The Delhi High Court Friday refused to further hear a PIL to declare all people associated with the judicial functioning, including judges, court staff and lawyers, as “frontline workers” to enable them to get COVID-19 vaccination on priority in view of the Supreme Court’s order staying the proceedings.
A bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli adjourned sine-die the hearing in the PIL which was initiated by the high court on its own.
The apex court on Thursday had stayed proceedings in the Delhi High Court on giving priority to the legal fraternity for administering COVID-19 vaccine and favoured transferring the suo motu case on the issue to itself for adjudication.
The Centre has opposed creating a separate class of lawyers and said that though it is not opposed to the legal fraternity members but tomorrow journalists and banking sector employees may also come forward seeking priority in vaccination.
During the brief hearing, central government standing counsel Anil Soni informed the high court that in the seven district courts here, the facility of COVID-19 vaccination for lawyers, who are eligible for it as per the policy, has started.
The Delhi High Court and all the district courts here have resumed full-fledged physical functioning from March 15.
Earlier, the Centre had told the high court that the decision for COVID-19 vaccination is based on vulnerability of citizens to the disease and is not profession wise and the government is sensitive to the needs of the country.
Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India (SII), the country’s leading COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers, had told the high court that adequate capacity of vaccines was available for the vaccination of judicial staff, advocates and judges as frontline workers.
The PIL was initiated to examine the demand to declare all people associated with the judicial functioning, including judges, court staff and lawyers, as frontline workers so that they could receive COVID-19 vaccination on priority and without limitations of their age or physical condition.
As per the current policy, those above 60 years of age or between the age of 45 to 59 years with comorbidities are eligible for the vaccination.
The government has said that rather than going by profession, the government is starting with vulnerability to COVID-19 infection.
The high court had on March 4 asked the Centre to explain the rationale behind keeping strict control over class of persons who can be vaccinated against COVID-19 currently as under the present system those above the age of 60 years or with comorbidities can receive vaccination.
It had said the two institutes which have developed the vaccines COVISHIELD and COVAXIN — Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech — have more capacity to provide the vaccines but it seems that their full capacity is not being exploited.
India will implement a GPS-based toll collection system and do away with all toll booths within a year, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday. He also shared details of the vehicle scrapping policy, first announced in the Union Budget for 2021-22, according to which the automobile industry in India will see a jump in turnover to ₹10 lakh crore from ₹4.5 lakh crore.
Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde agreed with advocate Prashant Bhushan on Thursday to urgently hear a plea by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms to stay the sale of a new set of electoral bonds on April 1, before Assembly elections in crucial States such as West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.
Top U.S. and Chinese officials offered sharply different views of the world on March 18 as the two sides met face-to-face for the first time since President Joe Biden took office. In unusually pointed remarks for a staid diplomatic meeting, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Communist Party foreign affairs chief Yang Jiechi took aim at each other’s policies at the start of two days of talks in Alaska.
The EU’s drug watchdog said on March 18 it is still convinced the benefits of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine outweigh the risks following an investigation into reports of blood disorders that prompted more than a dozen nations to suspend its use.
The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed the Insurance Amendment Bill 2021 that increases the maximum foreign investment allowed in an insurance company from 49% to 74%, amid criticism from the Opposition parties on the clause enabling “control and ownership” by foreign investors.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday forbade judges from making gender stereotypical comments like “’good women are sexually chaste”, women who drink and smoke ‘ask’ for sexual advances or presume that a sexually active woman consented to rape while hearing cases of sexual offence.
Union Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Thursday that climate activist Disha Ravi’s arrest was based on law and order and it is under judicial process. He added that the House should consider “should some people abuse social media internationally to defame India to promote secessionism.”
Former Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) Arvind Subramanian resigned from Ashoka University on Thursday, days after noted columnist and political commentator Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s exit. In his resignation letter, Dr. Subramanian, said he had been “devastated” by “the circumstances involving the ‘resignation’ of Professor Pratap Bhanu Mehta” two days earlier.
In a major embarrassment to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), two candidates announced by the party on Thursday for the Assembly polls from Kolkata have refused to contest on the party’s ticket.
The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed suo motu proceedings before the Delhi High Court on the administration of COVID-19 vaccine and transferred the case to itself. A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde said a similar case concerning the vaccination drive was already pending in the Supreme Court, and the case from the Delhi High Court could be heard along with it.
