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Coronavirus cases surpass 1.26 lakh in Bangladesh; 1,621 dead

(Image source: United News of Bangladesh)

New Delhi (NVI): As Bangladesh is witnessing a spurt in the number of coronavirus cases and deaths, 39 new fatalities were reported in the last 24 hours taking the total death toll to 1,621.

In addition to this, 3,946 new cases were also detected during this period, taking the total number of Covid-19 patients in the country to 1,26,606, according to United News of Bangladesh.

So far, 51,495 people have recovered in the country after 1,829 more patients were recovered during this period.

Meanwhile, the detection rate of new patients has been recorded at 21.92 percent.

Against the total number of detected cases, the recovery rate is 40.67 percent and the mortality rate is 1.28 percent in the country.

-CHK

Ozone levels increased during lockdown: CSE

Representational image

New Delhi (NVI): An analysis done by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) of air pollution levels in 22 cities across India has revealed that ozone levels increased during the nationwide lockdown that is in place since March 25.

According to the CSE analysis, while PM2.5 and NO2 (Nitrogen dioxide) levels plummeted, invisible ozone became the most prominent pollutant in several metropolitan cities.

“While the PM2.5 and NO2 curves fell and flattened dramatically in cities – a phenomenon that hogged the national attention — tropospheric ozone pollution (henceforth ozone) increased and even breached standards in several cities: a fact that was not noticed as widely,” says the report.

According to the researchers at CSE, ozone is primarily a sunny weather problem in India that otherwise remains highly variable during the year. It is a highly reactive gas; even short-term exposure (one hour) is dangerous for those with respiratory conditions and asthma. That is why ozone has a short-term standard – one hour and eight hours, as opposed to 24 hours for other pollutants, as per the report.

Ozone is not directly emitted by any source but is formed by photochemical reactions between oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and gases in the air under the influence of sunlight and heat. Ozone can be controlled only if gases from all sources are controlled.

Instead of the official method of considering only the fixed eight-hour average (from 8 PM to 4 PM) to assess ozone levels, CSE adapted the global best practice of calculating the maximum eight-hour average of the day. This indicated a higher level of exceedance in cities.

The cities covered by the CSE analysis include Delhi-NCR (including Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurugram and Noida), Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Ujjain, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Patna, Vishakapatnam, Amritsar, Howrah, Pune, Guwahati, Lucknow and Kochi.

While particulate levels hit the lowest possible range during lockdown phases, the share of PM2.5 fraction in the overall particulate concentration increased, the analysis shows.

However, as traffic nearly stopped, the daily NO2 curve flattened in all cities.

Crop fires in April were quite extensive in Punjab and Haryana, but their impact was blunted by the overall very low background and local pollution, said the report.

“This pandemic-led change in air quality has helped us understand summer pollution. Normally, every year, winter pollution is what draws our attention. The characteristics of summer pollution are different: there are high winds, intermittent rains and thunderstorms, and high temperature and heatwaves. This is in contrast to winter — with its inversion, lower mixing height of air, and cold and calm conditions that trap the air and the pollutants in it,” says Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director-research and advocacy, CSE.

CSE has analysed trends in PM2.5, PM10, NO2, and ozone in 22 cities across 15 states and the National Capital Territory of Delhi for the period January 1, 2019 to May 31, 2020. This also includes spatial trend analysis of ozone in selected cities.

Talking about ozone exceedance, if the maximum eight-hour average during 24 hours is considered (as the US Environment Protection Agency does to capture the health risks), then more than two-thirds of the lockdown days in Delhi-NCR cities and Ahmedabad had at least one station that exceeded the standard. In Ahmedabad, the city-wide maximum eight-hour average exceeded the standard on 43 days; in Ujjain, it exceeded on 38 days.

The city-wide maximum average in Gurugram exceeded the standard on 26 days — at least one station exceeded the standard on 57 days. The city-wide eight-hour maximum average in Ghaziabad exceeded the standard on 15 days, with at least one station exceeding on 56 days. In Noida,the city-wide maximum average exceeded the standard on 12 days; at least one station exceeded on 42 days. In Delhi, the maximum eight-hour average exceeded the standard on four days, and at least one station exceeded the standard on 67 days.

Ozone is a problem during spring and summer in the north, central and the arid parts of western India. It can even increase during warmer winters in the southern and coastal cities.

-RJV/ARK

Pakistan COVID-19 tally exceeds 1.91 lakh; death toll at 3,808

New Delhi (NVI): The smart lockdown across Pakistan to combat the spread of COVID-19 has seen a drop in the number of infections and deaths in the country.

