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Sunday, January 2, 2022

Pondy varsity saves ₹1cr yearly after installing solar plant

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Puducherry:

02.01.2021

Pondicherry University saves more than ₹1 crore per annum on electricity bills after the commissioning of solar power plants with a total capacity of 2. 4MW at a cost of ₹13 crore.

Renewable energy service company (Resco), an energy service company, which provides energy to consumers from renewable energy sources, has developed, installed and financed the project. The company operates and owns the rooftop solar power project and supplies power generated from the project to the university.

Resco has installed rooftop solar plants in 15 buildings, car porch in two areas in various locations in the university. The university roughly spends ₹75 lakh per month on electricity.

"This initiative has yielded fruitful results. Now, one third of the power requirement of Pondicherry University will be met through nonconventional energy generat- for captive consumption. It has also resulted in conservation of one-third of energy cost using world-class electrical infrastructure with least power disruption and less maintenance cost. Above all, carbon emission to the extent of 2,900 ton per year will be avoided in this green campus," said assistant registrar (public relations) K Mahesh.

He said vice-chancellor Gurmeet Singh after taking charge evinced keen interest in the use of non-conventional energy sources.

Saturday, January 1, 2022

Haryana unveils policy to check 'illegal' nursing colleges

Haryana unveils policy to check 'illegal' nursing colleges

Updated At: Dec 31, 2021 10:01 AM (IST)

Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 30

The BJP-JJP government has come out with a new policy to regulate nursing education and to check mushrooming of “illegal” nursing colleges across the state.

“The policy aims at providing quality nursing education in Haryana by way of prescribing comprehensive procedures and regulation in the field of nursing education as per norms to ensure uniform standard of education,” SN Roy, Additional Chief Secretary, Medical Education and Research, said.

Under the new policy, an area measuring one acre will be required to set up a new nursing college (for up to two nursing courses) outside the municipal area. For starting more than two nursing courses, the area requirement outside the municipal area will be 1.5 acres. Within the municipal areas, the area requirement would be 2 kanals and 4 kanals for starting two and more than two nursing courses, respectively.

However, separate land is not a pre-requisite if nursing courses are to be started from the premises of the National Medical Commission (NMC)-recognised medical colleges and minimum 100-bed National Accreditation Board for Hospital (NABH)-accredited hospitals.

Now, after evaluation of documents submitted by the management of the prospective nursing hospital, the state government would issue letter of intent (LoI) which would be valid for three years.

“The applicant to whom LoI has been issued shall be required to submit application to the Director, Medical Education and Research, conveying for inspection for the issuance of no-objection certificate (NOC). Based on the inspection report, the application would be considered for issuance of NOC,” the policy said.

Officials said the primary objective of the policy was to allow hospital-based nursing education.

Renew NOCs in six months

To regulate nursing education, the Haryana Government had made it mandatory for the existing nursing institutes already granted NOCs to renew these as per the provisions of the new policy within a period of six months.

Haryana Govt Brings policy to Regulate Illegal Nursing Colleges

Haryana Govt Brings policy to Regulate Illegal Nursing Colleges: Chandigarh: With an aim to regulate nursing education and keep 'illegal' nursing colleges at a check, the BJP-JJP led Haryana Government is going to bring a new policy specifying norms for...

NMC relaxation: Now PG medical students can appear for exams without poster presentation

NMC relaxation: Now PG medical students can appear for exams without poster presentation: New Delhi: Taking the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic situation into consideration, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has offered to provide relief to the Postgraduate medical students by...

NEET-PG Counselling : Why Criticism Against Supreme Court Intervention Is Misdirected?

