Tuesday, January 11, 2022

‘Allow train travel even if cases rise’

Ayyappan.V@timesgroup.com

11.01.2022

Chennai: Suburban commuters are a worried lot as they fear the railways may bring in further restrictions and convert trains into workmen specials if cases continue to spike.

A forum of suburban commuters has appealed to the railway authorities to allow employees of private firms to travel in trains if they show a letter from their employers.

More than four lakh commuters use the suburban trains in the city. Railways have tightened rules to ensure that people use masks at stations and on trains all the time.

After vaccine certificates were made compulsory, commuters had appealed to the DRM not to bring in further restrictions. They said that barring commuters from using suburban trains had led to job losses when the pandemic began in 2020.

K Baskar, a frequent commuter, said, “We have appealed to the railways to not bring back the workmen special because suburban services are the mainstay for several people who commute for work to the city. ”

The forum of suburban commuters has also requested the railways to not bar people from using trains even if Covid-19 cases are high, he added.

Suburban trains are the mainstay for people who travel for work in industrial estates at Guindy, Ambattur, Kakkalur and others. Most firms in these estates get their employees from Arakkonam, Tiruvalangadu, Tiruvallur and other areas.

“Many people were forced to travel by motorcycles all the way to the city during the first wave to save their jobs. That should not be the case this time if the government is going to declare a shutdown,”Jayapaul, a frequent commuter said.

A railway official said that the restrictions are being imposed on suburban services to ensure people can travel safely. Further decisions will be taken based on instructions from the railway board.

On Day 1 of booster dose, many hopefuls sent back

On Day 1 of booster dose, many hopefuls sent back

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

11.01.2022

Chennai: On the first day of vaccine booster programme in the city, officials of Primary Health Centres (PHCs) said they were unaware of the campaign. Several people who had queued up were sent back home.

Greater Chennai Corporation on Sunday had announced that booster doses will be available at 140 PHCs in the city. However, soon after chief minister MK Stalin launched the campaign at MRC Nagar on Monday, complaints began to pour in.

S Ganesh, a resident of Thiruvanmiyur, said he visited three PHCs in his area to get the booster shot for his 73-yearold mother, but could not get it. He said he had received a text message from the government on Sunday requesting her to get her third dose.

“Workers deployed at helpdesks in Thiruvanmiyur, Kottivakkam and Palavakkam PHCs had no information regarding the booster shot. The situation was no different at Virugambakkam PHC. Overall, it was a mess,” he said, hoping that the government will rectify the matter in the next one or two days.

People residing within Tambaram and Avadi corporation limits faced a different set of problems. “Government hospitals here do not have adequate Covaxin stock. So only those who had received two doses of Covishield were able to get inoculated,” said SM Govindarajan from Federation of Residents' Welfare Associations in Tambaram.

In Avadi, even though booster doses were available, not many were aware about the campaign, eligibility and documents required. “Some eligible people arrived at PHCs here without Aadhar card, printed copies of comorbidity or vaccine certificates. So they were sent back,”said T Sadagopan, a resident-activist from Pattabiram.

None of the private hospitals administered the third dose. Their names were not even listed on the official Cowin website. “It would be better if the government starts vaccinating people at their doorsteps,” Sadagopan said.

GCC Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi said doorto-door vaccine campaigns for booster shots will begin soon. People who are 60 or above can contact 1913, 044-25384520 or 044-46122300 to register.

30% of all positive cases in city are household contacts Corpn Asks Infected To Wear Mask At Home Too

30% of all positive cases in city are household contacts

Corpn Asks Infected To Wear Mask At Home Too

Omjasvin.MD@timesgroup.com

11.01.2022

Chennai: Around 30% of people with Covid-19 in the city are those who share homes with quarantined patients, the city corporation has found.

According to data collated by the corporation through contact tracing, 1,502 of the 5,040 people who tested positive on January 8, are family contacts or those who shared the household with quarantined patients.

Such cases made up half the new infections in north Chennai, where manyneighbourhoods have small houses. In Madhavaram zone, 60% of cases were household contacts, Thiru Vi Ka Nagar reported 49% of them, and Tondiarpet 43%.

Such cases were fewer in Anna Nagar, Teynampet and Adyar, where housesaregenerally bigger. Only 12% cases are family contacts in Anna Nagar zone, 25% in Teynampet and15% in Adyar.

