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Sarpanch shot dead by terrorists in J&K’s Anantnag

Representational Picture

Abid Bashir

Srinagar (NVI): A sarpanch (village head) was today shot dead by terrorists at Lukbawan village in Larkipora area of Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district, police officials said.

A senior police officer said that militants fired at Ajay Pandita, leaving him seriously injured. Pandita was the sarpanch of Lukbawan, Larkipora Panchayati Halqa in Anantnag district.

“He was taken to Government Medical College (GMC) Anantnag for treatment but he had died on the way,” he said.

ID card of the deceased sarpanch

Principal, GMC Anantnag, Dr Showkat Jeelani said that Pandita was declared brought dead. A massive search operation has been launched to nab those involved in the attack.

Kashmir Zone Police also tweeted: “Today at about 1800hrs some unknown #terrorists fired upon one #Congress Sarpanch identified as Ajay Pandit at #Lokbawan #Anantnag who later on #succumbed to his injuries at hospital. #Police is on the spot. Further details shall follow.”

COVID cases in Afghanistan climb to 20,917 death toll at 369

New Delhi (NVI): The Afghan authorities confirmed 575 new coronavirus cases in Afghanistan in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 20,917, according to Afghan media reports.

Among the fresh cases, Kabul was on the top of the list with 193 new cases, followed by Herat with 151.

Other provinces reporting cases were Kandahar (39), Paktia (7), Nangarhar 23), Badghis (13), Takhar (5), Logar (22), Nimruz (10), Wardak (7), Parwan (13).

Likewise, 3 cases in Lagman, 39 in Helmand, 26 in Kunar, 10 in Ghor, 8 in Zabul, 1 in Badakhshan and 5 in Daikundi.

The country’s Ministry of Public Health said, 48,305 people have been tested for coronavirus in the country so far.

At least, 2,171 people have recovered while 369 died from the respiratory disease in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan government announced restriction guidance for the next three months.

According to the guidance wearing masks in public is mandatory, any gathering of more than 10 people, funeral ceremonies and parties are totally banned, as per media reports.

In addition, all party wedding halls, hotels, gyms, auditoriums, parks, and other public sites including all educational centers would remain closed for the next three months. Under the plan, all educational centers could continue their activities via online platforms.

Unlock 1.0: Malls, hotels, religious places reopen, conditions apply

Representational image

New Delhi (NVI): As the fifth phase of lockdown unfolds across the country with the Centre’s ‘Unlock 1.0’ strategy to contain the spread of coronavirus, shopping malls, religious places, hotels and restaurants reopened in most of the states from today, after more than two months of sustained lockdown.

However, states like Maharashtra and Goa have been barred from opening shopping malls and religious places for now.

The reopening is a part of Phase 1 of the three-phase plan for a calibrated exit from the lockdown, as per the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

In addition to this, the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) have been issued by the Health Ministry for malls, restaurants and hotels and are advisory in nature, while the Centre has left it to the states to finetune the details.

The SOPs include measures like allowing only asymptomatic staff and guests inside the premises and proper crowd management.

Safety guidelines like following social distancing protocols, wearing a mask, and installing the ‘Aarogya Setu’ mobile app has been made mandatory for people visiting these places.

In the malls, cinema halls, gaming arcades and children play areas will continue to be in the prohibited segment.

The temples, mosques, and churches have painted social distancing boxes where the devotees will have to stand in queue and wait for their turn, while masks have been made mandatory for all, including the priests as well.

According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare guidelines, touching of idols or holy books, choir or singing groups, and physical offerings like prasad, distribution of holy water will not be allowed.

Restaurants have also been asked to encourage takeaways instead of dine-in.

Health Secy reviews Covid-19 status in select districts seeing surge in cases

Preeti Sudan (File photo)

New Delhi (NVI): Senior Health Ministry officials including Health Secretary Preeti Sudan and Rajesh Bhushan, OSD, MoHFW today held a high level review meeting via video conference with officials from 45 municipalities/municipal corporations across 38 districts in ten states, that are witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases.

The officials with whom the Health Secretary interacted included the District Collectors, Municipal Commissioners, Chief Medical Officers, Superintendent of District Hospitals and Principle of Medical Colleges, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

The 38 districts are from the following states and Union Territories: Maharashtra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh.

