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Covid-19 cases in Afghanistan rise to 3,778, death toll 109

Representational Image (Credit: TOLO News)

New Delhi (NVI): Afghanistan witnessed a further spike in coronavirus cases with 215 new cases, which takes the overall tally to 3,778 across the country, Afghan media reported.

In the last 24 hours, three COVID-19 patients have died, bringing total deaths in the country to 109. Meanwhile, there have been 472 recoveries so far.

Of the 215 fresh cases, 57 cases were reported in Herat, 50 in Kabul, 31 in Balkh, 17 in Kandahar, 11 in Jawzjan, 9 in Paktia, 8 in Ghor, 7 in Kunar, 6 in Logar, 5 in Nangarhar, 4 in Faryab, 3 in Paktika, 3 in Zabul, 2 in Laghman and 2 in Khost, reports TOLO news.

Over 15,000 samples have been tested so far, which analysts say is too low a number when compared to the country’s population. Apart from this, there have been reports that lockdown rules are not being followed in Kabul and other major Afghan cities.

Meanwhile, the Afghan health ministry said that four COVID-19 patients recovered in Herat province in the last 24 hours.

To contain the COVID-19 pandemic, the Afghan government has put big cities including Kabul under quarantine since late March.

In a latest effort to support the COVID-19 response, the government has extended the quarantine for a third time for a further 21 days which is expected to end on May 30, as per media reports.

Fact check: WhatsApp message on 10-day military lockdown in Mumbai fake

New Delhi (NVI): A viral message is doing rounds on social media, especially WhatsApp, claiming that there will be a military lockdown in Mumbai for 10 days, starting Saturday.

The message reads: “Entire Mumbai military lockdown for 10 days from Saturday please stock everything Only milk and medicine will be available.”

Taking note of the message being forwarded on WhatsApp, the Fact Check unit of Press Information Bureau (PIB) today said that it is fake and no Army or Navy personnel are being deployed in Mumbai for law and order situation.

“Claim: A #WhatsApp forward says there’ll be a military lockdown in Mumbai for 10 days, starting from Saturday

“#PIBFactCheck: Message is #Fake. No Army/Navy personnel are being deployed for maintaining law and order in the city,” PIB tweeted.

“Beware of panic mongers,” PIB said.

Social media platforms are flooded with fake news and misinformation around coronavirus. To counter such viral fake messages, PIB has initiated Fact Check handle. One can also submit such messages or claims on PIB’s official website.

CBSE to conduct pending class 10, 12 board exams from Jul 1 to 15

(File/Representational image)

New Delhi (NVI): Clearing air around the remaining papers of class 10 and 12, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) today said that it will conduct the pending exams between July 1 and 15.

The exams were suspended midway following the coronavirus outbreak in India and the subsequent nationwide lockdown.

Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank made an announcement in this regard today.

“There was a long wait for final dates for the pending exams of CBSE class 10 and 12; today the dates for these exams have been finalised between 1.07.2020 to 15.07.2020. I extend my wishes to all students going for these exams,” the HRD minister said in a video message.

The remaining board exams of Class 10 in northeast Delhi which were canceled due to anti—CAA protests, much before COVID-19 lockdown, will also be held during the first half of July.

While class 12 students have to appear for 12 core papers, class 10 students of north east Delhi will be sitting for six pending papers. However, CBSE will soon announce the exact dates.

AIIB approves $500 mn loan for India to combat COVID-19

New Delhi (NVI): India today signed a USD 500 million “COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Project” with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) today to take forward its efforts in combating the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthen its public health preparedness.

“This is the first-ever health sector support from the Bank to India,” the Ministry of Finance said in a statement.

The agreement was signed by Sameer Kumar Khare, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance and Rajat Misra, Director General, AIIB.

The funds provided will support all the states and Union Territories across the country and address the needs of infected people, population at-risk, medical and emergency personnel and service providers, medical and testing facilities, and national and animal health agencies.

Khare said that AIIB’s timely assistance will help the government to strengthen the national health systems. Responding to the urgency of the pandemic, this project was prepared in record time, underlying the efforts of the officials from the Finance and Health Ministries and the AIIB.

The funds will enable to enhance disease detection capacities by scaling up procurement of PPE, oxygen delivery systems, and medicines, build resilient health systems to provide core public health, prevention, and patient management functions to manage COVID-19 and future disease outbreaks.

