Govt to start vaccination for kids only after nod to Covaxin

Govt to start vaccination for kids only after nod to Covaxin

Sushmi.Dey@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:09.11.2021

Children may have to wait for some more time to get vaccinated against Covid-19 as the government will start immunisation for kids only after Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin is approved for use which might take a few more weeks, a senior official told TOI.

The government is concerned that supplies of ZyCoV-D — a three-dose vaccine given emergency use authorisation (EUA) for children between 12-17 years — may not be adequate to begin inoculating children. Covaxin, currently in use for adults, has been recommended for use in children of 2-18 years. However, the final approval for EUA is pending with the DCGI. The regulator has been cautious in its approach as the vaccinations concern young children. The official said data has been reviewed thoroughly now and DCGI approval for use of Covaxin in children is expected by end of November.

The government plans to initiate vaccination with children who have been diagnosed with certain health conditions that make them more vulnerable to Covid.

Centre places order for 1cr Zydus doses

The health ministry placed an order for one crore doses of Zydus Cadila’s Covid vaccine, ZyCoV-D, at ₹358 per dose, exclusive of GST. The government aims to to start distribution of the jabs by December once supply begins. ZyCov-D, the world’s first DNA vaccine, is a three-dose vaccine that will be given on day zero, day 28 and day 56. P 8

‘ZyCoV-D supplies may not suffice to cover all children’

“We will wait for Covaxin to be approved for used in children before opening up Covid immunisation programme. ZyCoV-D supplies are limited and may not suffice to cover all children. Besides, it has been approved only for children above 12 years of age,” the official said.

Once the DCGI approves Covaxin for use in children, it will be reviewed by National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) before the final guidelines for immunisation of children are issued. The government expects to begin the programme for children by end of December or early next year, once approval is granted.

There are around 44 crore children in the country as per current data and government estimates around 10-12% will be eligible under prioritisation. With limited supplies of ZyCoV-D, it may be difficult for the government to ensure smooth supplies for such a large cohort, the official said.

The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) formally endorsed the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children above five recently. The EU regulators have not yet authorised any Covid vaccine for children below age 12.

L-2 spouses in US may no longer need to apply for work authorisation

L-2 spouses in US may no longer need to apply for work authorisation

Lubna.Kably @timesgroup.com

09.11.2021

A lawsuit contesting that L-2 visa holders do not need a separate employment authorisation (or work permit) to be eligible for job opportunities or self-employment in the US has yielded results. In the coming days, it is likely that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will announce that L-2 visa holders no longer need to apply for an employment authorisation document (EAD). Dependants such as the spouse of an L-1 visa holder (who is in the US on an intra-company transfer) are given the L-2 visa. H-4 visas are held by dependents including the spouse of the H-1B visa holder.

The lawsuit had contended that L-2 visa holders are eligible for employment ‘incident to status’. In other words, they should be eligible to work without a separate work permit application. However, USCIS required that the L-2 holders apply for a work permit – this often resulted in a job loss, as the wait for the application to be adjudicated took 10-15 months. “We have hammered out the terms of the settlement agreement,” Jonathan Wasden, partner at Wasden Banias, who represented the 16 plaintiffs, told TOI.

These plaintiffs, majority of them Indian nationals, are holding an L-2 or H-4 dependent visa. They had contested that as the immigration agency had violated the law, they found themselves in the precious situation of being unemployed. “In response to our lawsuit (Shergill v/s Mayorkas) the immigration agency will change its policy. L-2 visa holders will no longer need to apply for an EAD. Some H-4 visa holders will be eligible for auto extension of their EAD if they had valid status that lasted longer than the EAD,” explained Wasden.

TOI had earlier reported on the filing of this lawsuit.

