#Islamic conference in Nizamuddin

[latestbreakingnewsupdates]

Brazil tops 2 million coronavirus cases, with 76,000 deaths

Brazil tops 2 million coronavirus cases, with 76,000 deaths

A thousand deaths a day. Since late May, three months after Brazil’s first reported case of the coronavirus, it has recorded greater than 1,000 every day deaths on common in a ugly plateau that has but to tilt downward.

On Thursday night, the federal Health Ministry reported that the nation had handed 2 million confirmed instances of virus infections and 76,000 deaths.

Also learn: Number of…

[news24fresh]

Brazil tops 2 million coronavirus cases, with 76,000 deaths

Brazil tops 2 million coronavirus cases, with 76,000 deaths

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A thousand deaths a day. Since late May, three months after Brazil’s first reported case of the coronavirus, it has recorded more than 1,000 daily deaths on average in a gruesome plateau that has yet to tilt downward.

On Thursday evening, the federal Health Ministry reported that the country had passed 2 million confirmed cases of virus infections and 76,000 deaths.

Also read: Number…

[thetimepress]

Chikkamagalur district is now COVID-19-free

Chikkamagalur district is now COVID-19-free

The Chikkamagaluru district has become free from confirmed cases of COVID-19. All 16 persons, who were tested positive to the infection, were discharged on Saturday after they were treated and tested negative.

According to Deputy Commissioner.Bagadi Gautam, of the 18 cases of COVID-19in the district, two turned out to be false negative. The remaining 16 who were treated at district hospitals…

[headlinesind]

Taking calculated risk to ease lockdown, says Italy PM

Taking calculated risk to ease lockdown, says Italy PM

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Italian Prime MInister Giuseppe Conte said on Saturday Italy was taking a calculated risk in rolling back lockdown measures from next week as the daily death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic fell to its lowest since March 9.

“We’re facing a calculated risk, knowing that the epidemiological curve could rise again,” Mr. Conte said in press conference to detail measures taken by the Rome to…

[kristinsimmons]

Can The Tablighi Jamaat’s Conference be India’s Own Epidemiological Diamond Princess?

By SOMALARAM VENKATESH, MD

“It has always been science versus fundamentalism, not science versus religion.” 

Abhijit Naskar, Biopsy of Religions: Neuroanalysis Towards Universal Tolerance

On February 3, 2020, the luxury cruise ship Diamond Princess docked on Japanese shores and was promptly quarantined with 3711 people on board, because a passenger who had disembarked at Hong Kong two days earlier had tested positive for SARS-Cov-2,  or also known as  COVID-19. Passengers & crew members were either repatriated or hospitalized in Japan over the next 4 weeks. In total,, more than 700 of them were found to be infected with the virus. This was a unique opportunity – a Petri dish in a ship, if you may – for epidemiologists and virologists to study the disease and the virus. 

At the beginning of this global pandemic, health care professionals and policymakers used data from the Diamond Princess experience and inferences thereof, such as infectivity & death rates, as a supplement to the observations from Wuhan. They used the data to derive models on how the pandemic will play out in the rest of the world. Later, after widespread devastation in Iran, Europe, & the United States, and after relative containment in Taiwan, South Korea & Singapore, experts have access to larger datasets & a variety of scenarios to help develop disease virulence predictions and control models. 

So far, authorities in the Indian subcontinent appear to copy strategies of other countries to combat the spread of the pandemic. The curves of exponential ascendency of COVID-19’s spread across countries appear identical in nature, except in a few where health care response is more regimented. Yet, there is speculation about the virus’s survival in India’s climatic conditions: Indians may have a better “innate resistance” and the impact of compulsory the BCG vaccination in most Indians may have some effect on the expression of the disease in the country. Therefore, it may be worthwhile for India to study the actual transmission, clinical expression, and outcomes of the disease in her own population and design responses to the pandemic based on those studies. 

That is to say, we must find our own Diamond Princess before we find our Wuhan. 

The government of India maintains that COVID-19 has not reached Stage 3 in the country yet. However, sceptics point at the shortened doubling rate and debunk the government’s position saying that community transmission of  SARS-Cov-2 has already begun. What is funny is that, even after knowing that India’s case trajectory is mirroring nearly every other country’s graph, the country – with people barely practicing adequate social distancing & violating lockdowns at their will – acts surprised that their COVID-19 numbers are rising! Primetime television is host to a raucous blame game: one set of people criticize the Government for delayed initiation of lockdown & for poor organization of logistics; and another set of people hold reckless behavior by potentially infected individuals and groups as a reason for rapid spread. 