The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to urgently hear a plea to release and protect over 150 Rohingya refugees reportedly “detained” in Jammu. Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde agreed to hear the application filed by a member of the Rohingya community, Mohammad Salimullah, represented by advocates Prashant Bhushan and Cheryl d’Souza, on April 25 (Thursday). Mr. Bhushan made an oral mention before the CJI for an early hearing.
The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the supplementary demand for grants (second batch for 2020-21) but not before significant concerns raised by Opposition leaders on the government’s disinvestment and asset monetisation plans, and rising fuel prices.
If Ishan Kishan was unfortunate to be ruled out of the fourth T20I due to a groin strain, lady luck smiled on his replacement Suryakumar Yadav. The Mumbai cricketer, dropped for the previous outing after not having faced a ball on his debut in the second T20I, grabbed his chance and made it count.
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NEW DELHI: Tokyo Olympics-bound wrestler Bajrang Punia on Thursday received his first dose of COVID-19 vaccine after rejoining the national camp at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre in Sonepat. The elite 65kg wrestler recently won gold at the Matteo Pellicone event in Rome, where he showed improvement on his leg defence.
“I followed the procedure which has been laid out for the common man. I had registered for it. I am feeling ok, there was a slight headache and heaviness after I took a shot but I am perfectly alright now,” Bajrang told PTI. The 27-year-old also expressed shock at the tragic death of his sister-in-law wrestler Ritika Phogat, the maternal sister of Geeta and Babita Phogat. Bajrang is married to Sangeeta Phogat, paternal cousin of Babita and Geeta. “I am surprised how such a young girl decides to take such a drastic step. She comes from the wrestlers’ family. It’s not that there were no people to keep her motivated. She was surrounded by the right people. “I don’t get it. It’s really sad for the family. Defeat is part of wrestling. How can someone take his life like this,” Bajrang, who is one of the four Indian wrestlers to have qualified for the Tokyo Games, said. The 17-year Ritika allegedly committed suicide after losing her bout during a tournament in Bharatpur. Police suspected that the defeat in the tournament could be a reason behind the drastic step taken by the wrestler.
COVID vaccines work to boost up the body’s immune response against the pathogen by generating antibodies that recognize and evade the infection in the future.
However, since it’s a new virus, and relatively a newer vaccine, there’s no real data to suggest how protected a person would really be, after getting vaccinated.
According to Dr Susheel Bindroo, Head of Dept. of Interventional Pulmonology, Jaslok Hospital & Research Centre, Mumbai, vaccine generated antibodies, or artificial immunity is always lower than natural immunity. He says, “In what we have observed so far, people do get COVID to observe natural neutralizing antibodies wane in a maximum of 6-7 months time. For some with serious comorbidities, it could go away even faster. Therefore, with caution, people must remember that even artificial immunity, at this point in time, would last for a relatively similar period. We cannot expect vaccines to work like magic.”
Dr Bharesh Dedhia, Consultant Critical Care, Hinduja Hospital Khar also opines that vaccines, while remaining to be one of the most effective tools right now, may not be as effective as we think them to be. “Considering the manner of mutations, it can happen that people need booster shots or be subjected to regular antibody testing to confirm how strong immunity is. “
Experts also feel that the track record with COVID trajectory and cases is very confusing, so there’s no real way to ascertain what could happen post-vaccination. Till now, neither of the companies, be it Moderna, Pfizer or Bharat Biotech have doled out recommendations or advisory on the same.
Coronavirus News LIVE Updates: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a video conference with chief ministers today to assess the Covid-19 situation in the country as well as the vaccination drive amid a spike in active cases that has increased the government’s worry. PM Modi’s last interaction with chief ministers was in January before the vaccination roll-out. He had announced that the Centre will bear the expenses of vaccinating nearly three crore healthcare and frontline workers in the first round and suggested that public representatives, a reference to politicians, should not be part of this initial exercise.
The announcement comes in the backdrop of states such as Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu continuing to report a surge in Covid-19 daily cases, accounting for 78.41 per cent of the new cases, the Union Health Ministry said. Fifteen of the 19 districts in India with the highest number of coronavirus cases in the last ten days are in Maharashtra, which is grappling with an alarming spike in Covid cases. The state is “in the beginning of a second wave of Covid,” the Centre told the Uddhav Thackeray-led government. According to government data, nearly 1,000 new cases have been registered every day for the past ten days in Pune, Nagpur, and Mumbai. Nagpur, which is lockdown for a week since Monday, has seen 20,104 cases in the last ten days, compared to Pune’s 26,218 and Mumbai’s 11,859 in the same time.