Malaysia gives nod to Covaxin, may soon allow Indian tourists

Malaysia gives nod to Covaxin, may soon allow Indian tourists

Aradhana Takhtani

09.11.2021

India and Malaysia seem to be set for a bumper tourism trade with both nations reopening borders, easing immigration curbs, and the latter finally announcing its acceptance of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. On Saturday, Malaysia’s health minister Khairy Jamaluddin not only gave India’s Covaxin a thumbs up, but also congratulated India “for successfully producing the homemade vaccine”. Just a week prior to reopening tourist hotspot Langkawi to foreign tourists on November 15, Malaysia’s Covaxin approval is being seen as a significant move.

India, already ahead in its tourism diplomacy, has received two chartered flights full of tourists from Malaysia since the reopening of her borders from October 15. Talking to TOI, Indian high commissioner to Malaysia, B N Reddy, said: “There’s been a 150% increase in tourist visa applications from Malaysians this week compared to mid-October 2021. We anticipate this number to increase based on queries received.” In June 2021, India had announced upto five lakh free visas for international tourists on first-come-first-basis. The Indian high commission has presented a detailed proposal to Malaysia on launching a tourism bubble arrangement between the two nations.

Pandemic pushes IAS dreams to the backburner

 Pandemic pushes IAS dreams to the backburner

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

09.11.2021

The dream of civil services of N Selvakumar, a mechanical engineering student from Tirunelveli, was put on standby in March 2020. He had just joined IAS coaching in August 2019, but the Covid-19 pandemic put a pause on his preparations. Unable to pay for food and accommodation owing to the financial crisis post pandemic, he returned home.

Nivedha, 23, from central Tamil Nadu, had to skip the IAS exam this year as her preparation was not up to the mark after physical coaching classes were suspended.

Anna Nagar, the civil service coaching hub in Chennai, which attracted students from as far as Rajasthan, Kashmir, Kerala and other states wears a deserted look now even after coaching institutes reopened for physical coaching around two months ago. The neighbourhood was home to more than 20 coaching institutes enrolling 6,000 to 7,000 students every year before the pandemic hit, now several smaller institutes have wrapped up operations as they could not afford to pay rent or employ trainers during the pandemic.

The entire industry that came up along with the coaching classes — from exclusive hostels for civil service aspirants, rental houses and catering services — are all affected. Except for a few, the majority of the hostels have less than 30% occupancy. Though some coaching centres and hostels have slashed their fees, still many are struggling to pay for the facilities after the pandemic led to economic distress in many families.

Of the 28,422 candidates who registered for the recently-held Union Public Service Commission’s civil services preliminary exam from Chennai, 53% were absent.

R K Sabarinathan, founder of Santhosh and Sabari IAS Academy in Shenoy Nagar, said enrolment in civil services coaching has come down by nearly 50% after the pandemic. “Many students default their fees due to financial stress. We cannot rent bigger halls to follow social distancing norms as the rent is high so we are conducting online classes now and hope to return to physical classes only next year,” he said.

But online classes leave gaps in learning, feels Selvakumar. “I could not clear my doubts like in physical classes with the trainers. The competitive environment for aspirants and guidance of seniors were missing in home preparation,” he said.

Nivedha, says women face a host of other issues. “Many women got married due to family pressure over the past year. The marriage age has come down to 22 again,” she said. And this socio-economic stress is being felt in the institutes that stand for an aspirational generation.

Though bigger coaching institutes like Shankar IAS Academy started physical classes, the number of enrolment is down by 40% compared to before the pandemic. “Those who adapted to the online mode of coaching before the pandemic have survived,” said S Chandru, academic head, Shankar IAS Academy in Anna Nagar. “It could take at least two years to return to normalcy,” Chandru said.

Email your feedback to southpole.toi @timesgroup.com

Court directs Bar to frame rules to verify law degrees

Court directs Bar to frame rules to verify law degrees

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Madurai:09.11.2021

The Madras high court on Monday directed the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to consider and pass orders on a representation seeking to frame appropriate rules and guidelines to verify the genuineness of law degrees obtained by people during the enrollment process, in order to prevent those without proper qualification from enrolling as advocates.

A division bench of justices Pushpa Sathyanarayana and P Velmurugan passed the order while disposing of a petition filed by an advocate S Muthukumar from Madurai district.

