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COVID: UN solidarity flight to carry medical supplies to African nations

New Delhi (NVI): In a bid to support efforts to fight COVID-19 and ensure that health workers are protected in Africa, the first UN ‘Solidarity Flight’ today departed from Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, carrying vital medical supplies to all African nations.

“The Solidarity Flight is part of a larger effort to ship lifesaving medical supplies to 95 countries,” said WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is also an Ethiopian microbiologist.

The WHO cargo is being transported by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), and includes face shields, gloves, goggles, gowns, masks, medical aprons and thermometers, as well as ventilators, the global health body said in a statement.

The cargo also includes a large quantity of medical supplies donated by the Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Jack Ma Foundation Initiative to reverse COVID-19 in Africa, WHO said.

The African Union, through the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) is providing technical support and coordination for the distribution of the supplies.

“Commercial flights are grounded and medical cargo is stuck. We can stop this virus in its tracks, but we’ve got to work together. WFP is committed to getting vital medical supplies to front lines and shielding medical workers as they save lives,” said David Beasley, WFP’s Executive Director.

“Our air bridges need to be fully funded to do this, and we stand ready to transport frontline health and humanitarian workers as well as medical cargo,” he added.

The crucial WHO cargo includes one million face masks, as well as personal protective equipment, which will be enough to protect health workers while treating more than 30 000 patients across the continent and laboratory supplies to support surveillance and detection, the health body said.

WHO’s logistics hub in Dubai, staffed by a team of seven, has been working around the clock to dispatch over 130 shipments of PPE and laboratory supplies to 95 countries across all six WHO regions.

A team of 25 WFP aviation and logistics staff is based at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, managing the 24-hour operation. They manage warehouse space for dry bulk, temperature-controlled and cold storage cargo and its onward transport by air. WFP also provides dedicated cargo tracking, warehouse management and customer service to countries across Africa in collaboration with the Africa CDC, said WHO.

“The medical supplies are timely as the continent still has a window of opportunity to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Collective and fast actions as exemplified by the Solidarity Flight are therefore critical,” said John Nkengasong, Director of the Africa CDC.

“As part of a global appeal to raise a US$2 billion for the COVID-19 response, launched by the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on 25 March, WFP is calling for US$350 million to establish vital humanitarian hubs around the world to facilitate the storage and dispatch of essential medical cargo, set up air transport links for cargo and personnel, contract charter vessels for shipping services, and provide passenger air and Medevac services for humanitarian and health workers,” said WHO.

This includes such Solidary Flights through Addis Ababa. Currently, WFP has received only 24% (US$84 million) of the US$350 million it requires to provide these vital common services to the global humanitarian community, WHO said.

DRDO develops COVID sample collection kiosk COVSACK

(Source: @SpokespersonMoD)

New Delhi (NVI): Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad has developed a COVID Sample Collection Kiosk (COVSACK) for use by healthcare workers for taking COVID-19 samples from suspected infected patients.

This has added another product to the portfolio of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to combat Coronavirus, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement today.

A patient under test walks into the Kiosk and a nasal or oral swab is taken by health care professional from outside through the built-in gloves, the Ministry added.

The Kiosk is automatically disinfected without the need for human involvement, making the process free of infection spread.

The shielding screen of kiosk cabin protects the health care worker from the aerosols/droplet transmission while taking the sample. This reduces the requirements of PPE change by health care workers, the ministry said.

A patient has to walks into the kiosk and a nasal or oral swab is taken by health care professional from outside through the built-in gloves.

After the patient leaves the Kiosk, four nozzle sprayers mounted in the kiosk cabin disinfect the empty chamber by spraying disinfectant mist for a period of 70 seconds. It is further flushed with water & UV light disinfection. The system is ready for next use in less than two minutes. Voice command can be given through two-way communication system integrated with the COVSACK. It is possible to configure COVSACK to be used either from inside or outside as required by the medical professionals, the MoD said in a statement.