The 19 districts with the highest number of coronavirus cases are Pune with 26,218 cases; Nagpur with 20,104; Mumbai with 11,859; Thane with 10,914; Nashik with 9,024; Aurangabad with 6,652; Jalgaon with 6,598; Indore with 5,238; Bengaluru Urban with 5,047; Amravati with 4,250; Ahmednagar with 3,962; Chennai with 3,811; Mumbai suburban with 3,355; Yavatmal with 3,326; Akola with 3,299; Buldhana with 3,185; Nanded with 3,146; Wardha with 2,431; and Jalandhar with 2,424, said a report by NDTV.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the company will be launching a global campaign to help people get vaccinated amidst the ongoing COVID-19pandemic. “We’ve already connected over 2 billion people to authoritative Covid-19 information. Now that many countries are moving towards vaccinations for all adults, we’re working on tools to make it easier for everyone to get vaccinated as well,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post.
Facebook will be using all three major platforms – Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to take the initiative further. Here’s what the company plans on doing.
Facebook vaccination tool
Facebook will be launching a new tool on the platform that will show users where and when they can go to get vaccinated. The tool will also provide users with a link to make an appointment. The tool will be visible in the COVID Information Center which will be visible in the Facebook News Feed. While the tool is limited to the US for now, Facebook says it will be supported in 71 different languages. It plans to expand to other countries as vaccines are available more widely. In India, vaccination is available for all citizens above 60 and those who are above 45 but suffering from comorbidity.
COVID News Center on Instagram
Facebook will also be bringing its COVID News Center to Instagram, allowing more people access to the COVID-related news update centre which will now also show vaccination-related information.
WhatsApp chatbots to help register for vaccines
Zuckerberg also mentioned in his post that the company will be working with health authorities and governments to expand their WhatsApp chatbots to help people register for vaccines. “More than 3 billion messages related to Covid have already been sent by governments, nonprofits and international organisations to citizens through official WhatsApp chatbots, so this update will help with the vaccination effort as well,” the post said.
The suspensions were not limited to Europe, with Indonesia also announcing a delay to its rollout of the jab, which is cheaper than its competitors and was billed as the vaccination of choice for poorer nations. But the WHO insisted countries should keep using the vaccine, adding that it had scheduled a meeting of its experts on Tuesday to discuss the vaccine’s safety. “We do not want people to panic and we would, for the time being, recommend that countries continue vaccinating with AstraZeneca,” WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said. “So far, we do not find an association between these events and the vaccine,” she said, referring to reports of blood clots from several countries.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA), which is holding a special meeting on Thursday, echoed the WHO’s calls for calm and said it was better to get the vaccine than not. “The benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing Covid-19, with its associated risk of hospitalisation and death, outweigh the risks of side effects,” the agency said in a statement Monday. The UK has doled out more than 11 million doses of the AstraZeneca jab — more than the entire EU — apparently without major problems.
As policymakers struggled to manage vaccine rollouts, Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas announced she had tested positive — underlining the continuing threat of the contagion. She tweeted that she would continue to work virtually and the government added that she had “a low fever but no other symptoms and is generally feeling well”.
Italy provided another reminder that the pandemic was far from over — most of the country re-entered lockdown on Monday with schools, restaurants, shops and museums closed. The streets of central Rome were quiet on Monday morning and businesses already battered by a year of anti-virus measures braced for another hit. “I’m staying open because I’m selling cigarettes, otherwise it would not be worth it,” said Rome coffee shop owner Carlo Lucia. “It’s just a waste of money.”
Meanwhile, intensive care doctors in Germany issued an urgent appeal for new restrictions to avoid a third wave as the British variant takes hold there.
More than 350 million vaccines have now been administered globally, but poorer countries are still lagging far behind. Brazil, which has suffered one of the world’s worst outbreaks, is attempting to redress the balance, announcing the order of more than 138 million jabs on Monday.
The European Union has approved four jabs so far, and is monitoring others — including Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. The Russian developers said on Monday they had reached production agreements in key European countries.
The news came as the WHO said it had raised nearly $250 million in the past year from individual donors and companies towards battling the pandemic. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the fund’s success proved “what we can accomplish together in times of need”.