NEET-PG Counselling : Why Criticism Against Supreme Court Intervention Is Misdirected?: Doctors across the country are protesting against the delay in conducting counselling for NEET-PG

Madras High Court: Yearly Digest 2021

Madras High Court: Yearly Digest 2021: LiveLaw brings you a list of important cases, orders and judgments from the Madras High Co

AI to operate Kol-London flight

01.01.2022

Setting to rest fears and anxiety of flyers booked on Air India’s Kolkata-London flight AI163 on January 9 and subsequent Sundays, the airline announced on Friday that it would continue to operate this leg of the flight as scheduled. This follows the temporary ban announced by the state government on flights from the UK after January 3.

+ve mid-flight, isolates for 3 hours in bathroom

New York:

01.01.2022

A US woman was quarantined in an aeroplane bathroom for three hours after testing positive for Covid-19 halfway through a flight from Chicago to Iceland, according to media reports. Marisa Fotieo was on an Icelandair flight on December 19, en route to Switzerland with her brother and father. Fotieo said her throat began to hurt halfway through the trip so she went to the bathroom to perform a rapid Covid test which confirmed she was infected, WABCTV reported. Before the flight, Fotieo told CNN she took two PCR tests and about five rapid tests, all of which came back negative. But about an hour and a half into the flight, Fotieo started to feel a sore throat.

“The wheels started turning in my brain and I thought, ‘OK, I’m going to just go take a test,” Fotieo said. “Immediately, it came back positive. ” Foti- eo is fully vaccinated and has received the booster. When she got her results in the aeroplane bathroom, she said she started to panic. “I was nervous for my family. . . I was nervous for the other people on the plane. I was nervous for myself. ”

Fotieo ran into a flight attendant who calmed her down and told her she would try to rearrange seats so Fotieo could be seated alone. “When she came back, she told me she couldn’t find enough seating. I opted to stay in the bathroom because I did not want to be around others,” Fotieo said. A note was then put on the bathroom door saying it was out of service, and that was Fotieo’s new seat for the remainder of the flight. Fotieo and her family were the last ones to get off once the plane touched down in Iceland and she was shuttled to a hotel where she began her 10 days of quarantine.

PTI

1,655 rapes due to breach of promise to marry

Hyderabad:

01.01.2022

Out of the 2,382 rape cases in Telangana, the state police on Friday said that as per the analysis 1,655 cases were due to the failure to keep the promise to marry the victim.

Except in 26 cases, where the offender was unknown to the victims, in remaining cases the victims are known to the accused.

After releasing the annual crime report-2021, DGP said,“When schools and colleges are thrown open, police are planning to set up girls’ safety clubs as part of women safety. ”

During the analysis of murder cases reported in the state, in 401murder cases family dispute was the motive.

Out of the 8,839 cyber crime cases, it was found that 5,933 cases were in connection with fake customer care, advertisement portal fraud, job and loan frauds. They were followed by 1,191 cases, which are about online impersonation frauds and 1,024 cases for cyber stalking.

TNN

Changed phone numbers add to vax drive

Changed phone numbers add to vax drive

chaosSribala.Vadlapatla@timesgroup.com

Hyderabad: 01.01.2022

Telangana’s second dose Covid-19 vaccine drive has been slow — the state ranks 23rd among states and Union territories — but not without a reason.

One of the reasons for the delay in administering the second dose is that many people have changed their mobile phone numbers, which are linked to their Aadhaar number. “There would be at least 10% of such people and some of them were vaccinated for the second time, but their numbers are scattered. We are attempting to enter the details of such people using digital codes, but even that is becoming difficult,” a senior health official told TOI. He further said: “We are requesting the people not to switch the phone numbers associated with their Aadhaar numbers. This is causing a lot of confusion. ” Officials have also noticed a similar pattern among those who are overdue for their second dose of vaccine. There are still 20 lakh people who are overdue for their second dose in the state.

Amid this confusion, there are some positive trends as well. Concerns about the rapid spreadof Omicron, aswell as the announcement of the precaution dose, have elicited an overwhelming response from all eligible age groups. Despite the fact that the targeted age group is only those over 60, authorities are receiving requests from people of all ages. “A lot of us are asking us to give them precaution doses even though they do not qualify under the current guidelines, which is a good sign,” a senior official said.

