Covid eradication and inoculation - good news flow ! .. .. Yogi Adityanath receives appreciation

There is lot of good news on Covid 19 front .. .. ..

 

Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabhaskar, a medical doctor, who has been doing a great job since the onset of corona virus, received the COVID-19 vaccination, setting a personalexample.  His twitter page is full of positive news.  To create  awareness & confidence amongst the frontline workers, the District Collector Uma Maheswari IAS, Sub-Collector  AnandMohan IAS,  SP Balaji Saravanan IPS, DSPs, RDO, Police personnel got inoculated  as the Health Minister tweeted a photo.

Fifteen states and Union Territories have not reported any death due to COVID-19 in last 24 hours, the Government said today, highlighting the weakening hold of the virus over the country.  While the number of fresh daily cases has been on a steady decline, over the last five weeks, there has been a 55 per cent decline in the average daily deaths. In the last one week, seven states and Union Territories have recorded no fatality, the Union health ministry said.  The seven states and Union Territories which reported zero deaths in the last week are Arunachal Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar, Tripura, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Nagaland, Mizoram and Lakshadweep.

The World Health Organisation on Tuesday revealed its findings from its visit to the Chinese city of Wuhan — where the first coronavirus cases were discovered in 2019. The findings of the international health body asserted the hypothesis from the initial days of the pandemic. The team  visited the Huanan Seafood Market, the site of an early cluster of cases in late 2019. The visit by the WHO team took months to negotiate. China only agreed to it amid international pressure at the WHO's World Health Assembly meeting last May, and Beijing has continued to resist calls for a strictly independent investigation.  WHO team said the initial findings suggest the most likely pathway the virus followed was from a bat to another animal and then to humans, adding that would require further research.  The mission was intended to be an initial step in the process of understanding the origins of the virus, which scientists have posited may have passed to humans through a wild animal, such as a pangolin or bamboo rat. Transmission directly from bats to humans or through the trade in frozen food products are also possibilities, Embarek said.

Meanwhile, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has said that the team currently investigating the origins of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan must be disbanded and reassembled by a completely independent panel with unfettered access and diplomatic immunity for all members. A conflict of interest of one of the current WHO-sanctioned team members and the tightly choreographed format of the field research has cast doubt on the investigation's credibility and the validity of the eventual findings.

India witnessed a peak of one million active Covid-19 cases in mid-September 2020, followed by a consistent decline, slowing to 0.15 million as of February 7, 2021. Other large states with high Covid-19 caseloads such as Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have seen a similar trajectory. Kerala, however, saw active Covid-19 cases peak over a month later, in October 2020, and this has not been followed by a noticeable decline.

India's first three Covid-19 cases were discovered in Kerala on January 30, 2020, when three medical students returning from Wuhan, China--where the virus originated--were identified by the state, isolated, tested and then hospitalised. Two weeks later, on February 14, the first three patients had been declared recovered, and Kerala's finance minister Thomas Isaac tweeted, "Kerala has won battle with Corona Virus (sic)". "I'm hopeful we can declare Kerala as coronavirus-free by the first week of March," health minister K.K. Shailaja had said a week earlier.  The State was to receive International awards too !!

That celebration was premature, but even as dozens more cases followed, Kerala seemed to have controlled the spread of the disease by early May 2020 through a vaunted contact-tracing effort.   By the second week of May, Kerala was one of the world's Covid-19 success stories, down to under 20 active cases, even as numbers surged in the rest of India. Then, cases began to rise as Kerala residents, stranded by the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown, began returning home by special trains and on repatriation flights from overseas. By June, active cases were up to 700. By July, this had tripled to over 2,100, and this would further multiply fivefold by August. As of February 7, 2021, Kerala accounts for nearly one in two active cases in India.

Does Kerala's differing Covid-19 trajectory point to its success or failure?   Back home, Tamil Nadu added 464 fresh cases and four deaths to the state Covid-19 registry. The case tally moved to 8,42,261 and death toll reached 12,387. In the last 24 hours, 495 people were discharged taking the total number of people cured of the viral infection to 8,25,520. There are 4,354 active cases.

Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government was on Tuesday praised by Switzerland Ambassador to India Dr Ralf Heckner for its Covid-19 management and transforming the state into an investment-friendly environment. During the meeting between Adityanath and Heckner, the two discussed the bilateral issues and other aspects as well in order to further strengthen the ties between Uttar Pradesh and Switzerland. The Swiss Ambassador also thanked India for sending Covid-19 vaccines to other countries. Adityanath also apprised the Swiss Ambassador about how Uttar Pradesh is a home to some of the holiest and ancient cities including Varanasi, Ayodhya, Mathura and Prayagraj. He also invited Heckner as his guest along with welcoming Swiss investment in Uttar Pradesh. The Chief Minister also spoke about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of making India self-reliant with the ‘Aatmanirbhar’ campaign which is to help the local business. 

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
9.2.2021.