The number of confirmed cases in the country reached 1,91,022 while the death toll reached 3,808 with the reporting of 78 more deaths in the last 24 hours, according to Geo News.

Looking at the breakdown of cases, Sindh province has reported 74,070 coronavirus cases, highest among all the provinces, while Punjab has 69,536 positive cases.

On the other hand, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has recorded 23,887 cases, Balochistan is at 9,817, Gilgit-Baltistan at 1,337, Islamabad at 11,483 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is at 892 cases so far, according to media reports.

So far, nearly 77,754 people have recovered from the deadly contagion in the country after 4,283 recoveries were recorded in the last 24 hours.

-CHK

Harsh Vardhan launches eBlood services mobile app to make blood easily accessible

The eBloodServices Mobile App has easy-to-use features which will make it easy to obtain blood. (Source: @drharshvardhan)

New Delhi (NVI): Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan today launched the eBloodServices mobile app in partnership with the Indian Red Cross Society (ICRS), for easy access to blood needed for blood transfusion especially in the time of coronavirus pandemic, via video conference.

This application is developed by the E-Raktkosh team of Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) under the Digital India Scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

To begin with, the app will cater to entire Delhi-NCR, and has the facility of placing an order for up to four units in one go. The app’s scope will be expanded in future, with plans of linking more blood banks to it and also in other cities.

Harsh Vardhan said, “Many people require blood related services on regular basis because of certain medical conditions in their families. Through this app, four units of blood can be requisitioned at a time and the blood bank will wait for as long as 12 hours for the person to collect it.”

“This is a useful app and there are plans of expanding its reach gradually,” the Health Minister added.

Once the request is placed through the app, the requisite units will become visible to IRCS, NHQ blood bank in its E-Raktkosh dashboard and will allow assured delivery within the specified time. This feature will make it easy for a blood seeker to obtain blood & shall bring the added advantage of complete transparency & single window access to the service.

Harsh Vardhan furthermore praised all the voluntary blood donors who have donated blood during the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.

To meet the demand for blood in the city, the Red Cross blood bank had started conducting blood donation camps by sending mobile blood collection units to various localities in and around Delhi.

After the launch, Vardhan also presided over the managing body meeting of the Indian Red Cross Society.

There, he said the IRCS has been playing a major role during COVID-19 pandemic alongside the government, especially in maintaining an adequate supply of safe blood by issuing passes to donors and organizing donation camps, according to a Health Ministry statement.

-CHK

Nepal coronavirus tally exceeds 11,000-mark

Representational image

New Delhi (NVI): Nepal reported 434 new cases of coronavirus today, taking the national tally to 11,162, according to local media reports.

The country’s Ministry of Health and Population said, among the newly infected persons, 386 are males while 48 females. In total, 10,020 males and 1,142 females have contracted the infection in the country.

In the past 24 hours, 312 people achieved recovery and were discharged form the hospitals, taking the tally of recovery cases to 2,650.

The deadly disease has been spread across 76 districts of the country. In addition, coronavirus has spread to all districts in Nepal except Rasuwa in Bagmati Province, the ministry said.

So far, 199,737 sample tests have been performed in Nepal through the PCR, as per the reports.

Meanwhile, two more COVID-19 related deaths have been confirmed in Nepal by the health ministry today, taking the total death-toll of the disease to 26 in the country.

-RJV

IIT-Bombay scraps physical lectures for this year

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B), File photo

New Delhi (NVI): Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) will go completely online in the next semester, for the rest of the year, as students will not be called for face to face lectures in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With this move, IIT-B has become the first major educational institution in the country to scrap face to face lectures. An announcement in this regard was made by the Director of IIT Bombay, Subhasis Chaudhuri who said the decision was made after long deliberations that went on till late night yesterday. This is for the first time ever in the institute’s history that a new academic year will start with no students on the campus.

“After a long deliberation in the Senate, we have decided that the next semester will be run purely in the online mode so that there is no compromise on the safety and well being of the students,” Chaudhuri said in a Facebook post.

He further said, “The COVID-19 pandemic has made us rethink the way we impart education to our students. To ensure that our students begin the academic year without further delay, we are planning on extensive online classes details of which will be informed to all students in due course of time.”

In his FB post, Chaudhuri has also appealed for donation for students from economically less privileged families.

“A large section of our students come from economically less privileged families and would require a helping hand to equip them with the IT hardware (i.e. laptops and broadband connectivity ) to take these online classes,” the post read.

“We have estimated that we need about Rs 5 crores to help those needy students. We look forward to your overwhelming support to help these bright young minds to continue their learning without any further hindrances or delays,” he wrote.

Notably, other IITs are also likely to follow the suit on holding virtual lectures. However, no final decision has been taken yet.