With this learning, the city corporation has suggested people sharing houses with patients wear masks all the time.

Corporation commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi said the civic body could do little to contain spread in homes. “We are efficiently containing it in public places,but mostcases arecoming from inside homes. Only wearing masks at home can reduce the spread,” the commissioner said.

Medical experts also suggested the same thing. Dr C Jagadeesh, senior consultant, internal medicine, Apollo Hospitals, said people with comorbid conditions sharing houses withquarantined patients should wear mask and try to maintain social distance as much as possible.

“The spread inside the houses was observed even during the previous Covid waves, but this time it is faster. Other than this, hygienic practices such as frequent washing of hands should be followed,” said Dr Jagadeesh.

In Pondy, every third sample is positive

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

11.01.2022

Puducherry: One in three swab samples tested in Puducherry returned a positive for Covid-19 infection in the last 24 hours. Of the 1,570 samples tested, 489 samples were positive, registering a positivity rate of 31. 2%.

The number of samples tested daily has gone down by half on Monday. Healthcare authorities tested more than 3,000 samples a day for the last four days. The number of active cases stood at 1,722 on Monday after17 patients recovered.

Puducherry headquarters reported the maximum freshcases (438) followed by Karaikal (49), with Mahe and Yanam reprting one case each. Puducherry headquarters has the maximum active cases(1,385) followed by Karaikal (274), Mahe (59) and Yanam (4).

The territory did not report a Covid-19 death and the net toll remained at 1,882. The territory has so far reported 1. 31 lakh cases, of which 1. 27 lakh people have recovered, registering a recovery rate of 97. 3%.

Healthcare authorities have so far tested 20. 73 lakh samples,of which17. 61lakh samples returned negative. They have administered 14. 65 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccine to the beneficiaries. The first dose has been given to 8. 85 lakh people, while 5. 8lakh people have received both the doses. On Monday, healthcareauthorities administered the first dose to 979 people and the second dose to 858 people.

Omicron pushes US hospital cases to record high

11.01.2022

Covid-19 hospitalisations in the US reached a fresh high of 1,32,646, according to a Reuters tally on Monday, surpassing the record of 1,32,051 set in January last year, amid a surge of the Omicron variant.

Hospitalisations have increased steadily since late December, doubling in the last three weeks. Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Vermont, Virginia, Washington DC, and Wisconsin have reported record levels of hospitalized Covid-19 patients recently, according to the Reuters analysis. While potentially less severe, health officials have warned that the sheer number of infections caused by the Omicron variant could strain the hospitals’ systems.

REUTERS

Doctors request staff-friendly rules as third peak nears

Doctors request staff-friendly rules as third peak nears

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

11.01.2022

Chennai: In view of an imminent Covid-19 third wave, doctors associations in the state have urged the government to set up staff-friendly measures.

About 100 healthcare staff have tested positive in just four tertiary hospitals in the city. The service doctors and postgraduates association have written to the state health secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan, to suspend elective surgeries and procedures, special clinics, health camps, classes and other official meetings.

In their letter, the association has requested that one third of healthcare staff be allowed to avail compulsory leave on rotation basis, and to exempt pregnant and immuno-compromised healthcare professionals from duties, apart from a provision for special casual leave.

“Exempt healthcare staff with comorbidities from Covid related work and allow them to avail all leaves without any restrictions,” the statement said.

The doctors have also asked to provide quarantine leave after Covid-19 duties and accommodation during Covid duty.

A Ramalingam, State General Secretary of SDPGA, said the government must ensure that there is no shortage of manpower.

Dr GR Ravindranath, general secretary of Doctors' Association for Social Equality (DASE), said nurses are asked to come to duty just three days after quarantine time.

“They must be given leave. Their duty times are erratic and it must be only for fixed hours,” he said.

The government must release the salaries which are due for house surgeons and mini-clinic doctors, added Dr GR Ravindranath.

In a first, both judges of a bench in SC recuse

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

11.01.2022

New Delhi: Fearing invectives, both judges on a Supreme Court bench — Justices D Y Chandrachud and A S Bopanna — created a record of sort by recusing from hearing the Krishna case just because they hailed from Maharashtra and in the case apart from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Though the judges take oath to render justice without “fear or favour”, apprehensions over insulting or abusive criticism forced their recusal from the Krishna water dispute case.