A singular event that has earned extraordinary ire from the public & media as being the largest cluster of COVID-19 cases in India is the Tablighi Jamaat (TJ), an Islamic conference held in Nizamuddin Markaz, New Delhi in March. Following this congregation, there was a sudden upsurge in the number of COVID-19 positive cases in several states of India. Many states reported that a major proportion of positive cases were delegates from the ‘Markaz’ congregation and their immediate contacts. Naturally, angry voices in the mainstream & social media were heard blaming the Tablighi, and implicitly the Muslim community for ‘un-flattening’ the COVID-19 curve. Some even accused Muslims of deliberately plotting to spread the disease in the country saying that the Markaz delegates from some states refused to come forward for testing/quarantine as per the government’s advice to health care workers trying to test the Markaz attendees were attacked in some places has not helped assuage this widespread suspicion. 

Countering this blame were voices that criticized the establishment of selectively targeting attendees for testing instead of making testing more widespread. Their contention argued that this led to skewed statistics with a disproportionate number of TJ cases. Fresh from the recent CAA protests, Muslims and their liberal supporters accused the Government and the right wing of aggravating the prevailing atmosphere of Islamophobia in the society. 

In the midst of this melee, what was overlooked was that the TJ congregation is a unique epidemiological opportunity for India to study the behavior of SARS CoV2 infection in the country. 

Let me explain. 

The events surrounding the TJ congregation at the Nizamuddin Markaz in March aren’t very clear. Some reports say that the event was inaugurated on  March 2nd-3rd, and thousands of delegates, and many batches from overseas attended the gatherings.. The annual Ijtema was held between March 13th -15th  and approximately 4500 -8000 delegates (depending on which news you read) attended this event. On March 16th, the Delhi Government ordered that no more than 50 people can gather for any meetings including religious conventions. Following this, and until the intervention of India’s National Security Advisor on March 28-29th, more than 2300 delegates were sequestered at the Markaz, apparently not wearing masks and not strictly practicing social distancing norms. The evacuation of all these delegates from the mosque was accomplished only between March 29th and 31st. 

Now, this situation is somewhat akin to the Diamond Princess scenario. Markaz delegates were adult men of different age groups and presumably some had comorbidities. Since it was a well-planned conference, the identity and contact details of every delegate is known to the organizers. A bit of investigation into the proceedings of the conference can help understand the type of interaction & contact the delegates had with the others. 

For a moment, let us ignore the number of people each of the infected delegates managed to infect after the conference. Purely focusing on the cohort of primary delegates, we can study: 

1. The rate of COVID-19 infections without social distancing 

2. Among those testing positive, how many were symptomatic & how many will be asymptomatic ‘spreaders’? 

3. What percentage will develop severe infections that require hospitalization? 

4. What will be the death rate? 

5. What are the factors that predict severe infection and mortality? 

Data generated by such a study can give unique insights that can be used to plan the future of the pandemic in the country. Fundamentally, we have to understand that attending a legally permitted religious conference is no crime. Contracting a contagion in the Markaz is no different than contracting it in a Luxury Cruise ship. Stigmatizing Markaz attendees or their contacts is only going to feed the divisiveness. 

On the other hand, volunteering information about going to Tablighi Jamaat Markaz is no embarrassment or blasphemy. Getting tested and submitting to quarantine as needed is a moral obligation of the delegates to their loved ones & society. 

The scientific spirit must trump fundamentalism to protect the human race.

Dr Somalaram Venkatesh is Chief Cardiologist at Aster RV Hospital in Bangalore, India.

The post Can The Tablighi Jamaat’s Conference be India’s Own Epidemiological Diamond Princess? appeared first on The Health Care Blog.

Can The Tablighi Jamaat’s Conference be India’s Own Epidemiological Diamond Princess? published first on https://wittooth.tumblr.com/

[enewsedition]

Seoul mandates face masks as S. Korea battles spike in coronavirus

Seoul mandates face masks as S. Korea battles spike in coronavirus

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The national government also extended second-tier social-distancing rules which had been in place in Seoul to other areas of the country

South Korea’s capital Seoul on Monday mandated the wearing of face masks in both indoor and outdoor public places for the first time, as the country battles a surge in coronavirus cases centred in the densely populated city region.

In May, Seoul’s…

[lauramalchowblog]

Can The Tablighi Jamaat’s Conference be India’s Own Epidemiological Diamond Princess?

By SOMALARAM VENKATESH, MD

“It has always been science versus fundamentalism, not science versus religion.” 