Maharashtra is one of the worst affected states by Covid-19 in the country, with its capital Mumbai having the maximum density of cases.

-RJV/ARK

Pending class 10, 12 Board exams cancelled: CBSE tells SC

New Delhi (NVI): The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) today informed the Supreme Court that it will not conduct class 10th Board examination while the students of Class 12th will be given an option of appearing in exams after conditions are conducive.

Class 12 students will be evaluated on their performance in the last three school exams. They can also appear for the board exam at a later date to improve performance, in case they are not satisfied with the marks given by the board.

Meanwhile, CISCE too will not conduct ICSE, ISC exams this year. However, ICSE doesn’t agree to give option to students to write exam later.

SC had last week asked CBSE to consider scrapping the class 10 and Class 12 board exams in view of the growing cases of coronavirus infections in the country.

The court made this suggestion responding to a plea from a group of parents, who have asked for cancellation of the remaining board exams citing the Covid-19 pandemic.

In addition to this, the announcement by CBSE is also going to impact the admission process of all central universities as well as the national entrance exams including JEE Main and NEET 2020.

-CHK

NASA shares pics of Lonar Lake in Maharashtra that turned pink mysteriously

(Image credits: Instagram/NASAEarth)

New Delhi (NVI): The oval-shaped Lonar lake in Maharashtra’s Bidhana district turned pink recently during the early days of this month. This unusual and mysterious phenomenon was observed by NASA Earth which was detected via its Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8.

The Lonar lake was formed after a meteorite hit the Earth around 50,000 years ago, and is a popular tourist hub and also attracts scientists from across the world. The mean diameter of the lake is around 1.2 km.

Located in India’s west-central state of Maharashtra, the lake sits in the volcanic basalt of the Deccan Plateau and is the only “fresh” impact structure in basalt on Earth.

After the colour of the lake turned pink, not only the locals were surprised, but it also intrigued nature enthusiasts and scientists as well.

According to a statement by NASA’s Earth Observatory, scientists speculated that the change in colour could be a result of microscopic life that thrives in water with high salt concentrations like Lake Hillier in Australia. Lonar Lake’s color shift occurred over the span of a few days.

However, as of yet, the scientists could not claim that with certainty and are awaiting lab results of the samples collected from the mysterious lake to ascertain the cause of colour change.

-CHK/ARK

Monsoon arrives in Delhi 2 days in advance: IMD

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New Delhi (NVI): Delhi-NCR region today received the first monsoon rainfall as it arrived in the national capital two days ahead of its usual onset, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said today.

According to the normal onset date, monsoon makes arrival in Delhi around June 27. The weather department has also predicted heavy rains at some places in the national capital and NCR areas.

IMD said the rains will also cover parts of Haryana, entire Uttar Pradesh, most parts of Punjab and parts of Rajasthan.

Meanwhile, the national capital is expected to experience rainfall for the next 2-3 days and the temperature in Delhi is expected to hover around 36 degrees Celsius.

Apart from that, there will be fairly widespread rainfall in eastern UP in the next 4-5 days. Heavy rainfall has also been predicted in parts of the Western Himalayan region on June 25 and 26, the MeT department said.

According to weather experts, the earlier than usual arrival of the monsoon in Delhi is due to a cyclonic circulation, which moved towards southwest Uttar Pradesh on June 19 and June 20, creating favourable conditions.

However, monsoon is active in the southern states. Heavy rainfall is forecast for the next five days in the southern states and extremely heavy rainfall is likely to hit in Kerala on June 26 and 27.

-RJV/ARK

WHO says Covid tally will reach 1 crore mark in the next week

New Delhi (NVI): Total coronavirus cases in the world will touch the one crore mark within the next week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned.

Many countries in North, South, and Central America, are still struggling with unprecedented community transmission, said Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s emergency programme, at a WHO press briefing. He said the pandemic has not yet reached its peak in many countries in the Americas.

Meanwhile, more than 9.4 million cases (over 90 lakh) have been confirmed worldwide, while more than 4,80,000 people have died due to the deadly contagion, according to John Hopkins University tally.

More than a third of these cases came from Mexico, Chile, Peru, Brazil, and the US.

The US remains the worst-affected country in the world, where more than 2.3 million coronavirus cases have been recorded. New York, New Jersey and Connecticut will require travelers from states with high cases to quarantine for two weeks. At least 26 US states are seeing rising infections.

WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has also said that the global tally is expected to reach 10 million (1 crore) next week while calling for urgent steps to suppress transmission and save lives.

The coronavirus cases in India have reached 4,73,105, with highest single-day rise of 16,922 cases in the last 24 hours.

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