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- Published: June 18, 2020 20:07
New Delhi: As India continues fight against the Coronavirus pandemic, the recovery rate has increased to 52.96%, with total of close to 2 lakh patients being reovered.Currently, 1,60,384 active cases are under medical supervision.T he number of government labs has been increased to 699 and private labs has been increased to 254 (A total of 953). In the last 24 hours, 1,65,412 samples were tested. The total number of samples tested thus far is 62,49,668.
More Corona News of the Day:
Dr. Harsh Vardhan launches India’s First Mobile I-LAB
Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare Dr. Harsh Vardhan launched India’s first mobile I-Lab (Infectious disease diagnostic lab) for COVID-19 testing for last mile testing access. It will be deployed in remote, interior and inaccessible parts of the country and have capability to perform 25 COVID-19 RT-PCR tests/Day, 300 ELISA tests/day, additional tests for TB, HIV etc. as per CGHS rates.
#GaribKalyanRojgarAbhiyaan on June 20 to boost livelihood in rural India
Government of India has decided to launch a massive rural public works scheme ‘GaribKalyanRojgarAbhiyaan’to empower and provide livelihood opportunities to the returnee migrant workers and rural citizens. PM Modi will launch this Abhiyaan on 20th June, 2020 at 11 am through Video-Conference in presence of the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar. The Abhiyaan will be launched from Village – Telihar, Block- Beldaur of Khagaria District of Bihar.
Chief Ministers of other five States and Union Ministers of concerned Ministries will also participate in the virtual launch. This campaign of 125 days, which will work in mission mode, will involve intensified and focused implementation of 25 different types of works to provide employment to the migrant workers on one hand and create infrastructure in the rural regions of the country on the other hand, with a resource envelope of Rs. 50,000 crore.A total of 116 Districts with more than 25,000 returnee migrant workers across six States, namely Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha have been chosen for the campaign which includes 27 Aspirational Districts
Covid testing rate reduced to half in Delhi
In pursuance of decisions taken by the Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah during a series of meetings held on June 14th-15th, to handle the COVID-19 situation in Delhi, sample testing has been doubled immediately. A total of 16,618 test samples were collected on June 15th-16th. Daily collection of samples varied between 4,000-4,500 till 14th June. Door-to-door health survey of residents has been undertaken in 242 Containment Zones of Delhi. The report of high level Expert Committee headed by Dr. V.K Paul on rates to be charged by testing laboratories has been received in the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and the same has been sent to Delhi Government for further necessary action. Committee has fixed rate per test at Rs 2,400. A total of 169 centers have been set up in Delhi for collection & testing of samples.
CSIR-CDRI’s drug Umifenovir to undergo Phase III Clinical Trial
CSIR constituent lab CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute(CDRI) Lucknow, has received permission for carrying out Phase III randomised, Double blind, Placebo controlled trial of efficacy, safety and tolerability of antiviral drug Umifenovir. The Phase III Clinical Trials will be carried out at King George’s Medical University (KGMU), Dr. Ram ManoharLohia Institute of Medical Sciences (RMLIMS) and ERA’s Lucknow Medical College & Hospital, Lucknow.This drug has a good safety profile and acts by preventing entry of virus into human cells and also by priming the immune system. Umifenovir is mainly used for treatment of influenza and is available in China and Russia, and has recently come into prominence due to its potential use for Covid19 patients.
Automatic bag sanitiser machine developed
As a part of Eastern Railway’s(ER) endeavour to resist spread of COVID-19, an Automatic Bag Sanitiser Machine has been developed in ER’s Asansol Division. The automatic bag sanitizer machine has a air blower pump with spray container and nozzle for fog type sanitizing.
India to be manufacturing hub for electric vehicles in 5 yrs, says Gadkari
Union Minister for Road Transport& Highways and MSMEs Shri NitinGadkari has expressed confidence that in the next five years, India will become a manufacturing hub for electric vehicles. He said, the Government is trying to extend best possible concessions to this sector, and has lowered the GST on electrical vehicles to 12 per cent.Addressing a webinar on ‘India’s Electric Vehicle Roadmap post-COVID-19’ today, the Minister said, he was aware of the issues facing the EV sector, but was also sure of the things to change as the sales volumes increase. He said, the world is no more interested in doing business with China, which is a very good opportunity for Indian industry to pick up the shift in business.
Workshop on Good Governance Practices in pandemic for Civil Servants
Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh today said that “Awareness not Anxiety” is key to fight the global pandemic of COVID-19 and international collaboration is the need of the hour. He was speaking after inaugurating an international workshop through a webinar, jointly organized by Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation, Ministry of External Affairs and National Centre for Good Governance, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances.Dr. Singh reiterated that the roadmap ahead for Nations in winning the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic lies in restarting the economy and strengthening cooperative federalism. He said that the thrust is for stronger institutions, stronger e-Governance models, digitally empowered citizens and improved healthcare.
Covid-19 virus may impact respiratory centre of brain
The team of researchers at CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB), Kolkata has explored the neuro-invasive potential of SARS-CoV-2 and suggested that the virus may infect respiratory centre of the brain and attention should be focused on the respiratory centre of the central nervous system to search for mortality due to COVID 19.