During the meeting, the main issues discussed were the widespread infection in densely populated urban areas, with areas that shared public amenities; importance of house-to-house surveys; prompt testing followed by prompt isolation and clinical management of cases and containment strategy to be implemented.

In a statement health ministry said, “State officials were advised on the measures to be taken in the containment zones for case management and buffer zones surveillance activities and promotion of COVID appropriate behaviour.”

To reduce the case fatality rate, the officials were briefed on measures to be taken like prioritising the high-risk and vulnerable segments like elderly people and people with co-morbidities while contact-tracing to prevent deaths; active surveillance measures, adequate testing and promoting health seeking behaviour for timely detection of cases; ensuring timely shifting of patients without escalating the symptoms.

Regarding infrastructure and human resource management for the containment of COVID-19, the state officials were told to ensure adequate planning for health infrastructure should be taken up; adequate number of surveillance teams to be provided; a system to be put in place for bed availability management, Centres of Excellence to provide hand-holding for medical professionals and senior officers to be deployed for hospitals to offer help to citizens to find health services as per their need.

While speaking on field governance, Municipal authorities were advised to take leadership and put the whole municipal infrastructure for containment measures using the ‘whole of Government approach’.

It was also highlighted that along with COVID-19 management efforts, care needs to be given to the regular and essential health services that are also available for the citizens.

The officials stressed upon the areas that need constant attention included active house-to-house survey for timely detection; augmentation of the survey teams; efficient ambulance management; efficient triaging of patients at the hospitals and bed management; clinical management of the hospitalised cases through rotational 24*7 teams to ensure reduction in the fatality rates they were also advised to ensure that the testing results were returned by the labs in time for ensuring early identification and timely treatment.

It was also suggested to involve the elected representatives in the rural areas for cooperating with the district health authorities for confidence building and timely accessing of available health services. States were reminded to activate the fever clinics for detection of SARI/ILI cases in the buffer zones. In view of the lockdown being eased and curbs being lifted, States were also advised to make a district wise prospective plan for the coming months.

So far, a total of 1,24,430 people has been cured, 5,137 of whom were cured in the last 24 hours taking the total recovery rate to 48.49 per cent. The total number of active cases now stands at 1,24,981.

Nepal reports 314 new cases of Covid-19, tally surges to 3,762

New Delhi (NVI): Nepal reported 314 new cases of coronavirus today, taking the national tally to 3,762, according to local media reports.

The country’s Ministry of Health and Population said, “Of the infected, 3,506 are males and 256 are females.”

Among the newly-infected are 294 males and 20 females, the ministry said.

The new infections have been found in Morang, Sunsari, Jhapa, Saptari, Janakpur, Syangja, Kaski, Parsa, Bara, Rautahat, Dang, Banke, Bardiya, Dailekh, Surkhet, Argakhachi, Kapilvastu, Nawalparsi, Palpa, Pyuthan, Rupandehi, Sarlahi and Mahottari.

At present, 71 of the 77 districts and all the Provinces have witnessed the transmission of COVID-19 virus in the country, as per media reports.

So far, the government has conducted 257,962 tests for coronavirus in Nepal. Of these, 1,00971 samples were tested through the PCR and 156,991 through the RDT.

Apart from this, 41 people have been discharged following recovery, which means the total recovery cases stand at 365 across the country.

Meanwhile, Nepal has recorded one more coronavirus related death, which has taken the national COVID-19 death toll to 14 across the country.

COVID-19 tally in Bangladesh rises to 68,500; 930 dead

New Delhi (NVI): Bangladesh reported spike in coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours with the detection of 2,735 new cases, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 68,504.

The country also recorded a total of 42 deaths due to the novel coronavirus during this period, raising the death tally to 930, according to United News of Bangladesh.

So far, a total of 14,560 people have recovered from the deadly contagion, after 657 more patients made recovery.

The detection rate of new patients has been recorded at 21.10 per cent.

Meanwhile, against the total number of detected cases, the recovery rate is 21.25 per cent and the mortality rate is 1.36 per cent in the country.

