Day after: Traffic snarls and inundation

Day after: Traffic snarls and inundation

With Several Areas Of Chennai Still Water-Logged, Experts Suggest Stormwater Drain Network Needs A Complete Rethink

Sindhu Kannan & Omjasvin MD | TNN

01.01.2022

The chaos on city roads continued on Friday with traffic snarls everywhere. The rain eased overnight, but the effects of Thursday’s cloudburst remained.

Roads were either damaged or flooded, and vehicles crawled through one lane, avoiding the stagnant rainwater.

Traffic cops were missing on many arterial roads. The result: traffic jams even during non peak hours.

Anna Salai and Saidapet witnessed huge jams during the morning and evening peak hours. The vehicles moved at a snail’s pace on Poonamallee high road, Santhome high road, portions of Dr Radhakrishnan Salai, Mandaiveli road, Choolai main road, De Mellows Road, Perambur Barracks Road, BB Road in Perambur, Paper Mills Road.

Vehicles plying towards Poonamallee from Porur piled up for at least two kilometres as people began leaving the city to celebrate New Year. Inward traffic was relatively less.

Vehicles also crawled on several arterial roads such as Eldams Road and T T K Road in Alwarpet, Khader Nawaz Khan Road in Nungambakkam, Rajamannar Road in K K Nagar, K P Dasan Road in Teynampet, Thirumalaipillai Road, Bazullah Road and Prakasam Road in T Nagar, and Sivagami Road in Perambur.

“It is water-logged everywhere and we were trying our best to streamline the traffic in the available space,” said a senior police officer.

Even though the Greater Chennai Corporation had at least three weeks in December to desilt the storm water drains, not much was done.

While officials said the city has not witnessed such a high single-day rainfall even in November, the reason for inundation was primarily because of silt-blockage and poor gradient of drains, say experts.

An independent study done by GIS expert Dhayanand Krishnan in T Nagar found that six crore litres of water is generated for 10 cm rain in 0. 7 square kilometers. “To carry this much water, the drains must be built in a uniform way from start to end. But it is not so. Drains are in various sizes across the stretch,” he said.

Krishnan said that the rains had stopped by midnight on Thursday but water did not drain even by Friday morning. The city had 271 spots with severe inundation. Of these, 44 were in Kodambakkam zone  and 42 in Royapuram

zone.

A civic official said 279 pumps had been deployed across the city, some of them in action even  on Friday evening.

 

TN Classes I-VIII to go online till Jan 10; malls, theatres at 50% limit

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TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:

01.01.2022

As Covid-19 numbers rose, the state government on Friday brought back some curbs on movement of people till January 10. Classes I to VIII will go back to online mode and nursery schools and playschools will shut.

Malls, theatres, showrooms, amusement parks, gyms, textiles, beauty parlours and restaurantsshould function at50% of capacity. This also applies to dining in at hostels, lodges and bakeries. The existing curbs will continue for places of worship, social, cultural and political gatherings. Only 100 people will be allowed at marriages and 50 people at funerals. Buses should run with passengers seated and metro rail at 50% capacity to maintain social distance. The restrictions were announced after chief minister M K Stalin held a review meeting.

 

Centre prepares labs & hospitals for spike

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TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: 01.01.2022

Though so far Omicron has proved less severe than its predecessor Delta, the Centre is preparing for a spike in cases leading to increased demands for hospital care with a network of 3,117 laboratories being geared up to deal with testing .

There are 2014 RT-PCR labs, 941 TrueNat, 132 CBNAAT and 30 others. There are more than 200 manufacturers of RT-PCR test kits while 53 are making rapid antigen kits. A total of seven home-testing RATs should be available soon and daily testing capacity is in excess of 20 lakh, said official sources.

Official sources said that the health ministry was working closely with national scientific establishments and the states to ensure that facilties for detection, tracing and medical care are available keeping in mind the lessons learnt from the second wave.

States have been asked to ensure the Rs 23,000 crore allotted for upgrade of medical facilities are utilised to the extent possible and beds with oxygen support and those in ICUs are augmented as well as even spread up in urban and semi-urban areas. So far, the need for medical attention in rural areas has been on the lower side.

A total of 6,776 crore samples have been tested till December 30 and genome sequencing is being carried out using certain criteria, like all positive foreign arrivals.