Meanwhile, officials said that four Omicron-tested patients in Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS)have serious comorbidities with liver and kidney,buttheyare all recovering well. There has also been no serious need for any other medicine, they said. “They are also not given any Covid-19-approved drugs. In the hospital, their condition is stable. The others have no symptoms,” an official said.

No bail for accused in widow pension scam

New Delhi: 01.01.2022

A Delhi court has dismissed the bail plea of a man, who had duped several people through a widow pension scam. The accused had allegedly forged more than100 death certificates for getting pensions sanctioned in their favour. While dismissing the bail plea of Jai Prakash, additional sessions judge Sandeep Garg said the allegations levelled against him were grave.

“There is prima facie overwhelming incriminating evidence on record against the appli- cant/accused i. e. there are monetary transactions to the tune of more than 15 lakh rupees between him and co-accused Sahil. One pendrive containing a number of sample death certificates and more than 100 death certificates has been recovered. Investigation is still pending,” the court said in an order on December 28. It further said the possibility of the accused tampering with the evidence or intimidating the complainant and other prosecution witnesses could not be ruled out.

TNN

Seniors more ‘mask-friendly’ than youngsters

Ashutosh.Shukla@timesgroup.com

Bhopal:

Who are the people wearing masks and who aren’t? An answer to this question will have to be divided into several categories age, gender, area, income and professional groups.

Anyone observing the pattern over a period of time can tell you that elderly or middle aged persons are more particular about wearing masks than the youngsters, women are seen wearing masks than men, residents of new Bhopal are seen in masks more than the residents of old city, residents of posh colonies and housing societies wear masks more than the residents of slum areas and colonies inhabited by lower middle class or poor people and more doctors or teachers are seen in masks than the policemen.

“You can blame it on their age. Youngsters obviously don’t fear disease or death so much , may be it is the reason that they are not seen wearing masks so much as middle-aged or elderly persons. I think their parents should insist with them that they wear masks to protect themselves from Covid-19, which makes no distinction of age or any other factor”, said Akash Agrawal, while talking about age group of youngsters sipping tea at a tea stall outside his office, none of them wearing masks or observing social distancing.

Gender-divide in observing the mandatory mask norm can also be clearly seen. Girl students in a college or school are seen in masks even after they have come out of their college or school while boys can be spotted going into the college or school without wearing a mask.

“I think girls have always been more disciplined and it reflects here, too, You don’t have to ask them to wear masks but boys, they often take out masks from their pocket when asked to put on a mask”, said Prerna Shama, a teacher in a private school.

In markets and other public places, too, women are seen in masks more than the men in all age groups. The area you are in also makes a big difference in terms of compliance to the mandatory mask norm. In a market at Hanumanganj or Ibrahimpura, you rarely come across shoppers or even traders wearing masks while in upmarket areas like 10 no. stop market, traders and shoppers wearing masks is much much more.

“We have seen it right from the beginning of Corona times. Residents of the old city could never come to terms with wearing masks even when many localities were Corona hotspots in the area. More people in the new Bhopal area are seen in masks than the old city”, said Tausif, a resident of Shahjahanabad.

Omicron infections may not warrant shutdowns: Officials

01.01.2022

However, many cases being detected in India were due to contact tracing or testing due to travel plans, underlining that the infections are often asymptomatic. While Omicron is certainly more potent than flus, it is being assessed if it will be the first steptowards a milder form of the virus. Official sources said infections may not warrant shutdowns that derail a nascent economic recovery. It is being evaluated if the pandemic is moving towards endemicity — becoming a common, but milder ailment. In South Africa, Omicron cases began to rise around mid-November and c

ame down in a month.

