Covid-19 count: India overtakes Germany & France, at 7th spot

Covid-19 count: India overtakes Germany & France, at 7th spot

Death Toll Remains Above 200 For The Fourth Straight Day

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:02.06.2020

A day after overtaking Germany, India went past France in total count of Covid-19 cases on Monday, rising to the seventh spot in the list of countries with highest caseloads of the virus. On the first day of India’s unlocking phase, the number of fresh infections dipped slightly to 7,573, while the death toll remained above 200 for the fourth straight day.

India had recorded 1,92,630 Covid-19 cases till late on Monday, going past France’s count of 1,88,882 infections till now. The day’s death toll from the pandemic was 203, the third highest single-day count so far. The toll has remained above 200 for four consecutive days now, with the highest number

(270) reported on May 29. The total toll from the pandemic rose to exactly 5,600 on Monday, translating to a case fatality rate of 2.9%. While Maharashtra continued to report the highest fresh cases, Monday’s count of 2,361 was lower than those reported in at least the last two days. Of these, Mumbai reported 1,413 cases, taking the city’s count to over 40,000. The cumulative case count of the states crossed 70,000, accounting for over 36% of all cases in the country.

The state reported 76 more Covid-related deaths, taking the total toll to 2,362, which translates to a case fatality rate of 3.37%, significantly higher than the national average. Mumbai alone accounted for 40 deaths on Monday.

After several days of reporting over 1,000 fresh cases, Delhi’s count dipped slightly to 990 on Monday. However, the city reported 50 deaths, taking the total toll past 500, to 523.

Meanwhile, Gujarat became the third state in India to cross 10,000 discharges of Covid-19 positive patients after Maharashtra (29,329) and Tamil Nadu (13,170), with 10,780 patients sent home post recovery. Across India, the total number of Covid patients was over 95,000. Gujarat recorded 423 positive cases in 24 hours ending 5 pm on Monday, taking the total to 17,217. The new cases include 314 from Ahmedabad, 39 from Surat, 31 from Vadodara and 11 from Gandhinagar. This is the third consecutive day when state reported 400 plus positive cases. It has registered 438 cases on May 31 and 412 cases on May 30. The state also recorded the death of 25 Covid-19 positive patients, increasing the toll to 1063. The deceased include 22 from Ahmedabad.

In the highest spike in infections in a single day in Arunachal Pradesh, 16 fresh cases were reported on Monday. All of those who tested positive came from Delhi in a Shramik Special train. Odisha witnessed the highest daily spike in cases so far, with 156 people testing positive for the virus. Another 119 people were cured and discharged from hospital in what is also the biggest single-day jump in recoveries. The number of infected persons rose to 2,104 and the number of those cured rose to 1,245, leaving the state with 850 active cases. Seven patients have died of Covid-19 and two others have died of comorbidities.

NOT TAKING CHANCES

Divide Deepens, But Trump Eyes Poll

Divide Deepens, But Trump Eyes Poll

Clashes Continue On Day 6; Prez Was ‘Moved’ To Bunker During Stir Outside White House

Chidanand.Rajghatta@timesgroup.com

Washington:02.06.2020

“NOVEMBER 3RD,” US President Donald Trump tweeted in all caps on Sunday as America raged with fury over racism for the sixth successive day. Another tweet challenged a “heavily biased Democratic poll”, while boasting that he is leading in all swing states and has the biggest “enthusiasm” lead ever.

Amid a furious social and racial conflagration that has spread to scores of American cities, the president is making no secret of the fact that he is looking at the unfolding chaos through the prism of the November presidential election. Denying there are any “white supremest” groups involved in the rioting as alleged by some liberal activists, Trump blamed Antifa, an autonomous anti-fascist anti-capitalist left wing movement for the violence, associating Democrats with it. He also said he is designating Antifa as a terrorist organisation, although the US has no domestic terrorism law to designate something that has no organisational structure and no office bearers.

Trump’s anger at the protests peaked on Sunday night as hundreds of people who have been streaming towards the White House over the past few days turned violent over the weekend, burning signposts, traffic barricades, and anything combustible, even as many activists demonstrated peacefully seeking racial and social justice. At one point on Saturday, the Secret Service got so unnerved by the sight that they reportedly rushed Trump to an underground bunker last used during 9/11 for safety, generating social media ridicule. Soon after the news surfaced, Trump tweeted “FAKE NEWS!”, but several media outlets confirmed it even as online trolls mocked Trump with hashtags such as “BunkerPresident” and “BunkerDon”.

Scenes of violencewere everywhere, with ugly graffiti sprayed on government buildings and monuments, including one near Lincoln Memorial that read “YALL NOT TIRED YET?”. Luxury stores such as Gucci and Chanel were looted in New York City, and there were scenes of arson and vandalising of stores across the country. The random acts of violence and looting masked a more complicated picture of thousands of people emerging from their home to protest peacefully. In fact, even the police reaction was not always heavy-handed: in some instances, cops joined peaceful demonstrators, kneeling down with them in solidarity.