Omicron cases dip to 168 after Thursday’s peak of 263

 Omicron cases dip to 168 after Thursday’s peak of 263

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TIMES NEWS NETWORK

01.01.2022

After reporting highest single-day spike in Omicron cases for two consecutive days, India on Friday recorded lesser number of infections with Maharashtra, which had been leading the spurt for the last two days, reporting just four cases.

India reported 168 cases on Friday — lower than 263 on Thursday and 215 on Wednesday — taking the country’s total tally to 1,379. While Maharashtra just reported four cases, a sharp fall from 198 the previous day, Delhi led the states in single-day tally with 57 cases. Kerala was second with 44 cases while Haryana and Karnataka recorded 23 cases each, Gujarat 16 and Andhra Pradesh  1.

Maharashtra continues to lead the states in overall tally with 454 cases, followed by Delhi (320 cases), Gujarat (113) and Kerala (107). All other states have cases in double or single digits. With 44 cases, Kerala reported its highest single day tally so far. Health minister Veena George said no community spread of the new variant has been reported. The cases reported in the state include 52 people who came from low-risk countries, 41 from high-risk countries and 14 who came into contact with these people.

Besides Kerala, Gujarat was the other state to cross the 100-mark on Friday.

In Karnataka, of the 23 fresh cases, 19 had international travel history. The rest four had no travel history, but one of them was a contact of an Omicron-infected person.

The 3rd wave is here, say officials as cases double in Maha, Mum in 48 hrs

The 3rd wave is here, say officials as cases double in Maha, Mum in 48 hrs

Malathy Iyer & Bhavika Jain TNN

Mumbai:

01.01.2022

Daily Covid-19 cases have doubled within 48 hours in both Maharashtra and Mumbai. The state reported 8,067 fresh cases on Friday as against 3,900 on Wednesday, and Mumbai saw 5,428 cases as compared to Wednesday’s 2,445.

State health officials have declared that the third wave — most likely to be dubbed the Omicron-Covid wave — has already begun in Maharashtra. “The state is at the doorstep of a possible lockdown. It is only a matter of time before strict restrictions will be brought back,” said relief and rehabilitation minister Vijay Wadettiwar.

With the rapid near-doubling of cases, the state public health department has estimated that active cases in Maharashtra will rise to 2 lakh by the third week of January. As of Friday, there are 24,509 active cases in Maharashtra. Active cases in the state increased three-fold between December 21 (7,093) and December 31 (24,509). In Mumbai, too, 2,061 active cases ballooned to 16,441 in the 10-day period.

In a letter to the state public health team, additional state chief secretary (health) Pradeep Vyas on Friday said, “Covid-19 cases, including the Omicron variant, are increasing and the third Covid wave has already started in the state. ” All districts have been asked to start prepara- tions to manage the patient load of the third wave.

“The number of Covid infections in the third wave is going to be huge,” said Dr Vyas. “Even if 1% case fatality is presumed, we can still land up with 80,000 deaths if there are 80 lakh Covid cases. ”

He warned people against getting “lulled by narrative” that the third Covid-Omicron wave is mild, and not fatal. “It is equally fa- tal for those who are not vaccinated and have comorbidities. So please improve vaccination coverage and save lives,” Vyas added

The daily positivity rate in the state and Mumbai continued to see a rise. With 1. 2 lakh tests conducted in the state in 24 hours, the positivity rate rose to 6. 5% on Friday. Mumbai’s positivity rate soared to double digits — 11. 4%.

With the cases galloping since the last 10 days, the city’s total December tally has surged over three times, while the state has reported an over 50% surge. In December, Mumbai reported 21,581 cases as against 6,827 cases in November, while the state added 43,759 cases this month as against 26,491cases in November. However, the only positive so far is that Covid-related fatalities in Maharashtra and Mumbai have witnessed a decline. On Friday, the state reported eight deaths, including one in the city. Mumbai added 48 deaths this month as against 89 deaths in November.

Workers prepare a new Covid centre in Mumbai on Friday

69% of 60+ and 73% of those aged 45-59 fully vaccinated

69% of 60+ and 73% of those aged 45-59 fully vaccinated

55% Of Those In 18-44 Age Group Have Got Both Shots

Rema.Nagarajan@timesgroup.com

01.01.2022

India finished 2021 well short of the target of fully vaccinating the entire adult population by year-end, announced in May. However, over 90% of the target population has received one dose and about 64% have been fully vaccinated as of 7 pm on Friday. Himachal Pradesh is the only state which has fully vaccinated its entire population while Punjab has the smallest proportion of fully-vaccinated population, just over 40%.