The COVSACK costs nearly Rs one lakh and the identified industry based at Belgaum, Karnataka can support 10 units per day. The DRDO has designed and developed two units and handed over these to ESIC Hospital, Hyderabad after successful testing.

The unit has been developed by DRDL in consultation with the doctors of Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), Hyderabad.

Eight new coronavirus cases in J&K, tally mounts to 278

J&K Govt bans private practice by all SKIMS medical professionals
SKIMS, Srinagar (File)

Abid Bashir

Srinagar (NVI): The Jammu and Kashmir government today said that eight new cases have been tested positive in the Union Territory taking the overall tally to 278.

“For now our luck seems to be holding!! Eight new cases, 14 recoveries. New cases: six from Kashmir and two from Jammu division. 14 recoveries all from Kashmir. Total cases 278,” tweeted JK government spokesperson Rohit Kansal.

As per the daily bulletin by J&K government, 14 patients who were earlier tested positive for the Covid-19 pandemic recovered and were discharged from SKIMS Soura and Chest Diseases hospital Srinagar. The official figures suggest that Srinagar tops the list of positive cases at 73.

“In Kashmir, Bandipora district has 53 positive cases, Baramulla 40, Budgam 11, Pulwama 3, Shopian 14, Kupwara 23, Ganderbal 5, Kulgam 5, and Anantnag 1,” the bulletin read. “In Jammu region, Jammu district has 23 positive cases, Kishtwar 1, Udhampur19, Rajouri 3 and Samba 4,” it said.

The government said that in J&K UT total number of persons under observation are 55,498. “Personas under home quarantine are 7,760 and 244 are in hospital quarantine,” it said.

The J&K government has urged people to strictly adhere to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address made today on precautions to be taken to fight the pandemic.

“Take special care of the elderly in homes, especially those who have chronic disease. People are requested to stay indoors, strict implement social distancing measures, disclose recent travel history and report any contact with positive cases voluntarily,” the bulletin read.

It may be recalled that with Srinagar witnessing a surge in positive cases, the Srinagar administration has declared old Srinagar also known as downtown, as a Red Zone. This was done on the directions of Baseer Ahmed Khan, JK LG GC Murmu’s advisor. There is a complete ban on entry and exit to the red zone areas.

1,211 confirmed Covid cases, 31 deaths in the last 24 hours: Health Ministry

New Delhi (NVI): The Union Health Ministry today said that in the last 24 hours, 1,211 confirmed cases and 31 deaths have been reported due to coronavirus across the country.

During the daily press briefing, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health and Family Welfare said the fresh number of cases and deaths in the last 24 hours have taken the overall tally to 10,363.

“Yesterday, in a single day, 179 people have been diagnosed and found cured. If we look at the positive cases so far, then 10,363 cases have been found in the country, out of which 1,211 cases were found positive. A total of 31 deaths have been reported since yesterday, leading to an overall tally of 339 deaths,” said the Joint Secretary.

He added that 1,036 cases have recovered so far.

Apart from that, the Joint Secretary said that India has 602 dedicated COVID-19 hospitals having 106,719 isolation beds and over 12,000 ICU beds are ready.

Agarwal said that an evaluation of each district and city will be done till 20 April.

Meanwhile, total Covid-19 cases in India reached 10,815 at the end of the day today, according to the Health Ministry data. The death toll has climbed to 353 cases.

There are 9272 active cases, 1189 cured/discharged and one migrated case.

COVID: 2.31 lakh samples tested so far, says ICMR

Raman Gangakhedkar, head scientist at ICMR.

New Delhi (NVI): The Indian Council of Medical Research today said that it has tested 2,31,000 samples for coronavirus so far, including 21,635 samples yesterday.

During the daily press briefing by Union Health Ministry today, Raman Gangakhedkar, head scientist at ICMR said that 18,644 tests were in ICMR network of labs and 2,991 were from private labs.

“As of now, we have 166 labs under the ICMR network. 70 labs which were belonging to private sector, they have already been approved, as of now,” he said.