But in other incidents, cops unleashed brute force, using baton charges, pepper spray, and violence on even peaceful demonstrators and journalists. One widely circulated video showed a policeman with his knee on the neck of a protestor, exactly in the same manner that led to the killing of George Floyd, before his fellow cop managed to push the knee off the victim’s neck. It was not clear where and when the video was shot. In another instance, cops in Atlanta pulled out a black couple from a car and tasered them, leading to the mayor suspending two policemen.

Through all the seething disquiet, there was no effort on part of Trump to calm the situation. Instead, he lashed out at governors for their “weak” response to the violence, calling protesters “terrorists”. “Someone throwing a rock is like shooting a gun,” he told them. “You have to do retribution.”

Full report on www.toi.in

Along with imagery of fire and fury, there were also snaps of cordiality between police and protesters. While protests turned violent near the White House in Washington (left), a protester in Los Angeles was seen shaking hands with a National Guard member after others hurled insults at them

‘Remove Chinese apps’ clamour gets louder

‘Remove Chinese apps’ clamour gets louder

Chandrima.Banerjee@timesgroup.com

02.06.2020

It’s a straight pitch with an unsubstantiated claim: “Chinese apps are not secure you can scan and select Chinese apps that you want to uninstall.” That was enough. There are now over 10 lakh downloads in exactly two weeks since the app ‘Remove China Apps’ was launched. It is also the top downloaded Android tool in India with a 4.8 rating as of Sunday.

The app, with the icon of a dragon and two brooms crossed behind it, offers to identify all “Chinese apps” in one click and uninstall them. The Covid-19 outbreak had started what the recent LAC standoff has reinforced — circumspection about China — and the battleground is an app store. Growing interest in “Indian apps” has meant Google search interest shooting up from 31 in the first week of May to 100 in the third week.

The top trending Android app — ‘Bharat Messenger’ — and two of the top 10 trending communication apps in India on Sunday had the “Indiamade” connect. Another app, ‘Indian Messenger’, had been dormant for about a year since it was launched. But on Sunday, it started trending at number 8 and went straight to a 4.4 rating. “Indian apps very good,” a reviewer wrote. The third app, strangely also called ‘Indian Messenger’, has been downloaded over 10 lakh times and has a 4.6 rating.

Driving these apps are three touchstones of China-centred rhetoric — data security (“Chinese apps are unsafe”), national supremacy (“China funds anti-national agents”) and Covid-19 (“China spread the virus”) — that come together to spur a need for virtual retribution.

Man returns to UP on foot from B’luru, dies of snakebite in hour

Man returns to UP on foot from B’luru, dies of snakebite in hour

Petlee.Peter@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru:02.06.2020

He walked a gruelling 2,000km for 12 days from Bengaluru to reach his village in Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh and gave his mother an ecstatic hug. Barely an hour later, 23-year-old Salman Khan was dead — from a snakebite, after he stepped into a field to wash up after the dusty journey home.

His mother, who had been waiting anxiously for the youngest of her five children to return, went into shock following his death on May 26. Rukshan, in her 50s, has been bedridden since, slipping in and out of consciousness. Having buried their youngest, the family now struggles to foot her hospital bills.

It was on December 29 last year that Salman took a train to Bengaluru to earn a living. He found work, along with many others from Gonda, at a construction site in Banashankari and regularly sent money home. The family, which lives in a shack in Dhanepur village in Srinagar Babaganj of Gonda in east-central UP, had hoped their days in abject poverty were numbered.

On the dawn of May 12, Salman and 10 others embarked on their journey home by foot, unable to stay on any longer after the lockdown. Dodging police in Karnataka and Andhra, swimming across the Tungabhadra and spending a few days in quarantine, he finally made it home at 5pm on May 26 — exhausted, hungry and feet covered in blisters.

“Our contractor didn’t pay us for two months. We waited and then tried to get on a train. After four days of long waits outside police stations, humiliation and caning, 10 of us decided to walk home and set out on May 12,” said Koushal Kumar, also a Gonda native, who worked with Salman.

“We reached the Karnataka border that day and were chased away by police,” recalled Kumar, who then guided the group through an alternative route along the railway line. Days of walking got the group to Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh. They waded through the Tungabadra river on the AP-Telangana border and managed to enter Maharashtra by hitchhiking a brief ride on a tractor. “Mostly moving in the dark to escape police, we walked and hitched rides on trucks through Madhya Pradesh and entered Prayagraj,” said Kumar on phone.

“My mother and I were overjoyed to see him. His foot was badly cut, and he was frail,” said Riyaz Khan, breaking down on phone.

After tears and hugs, Salman stepped into a sugarcane field nearby to wash up. “We found him dead an hour later. Our mother went into a shock on seeing his body and had to be hospitalised,” said Riyaz.

Barely an hour after he reached home, 23-year-old Salman Khan died from a snakebite when he stepped into a field to wash up after the dusty journey. His mom is in shock after momentary reunion

In a first, virtual court goes paperless in SC

In a first, virtual court goes paperless in SC

All 3 Judges Use Laptops To Read Files & Make Notes

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:02.06.2020

In a pioneering development for a judiciary consuming a staggering 10 billion sheets of paper annually, a virtual court of the Supreme Court went paperless on Monday and judges heard cases without having a single paperbook case file on their table.