A total of over 145 crore doses of vaccine have been administered and the Centre said over 16. 9 crore doses were lying with the states as of Friday morning. Thus the vaccines supplied to the states (150 crore) or administered by private hospitals adds up to about 86% of the 188 crore doses required to fully vaccinate the total adult population estimated to be about nearly 94 crore.

Only 69% of those above 60 years, the most vulnerable population, has been fully vaccinated. Almost 73% of those in the 45 to 59 age group have been fully vaccinated, while a little over 55% of the 18-44 age group has received both shots. Among health workers, who constituted the first priority group to get the vaccines, 97 lakh have been fully vaccinated, while just over 1 crore have received one dose. Among frontline workers, 1. 8 crore have received the first dose and about 1. 7 crore have been fully vaccinated.

Barring Bihar, Punjab and Jharkhand, all states have administered the first dose to well over 80% of the popula- tion over 18 years. Punjab, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh have not fully vaccinated even half the eligible population. In the South, Tamil Nadu continues to be the laggard state, where just 86% have got the first shot and only 58% have been fully vaccinated.

Serum Institute’s Covishield accounts for 128. 9 crore doses or about 89%, while Covaxin accounts for 15. 7 crore (11%), other vaccines having made a negligible contribution so far. The demand for vaccines is likely to shoot up with children to be vaccinated from January 3 and booster doses to be administered from January 10.

 

State bans direct UK flight from Jan 3

Covid Test On Arrival For All Int’l Flyers

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Tamaghna.Banerjee@timesgroup.com

Kolkata: 31.12.2021

The state government on Thursday wrote to the civil aviation ministry, announcing its decision to temporarily suspend the direct flight between Kolkata and London from January 3 and Covid tests for all incoming passengers in view of the rising Omicron cases globally as well as in India.

The last flight from London to touch down in Kolkata before the ban will be on Sunday, January 2. Also till now, only passengers arriving from the UK that was categorized as an ‘at risk’ country due to the high prevalence of Omicron cases as notified by the Union health ministry were required to undergo Covid test on arrival.

Additional chief secretary BP Gopalika wrote to Union civil aviation secretary Rajiv Bansal to convey the curb on the once-a-week Air India flight that operates between Kolkata airport and Heathrow and the testing protocol for international flyers.

The letter was dispatched hours after chief minister Mamata Banerjee had sounded an alarm over the high incidence of Omicron cases among in-bound flyers and an emergency meeting that followed in the state secretariat on the issue. Kolkata airport director C Pattabhi was present at the meeting.

In Kolkata, five of the 10 Omicron cases that were tested in the state had returned from overseas. In the last flight from the UK that arrived on Boxing Day, four persons tested positive to Covid. Their samples have been sent for genome sequencing to check if they had contracted the Omicron variant.

“I love the UK. But it is being seen that a majority of Omicron cases are coming from passengers from the UK flight. Omicron is spreading rapidly and it is mostly spreading through international flights. Lets see what the civil aviation ministry does now,” the CM remarked in Gangasagar before boarding a helicopter to Kolkata.

The ban decision has left the airline and travel agents in a spot. With all flights in January booked to near capacity, it will be a herculean task to accommodate them in UK-bo- und flights departing from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Amritsar and Ahmedabad. “It will be a logistical nightmare,” said an AI official.

The letter to the civil aviation ministry also announced that all international passengers from non-at-risk countries would have to also undergo Covid tests. While 90% will ta- ke the Rapid Antigen Test, the rest will have to undergo Rapid PCR or RT-PCR. All passengers have to mandatorily pre-book the test before boarding to reduce waiting time on arrival which the airlines must ensure prior to allowing the boarding.

Following the announcement, Pattabhi said RAT kits were being procured to comply with the government order. “We will collect samples when passengers queue up for immigration and have the result ready by the time they clear immigration. In case there is any delay, there is seating arrangement for 350 people that we can augment further,” Pattabhi said.

Travel trade industry officials said while leisure travel would stop following the curb and rising infections across the globe, those with emergency travel needs would continue to fly in through Delhi, Mumbai and other airports.