Studies of the Omicron variant’s action on human cells show it faces effective “blocks” due to immune response, warding off serious disease. Though Omicron has a high number of spikeprotein mutations, they are clustered in three key functional areas of the virus. What Omicron gains in higher “escape” ability, it loses in terms of binding action on protein receptors as compared to Delta. And so while antibody strength is reduced, the Omicron spike is less potent, studies say.

“We see that the expected binding to the FCD (Furin cleavage domain) is at best the samea s the a lpha variant, and significantlyless than the Delta variant,” says a recent paper on simulation studies on Omicron in biology pre-print publicationBioRxiv.

A health ministry study of countries with a high number of cases shows daily deaths are higher in countries with lower vaccine coverage or where the vaccination drive has stalled. The US is recording an average of 1,777 daily deaths and a CFR of 1. 54 and its vaccine coverage is 61% of the population. The figures for France with 80% vaccine coverage are better, with 184 daily deaths and 1. 29 CFR, even as it records 2 lakh cases a day. Though India’s two-dose coverage, interms of p opulation, is 42%, its double-dose coverage of eligible adults is 65%, and single shot is 9 0%.

Nos. rise but govt cautiously optimistic on Omicron effect Rapidly But Seen As Weaker

New Delhi: The swift rise and subsidence of the Omicron wave in South Africa and lower mortality due to the variant in countries with higher vaccine coverage, along with trends in India, have led to cautious optimism that it could herald progressively weaker strains of the Covid, preventing serious disruption of the economy.

Official sources said that while preparations to tend to patients needing hospital care — due to a cumulatively higher number of cases — were on, evidence from domestic and global studies pointed to India’s expanding vaccination coverage and hybrid immunity delivering a high level of pro- tection against serious illness.

The presence of Omicron in genome-sequenced samples in India has crossed 50%, indicating that the variant is rapidly replacing Delta as the domi- nant strain. Around 80% of Covid cases among international arrivals are of Omicron, pointing to its wide footprint.

Only Covaxin jabs for children

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru: 01.01.2022

Ahead of administering Covid-19 vaccine to children (15-18 age group) and ‘precautionary’ doses to healthcare/frontline workers and senior citizens with comorbidities in January 2022, the health and family welfare department said only 0. 5ml of Covaxin will be given to the teenagers.

In a circular issued on Thursday, the department said children born in 2007 and before will be vaccinated from January 3 and the second dose will be provided 28 days after the first.

District health authorities have been instructed to ensure vaccination centres have separate schedules for kids and the rest of the population. Parental consent must be taken prior to administering vaccine to children with comorbidities. In case the child is given any other vaccine recently, the Covid-19 vaccination must be done only af- ter 15 days, read the circular issued by Arundhathi Chandrasekhar, mission director, National Health Mission, Karnataka.

The health department has asked districts to identify schools with three rooms spacious enough for establishing vaccination centres. Drinking water and hand-wash facilities must be set up. The list of schools where Covid-19 vaccination for children is administered must be made public, the circular stated.

Schools conducting online classes must schedule dates of vaccination and provide children with jabs. Any adverse event following vaccination must be efficiently managed, the note said.

Precautionary doses will be made available for healthcare and frontline workers and senior citizens with comorbidities from January10. “They must have completed 39 weeks or nine months from the time of second dose,” the circular stated.

Healthcare/frontline workers aged above 60 who had taken their previous doses under the general citizen category can provide their employment proof and get registered for the precautionary dose. Key decisions to be taken soon, says Bommai Amid a spike in Covid-19 and Omicron variant cases in the state, chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Friday said the government will take some “important decisions” in the days to come. He said health infrastructure such as beds, oxygen and medicines should be put in place to deal with the situation. “Cases are increasing across the country; the Centre has identified Karnataka as one among the eight states,” Bommai said.

Resident doctors’ strike called off: FORDA

New Delhi:

01.01.2022

Resident doctors in Delhi, who have been protesting over the delay in NEET-PG counselling for two weeks, on Friday called off their strike after receiving assurances from the government that their demands would be looked into, their federation said. The stir by the Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA) was called off at 12 noon, FORDA said in a statement.