In addition to this, it will also support the research works on COVID-19 by Indian and other global institutions working in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), address significant negative externalities expected in the event of a widespread COVID-19 outbreak and strengthen public structures for the coordination and management of the project.

DJ Pandian, AIIB vice-president (Investment Operations), said, “Building a resilient health system that can effectively treat COVID-19 patients and prevent its spread is the immediate priority. This funding will address this need and strengthen India’s capacity to effectively manage future disease outbreaks.”

Today, about 75 per cent of new infectious diseases begin with human-to-animal contact, including HIV/AIDS, Ebola, and SARS, the Finance Ministry said. The project will develop capacity and systems to detect existing and emerging zoonoses, support biomedical research on COVID-19 by Indian institutions, and upgrade viral research and diagnostic laboratories for testing and research, it added.

The project is being financed by the World Bank and AIIB in the amount of $1.5 billion, of which $1.0 billion will be provided by World Bank and $500 million will be provided by AIIB, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

The project will be implemented by the National Health Mission (NHM), the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Study finds how prehistoric birds may have survived mass extinction

(Image courtesy: Central News Agency, Taiwan)

New Delhi (NVI): Taiwanese researchers have come up with a study on how prehistoric birds may have managed to survive when an asteroid struck 66 million years ago, wiping out three quarters of life on Earth, including dinosaurs.

The scientists have said that they have discovered features in the teeth of prehistoric birds that could offer clues to how they survived the mass extinction, reports Central News Agency (CNA) Taiwan.

The National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (NSRRC) in Taiwan has summarised a paper published by a group of Taiwanese scientists last month, in which they analysed the structure of the birds’ teeth and those of their ancestors.

The paper claims that birds had probably evolved to feed on a wide range of food sources, including fruits, seeds and insects. This would have reduced their dependence on any one species.

During the study, the teeth of five ancient bird species were analyzed and compared with the teeth of the two-legged dinosaurs called theropods, from which they had evolved, CNA reports.

(Image credit: CNA)

It was discovered that the birds lacked a certain layer in their teeth called the porous mantle dentin, which helps teeth absorb shock and prevent them from cracking when tearing into flesh.

According to the paper, the disappearance of this layer in the birds’ teeth indicated that they had moved away from a carnivore diet. The finding also confirmed that a “significant transformation” had occurred between the feeding habits of ancient birds and their dinosaur ancestors.

The scientists further wrote in the paper that this evolution “substantially elevated the degree of survival adaptability of birds at the time” and could be one of the reasons that contributed to the group’s survival.

The paper, titled “Ultramicrostructural reductions in teeth: implications for dietary transition from nonavian dinosaurs to birds,” was published on April 21 in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, CNA reported.

Pakistan to ease lockdown even as COVID-19 cases rise

(Image source: Dawn.com)

New Delhi (NVI): Pakistan is witnessing a rapid increase in the positive cases of coronavirus with more than a 1,500 cases being reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total cases to 26,806 with at least 622 fatalities being recorded so far.

Looking at the breakdown of cases, Punjab province has reported 10,033 coronavirus cases, highest among all the provinces, while Sindh has 9,691 positive cases.

On the other hand, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has recorded 4,327 cases, Balochistan is at 1,725, Gilgit-Baltistan at 394, Islamabad at 558 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is at 78 cases so far, according to Geo News.

Over 7,500 patients have also recovered from the virus so far.

The country will start easing its lockdown measures from tomorrow even as the nation is witnessing a rapid spike in coronavirus cases on a daily basis.

Coronavirus cases cross 13,000-mark in Bangladesh

Bangladesh lockdown

New Delhi (NVI): The total number of deaths from coronavirus continues to rise in Bangladesh as 7 more people died during the period, taking the total casualties in the country to 206.

Besides, a whopping 709 new cases of coronavirus infection were reported during this period, raising the number of such cases in the country to 13,134, according to United News of Bangladesh.

Across the country, there are 615 institutions currently ready to accommodate around 30,955 people for institutional quarantine.

In addition to this, Indian citizens stranded in Bangladesh due to the Covid-19 lockdown have started leaving for home, with 168 students leaving in the first phase by an Air India flight.