The ICMR scientist said that they have enough kits to cover for a very long time.

“In addition, we have placed order for about 33 lakh RT-PCR testing kits, consignment of 37 lakh rapid testing kits too is expected to arrive very soon,” he added.

COVID: Taiwan wants to know if China told WHO about human transmission

New Delhi (NVI): Suspecting a “cover up”, Taiwan is vigorously trying to find out whether or not China notified the World Health Organisation (WHO) in December last year that coronavirus could be transmitted from human to human after detection of some cases in Wuhan.

Taiwan insists that it had warned WHO of the possibility of human-to-human transmission in an email sent to the WHO on December 31, when the COVID-19 outbreak first came to public knowledge.

According to Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) spokesman Chuang Jen-hsiang, it had learned about the emergence of atypical pneumonia cases in Wuhan on December 31, 2019, which was later known as COVID-19, and immediately alerted the WHO and the Chinese side through email, requesting them to verify.

Atypical pneumonia is what China commonly referred to as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Chuang said, stressing that the disease itself, also caused by coronavirus, is transmittable from human to human.

Taiwan’s Health Minister Chen Shih-chung asked whether China, as a WHO member, informed the world health body of the seven cases and human-to-human transmission, Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) reported.

He asked that If the Chinese did not notify the WHO, “what else would be called a cover up?” and “If (the Chinese) did report it, what else would be deemed a dereliction of duty (on the part of the WHO)?”

The WHO has rejected Taiwan’s claims that it had warned the global health body that the novel coronavirus may be transmitted from human to human.

An agitated Taiwan’s government has now released the email it wrote to the WHO on December 31 last year.

“News resources today indicate that at least seven atypical pneumonia cases were reported in Wuhan, CHINA. Their health authorities replied to the media that the cases were believed not SARS; however the samples are still under examination, and cases have been isolated for treatment. I would greatly appreciate it if you have relevant information to share with us. Thank you very much in advance for your attention to this matter,” it read.

Chen, who is also head of Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), argued that while Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control did not actually mention “human-to-human” transmissions in the email, it had “strongly hinted” at the possibility, the CNA reported.

He said the letter clearly indicated that health authorities in China confirmed seven patients with atypical pneumonia had been isolated for treatment.

“If being isolated for treatment is not a warning, what situation will constitute a warning?” Chen said.

On Friday, international media, including the Agence France-Presse, a news agency based in Paris, reported that the WHO denied Taiwan’s claim that it mentioned the possibility of human-to-human transmission in its email.

Responding to this, Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) spokesman Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) accused the WHO of “garbling the email content” in a phone interview with CNA Friday night.

Although Taiwan did not “directly” point out the possibility for human-to-human transmission in that email due to confused information at that time, its email “strongly hinted” of such a scenario based on the characteristics of SARS and observations that patients in China were isolated, Chuang said.

The WHO’s website states that on Dec. 31, WHO’s China office was informed of several cases of unknown pneumonia, and by Jan. 3, Chinese authorities had informed the WHO of 44 cases: https://www.who.int/csr/don/05-january-2020-pneumonia-of-unkown-cause-china/en/

U.S. officials and others have also criticized the WHO for saying there was only limited human-to-human transmission as late as Jan. 14 and not announcing the virus could be transmitted from person to person until 10 days later.

The WHO, however, has argued that it actively dealt with the outbreak, getting information from China and seeking details on its own, while also passing on findings to the global community.

Taiwan is not a member of the WHO because of China’s objections and it lost its observer status in the WHO’s World Health Assembly in the past few years due to tense relations between the current administration and Beijing.

Taiwanese officials have argued that its exclusion means it cannot easily obtain information from or share its expertise with the WHO about disease outbreaks or other health issues.

COVID-19 deaths reach 100 in Pakistan; cases top 5,800

New Delhi (NVI): The total number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan has reached 5,829, while 100 people have died of the disease so far, according to Geo news.

