitals in districts do not face sudden disruption of oxygen supplies and have uninterrupted access to it to manage COVID-19 patients and other sick persons needing such support.

India is struggling with a second wave of the pandemic with more than 3,00,000 daily new coronavirus cases being reported in the past few days, and hospitals in several states are reeling under a shortage of medical oxygen and beds.

Several hospitals in the national capital are grappling with severe shortage of medical oxygen.While some hospitals have managed to make short-term arrangements, there is no immediate end to the crisis in sight.

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COVID-19: UAE clarifies travel-to-India rules

Abu Dhabi: The National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Emergency Management Authority (NCEMA) and the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) clarified rules about travel to and from India on Friday.

They said travel for passengers from India will be suspended for all incoming flights on national and foreign carriers.

Flights carrying transit passengers will also be barred from coming to the UAE with the exception of transit flights coming to the UAE and heading onward to India.

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• COVID-19: UAE suspends flights from India starting April 25

This decision includes the entry of travellers who were in India in the last 14 days prior to coming to the UAE.

In the latest travel updates, the two entities stressed that flights between the 2 countries will continue to operate allowing the transportation of passengers from the UAE to India. It will also allow the transfer of exempted groups from India to the UAE with the application of the aforementioned precautionary measures.

These groups include Emirati citizens, diplomatic missions appointed by the two countries, official delegations, those on business men chartered flights, and those holding golden residency provided that they undertake preventive measures that include quarantine for 10 days and a PCR test at the airport, as well as on the fourth and eighth days following entry into the country.

Moreover, the required PCR test period has been reduced from 72 hours to 48 hours prior to travel from accredited laboratories that issue test results carrying a QR code.

The authority also confirmed that it is required for those coming from India through other countries to stay in those countries for at least 14 days before being allowed to enter the country, starting from 23:59 on Saturday April 24, 2021.

These regulations will apply for a period of 10 days, which can be extended, while cargo flights continue to operate between the two countries.

The authority called upon all travelers affected by the decision to follow up with the relevant airlines to change or reschedule their flights and to ensure their safe return to their final destinations without delay.

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