In his petition, the petitioner stated that several people without any basic qualification are getting themselves enrolled as advocates and are cheating the courts as well as the people. He stated that the people who apply for law courses have started to obtain degrees without even attending the classes. Such practices would deteriorate the standards of the legal profession. Appropriate rules and guidelines should be framed by the Bar Council to verify the genuineness of the law degrees and to verify if an individual had undergone the course properly, he said.

HC quashes FIR against man for not wearing a mask

HC quashes FIR against man for not wearing a mask

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Madurai:09.11.2021

The Madras high court has quashed an FIR which was registered against a man who was seen roaming around without wearing masks during the Covid-19 lockdown at Tenkasi district in 2020. The court passed the order while hearing the petition filed by Ashik Ali, who sought to quash the FIR registered against him by the Puliyangudi police in the district.

The case of the prosecution is that when the prohibitory order under Section 144 CrPC was in effect due to Covid-19 pandemic, several people including the petitioner were seen roaming on the road without masks on April 24, 2020.

Justice G Ilangovan observed that though Section 144 CrPC was in effect during the relevant point of time, police ought to have warned the petitioner to go indoors, but instead they had registered a case. It is a trivial matter in which no offence of grievous nature is involved.

The judge observed that it is not the case of police that the petitioner was affected by Covid-19 at the time of occurrence. Therefore, the judge rejected the contention of the prosecution that the petitioner roaming in the road during the pandemic period would result in spread of the infection. Taking into account the facts and circumstances of the case and that the government has taken a decision to drop all these cases which have been registered against the public during the pandemic, the judge quashed the FIR .

Options fewer, but TN med students still go abroad

Options fewer, but TN med students still go abroad

Big Delay In NEET Results No Deterrent

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:09.11.2021

The delay in releasing National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) results and Covid-19 pandemic have limited the number of choices for students opting to study medicine in foreign universities, but many from Tamil Nadu have made light of the problems including travel restrictions and are still flying out to study medicine.

Of the 1.08 lakh students who appeared for NEET from Tamil Nadu this year, 58,922 qualified. In pre-Covid times, educational consultants say, around 5,000 students from Tamil Nadu used to go abroad every year to study medicine.

With the cut-off for medical admissions expected to remain more or less the same as last year, many have opted for universities in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, Philippines, Nepal and Bangladesh.

A Sophiya Punithan of Chennai joined All American Institute of Medical Sciences in Jamaica. “The total cost including food, accommodation and tuition fees is approximately ₹49 lakh for five years. I am awaiting a visa to travel there this month,” she said, adding though she qualified in NEET she was not able to score high marks due to Covid-19.

Aakif Abdullah of Kayalpattinam in Tuticorin, who joined Tashkent Medical Academy in Uzbekistan and plans to travel before November 25, said he did not want to waste another year in NEET preparation.

Rajkumar of Puducherry, who has enrolled his son in National Pirogov Memorial Medical University at Vinnytsya in Ukraine, said, “We finalised the university even before the NEET results as the cut-off was very high last year.”

Universities in China and Russia used to attract a large number of students from the state. While medical universities in China are yet to admit foreign students, top universities in Russia have closed admissions. “Reputed universities like Kazan State Medical University closed admissions this year following the delay in releasing NEET results. Last year, we did admissions to 25 medical universities in Russia. This year, only four universities have kept admissions open,” said C Ravichandran, managing director of Study Abroad Educational Consultants.

D Subhas Chandra Bose, managing director of St Johns Educare India Private Limited said, interest among students to join medical universities abroad has increased compared to previous year. “Countries like Uzbekistan and Jamaica are giving visas for medical aspirants.”

R Sureshkumar, managing director of Chennai-based Truematics Overseas Education Consultancy, said the current batch had fewer options like Ukraine and Malaysia due to the delay in NEET results. “Students are not preferring universities which offer courses in online mode. Many have chosen different career options due to the pandemic.”

With the cut-off for admissions expected to remain more or less the same as last year, many have opted for universities in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and Uzbekistan