Abhijit Naskar, Biopsy of Religions: Neuroanalysis Towards Universal Tolerance

On February 3, 2020, the luxury cruise ship Diamond Princess docked on Japanese shores and was promptly quarantined with 3711 people on board, because a passenger who had disembarked at Hong Kong two days earlier had tested positive for SARS-Cov-2,  or also known as  COVID-19. Passengers & crew members were either repatriated or hospitalized in Japan over the next 4 weeks. In total,, more than 700 of them were found to be infected with the virus. This was a unique opportunity – a Petri dish in a ship, if you may – for epidemiologists and virologists to study the disease and the virus. 

At the beginning of this global pandemic, health care professionals and policymakers used data from the Diamond Princess experience and inferences thereof, such as infectivity & death rates, as a supplement to the observations from Wuhan. They used the data to derive models on how the pandemic will play out in the rest of the world. Later, after widespread devastation in Iran, Europe, & the United States, and after relative containment in Taiwan, South Korea & Singapore, experts have access to larger datasets & a variety of scenarios to help develop disease virulence predictions and control models. 

So far, authorities in the Indian subcontinent appear to copy strategies of other countries to combat the spread of the pandemic. The curves of exponential ascendency of COVID-19’s spread across countries appear identical in nature, except in a few where health care response is more regimented. Yet, there is speculation about the virus’s survival in India’s climatic conditions: Indians may have a better “innate resistance” and the impact of compulsory the BCG vaccination in most Indians may have some effect on the expression of the disease in the country. Therefore, it may be worthwhile for India to study the actual transmission, clinical expression, and outcomes of the disease in her own population and design responses to the pandemic based on those studies. 

That is to say, we must find our own Diamond Princess before we find our Wuhan. 

The government of India maintains that COVID-19 has not reached Stage 3 in the country yet. However, sceptics point at the shortened doubling rate and debunk the government’s position saying that community transmission of  SARS-Cov-2 has already begun. What is funny is that, even after knowing that India’s case trajectory is mirroring nearly every other country’s graph, the country – with people barely practicing adequate social distancing & violating lockdowns at their will – acts surprised that their COVID-19 numbers are rising! Primetime television is host to a raucous blame game: one set of people criticize the Government for delayed initiation of lockdown & for poor organization of logistics; and another set of people hold reckless behavior by potentially infected individuals and groups as a reason for rapid spread. 

A singular event that has earned extraordinary ire from the public & media as being the largest cluster of COVID-19 cases in India is the Tablighi Jamaat (TJ), an Islamic conference held in Nizamuddin Markaz, New Delhi in March. Following this congregation, there was a sudden upsurge in the number of COVID-19 positive cases in several states of India. Many states reported that a major proportion of positive cases were delegates from the ‘Markaz’ congregation and their immediate contacts. Naturally, angry voices in the mainstream & social media were heard blaming the Tablighi, and implicitly the Muslim community for ‘un-flattening’ the COVID-19 curve. Some even accused Muslims of deliberately plotting to spread the disease in the country saying that the Markaz delegates from some states refused to come forward for testing/quarantine as per the government’s advice to health care workers trying to test the Markaz attendees were attacked in some places has not helped assuage this widespread suspicion. 

Countering this blame were voices that criticized the establishment of selectively targeting attendees for testing instead of making testing more widespread. Their contention argued that this led to skewed statistics with a disproportionate number of TJ cases. Fresh from the recent CAA protests, Muslims and their liberal supporters accused the Government and the right wing of aggravating the prevailing atmosphere of Islamophobia in the society. 

In the midst of this melee, what was overlooked was that the TJ congregation is a unique epidemiological opportunity for India to study the behavior of SARS CoV2 infection in the country. 

Let me explain. 

The events surrounding the TJ congregation at the Nizamuddin Markaz in March aren’t very clear. Some reports say that the event was inaugurated on  March 2nd-3rd, and thousands of delegates, and many batches from overseas attended the gatherings.. The annual Ijtema was held between March 13th -15th  and approximately 4500 -8000 delegates (depending on which news you read) attended this event. On March 16th, the Delhi Government ordered that no more than 50 people can gather for any meetings including religious conventions. Following this, and until the intervention of India’s National Security Advisor on March 28-29th, more than 2300 delegates were sequestered at the Markaz, apparently not wearing masks and not strictly practicing social distancing norms. The evacuation of all these delegates from the mosque was accomplished only between March 29th and 31st. 

Now, this situation is somewhat akin to the Diamond Princess scenario. Markaz delegates were adult men of different age groups and presumably some had comorbidities. Since it was a well-planned conference, the identity and contact details of every delegate is known to the organizers. A bit of investigation into the proceedings of the conference can help understand the type of interaction & contact the delegates had with the others. 

