Happy Media

The Indian Express Dated: June 12, 2020 By: Amitabh Sinha The number of people who have  recovered from Covid-19 disease in India is now more than  those who are still sick. The Home Ministry’s latest update on Thursday showed that 1.41 lakh people had recovered from the disease, while a little more than 1.37 lakh cases were active. Apart from being an interesting milestone, this statistic has little relevance. This doesn’t mark the beginning of the end of the epidemic, nor is it the  arrival of the “peak” . It does not mean either that the number of cases would be declining from now on. In fact, once the number of deaths is brought into the equation, 8,102 at last count, it becomes clear that less than 50 per cent of the total infected people (2.86 lakh) have recovered so far. The total recoveries, in fact, work out to 49 per cent of all cases. More importantly, total recoveries and the number of active cases are not comparable metrics. Total recoverie...

Hindustan Times Dated: June 11, 2020 By: Prashasti Singh The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday signaled it plans years of extraordinary support for an economy facing a torturous slog back from the coronavirus pandemic, with policymakers projecting the economy to shrink 6.5% in 2020 and the unemployment rate to be 9.3% at year’s end. In the first economic projections of the pandemic era, US central bank policymakers put into numbers what has been an emerging narrative: that the shutdowns, restrictions and other measures used to battle a health crisis will echo through the economy for years to come rather than be quickly reversed as commerce reopens. Some 20 million or more people have been thrown out of work since February, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged it could take years for them to all reacquire jobs - an economic blow that is falling heaviest on minority communities at a time when mass protests over police brutality have thrown a new spotlight on racial inequal...

Business Line Dated: June 10, 2020 By: TV Jayan The Covid-19 pandemic could lead to a global food emergency unless immediate action is not taken as millions of people were already suffering from hunger and malnutrition even before the virus hit, according to UN Secretary-General Antonio Gueterres. Reference:  https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/world/covid-pandemic-is-pushing-world-to-brink-of-global-food-emergency-un-secretary-general/article31793677.ece

Daily Hunt Dated: June 06, 2020 The COVID-19 pandemic may be over in India around mid-September, claim two public health experts from the health ministry who used a mathematical model-based analysis to draw this projection. The analysis shows that when the number of infected becomes equal to those removed from circulation by recovery and death, the coefficient will reach the 100 per cent threshold and the epidemic will be "extinguished". The analysis, published in the online journal Epidemiology International, has been done by Dr Anil Kumar, Deputy director General (Public Health) in the DGHS, and Rupali Roy, Deputy Assistant Director (Leprosy) DGHS in the health ministry. They used the Bailey's mathematical model to draw the projection. This stochastic mathematical mode takes into consideration the distribution of the total size of an epidemic, involving both infection and removal. The model employed was of the 'continuous infection' type, accord...

The Indian Express Dated: June 10, 2020 By: Shama Mohamed On March 28, Prime Minister  Narendra Modi  announced the creation of a separate fund to deal with  COVID-19  — the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES). Observers were quick to question the need for a separate fund, when India already had an established Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF). The PMNRF is more representative of the concerns of Indians: Its committee includes, among others, the Prime Minister, the President of India and the president of the  Indian National Congress . Decision-makers for PM CARES include the Prime Minister, the finance minister, the Minister of Home Affairs and the Minister of Defence, all from one political party. The PMNRF had an unused corpus of Rs 3,800.44 crore as of 2019. Despite this, Modi established the PM CARES fund and solicited donations for it. Reportedly, the Indian Railway donated R...

The Telegraph Dated: June 09, 2020 India’s economy will shrink 3.2 per cent in the current fiscal, the World Bank said on Monday as it joined a chorus of international agencies that are forecasting a contraction in the growth rate because of the the coronavirus-induced lockdown halting economic activity. The Washington-based multilateral lender said that the Covid-19 pandemic and the multi-phased lockdown imposed to curb its spread has resulted in a devastating blow to the Indian economy.The global economy will shrink 5.2 per cent this year, the World Bank said. The Covid-19 recession is the first since 1870 to be triggered solely by a pandemic, World Bank president David Malpass said in his foreword to the latest edition of the Global Economic Prospect report. In April, the World Bank projected the economy to grow in the range of 1.5 per cent to 2.8 per cent in this fiscal. The economy is expected to bounce back in 2021, the World Bank said. “In India, growth is estimate...

The Indian Express Dated: June 09, 2020 By: Even as the world continues to grapple with the novel  coronavirus , with cases crossing the 7 million mark, including 402,699 deaths,  New Zealand on Monday announced it had eliminated  the disease after health officials said the last known infected person had recovered. Just over 1,500 people contracted the virus in New Zealand, including 22 who died. It has been 17 days since the last new case was reported in New Zealand, during which time an additional 40,000 people have been tested, and Monday also marked the first time since February when there has been no active cases, AP reported. However, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said border controls would not be lifted even though the government is set to roll back all containment measures. “We can hold public events without limitations. Private events such as weddings, functions and funerals without limitations. Retail is back without limitations. Hospitality is back ...

The Indian Express May 04,2020  Dileep V Kumar| THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In the fight against Covid-19 pandemic, the state is set to take a significant step as it might soon ask people to practise social distancing and wear face masks while inside the home also. A suggestion in this regard has transpired between the state expert committee for Covid-19 and the state government. It is learnt the health department is pondering over the practicality of the suggestion. At present, the state government stipulates social distancing and facemask while venturing out, including at workplaces and social gatherings.  As per sources, it was during a state-level assessment meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan that expert committee chairman Dr B Ekbal presented the proposal. It is learnt that the proposal was formulated after considering three possibilities- households becoming a larger transmission unit, some relaxations that came after extending lockdown and ...

Bloomberg May 1,2020 Bill Gates, whose foundation is focusing  its efforts  to fight the coronavirus, doesn’t think life will return to normal until there’s a viable vaccine that can stop its spread. The good news is that it may take less time than many have been predicting. “Dr. Anthony Fauci has said he thinks it’ll take around eighteen months to develop a coronavirus vaccine,” Gates wrote in a  blog post  published Thursday. “I agree with him, though it could be as little as 9 months or as long as two years.” “I’m particularly excited by two new approaches that some of the candidates are taking: RNA and DNA vaccines,” he wrote. “It might be a bit hard to see right now, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.” Key Quotes: “For COVID-19, financing development is not an issue. Governments and other organizations (including our foundation and an amazing alliance called the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations) have made i...