More than a year after his organisation declared the coronavirus threat a pandemic, a much-anticipated report on the origins of Covid-19 is expected to be released this week.
The report follows a fact-finding mission of international experts assembled by the WHO, which travelled in January to the Chinese city of Wuhan where the virus first emerged in December 2019.
“Within the next few years, we’re going to have real significant data on where this came from and how it emerged,” said British zoologist Peter Daszak, one of the team members.
According to a new study, antibodies induced by some COVID-19 vaccines are less effective at neutralising the new circulating variants of the novel coronavirus, such as the ones reported in the UK, Brazil and South Africa.
The study was published in the journal Cell and noted that the neutralising antibodies induced by the Pfizer and Moderna COVID 19 vaccines were less effective against the coronavirus variants first found in South Africa and Brazil.
As per the scientists, neutralising antibodies work by binding tightly to the virus and blocking it from entering the cells and thus preventing infection. That said, this binding only happens when the antibodies and viruses perfectly match, like a key in a lock.
If the shape of the virus changes when the antibody attaches to it, the antibody may no longer be able to recognise and neutralise the virus.
The scientists compared how well the antibodies worked against the original strain versus the new variants.
When the scientists tested the new strains against vaccine-induced neutralising antibodies, they found the three new strains first described in South Africa were 20-40 times more resistant to neutralisation.
The two strains first described in Brazil and japan were five to seven times more resistant as compared to the original SARS-CoV-2 virus lineage from Wuhan, China.
“In particular we found that mutations in a specific part of the spike protein called the receptor-binding domain were more likely to help the virus resist the neutralizing antibodies,” said one author of the study.
However, the ability of these variants to resist neutralising antibodies doesn’t mean the vaccines won’t be effective.
“The body has other methods of immune protection besides antibodies. Our findings don’t necessarily mean that vaccines won’t prevent COVID, only that the antibody portion of the immune response may have trouble recognizing some of these new variants,” said the scientists.
To develop the next generation it’s important to understand which mutations are more likely to allow the virus to evade vaccine-derived immunity.
The study can also help researchers develop more effective preventative methods, such as a broadly protective vaccine that works against a wide variety of variants, regardless of the number of mutations that develop.
The Quad has come of age and its agenda covering areas like vaccines, climate change and emerging technologies makes it a force for global good, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the first summit of the coalition. In his opening remarks, he also talked about shared values and promoting a secure, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific.
“We are united by our democratic values, and our commitment to a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific. Our agenda today covering areas like vaccines, climate change and emerging technologies makes the Quad a force for global good,” he said. The virtual summit was attended by US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
“I see this positive vision as an extension of India’s ancient philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, which regards the world as one family,” Modi said. “We will work together, closer than ever before for advancing our shared values and promoting a secure, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” he said.
The prime minister said the holding of the summit shows that the Quad has come of age and it will now remain an important pillar of stability in the region. In his remarks, Biden said there was a need to focus on generating domestic demand and driving sustainable global growth. He also talked about having an ambitious new joint partnership that is going to boost vaccine manufacturing and strengthen vaccinations to benefit the entire Indo-Pacific region.
“We are establishing a new mechanism to enhance our cooperation and raise our mutual ambition as we address accelerating climate change,” he said. The US president also mentioned the commitment to ensure that the region is governed by international law and it is free from coercion.
“I am optimistic about our prospects,” he said. The most significant among the deliverables envisaged in the summit is a coronavirus vaccine initiative that will allow new manufacturing capacity to be added in India for exports to the Indo-Pacific region, sources said.
President Joe Biden said on Friday that a “free and open Indo-Pacific is essential” to all and the US was committed to working with its partners and allies in the region to achieve stability. Biden also described the Quad as a new mechanism to enhance cooperation and raise mutual ambition as the member states address accelerating climate change.
“A free and open Indo-Pacific is essential to each of our futures, our countries,” Biden told the top leaders of the Quadrilateral alliance, which has been often projected in the Chinese official media as an alliance against China’s rise. This is a group particularly important because it is dedicated to the practical solutions and concrete results,” he said at the virtual summit, which is the first conclave of the top leaders of the Quad.
“We know our commitments…Our region is governed by international law, committed to all the universal values and free from coercion but I am optimistic about our prospect, he said, in an apparent reference to China which is flexing its muscles in the strategically vital region. “The Quad is going to be vital in our cooperation in the Indo-Pacific and I look forward to looking closely to working with all of you in the coming years,” Biden told the Quad leaders as he requested Prime Minister Modi to speak.