Coronavirus cases surpass 1,00,000 mark in Pakistan

New Delhi (NVI): Pakistan has now surpassed the 1 lakh mark in coronavirus cases after nearly 4,000 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the overall tally to 1,03,671 with at least 2,067 fatalities.

Looking at the breakdown of cases, Punjab province has reported 38,903 coronavirus cases, highest among all the provinces, while Sindh has 38,108 positive cases.

On the other hand, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has recorded 13,487 cases, Balochistan is at 6,516, Gilgit-Baltistan at 932, Islamabad at 5,329 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is at 396 cases so far, according to Geo News.

So far, 31,198 people have fully recovered from the deadly contagion in the country.

In addition to this, the Supreme Court today took back its decision to reopen markets on the weekend as the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise across the country.

New Zealand declares itself coronavirus free, drops restrictions

Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine
New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern

New Delhi (NVI): New Zealand today declared itself coronavirus free and lifted all domestic coronavirus restrictions after its final COVID-19 patient was cured.

While strict border controls will remain in place, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said restrictions such as social distancing and limits on public gatherings were no longer needed.

“We are ready,” Ardern said while addressing a media briefing in Wellington, adding that New Zealanders had “united in unprecedented ways to crush the virus.”

Reportedly, the country, with a population of five million, has had 1,154 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 22 deaths.

In addition to this, no new cases of coronavirus have been reported since the last 17 days and had only 1 active case left for more than a week, who also recovered completely today.

Ardern further added that the sacrifices made by New Zealanders, including a drastic seven-week lockdown the helped curb infection rates, had been rewarded, as now there were no active cases in the country.

Low-intensity quake hits Delhi

Mild earthquake hits Delhi
Representational image

New Delhi (NVI): A low-intensity earthquake measuring 2.1 on Richter scale struck near Delhi today, as mild tremors were felt in the national capital.

The epicenter of the quake was near Gurugram in Haryana, according to the National Center of Seismology.

Tremors were felt in Delhi, Noida and surrounding areas for a few seconds.

The agency confirmed that the latest earthquake had its epicenter at a depth of 18 km from the ground.

Reportedly, this is the tenth quake to hit in and around parts of Delhi in the last two months.

Working mothers hit harder than fathers due to Covid-19 lockdown: Report

New Delhi (NVI): A study shows that working mothers in the United Kingdom are faring worse than fathers since the lockdown began as their work time is interrupted more often by childcare other activities at home.

According to research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), UK mothers are one-and-a-half times more likely than fathers to have either lost their job or quit since the lockdown began, World Economic Forum said in a report.

There is no doubt that lockdown has put pressure on parents’ time around the world, but while fathers tend to do less, they have also increased their involvement in childcare, says the study.

The research shows that working mothers’ working hours have fallen more, proportionally, and their work time is interrupted more often by childcare, reports WEF.

With children staying at home and needing to be entertained or educated, lockdown and school closures around the world is putting more pressure on families.

The IFS’s study shows that this could have a long-lasting effect on the career prospects of working mothers as they are bearing the brunt.

In the UK, schools and nurseries began to reopen from June 1 but a large number of school-age children remain at their homes, in the care of their parents, who may also be working. According to UNESCO, the UK is not alone as there are efforts to contain COVID-19 by shutting schools in more than 100 countries, which is affecting almost 70% of the world’s student population.

In such a scenario, schooling and looking after children at home is putting a large burden on families who are also weathering the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the report, in 2014/15, mothers were in paid work at 80% of the rate of fathers; now this is 70% of the fathers’ rate. Before COVID-19, mothers in paid work worked an average of 73% of the hours fathers worked, and this has now fallen to 68%.

The research further notes that the effects of this discrepancy will continue for a long time even after the pandemic as workers who have lost their jobs permanently may struggle to find new ones, and workers who have reduced their hours may struggle to increase them again. Meanwhile, workers whose productivity has suffered due to interruptions may be penalized in pay and promotion decisions, the report claimed.

According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2020, women are persistently less present in the labour market than men. On average, about 78% of adult men (aged 15 to 64) are in the labour market, while only 55% of women of the same cohort are actively engaged in work, report WEF.

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