For a moment, let us ignore the number of people each of the infected delegates managed to infect after the conference. Purely focusing on the cohort of primary delegates, we can study: 

1. The rate of COVID-19 infections without social distancing 

2. Among those testing positive, how many were symptomatic & how many will be asymptomatic ‘spreaders’? 

3. What percentage will develop severe infections that require hospitalization? 

4. What will be the death rate? 

5. What are the factors that predict severe infection and mortality? 

Data generated by such a study can give unique insights that can be used to plan the future of the pandemic in the country. Fundamentally, we have to understand that attending a legally permitted religious conference is no crime. Contracting a contagion in the Markaz is no different than contracting it in a Luxury Cruise ship. Stigmatizing Markaz attendees or their contacts is only going to feed the divisiveness. 

On the other hand, volunteering information about going to Tablighi Jamaat Markaz is no embarrassment or blasphemy. Getting tested and submitting to quarantine as needed is a moral obligation of the delegates to their loved ones & society. 

The scientific spirit must trump fundamentalism to protect the human race.

Dr Somalaram Venkatesh is Chief Cardiologist at Aster RV Hospital in Bangalore, India.

The post Can The Tablighi Jamaat’s Conference be India’s Own Epidemiological Diamond Princess? appeared first on The Health Care Blog.

Can The Tablighi Jamaat’s Conference be India’s Own Epidemiological Diamond Princess? published first on https://venabeahan.tumblr.com

[latestbreakingnewsupdates]

Positive news on Oxford COVID-19 vaccine could come today: report

Positive news on Oxford COVID-19 vaccine could come today: report

Positive news on preliminary trials of the University of Oxford’s potential COVID-19 vaccine that has been licensed to AstraZeneca could be introduced as quickly as Thursday, ITV’s political editor Robert Peston mentioned, citing a supply.

The potential vaccine is already in large-scale Phase III human trials to evaluate whether or not it may well defend towards COVID-19, however its builders…

[news24fresh]

Positive news on Oxford COVID-19 vaccine could come today: report

Positive news on Oxford COVID-19 vaccine could come today: report

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Positive news on initial trials of the University of Oxford’s potential COVID-19 vaccine that has been licensed to AstraZeneca could be announced as soon as Thursday, ITV’s political editor Robert Peston said, citing a source.

The potential vaccine is already in large-scale Phase III human trials to assess whether it can protect against COVID-19, but its developers have yet to report…

[dailykhaleej]

COVID-19: In India, coronavirus fans religious hatred

Well being care staff communicate with a resident in Nizamuddin West, the place a gathering on the Tablighi Jamaat mosque and seminary turned the centre of a coronavirus outbreak, in New Delhi, April 8. Picture Credit score: NYT

New Delhi: After India’s well being ministry repeatedly blamed an Islamic seminary for spreading the coronavirus – and governing celebration officers spoke of “human bombs” and “corona jihad” – a spree of anti-Muslim assaults has damaged out throughout the nation.

Younger Muslim males who have been passing out meals to the poor have been assaulted with cricket bats. Different Muslims have been crushed up, practically lynched, run out of their neighbourhoods or attacked in mosques, branded as virus spreaders. In Punjab state, loudspeakers at Sikh temples broadcast messages telling individuals to not purchase milk from Muslim dairy farmers as a result of it was contaminated with coronavirus.

Hateful messages have bloomed on-line. And a wave of apparently pretend movies has popped up telling Muslims to not put on masks, to not observe social distancing, to not fear concerning the virus in any respect, as if the makers of the movies needed Muslims to get sick.

In a worldwide pandemic, there’s all the time the hunt for blame. President Donald Trump has completed it, insisting for a time on calling the coronavirus a “Chinese virus”. Everywhere in the world persons are pointing fingers, pushed by their fears and anxieties to go after The Different.

Dangerous 12 months for Muslims

Right here in India, no different group has been demonised greater than the nation’s 200 million Muslims, minorities in a Hindu-dominated land of 1.three billion individuals.

From the crackdown on Kashmir, a Muslim majority space, to a brand new citizenship legislation that blatantly discriminates in opposition to Muslims, this previous 12 months has been one low level after one other for Indian Muslims dwelling beneath an more and more daring Hindu nationalist authorities led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and propelled by majoritarian insurance policies.

Factor of fact

In this case, what’s making issues worse is that there’s a component of fact behind the federal government’s claims. A single Muslim religious motion has been recognized as being chargeable for a big share of India’s 8,000-plus coronavirus instances. Indian officers estimated final week that greater than a 3rd of the nation’s instances have been linked to the group, Tablighi Jamaat, which held an enormous gathering of preachers in India in March. Related conferences in Malaysia and Pakistan additionally led to outbreaks.

“The government was compelled to call out this congregation,” stated Vikas Swarup, a senior official at India’s international ministry.