Around 1,100 COVID-19 patients have recovered from the virus in the country, including Sindh and Punjab province.

Nearly half of the total confirmed cases are from Punjab province alone, at 2,856.

Looking at the breakdown of cases, the Sindh province has reported 1,518 cases while Balochistan has 248 cases so far. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province has 800 cases, Islamabad 131, Gilgit Baltistan 233 and 43 in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Meanwhile, the Pakistan government delayed the decision on extention of lockdown in the country till today, in a meeting of the National Coordination Committee chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan held on Monday.

Total number of COVID-19 cases in Nepal climbs to 16

Representational image

New Delhi (NVI): Two of three from a family in Kathmandu have tested positive for COVID-19, taking the total number of cases to 16, according to Nepal media.

With confirmation of transmission in two more people, the mother and son had shown traces of infection in Rapid Diagnostic Test carried out on Monday.

Both the patients were taken to Patan Hospital on detection of antibodies and their samples were sent for further testing through PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) method.

Further, a swab test at National Public Health Laboratory confirmed transmission in two of the samples while the result for the third sample is awaited, as per media reports.

However, the Ministry of Health and Population, Nepal, in its latest update informed that while the two people tested positive, the result of the third sample came out as negative.

Earlier on Monday, authorities also sealed the apartment building as a precaution after they were confirmed positive in RDT.

So far, there are 15 active cases of coronavirus in Nepal and 1 person has recovered, with no deaths reported till now.

Coronavirus cases top 1,000 in Bangladesh; 46 dead

New Delhi (NVI): Bangladesh saw an alarming rise in coronavirus cases today as 209 more cases were reported with COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, raising the total number of infected people to 1,012.

Besides, 7 more people died from the virus raising the number of total deaths to 39, according to United News of Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, no new recoveries from the disease have been reported in the last 24 hours.

In addition to this, young people have joined the government, political parties and other social organisations to extend support to thousands of low-income people, especially those living from hand to mouth, during the country’s lockdown to curb the transmission of coronavirus, according to media reports.

The low-income group is the worst sufferer as economic activities have almost come to a grinding halt after the government announced holidays since March 26.

YouTube removes NVI video having message of peace

New Delhi: A video, with a message of peace, has been removed by YouTube from the News Vibes of India (NVI) account, by making a bizarre claim that it violates its “community guidelines”.

In the video, a Kashmiri woman is seen desperately urging her militant son to shun the path of violence and return home to his family.

The woman, a resident of Kakapore in Pulwama district of Kashmir, is the mother of Asif Majid Dar, who has recently joined militancy.

The woman, with the photo of her son in a mobile phone, is heard saying that the family is very disturbed ever since Asif joined militancy. She says that everyone in the family is worried.

“If he is with anyone, please send him back home…We are left with nothing,” the woman pleads.

Indian Army’s Srinagar-based Chinar Corps has urged Asif to listen to his mother’s appeal and assured him that it will assist and help him in every way possible to safely return home.

The NVI posted the video on YouTube on April 12 with the objective of spreading the message of peace and the hope that someone may see it and help the distraught woman.

The YouTube, however, removed it and sent an email to the NVI, saying the video was “flagged to us for review” and “Upon review, we’ve determined that it violates our guidelines and we’ve removed it from YouTube.”

It, however, did not specify as to which guideline was violated. It only gave a link for studying its Community Guidelines.

It added that “if you believe this was a mistake, we’d like to hear from you.”

To appeal the removal, it gave a link to a “form”, which has a Feedback section. NVI sent its appeal on the ‘Feedback’ section yesterday but there has been no response to it.

A reply to the email address, from which the message from YouTube was received, bounced, with a message ‘Address not found’.

In its appeal, the shocked NVI contended that “by posting the video, we were just trying to spread the message of peace”. It questioned “Does spreading the message of peace go against the guidelines of YouTube?”

It wrote that “for the sake of fairness, YouTube should have heard us, before removing the video through an ex-parte action.”

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