It was an unusual sight in virtual court number three. Missing were the usually stacked case files besides the three chairs on the dais prior to assembling of the judges. Even more unusual was the three judges — Justices D Y Chandrachud, Hemant Gupta and Ajay Rastogi — walking in with their laptops. They opened their laptops and started hearing cases even as most lawyers connected through video links were seen using paper case files.

During the arguments, the judges were seen making notes on the laptop as the hearings continued without any glitch. If all judges in the SC, high courts and trial courts follow suit, then the judiciary will save 10 billion sheets of paper and thousands of trees from being felled for the purpose every year.

The first move to make SC proceedings paperless was initiated by then CJI J S Khehar, who in 2017 brought in largescreen computers which were placed before the judges in the first five courts. But the judges, who had worked with case files and physically turned pages to go through petitions, were uncomfortable with the sudden decision to go paperless. “I will rather read the files physically than go through it on a computer. It just does not feel that one has read a file when reading on a computer screen,” a judge had said three years ago.

Most judges shared the view. Soon, the huge computers were folded and used as table tops. Later, these were removed to the storeroom. “Software for court-work at that time was not advanced and had several shortcomings. Present software is much more advanced. It allows the judges to make notes with special pens on the computer screen itself about a case and these notes can be preserved confidentially. The law clerks’ notes, as well as the judge’s own notings, can be stored separately and can be seen by the judge during the hearing along with the case file,” a source said.

To streamline filing of cases and their categorisation for grouping, the SC’s E-Committee, headed by Justice Chandrachud, has constituted a committee to prepare standard operating procedures for digitisation and e-filing of cases in all HCs and district courts. “The e-filing module is ready for HCs and district courts,” the source said.

Judges in different HCs told TOI that the technology for virtual hearing did not support simultaneous functioning of more than three virtual courts, impeding the HC from listing a large number of cases daily.

NEW NORMAL: Chief Justice of India S A Bobde and Justice D Y Chandrachud (right) attended the online event as Supreme Court on Monday streamed a live demo on e-filing of cases for advocates

Wife pawns mangalsutra for Covid warrior’s last rites in K’taka

Wife pawns mangalsutra for Covid warrior’s last rites in K’taka

Basavaraj.Kattimani@timesgroup.com

Hubballi  02.06.2020

: When 108 ambulance driver Umesh Hadagali died of a heart attack on May 27, after some two months of non-stop duty as Covid warrior, his wife had to pawn her mangalsutra to conduct his final rites. Her video on social media, seeking help for her sons, aged 12 and 7, triggered a call from the chief minister.

Speaking to the family on Monday, B S Yediyurappa assured all help, besides speedy insurance and compensation payout. Umesh’s wife Jyoti has sought a job for herself and help to further the boys’ education.

Umesh, of Konnur in Naragund taluk of Gadag, had been working as an ambulance driver for nine years. Tragically, the 38-year-old suffered the heart attack on duty and died before he could be taken to hospital.

Jyoti said Umesh had been working without a break since the lockdown came into force.

“He used to work 12-14 hours a day, saying his work was crucial to shift people to hospital in such a critical time. I’m shattered. The future of my children is at stake. The CM has promised help,” she said.

Full report on www.toi.in

Airlines allowed to sell middle seats

Airlines allowed to sell middle seats

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:02.06.2020

Airlines have been allowed to keep middle seats occupied too if flights have high passenger loads.

Passenger seated on the middle seat will need to be given a wrap-around gown in addition to face mask and shield.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Sunday issued an order which among other things, mandates trying to keep the seat between two passengers vacant.

The order, a fallout of judicial observations, is binding on all airlines, charter and private jet operators, whether Indian or foreign, operating domestic or international flights. It also says “no meals or drinking water shall be served on board except in extreme circumstances arising due to health reasons”.

This will be implemented on domestic and international flights of 2-3 hour duration. On longer flights, packed meals can be served to minimise crew-passenger contact, said an official.

While the DGCA had on March 23, directed airlines to keep the seat between two flyers vacant on domestic flights, the aviation ministry later said this would render airlines financially unviable and that the practice was not being adopted elsewhere.

An Air India pilot moved Bombay high court on the issue as the Vande Bharat repatriation flights were coming almost full.

The HC questioned the practice. Following this, AI moved an urgent plea in the Supreme Court on the issue.

The SC on May 25 observed (in a special leave petition filed by the Union of India versus Deven Yogesh Kanani), that the “DGCA is free to alter any norms he may consider necessary during the pendency of the matter in the interest of public health and safety of the passengers rather than of commercial considerations.”

Following the SC observations, the aviation ministry constituted an expert committee of three eminent doctors — AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleria, Indian Council of Medical research DG Balram Bhargava and heart surgeon Dr Naresh Trehan — on May 26 “to review and further strengthen the public health related protocols of air travel.”

SAFETY FIRST: A family wears PPE suits before travelling in a flight in Mumbai on Monday