He stated that the gathering in March “had a significant impact on the containment methods” however denied that the federal government’s frequent blaming of the group had “anything to do with a particular community.”

Missionary motion

Tablighi Jamaat is a multinational Muslim missionary motion. A tall, white, fashionable constructing towering over the Nizamuddin West neighbourhood of Delhi serves its world headquarters. The group is among the world’s largest faith-based organizations, with tens of thousands and thousands of members.

The Indian authorities has been racing to trace down anybody from Tablighi’s seminary and quarantine congregants. Masked law enforcement officials have sealed the headquarters on all sides; the opposite morning, they patrolled the world with their fingers on the triggers of assault rifles.

The neighbourhood resembles one close to a bus depot or a port; the seminary was the centre of the financial system, and throughout it stand cash changers, guesthouses, journey companies and present outlets, catering to the Muslim missionaries who would move via right here.

The virus and the brand new wave of hatred have modified every part. Mohammed Haider, who runs a milk stall, one of many few companies allowed to remain open beneath India’s coronavirus lockdown, stated, “Worry is watching us, from all over the place.’’

“People need only a small reason to beat us or to lynch us,’’ he said. “Because of corona.”

Mob rampage

Muslim leaders are afraid. They see the intensifying assaults in opposition to Muslims and keep in mind what occurred in February, when Hindu mobs rampaged in a working-class neighbourhood in Delhi, killing dozens, and police largely stood apart – or generally even helped the Hindu mobs. In many villages now, Muslim merchants are barred from coming into merely due to their religion.

“The government should not have played the blame game,” stated Khalid Rasheed, chairman of Islamic Centre of India. “If you present the cases based on somebody’s religion in your media briefings,” he stated, “it creates a big divide.”

“Coronavirus may die,” he added, “but the virus of communal disharmony will be hard to kill when this is over.”

‘Didn’t take it significantly’

Tahir Iqbal, a current college graduate from Kashmir, was among the many 4,000 or so gathered on the Tablighi Jamaat headquarters in early March for missionary coaching. He stated individuals slept, ate and prayed in shut quarters, with little concern of the coronavirus. “We didn’t take it seriously at the time,” he stated.

On March 16, the Delhi authorities banned gatherings of greater than 50 individuals. A number of days later, Modi introduced a nationwide lockdown.

However as a substitute of dispersing, greater than 1,000 individuals stayed put on the centre. Throughout a March 19 sermon, Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, a Tablighi Jamaat chief, advised followers that coronavirus was “God’s punishment” and to not concern it.

A street that results in the Tablighi Jamaat seminary. Picture Credit score: NYT

A couple of week later, well being inspectors discovered round 1,300 individuals nonetheless sheltering on the centre with out masks or different protecting gear. Many Muslim leaders criticised the group’s centre for not closing down.

However by that time, lots of of congregants had already left. They wended their manner throughout India by automotive, bus, practice and aircraft, spreading the coronavirus to greater than half of India’s states, from seaside cities within the Andaman Islands to the new, farming cities within the nation’s northern plains.

On March 31, Delhi authorities filed a legal case in opposition to Maulana Kandhalvi for “deliberately, willfully, negligently and malignantly” placing the general public’s well being in danger. Tablighi Jamaat’s centre was sealed. The maulana, a title for a Muslim scholar, disappeared.

Indian authorities have been tightening the lockdown on scorching spots throughout the nation, shutting down all motion in areas the place coronavirus instances have been detected. Although the nationwide whole stays comparatively low, many concern the extremely contagious virus may rip via crowded city areas, overwhelming India’s already beleaguered public hospitals.

Indian authorities have used cellphone knowledge to trace Tablighi Jamaat congregants and intercepted Malaysian missionaries at an airport earlier than they might board an evacuation flight out of India.

At a public briefing final week, Lav Agarwal, a well being ministry spokesman, stated that the variety of days it could have taken India’s coronavirus instances to double would have been 7.4 – not the extra alarming 4.1 days it hit this previous week – had the gathering not occurred.

Since then, greater than 25,000 individuals who got here involved with Tablighi members have been quarantined. Some nurses have complained that Tablighi members put in isolation wards acted lewdly. One Muslim man who examined optimistic for the coronavirus slit his throat in a central Indian hospital Saturday.

Anti-Muslim sentiments

Some Hindu nationalist politicians and their supporters seized on the scenario, eagerly piling on the anti-Muslim sentiments which have been constructing in recent times beneath Modi’s authorities.

Raj Thackeray, the chief of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, a far-right nationalist celebration, advised native information retailers that Tablighi Jamaat members “should be shot.”

Rajeev Bindal, a pacesetter inside Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Social gathering, stated Tablighi members have been transferring via the inhabitants “like human bombs.”