Patient care had been affected at several major hospitals in Delhi in this period as resident doctors have been boycotting services to lodge their protest. The federation on Thursday had sought withdrawal of police cases lodged against some of their colleagues in the fraternity after a face off between medics and police personnel in the streets on Monday.

On Thursday, a “series of meetings of FORDA representatives was held with multiple Delhi Police officials. It was highlighted by Delhi Police that they have highest regard for doctors,” the federation said in its statement.

They also assured that police complaints lodged against resident doctors “will be taken care of as per the legal procedures,” FORDA claimed.

“A virtual meeting of FORDA members with all RDAs’ representatives was convened late in the evening whereby all the proceedings were conveyed, all points of concern were discussed in details. It was unanimously decided to call off the agitation on 31st December, 2021, 12:00 pm, considering various factors, including patient care,” it said.

PTI

FCRA deadline extended but no relief for MoC

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:

01.01.2022

The home ministry on Friday extended the validity of Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) licences expiring between September 29, 2020 and March 31, 2022. This move comes as a relief for NGOs and associations that have applied for renewal of their registration under the Act but are still awaiting a decision. The extension has been given until March 31, 2022 or till the disposal of their application, whichever is earlier.

The ministry, however, clarified that the FCRA licences of NGOs whose renewal plea has already been turned down, shall not be eli- gible for the extension. This essentially means that the Missionaries of Charity, an NGO founded by Mother Teresa, became ineligible for receiving any fresh foreign contributions or utilising foreign funds received by it, right from the day — December 25, 2021 — the MHA rejected its FCRA renewal application due to “adverse inputs”.

This is the third time that the MHA has extended the validity of FCRA registration certificates of NGOs who had applied for their renewal after September 29, 2020. The original deadline of May 31, 2021was extended to September 30, 2021. Thereafter, it was further extended to December 31, 2021.

Panel to probe HoD’s ‘gift’ demand

Panel to probe HoD’s ‘gift’ demand

BJMC ENT Head Asked A Student To Gift Her Drill Set, Allege Junior DocsTIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad: 01.01.2022

During the Christmas season when children usually expect gifts from Santa Claus, a senior faculty at a medical college in Ahmedabad is facing an investigation on allegations of ill-treatment and demanding gifts from her

students.

In a letter to the faculty dean, Gujarat University, the Junior Doctors’ Association has alleged that the head of the ENT department at BJ Medical College (BJMC), Ila Upadhyay, asked one of her students resident doctor Saurabh Banerjee to gift her a micro-meter drill set.

“When the student refused to gift her the medical device, he was threatened that his senior residency would be terminated. Using her position, she has tried to take undue favours in the form of gifts. We want the authori-ty to take immediate action against her else we will launch a protest,” said JDA vice-president Oman Prajapati, a student at the ENT department.

In a video message circulated on social media, Banerjee is seen narrating how the HoD demanded the drill set, his refusal and the alleged harassment by her.

Sources in the department said Banerjee had recently gone on leave andt here was an issue regarding the forwarding of his application.

Upadhyay, head of the ENT department, said no such incident had taken place and that she was being targeted. “There are already three drill machines in the department, so why should I demand one from the students?” Upadhyay said.

Jayesh Sachdeva, the faculty dean at Gujarat University, said they have received a complaint in the matter. “We have decided to form a three-member committee to investigate it. The findings of the committee will be sent to the state government for further action,” said Sachdeva.

In another letter to the college authorities, signed by ENT department students, they have written about alleged harassment in the department under the HoD.

New guidelines out for govt offices

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Gandhinagar: 01.01.2022

The general administration department (GAD) of the state government has issued fresh guidelines to be followed in government offices in view of the rising cases of Covid-19 across the state. The new guidelines will come into force from Saturday, January 1.