“It’s great to see you,” Biden, who is attending the summit less than two months after he took charge as US President, told Prime Minister Modi. The other Quad leaders expressed similar excitement and willingness to collaborate in the Indo-Pacific region.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison thanked President Biden for brining in the four nations together and said that ”history teaches us that we are nations engaged together in a partnership of strategic trust of common hope and shared values, much can be achieved. Stating that it will be the Indo-Pacific which will now shape the destiny of the world in the 21st century, Scott said that “as leaders of four great liberal democracies in Indo-Pacific let our partnership be the enabler of peace, stability and prosperity.”
Morrison said it was important to do so inclusively with the many nations in the region in order to respect and support their sovereignty, independence and security by upholding the values and supporting international law and to address many challenges from COVID to climate change. He said that Australia was ready to look into these tasks and do its share of heavy lifting.
Earlier, Morrison dubbed the meet as “a historic meeting of four leaders from these nations, which are such close friends. “There have been meetings of foreign ministers. There have been many other meetings. But when governments come together at the highest level, this shows a whole new level of cooperation to create a new anchor for peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and working with important other partners in the region, and particularly the ASEAN nations and their view of the Indo-Pacific that so much informs our own,” he said.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga recalled the 2004 Tsunami disaster when Quad first member states came together. “We received massive support from the US, Australia, and India in our response to the disaster. Joe visited the affected area soon after the disaster, and I think you once again,” he said.
Known as the “Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, representatives for the four member nations have met periodically since its establishment in 2007. The Quad member states have been resolving to uphold a rules-based international order in the Indo-Pacific amid growing Chinese assertiveness in the region.
The foreign ministers of the Quad countries held a virtual meeting on February 18 during which they vowed to uphold a rules-based international order underpinned by respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, freedom of navigation and peaceful resolution of disputes. The evolving situation in the Indo-Pacific region in the wake of China’s increasing military muscle-flexing has become a major talking point among leading global powers. The US has been favouring making Quad a security architecture to check China’s growing assertiveness.
The foreign ministers of the Quad member nations met in Tokyo on October 6 last year and reaffirmed their collective vision for a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific. The Quad foreign ministers held their first meeting under the Quadrilateral or Quad framework in New York in September 2019.
In November 2017, India, Japan, the US and Australia gave shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the Quad to develop a new strategy to keep the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence.
The district currently has more than 17,000 active cases while the total death toll has exceeded 9,350.
While clarifying that no lockdown was imposed across Pune district, the administration on Friday said that all schools and colleges would remain closed till March 31 in wake of a heightened spike in cases.
Pune district has been recording the highest single-day jump in Maharashtra for the past few days, clocking up a daily average spike of more than 2,000 cases.
Following a review meeting between district Guardian Minister Ajit Pawar and senior district authorities in which Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Girish Bapat also present, Mr. Pawar directed the administration to curtail the operating time for hotels and restaurants as well.
“According to the new set of restrictions, schools and colleges will remain closed till March 31, while hotels and restaurants will be allowed to function at 50% of their total capacity till 10 p.m. Take-away food deliveries will be permitted for an hour after that till 11 p.m.,” informed Pune Divisional Commissioner Saurabh Rao.
He further said that it was mandatory for hotels to put up a board giving details about the occupancy in the premises at any given time.
Mr. Rao further informed that malls and cinema halls were to be kept closed after 10 p.m. while citizens would not be allowed to loiter on roads between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Only essential services are to be permitted during this time.
Given that MPSC exams are imminent, Mr. Rao said that MPSC coaching centres and libraries would be allowed to remain open with 50% occupancy.
The Divisional Commissioner said that rules for the number of people attending wedding functions remained the same (not more than 50 persons), while public transport services were to operate with 50% occupancy.
“Doctors and health workers are of the opinion that vaccination for Pune should get top priority in wake of soaring cases. They have opined that if we have to reduce the impact of the second wave, then vaccination is the best option. Since January 16 till today, the number of vaccination centres in the district have increased seven-fold from 33 to 208 with frontline workers largely covered in the first phase,” informed Mr. Rao, adding that the administration planned to restart the jumbo Covid-19 care facility sited at the College of Engineering Pune (CoEP) premises.
The district currently has more than 17,000 active cases while the total death toll has exceeded 9,350.
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