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India records 61,871 new Covid cases; tally close to 75 lakh

New Delhi (NVI): India has recorded 61,871 new positive cases in the last 24 hours, taking the tally near 75 lakh mark, the Ministry of Health said today.

With fresh cases, the overall tally now climbs to 74,94,551. Apart from that 1,033 more deaths were recorded, taking the total number of fatalities to 1,14,031.

India is the second worst-hit country by the virus in the world after the US.

Maharashtra has the maximum number of Covid infections. The state has reported 10,259 cases in the last 24 hours, followed by Kerala (9,016), Karnataka (7,184), Tamil Nadu (4,295) and West Bengal (3,865).

There are 7,83,311 active cases in the country which comprise 10.45 per cent of the total caseload, according to the data. The COVID-19 case fatality rate, meanwhile, stands at 1.52 per cent.

Apart from that, the active cases are less than 8 lakh for the second consecutive day in India and stand at 7,83,311. The active cases now comprise 10.45% of the total positive cases of the country.

India continues to report a trend of steadily declining active cases. Following the national trend, 22 States/UTs have less than 20,000 active cases, the Ministry of Health said in a statement today.

13 States/UTs have more than 20,000 but less than 50,000 active cases, while 3 States/UTs have more than 50,000 active cases, as per the Ministry.

-ARK

PM condoles demise of Joseph Mar Thoma

Dr Joseph Mar Thoma Metropolitan

New Delhi (NVI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi today condoled the demise of Dr Joseph Mar Thoma Metropolitan, head of the Mar Thoma Church, who passed away in Thiruvalla in Kerala.

“His Grace the Most Rev. Dr. Joseph Mar Thoma Metropolitan was a remarkable personality who served humanity and worked hard to improve the lives the poor and downtrodden. He was blessed with abundance of empathy and humility. His noble ideals will always be remembered. RIP,” PM tweeted.

The Prime Minister also shared a recent video in which he delivered an address on the 90th birthday celebrations of Dr. Joseph Mar Thoma.

-ARK

Global Covid cases cross 39.5 mn mark; 1,106,705 dead

New Delhi (NVI): The global coronavirus cases have crossed 39.5 million and 1,106,705 people have died of the virus. According to the latest updates provided by Johns Hopkins University, there are 39,502,909 COVID-19 cases globally.

27,148,927 patients have recovered from the deadly virus so far. The US continues to be the worst-affected country with 8,086,780 cases and 218,980 fatalities.

As many as 3,197,539 patients across the US have recovered from the disease.

India and Brazil are the second and third most-affected countries from the virus with 7,432,680 cases and 5,200,300 cases respectively. Russia is fourth on the list with 1,376,020 cases across the country.

As per the University tracker, India has the most COVID-19 recoveries in the world with 6,524,595 patients recovering from the disease across the country.

It is pertinent to mention here that the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a pandemic on March 11.

Meanwhile, Europe, which successfully handled the first surge of infections, has emerged as the new coronavirus epicenter in recent weeks and is reporting on average 140,000 cases a day over the past week. As a region, Europe is reporting more daily cases than India, Brazil and the United States combined.

-ARK

PM to address Mysore Univ convocation

PM Modi
Narendra Modi (File photo)

New Delhi (NVI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the Centenary Convocation 2020 of the University of Mysore on October 19 via video conferencing.

Governor of Karnataka, along with other dignitaries of the University, would be present on the occasion, a Prime Minister’s Office release read.

In addition to this, Members of Syndicate and Academic Council, MPs, MLAs, MLCs, Statutory Officers, District Officers, Former Vice Chancellors of the University and students & parents will witness the Convocation online, the release added.

The University of Mysore was established on July 27, 1916. It was the Sixth University in the country and first in Karnataka.

-CHK

Edu institutes in Assam to reopen in Nov

Noida
File photo

New Delhi (NVI): Closed since the lockdown in March, educational institutions in Assam will reopen from November 2 with strict compliance of Covid protocols.