All visitors to the secretariat compound will need fully vaccinated certificate for entry into the complex. Entry passes will be issued only if a person is fully vaccinated.

Thenotification, signed by ACS, GAD, A K Rakesh, said the guidelines will be applicable to all other offices of the government, semi-government, boards, corporation, local self-government bodies and bodies availing grants by the government.

Meanwhile, the state home department issued a notification extending night curfew in eight big cities, until January 7. Night curfew will remain in force from 11 pm to 5 am in Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Gandhinagar, Jamnagar, Junagadh and Bhavnagar.

The notification has made a specific mention of wearing a face cover compulsorily in all public places, workplaces and public transport. The notification also states that a social distancing of at least six feet has to be maintained and spitting in public places will attract a fine according to provisions of the law.

97 new corona cases in Surat

Surat: Three persons with no travel history have tested positive for the Omicron in Surat on Friday, even as Diamond city recorded 97 fresh cases of the Covid-19. Surat district registered19 more cases. Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) health officials said that 12 school and college students tested positive for Covdi-19 on Friday.

41 fresh Covid cases in Vadodara

Vadodara: The consistent increase of new Covid-19 cases continued in the city and district with 41new cases reported on Friday. The West Zone of the city remained the worst affected with15 new cases being reported there. The new cases in the city and district were identified from 6,087 tests.

TNN

Doctor, 36, arrested in dowry case

Erode: 01.01.2022

The Erode all-woman police arrested a 36-yearold doctor on charges of demanding dowry from his wife, who is also a doctor. Dr S Anoop, 36, of Idaiyankode near Vilavankode in Kanyakumari district had married Dr Divya Sarona,35, of KK Nagar in Erode, in 2010. She works at Erode Government Hospital. Police said Anoop received 117 sovereigns of gold jewels and ₹32 lakh from Divya’s father Dharmaraj as dowry during their marriage. Recently, the couple got separated after Anoop demanded ₹10 lakh more from Divya as dowry.

TNN

Come June, city airport all set to get swanky upgrades

Come June, city airport all set to get swanky upgrades

Chennai: 01.01.2022

With a brand-new terminal and two multi-level car parking complexes, all set to open inJune, the year 2022 is going to be a crucial year for the development of Chennai airport. While the terminal construction is still underway, car parking complexes, which include a mall, a hotel, and a multiplex, area lmost complete and will be opened by June.

The expansion is being taken after 2013 when the domestic and international terminals were commissioned. Wo rks to rebuild the existing international arrivals, add more aircraft parking bays, a parallel taxiway, MRO, altogether will make the airport capable of handling 35million passengers. The deadline for these expansion works is set for 2024.

Airport director Sharad Kumar said that the new integrated terminal and the parking complexes will be completed and ready by June 2022. “The year is going to be crucial because the new facilities aregoing to open. These will help improve passenger experience and the airport's passenger handling capacity. ” The last section of the truss forthe roof of the terminal was installed recently. “The new terminal will have modern facilities including the infrastructure needed to implement bio-metric driven passenger entry and more countersforcheck-in and immigration,”he a dded.

The integrated terminal with facilities for DiGi Yatra service – a face recognitionbased digitalprocessingof passengers will be implemented after the ministry’s approval. The parking complexes, which can accommodate around 2000cars, were supposed to open by early 2021 but the deadline had to be moved to the end of the year, and has been postponed further due to the slowing work and rain.

The AAI has started discussions with airlines, immigration, customs, and other agencies to shift the international arrivals to the new building so that the old terminal can be pulled down to build a new one.

Sources said that capacity addition on the terminal side and to the airside, by adding aircraft bays and taxiways, were being planned and executed because there was a delay in deciding on the construction of a second city airport.

HC docks salary of two inspectors

Didn’t Execute NBW Against An Accused

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:

01.01.2022

The Madras high court has directed the Chennai police commissioner to recover salary paid to two women inspectors who failed to execute a non-bailable warrant issued against a person accused of domestic violence. Justice P Velmurugan said that the officers are not entitled to receive salary during the period as they failed to perform their duties as station house officers.