The batch of Indian citizens are students at various medical colleges in Dhaka, and were taken to Srinagar in India.

New 80-km long road to curtail Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage time

New Delhi (NVI): Defence Minister Rajnath Singh today inaugurated a new 80-km road from Dharchula in Uttarakhand to Lipulekh (China Border), that will significantly curtail Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrimage time from 2-3 weeks earlier to 1 week.

On the occasion, the Defence Minister also flagged off a convoy of vehicles from Pithoragarh to Gunji through video conferencing, the Ministry of Defence said.

Rajnath expressed confidence that local trade and economic growth in the region would receive a boost with the operationalisation of this roadway.

The road originates from Ghatiabagarh and terminates at Lipulekh Pass, the gateway to Kailash-Mansarovar. In this 80 kilometer road, the altitude rises from 6,000 to 17,060 feet.

With the completion of this project, the arduous trek through treacherous high-altitude terrain can now be avoided by the pilgrims of Kailash-Mansarovar Yatra, MoD said in a statement. “At present, the travel to Kailash-Mansarovar takes around two to three weeks through Sikkim or Nepal routes. Lipulekh route had a trek of 90 Km through high altitude terrain and the elderly yatris faced lot of difficulties,” MoD said in a statement.

The other two road ways via Sikkim and Nepal are along. They entailed approximately 20 per cent land journeys on Indian roads and 80 per cent land journeys in China. With the opening of Ghatiabgarh-Lipulekh road, this ratio has been reversed. Now Pilgrims to Manasarovar will traverse 84 per cent land journeys on Indian Roads and only 16 per cent land Journeys in China.

While congratulating the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) engineers and personnel on the occasion, the Defence Minister also mourned the loss of lives during the construction of this road.

According to Director General of BRO Lt Gen Harpal Singh, the construction of this road was hampered due to multiple problems. Constant snowfall, steep rise in altitude and extremely low temperatures restricted the working season to five months. Kailash-Mansarovar Yatra took place in the working season from June to October and it coincided with move of locals and their logistics as well as movement of traders (for trade with China) thus further reducing the daily hours for construction, the Ministry said.

Apart from this, there were numerous flash floods and cloud bursts over last few years which led to extensive damages, MoD said. “In the initial 20 kilometers, the mountains have hard rock and are near vertical due to which BRO has lost many lives and 25 equipment were also badly damaged due to falling into Kali River. Despite all odds, in last two years, BRO could increase its output by 20 times by creating multiple working points and inducting modern technology equipment. Helicopters were also extensively used to induct hundreds of tons of stores/equipment into this sector,” it added.

Also present on the occasion were Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat, Army Chief General M M Naravane, Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar, Lok Sabha Member of Parliament from Almora (Uttarakhand) Ajay Tamta and senior officials of Ministry of Defence and BRO.

PM pays tribute to Tagore

New Delhi (NVI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi today paid tributes to Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore on his 159th birth anniversary.

Taking to Twitter, PM Modi wrote: “Tributes to Gurudev Tagore on his Jayanti. Gifted in several fields, he made a strong contribution towards India’s freedom movement.

“His clarity of thought and expression were always outstanding.”

Rabindranath Tagore was born in Calcutta in 1861. He became the first Indian to win Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. He is known for his literary work ‘Gitanjali’ or ‘Song Offerings’, a collection of 103 English prose poems.

Tagore is famous by many names – Gurudev, Kabiguru, Biswakabi and often referred to as “the Bard of Bengal”. From India’s ‘Jan Gan Man’ to Bangladesh’s ‘Amar Sona Bangla’, Sri Lanka’s national anthem is also based on Tagore’s poem.

WATCH | INS Jalashwa crew ready for testing Indian evacuees at Male

The crew of Indian Navy ship INS Jalashwa all set with the necessary safety and medical precautions and testing of the evacuees just prior to embarking on the ship. The premises of Male airport were utilised as a staging area for evacuees. They were screened and issued IDs before boarding the ship. INS ‘Jalashwa’, a Sanskrit name for the Hippopotamus, is an amphibious assault ship that has been engaged in evacuating Indians stranded in the island nation under Operation ‘Samudra Setu’. Another ship- INS Magar has also been pressed into service and both the ships will do multiple rounds to bring back over 3,000 Indians stranded in the Maldives. Read more

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