Educational institutions will reopen for students from class six to the postgraduate level with certain restrictions in place, Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma today said.

Schools will, however, remain closed for students up to class five, he further added.

The schools are to devise staggered timelines for all the classes from 6 to 12. As for the Universities and Colleges, they would be allowed to reopen as per the guidelines issued.

Joining school will, however, be a voluntary exercise on the part of the students. Their guardians will take the decision on sending them to school or not, and the necessary attendance required will not be applicable this year, he said.

-CHK

Jacinda Ardern wins New Zealand general election in historic victory

Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine
New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern

New Delhi (NVI): Jacinda Ardern will govern New Zealand for a second term after the Labour party secured a historic landslide victory in the general election today as voters rewarded her for a decisive response to COVID-19.

With nearly 100 per cent of the votes counted, Labour had secured 49 per cent, with the opposition National party on 27 per cent.

Ardern’s Labour Party headed to its biggest share of the vote since the 1930s — after a huge swing to the left in many urban and provincial electorates.

Speaking to a heaving crowd of 1,000 people at Auckland town hall, Ardern thanked the nation for the strong mandate.

The mandate means Ardern, 40, could form the first single-party government in decades, according to media reports.

The landslide victory will give Ardern more scope to deliver the transformational government she promised when she came to power three years ago.

Voters are rewarding Ardern for crushing community transmission of Covid-19 while countries like the U.K., U.S. and even neighboring Australia are still battling to contain the virus.

New Zealand has now gone three weeks without any cases in the community, with all new infections limited to returned overseas travelers undergoing mandatory quarantine.

The nation has recorded just 25 coronavirus deaths so far.

-CHK

PM Modi reviews COVID vaccine delivery plan, calls for speedy access

New Delhi (NVI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi today chaired a meeting to review COVID-19 vaccine distribution arrangements and called for “speedy access” to the vaccine for all members of the population, when one is finally made available.

PM Modi directed the officials to keep in mind the geographical span and diversity of the country while planning delivery logistics, according to Prime Minister’s Office release.

The Prime Minister directed that a vaccine delivery system be developed in a manner similar to the conduct of elections – involving all levels of governments and citizen groups, the release added.

“This should involve the participation of States / UTs / District Level functionaries, civil society organisations, volunteers, citizens, and experts from all necessary domains. The entire process should have a strong IT backbone and the system should be designed in such a manner so as to have a lasting value to our healthcare system,” PM Modi said.

Three potential vaccines are in advanced stages of development in India, of which two are in Phase II and the other is in Phase III.

In addition to this, Modi cautioned against complacency as the number of cases in India begin to decline and asked everyone concerned to keep up their efforts to contain the pandemic.

At today’s meeting the Prime Minister also appealed to people to ensure that social distancing is maintained at all times when in public and asked that restraint be maintained, particularly during the forthcoming festive season.

The meeting was attended by Union Health Minister, Harsh Vardhan, Principal Secretary to PM, Member (Health) NITI Aayog, Principal Scientific Advisor, Senior Scientists, officers of PMO, and other Departments of Government of India.

This is the second such meeting the Prime Minister has led in the past 48 hours and comes after the Health Ministry reported an “unprecedented” achievement this morning – that active Covid cases in the country dropped below eight lakh for the first time in 46 days.

Furthermore, the country has logged fewer than 70,000 cases per day over the past week, after reporting over 90,000 per day last month.

-CHK

J&K: Class 7 student from Anantnag a new inspiration for story writing

Tabin Reyaz

Abid Bashir

Srinagar (NVI): Far from guns and bullets, a Class 7 student from South Kashmir’s Anantnag district is a new inspiration as he is writing short stories for the benefit of society.

Tabin Reyaz son of Reyaz Ahmed Bhat, a resident of Hassan-Noor Village in Ashmuqam area of Anantnag, who studies in Class 7 but writes terrific biography and about challenges he faces in daily life in the form of short stories that have already attracted many writers in the district.  His family is feeling proud of their son for his efforts at such a young age.