Mob assault

In the village of Harewali, close to Delhi, a mob beat Mehboob Ali, a younger Muslim man, for attending Tablighi Jamaat occasions, and filmed the beating.

“Tell us your plan!” somebody shouts within the video. “Was your plan to spread corona?”

Ali, bloodied and crouching in a discipline, shakes his head.

Sensing the backlash in opposition to Muslims, India’s well being ministry has stopped blaming Tablighi Jamaat at public briefings.

“Certain communities and areas are being labelled purely based on false reports,” the well being ministry stated in a press release a number of days in the past. “There is an urgent need to counter such prejudices.”

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[liveindiatimes]

Coronavirus Hotspots - Delhi Now Has 43 Coronavirus Hotspots, Up From Yesterday's 33

https://www.liveindiatimes.com/coronavirus-hotspots-delhi-now-has-43-coronavirus-hotspots-up-from-yesterdays-33/

Coronavirus Delhi: Hotspots in the city have risen by 10 in a 24-hour period (File)

New Delhi:

Ten new coronavirus hotspots have been identified in Delhi over a 24-hour period, it was announced on Sunday evening, taking the total number of hotspots in the national capital to 43; 30 were identified on Friday and 25 on Thursday. The government has expressed concerns about the increasing number of COVID-19 cases being reported from across the city.

Areas declared hotspots today include East of Kailash, a posh residential colony in south Delhi, and places like Madanpur Khadar, Abul Fazal Enclave, Khadda Colony in Jaitpur Extension, Bengali Colony in Mahaveer Enclave and Shera Mohalla Garhi.

“We have declared containment areas as “red zones” and high-risk areas as “orange zones”. We have identified more containment zones in the national capital,” Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said.

The colour-coding is in line with the centre’s plan to colour-code districts to identify the severity of the outbreak in each and accordingly ease lockdown restrictions, in an effort to boost the economy.

Meanwhile, the Delhi government is to launch a massive sanitisation drive across these containment areas and hotspots from Monday, Mr Kejriwal said, adding that these would be done by 10 machines imported from Japan and 50 others from the Delhi Jal Board.

Delhi has 1,069 COVID-19 cases so far and 19 deaths have been linked to the virus. Of the active cases more than 430 have been linked to the religious gathering held by Islamic sect Tablighi Jamaat in south Delhi’s Nizamuddin – also one of the hotspots – last month.

The 21-day “total lockdown” ordered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March ends on Tuesday.

On Saturday the Prime Minister and 13 chief ministers, including Mr Kejriwal, took part in a video conference to discuss its extension. After a four-hour meeting the PM indicated it will be prolonged by two weeks. Shortly after Mr Kejriwal said the decision was “correct”.

The Delhi government’s strategy to deal with this viral outbreak is based on Operation Shield, which stands for “Sealing, Home Quarantine, Isolation and Tracking, Essential Supply, Local Santisation and Door-To-Door Checking”.

Operation Shield came two days after Mr Kejriwal announced “the 5T plan” of “testing, tracing, treatment, team-work and tracking and monitoring”.

On Friday Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain told NDTV that Dilshad Garden in the northeast was the first hotspot to be declared infection-free; this was after no new cases were reported in over 10 days. However, the area remains sealed for monitoring until further notice.

Live India Times

[iasshikshalove]

PM ASKS STATES TO SUGGEST PLAN FOR STAGGERED END TO LOCKDOWN

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at his second videoconference with Chief Ministers, on Thursday told them that it was “important to formulate a common exit strategy to ensure staggered re-emergence of the population once the lockdown ends”.

Modi emphasised that the collective goal of all should be to “save every Indian”.

He asked the States to brainstorm and send suggestions for the exit strategy.

Our first priority for the next few weeks should be testing, tracing, isolating and quarantine.

For this, all State to district level efforts must be coordinated,” he pointed out.

Modi urged that district-level disease surveillance officers should be appointed as soon as possible to make sure that penetration of this strategy is optimum.

Data collected from private laboratories allowed to test should be collated district-wise to be utilised for further strategising on tackling the pandemic.

He emphasised that the supply lines for medical equipment and drugs and raw mate

Separate Hospitals:

Every State should ensure that there are separate hospitals for COVID-19 patients, and the doctors attending to them need to be protected.

I would also urge you to step up online training of doctors in the treatment of COVID-19, he said.

This being the harvest season in many parts of the country, farmers and labourers, exempted from the lockdown, were engaged in harvest operations and they should maintain some physical distancing even on fields.

As for procurement, we must find ways to do it beyond the route of Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees (APMC).

A truck pooling scheme should also be worked out with farmers for ferrying produce to the market.

Harvesting will possibly need to be done in a staggered manner,.

