Do you run a WA
group – are you in the habit of posting / sharing posts regularly in social
media .. .. .. read on ! – do you feel that our recklessness is the cause of
the trouble that we are facing [worser still – some are still not aware of
this]
A 48-year-old Chartered
Accountant in Hyderabad was arrested this morning for allegedly circulating a fake government
order that announced imposition of partial lockdown in Telangana from April 1. Hyderabad
police commissioner Anjani Kumar, while speaking at a press conference on
Monday, revealed that the fake ‘G.O. 45’, dated April 1, 2021, was a copy of
last year’s G.O that was allegedly forged and circulated by one Sreepathi
Sanjeev Kumar. The accused works as a
Chartered Accountant with Karvy & Co. in Hyderabad. A native of Nellore
town in Andhra Pradesh, Kumar has been living in Hyderabad since 1993.
According to the police, Kumar on April 1 downloaded and forged the G.O copy
issued by Telangana government last year when a lockdown was imposed. “After
changing the dates of lockdown, he shared the PDF copy in a whatsapp group
comprising 40 others from his badminton team. This was soon circulated to other
groups via WhatsApp and soon went viral on social media,” said the police
commissioner.
After the fake G.O went
viral, announcing that establishments were to shut at 6 pm till 8 am, Telangana
Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar quickly issued a statement saying no such order
had been issued, and that the government was not considering imposing a
lockdown. The Cyber Crimes police station in Central Crime Station(CCS) of
Hyderabad police had registered a case invoking sections 469(forgery) and 505
(1)(b) (intention to cause fear or alarm to public). The West Zone team of
Hyderabad Commissioner’s Task Force nabbed the accused Monday morning. The
police also seized a Dell laptop and an i-Phone used in allegedly commiting the
offence.
Meanwhile,
in the grip of a second wave of coronavirus infections, Telangana has recorded
over a 1,000 fresh infections for the third consecutive day. Before the sudden
surge in new cases, the number of new cases in mid-March hovered over 150-mark.
In my paranoia, I look into this site ‘news.google.com’ typing
Covid 19 to find the statistics and they are alarming these days. Today it reads 13,13,42,071 people are
affected globally and deaths of 2853631. USA leads with 30732250/554579;
followed by Brazil 12984956/331433 and India 12589067/165101. The max no. of fresh cases in 24 hours
threatens us beyond a point – it is India 103558; France 80629 while USA has
36670 & Brazil 31359. The curve was coming down spectacularly, but have we
by our recklessness spoilt it ??
As India battles the second
Covid wave, Maharashtra, the worst-hit state in the country, saw the
highest-ever daily surge with 57,074 fresh infections on Sunday. Mumbai,
India's financial capital, also saw the highest-ever single-day spike with
11,163 new infections, taking the city's tally to 4,52,445 cases. With 1,03,558
fresh Covid cases, India has seen the biggest-ever daily surge, taking the
tally to 1,25,89,067. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on Sunday held a
high-level meet to review the situation; central teams have been rushed to
three states.
Delhi also recorded a huge
spike of 4,000 fresh infections taking the Covid tally to 6.76,414 infections.
This is the highest daily surge this year. It was one of the top five states
that reported the highest number of cases in the last 24 hours. Chhattisgarh
(5,250), Karnataka (4,553) and Uttar Pradesh (4,136) are the other three states
that saw the biggest spike in cases in the last 24 hours, the government data
shows.
Tamil Nadu
recorded 3581 positive cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, bringing the state tally to
8,99,807. Among these, Chennai reported 1344 positive cases, bringing the
city’s total to 2,53,760. The state recorded 14 deaths on Sunday, putting the
state toll at 12,778. Twelve of them had succumbed due to comorbidities. A total
of 1813 patients were discharged following treatment, taking the total number
of recoveries to 8,65,071. Over the past 10 days, the Covid-19
test positivity rate (TPR), which is a measure of the spread of the infection,
has almost tripled in Chennai from 3.61% on March 23 to 5.31% on March 27 to
9.13% on April 3.
Vaccine seemingly is the
answer – in a few months, it’s
reasonable to expect that more than 75% of the adult population of the US and
the UK will have had a first dose of the vaccine. The EU, Japan and other
developed nations will be not far behind; most likely they will reach that
milestone in the latter part of the year.
But this is not fast enough. Billions of people will still be unprotected,
mainly in the developing world. India and China have made impressive strides,
but it is unlikely that the whole world will have been vaccinated until the end
of 2022 – and even that date is optimistic.
According to
World Economic Forum – this is
too slow; much too slow. We need to speed the process up, enormously. The costs
and the risks are too great.
Realise, be
aware – whether the Govt imposes lockdown or not – don’t venture out unless it
is necessary. Whilst you are out, follow basic principles – wear a mask, follow
social distancing, clean your hands often.
Corona virus is not yet eliminated and it is imperative that WE fight
it.
It is a funny World, there were huge crowds in Election rallies – while President Joe Biden is facing criticism for continuing to wear a mask at all times despite being fully vaccinated. Biden has continued to wear his mask for various photo opportunities since being fully vaccinated. On many occasions he is joined by Vice President Kamala Harris who is also fully vaccinated.
5.4.2021
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