Speaking to NVI, Tabin Reyaz said that since childhood, he was interested in General Knowledge and all the time he would use his pen to write about important events that took place around him.

“Last year, a quiz competition was organised at my school and I was very much confident that I would get first position but I failed to grab the first slot. Later, I wrote a short story on overconfidence and mentioned how overconfidence mars students and other people in their life,” he said, adding that “Many teachers at my school praised me for my write up.”

After abrogation of Article 370 and COVID-19 triggered lockdown, Tabin said that he got ample time to write on various topics. “My recent short story has been published. It was on the subject of Teaching,” he added. “I mentioned parents are responsible for both good and bad things in their children.”

He further said that it is the duty of parents to change and transform their children from an early age so that they can become responsible citizens in future.

“I am sure that my short stories can help all teachers, parents as well as students in their life,” he told NVI. “I am also interested in business as well and I want to become a software engineer. Everyone, my parents and my teachers are supporting me for achieving my goal.”

In his message to the young boys and girls of Kashmir, Tabin said, “My message is that work hard to fulfill your dreams and use everything in a positive way. Whosoever struggles can win. Success lies in the struggle.”

-RJV

Lashkar’s IED expert from Pak killed in Anantnag encounter: J&K Police

2 LeT militants surrender after gunfight in J&K's Kulgam
(Representational/file image)

Abid Bashir

Srinagar (NVI): Jammu and Kashmir police today said that the terrorist killed in an encounter at Larnoo area of Anantnag district of south Kashmir has been identified as Lashkar-e-Toiba’s IED expert from Pakistan.

In a statement, the J&K police spokesman said that based on a specific input regarding presence of terrorist in Larnoo area of Anantnag, a joint cordon and search operation was launched by the police, 19RR and 164Bn CRPF in the area.

“During the search operation, as the presence of the terrorist was ascertained, he was given the opportunity to surrender, however he fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party which was retaliated, leading to an encounter,” the statement said.

It said that in the ensuing encounter, one foreign terrorist was killed and his body was retrieved from the site of encounter.

“He has been identified as Nasir alias Shakeel Saab alias Shak Bhai, A category terrorist and an IED expert affiliated with LeT outfit,” the statement added.

“Incriminating materials including arms & ammunition were recovered from the site of encounter. All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation and to probe his complicity in other crimes,” the statement read.

“In this connection a case under relevant sections of law has been registered in Police Station Larnoo and investigation has been initiated,” the statement further added.

“People are requested to cooperate with police till the area is completely sanitized and cleared of all the explosive materials, if any,” J&K police said.

-CHK

Delhi’s air quality continues to remain ‘poor’

New Delhi (NVI): The national capital’s air quality was recorded in the ‘poor’ category this morning but is likely to improve slightly due to favourable wind speed.

Delhi has been witnessing a trend of poor air quality for the fast few days.

The air pollution level in Delhi had hit an eight-month high on Thursday but reduced slightly on Friday with favourable wind speed helping in dispersion of pollutants, even as the contribution of stubble burning to Delhi’s PM2.5 concentration rose to 18 per cent.

Air Quality Index (AQI) is at 294 in ITO, 256 in RK Puram, 286 in Anand Vihar, all three in ‘poor’ category, according to Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) data. AQI stands at 325 in DTU and 381 in Wazirpur, in the ‘very poor’ category.

An AQI between 0-50 is marked good, 51-100 is satisfactory, 101-200 is moderate, 201-300 is poor, 301-400 is very poor and 401-500 is considered severe.

The downward trend in the air quality of the national capital has become visible as farmers in the neighbouring states continue burning the stubble in their fields.

Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Tuesday kick-started the sprinkling of the bio-decomposer solution, prepared by Pusa Research Institute in a field at Hiranki Village in Narela area of the national capital to combat the persisting issue.

The process aims to convert stubble into compost and help in doing away with the practice of burning it.

-CHK

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