The Centre would release ₹11,000 crore from the State Disaster Relief Fund by this month, and it should be used for efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

The monies and grains released under the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Yojana should be disbursed speedily.

Significantly, he also told the Chief Ministers that volunteers of the National Cadet Corps and the National Service Scheme would also be recruited in the effort to combat COVID-19.

Other than this, crisis management groups should coordinate with as many NGOs as possible and strategies should be shared with all stakeholders as we need everyone’s help at this time.

Modi also urged the States that immunity boosting methods used by traditional systems of medicines in India such as Ayurveda should be promoted as fatalities were high among those with compromised immunity.

“These are our traditional ways of boosting immunity,” he said pointing to the fact that an advisory by the AYUSH Ministry had been issued in this regard.

VIRUS CASES DOUBLE IN INDIA IN FIVE DAYS

The number of COVID-19 cases in India has doubled in the past week, with 328 more cases and 12 deaths reported on Thursday.

The tally now stands at 2,069 cases, with 53 deaths and 155 cured of the novel coronavirus infection.

The Health Ministry said there were reports of several doctors, nurses and paramedics testing positive.

The number of cases increased sharply from 909 this weekend, and the Health Ministry confirmed that it was looking at tweaking the testing protocol

With a rapid anti-body test in hot-spots, where those indicating a positive would be sent for confirmation and the others would be quarantined.

The Health Ministry said extensive action was being taken in Asia’s largest slum, Dharavi in Mumbai, after a death due to COVID-19 was reported there.

GEO-FENCING APP WILL BE USED TO LOCATE QUARANTINE VILOATORS

The Centre is using powers under the Indian Telegraph Act to “fetch information” from telecom companies every 15 minutes to track COVID-19 cases across the country.

The government has tested an application that triggers e-mails and SMS alerts to an authorised government agency if a person has jumped quarantine or escaped from isolation, based on the person’s mobile phone’s cell tower location.

The “geo-fencing” is accurate by up to 300 m, a government communication said.

Used by Kerala:

Kerala was one of the first States to use geo-fencing to track COVID-19 cases.

On March 29, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) shared a standard operating procedure (SOP) with all telecom service providers regarding the application called COVID-19 Quarantine Alert System (CQAS).

The system will collate phone data, including the device’s location, on a common secured platform and alert the local agencies in case of a violation by COVID-19 patients under watch or in isolation.

Secure Network:

The SOP says that the DoT and C-DOT, in coordination with telecom service providers, have developed and tested the application.

It said the location information is received periodically over a secure network for the authorised cases with “due protection of the data received”.

The States have been asked to seek the approval of their Home Secretaries under the provisions of Section 5(2) of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, for the specified mobile phone numbers to request the DoT to provide information by email or SMS in case of violation of “geo-fencing”.

The particular provision under the Act, amended multiple times since 1885, authorises the State or the Centre to access information of a user’s phone data in case of “occurrence of any public emergency or in the interest of the public safety.”

The CQAS will prepare a list of mobile numbers, segregating them on the basis of telecom service providers, and the location data provided by the companies will be run on the application to create geo-fencing, the SOP said.

Data Will Be Deleted:

It said that the phone number should be deleted from the system after the period for which location monitoring is required is over and the data would be deleted four weeks from thereon.

“The data collected shall be used only for the purpose of Health Management in the context of COVID-19 and is strictly not for any other purposes. Any violation in this regard would attract penal provisions under the relevant laws,” the SOP said.

The SOP said that geo-fencing will only work if the quarantined person has a mobile phone from Airtel, Vodafone-Idea or Reliance Jio, as “BSNL/MTNL” do not support location based services. BSNL and MTNL are government owned.

TABLIGHI JAMAAT: ON A MISSION TO PURIFY ISLAM

At least 2,000 people, both from across the country and foreign nations such as Indonesia and Malaysia, had attended the gathering in Nizamuddin that started in early March and went on for a couple of weeks.

Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, leader of the group, has been booked by the Delhi police under the Epidemic Disease Act.

Jamaat’s Origins:

The Tablighi Jamaat (Society of Preachers) was founded by a Deobandi Islamic scholar Muhammad Ilyas al-Kandhlawi in Mewat, India, in 1926.

Al-Kandhlawi’s goal was to establish a group of dedicated preachers as a Muslim revivalist society, who could revive “true” Islam, which he saw was not being practised by many Muslims.

The slogan Al-Kandhlawi coined for his new organisation captured the essence of its activities — “Oh Muslims, become true Muslims”.

Al-Kandhlawi called upon his fellow Muslims to “enjoin the good and forbid the evil”.