“Therefore, the commissioner is directed to take departmental action against the two delinquent officials and recover their salary during their period as station house officer in Anna Nagar all women police station and remit the same back to the government and file an action taken report on the same, before this court as early as possible preferably before February 2022,” the court said. The issue pertains to a plea moved by Parimala, who had filed a domestic violence case against her husband. On October 23, 2010, a mahila court had issued a NBW against her husband since he failed to appear before the court.

However, even after repeated reminders, the Anna Nagar all women police failed to execute the NBW. Aggrieved, Parimala moved the high court.

When the plea came up for hearing, the court ordered the appearance of the inspectors who were in charge of the station at the relevant point of time. Inspectors Dhanalakshmi and Selvi appeared before the court but failed to satisfactorily explain why they did not execute the NBW.

Recording the submissions, the court said, “The two delinquent officers being public servants and getting salary from the public money, did not perform their duty satisfactorily and failed to obey the order of this court, for which, there is no valid reason offered. ”

Hence, according to this court, they are not entitled for the salary during their period as station house officer in the police station, the judge added.

Cracks in ceiling floods PHC

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

01.01.2022

The Urban Primary Health Centre in Santhome was flooded on Friday not because storm water entered the building but due to a leakage from cracks in the roof.

Workers were forced to place buckets beneath leakages in the roof of the PHC while sanitation workers spend hours mopping the floor. More than 50 patients who had come to the centre for treatment and vaccination were left in a fix.

R Ramesh, who was at this PHC for vaccination, had raised the issue of leaking ceilings in November on the Namma Chennai app. “But the Corporation has not attended the complaint till now,” he said. He received a response from an assistant engineer that the issue would be addressed shortly.

Nurses and health staff at the centre on condition of anonymity said the leakage issue was there since 2017, when cracks had developed. Civid body officials said they would have to prepare a budget and fix the building. The PHC was inaugurated by chief minister MK Stalin in 2009 when he was the deputy CM.

Weather systems that escaped IMD radars

U.Tejonmayam @timesgroup.com

01.01.2022

IMD is at the centre of criticisms for failing to forecast Thursday’s brought 201. 2mm and 148. 9mm of rain in Nungambakkam and Meenambakkam respectively.

On Friday, IMD officials explained that the previous day’s spell was due to sudden and fast movement of an easterly trough (an elongated region of low pressure) from Bay of Bengal to the city which the ground and satellite-based observation instruments failed to pick up.

The trough, which was originally expected to bring heavy rainfall to districts south of Chennai on Friday, carried rain-bearing clouds with it. These clouds stationed over the city bringing continuous heavy spells. The city, which already recorded 9% excess rainfall during the June-September season (500. 2mm), has added 1360. 4mm of rain this northeast monsoon (October-December) season against a normal of 784mm. This is an an excess of 74%, officials said. The state received 59% excess rain this year.

N Puviarasan, director, Area Cyclone Warning Centre, IMD, told TOI the easterly trough extending from south to north Tamil Nadu led to formation of clouds that moved over the city coast and remained stationary. The movement of the easterly trough and the clouds was supported by a westerly trough above it at an altitude of 10km.

“On the eastern side of this trough, there was convergence and on the western side there was divergence. The convergence caused the formation of clouds. The trough and clouds moved fast over the city coast bringing steady heavy spells. None of the ground or satellite observations were able to pick this up,” he said.

The IMD said a dense network of ground-based instruments may improve forecast accuracy but it may still be difficult to forecast the intensity of rainfall over specific locations.

For the next 48 hours, IMD has forecast thunderstorms with heavy to very heavy rainfall at one or two places in the city. Skymet Weather, in its online post, said heavy rainfall may continue over the city till January 1 and may reduce by January 2 and 3.

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

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

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

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.