Al-Kandhlawi’s mission was also to revive his faith, but based on its core teachings and lifestyle of its early leaders.

Also in Mewat where the Tablighi was founded, the Meos Muslims, a Rajput ethnic group, had followed syncretic traditions. Al-Kandhlawi wanted to end it all through dawa (proselytising).

He sent his volunteers to villages to spread “the message of Allah”.

The organisation grew fast in British India. In its annual conference held in November 1941, some 25,000 people attended.

After Partition, it grew stronger in Pakistan and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

Now, Tablighi’s largest national wing is in Bangladesh.

The group has presence in 150 countries and millions of followers.

Purify The Faith:

Inspired by the Deobandi creed, the Tablighis urge fellow Muslims to live like the Prophet did.

They are theologically opposed to the syncretic nature of Sufi Islam and insist on its members to dress like the Prophet did (trouser or robe should be above the ankle).

Men usually shave their upper lip and keep long beard.

The focus of the organisation was on ‘purifying’ the Muslim faith.

The organisation has a loose structure. The Emir is the leader of the international movement and is always related to the group’s founder Muhammad Ilyas al-Kandhlawi.

The current leader, Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, is the grandson of the founder.

The group also has a Shura Council, which is largely an advisory council with different national units and national headquarters.

Key Activities:

The Tablighi Jamaat members have declared they are not political.

They have also decried violence in the name of religion.

They say the Prophet Mohammed has commanded all Muslims to convey the message of Allah, and the Tablighis take this as their duty.

They divide themselves into small Jamaats (societies) and travel frequently across the world to spread the message of Islam to Muslim houses.

The group’s modus operandi is peaceful and it is focused entirely on the Muslim community worldwide.

“There is a culture of secretism in the organisation, which develops suspicion,” Ajit Doval, now India’s National Security Adviser and a former intelligence boss, said in 2013.

The Tablighi members have declared they are apolitical and decried violence in the name of religion.PTIPTI

Why in News?

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has blacklisted 960 foreigners, present in India on tourist visas, for their involvement in Tablighi Jamaat activities.

It has also directed the Directors General of Police of all the concerned States and Union Territories including Delhi Police to take necessary action against all such violators, on priority, under relevant sections of the Foreigners Act, 1946, and Disaster Management Act, 2005.

A blacklisted foreigner cannot get a visa from any of the missions abroad to come to India.

About 9,000 people linked to the Nizamuddin event have been traced in different parts of the country.

DOCTORS WARY OF BCG VACCINE STUDYBCG Vaccine:

Bacillus Calmette–Guérin(BCG) vaccine is a vaccine primarily used against tuberculosis (TB).

In countries where tuberculosis or leprosy is common, one dose is recommended in healthy babies as close to the time of birth as possible.

Adults who do not have tuberculosis and have not been previously immunized but are frequently exposed may be immunized as well.

Additionally it is sometimes used as part of the treatment of bladder cancer.

The BCG vaccine was first used medically in 1921.

It is on the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines, the safest and most effective medicines needed in a health system.

What does BCG vaccination consist of?

BCG vaccine consists of the strains of bacterium that cause lung tuberculosis in humans.

The strain is named Mycobacterium Bovis.

During vaccine making, the strength of active bacteria is reduced so that it does not cause disease in healthy people.

It is called an active ingredient in the language of medicine.

In addition to this, the vaccine contains sodium, potassium and magnesium salts, glycerol and citric acid.

BCG vaccine in India:

The BCG vaccine was first introduced in India as a pilot project in the year 1948.

The very next year, in 1949, it was started in schools across the country.

In 1962, the National TB Program started in India and children were vaccinated soon after birth across the country.

According to this, it can be assumed that a large population in India is BCG vaccinated.

BCG Vaccination Scar on Arm.

Why in News?

Doctors and scientists in India have expressed caution on a study which argues that countries that have deployed the BCG-tuberculosis vaccine in their immunisation programmes have seen fewer deaths from COVID-19.

The study argues that 55 middle and high-income countries chosen for the analysis that have a current universal BCG policy had 78 deaths per million people.

Whereas middle and high income countries that never had a universal BCG policy (five countries) had a larger mortality rate, with 39 deaths per million people, a significant variation.

India wasn’t included in the analysis.

The BCG vaccine is known to confer a strong immune response that have protective effects beyond just staving off a tuberculosis infection and because COVID-19 was particularly lethal to the elderly, those countries where the elderly were likely to have had a BCG shot in their childhood were likely to be better protected against the coronavirus.

“Italy, where the COVID-19 mortality is very high, never implemented universal BCG vaccination.

Japan [and which has a BCG policy since 1947] has maintained a low mortality rate despite not implementing the most strict forms of social isolation. read more

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