“We do not want to be targets of invectives,” Justice Chandrachud of the Supreme Court said after consulting Justice Bopanview that similarly placed judges had recused from hearing the sensitive river water disputes case.

SC judges recuse from river dispute hearing fearing public backlash hat may be one of the reasons for recusal to avoid getting accused of parent state bias while hearing the case as the judges hailed from Maharashtra and Kar nataka, respectively. But, the real and immediate reason behind the recusal was something else. A few days before the scheduled hearing, the two judges were inundated with emails, which a judge described to TOI as “horrible”, and letters accusing them of bias given the fact that they belonged to states which were in litigation over their share in Krishna waters.

Upset with the tone and tenor of the emails and letters, the judges decided not to proceed with the hearing of the dispute fearing a severe public backlash later whatever be the merits of their verdict. Justice Chandrachud is from Maharashtra and Justice Bopanna from Karnataka.

Both Justice Chandrachud and Justice Bopanna on a daily basis hear cases that have roots in their parent states. But, in India, the river water disputes evoke high emotions, which often run high to breach the legal embankments to become a Kilkenny cat fight, both inside and outside the courtrooms. Krishna river water dispute has a checkered history for the last 14 years.

Telangana accuses Karnataka of using more than its share and diverting water to various projects. Karnataka on the other handsays that instead of water getting wasted by draining into the sea, it is better to harness it for use in irrigation and replenishing dry regions. In November 16, 2011, the SC had restrained Centre from publishing the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal Award dividing the water between Karnataka, erstwhile Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Full report on www.toi.in

Monday, January 10, 2022

Woman accuses husband of denying sex, beating her

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

10.01.2022

Ahmedabad: A 24-year-old woman from Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, filed a complaint with Sabarmati police alleging that her husband deprived her of sex and thrashed her often. He also allegedly pressurised her to seek money from her parents.

The complainant got married to the accused, a Sabarmati resident, in 2018.

Shortly thereafter, he allegedly began fighting with her over petty issues and abandoned her in January 2020. Shethen moved to her parents’ house in Kanpur.

After community leaders and her family members intervened, the accused took her back in February 2020, assuring them that he would not harass her again.

However, the fights between the couple refused to cease. The FIR stated that he would thrash her often and ask her to seek money from her parents.

“Once when he asked my parents for money, I told him he should have done so before marriage. Enraged, he thrashed me and it was my mother-in-law who came to my rescue,” she said in the complaint. “We have not had a physical relationship since February 2020. Every time I expressed a desire to get intimate , he would thrash me,” the complaint further stated.

She said that she had been living with him only to save their marriage.

On Saturday, when her parents came over , the accused allegedly misbehaved with them and thrashed her again . So, she called up the police control room and filed a domestic violence complaint .

Fight on the flight! Two flyers trade blows mid-air

JAMMU TO MUMBAI

Fight on the flight! Two flyers trade blows mid-air

Saurabh.Sinha@timesgroup.com

10.01.2022

New Delhi: On numerous flights you might have hated the passenger just in front or right behind in economy class for reasons like a seat getting reclined when you’re having a meal or tapping of seat by knees. This usually leads to a heated argument or complaint to the crew. But an IndiGo Jammu-Mumbai flight on the penultimate day of last year saw two passengers — seated on 3A and 4A — getting into fisticuffs over some issue.

“These two passengers on 6E-356 of December 30, 2021, got into a heated argument. The cabin crew unsuccessfully tried to diffuse the situation. The passenger on 3A pushed the co-passenger on 4A and things went out of control. They soon started fighting and hitting each oth- er,” said people in the know.

The crew then informed the pilot-in-command and the seat of 4A passenger was shifted to 12C. Seated safely apart, the two did not fight till the aircraft reached Mumbai and were handed over to security agencies on arrival. It could not be ascertained why the two got into a fight. An IndiGo spokesperson said: “Flight 6E-356 from Jammu to Mumbai witnessed a physical altercation between two passengers onboard. The flight crew intervened by separating them and providing first aid to both for minor injuries. Both passengers were cooperating and disciplined after the settlement. The matter is under investigation. ” It remains to be seen if IndiGo begins action under unruly passenger rules on these two.

Under these rules they can be barred from flying for some time. The first level of disruptive behaviour includes physical gestures and verbal harassment. The next level has “physically abusive behaviour” and the highest grade is for “life-threatening behaviour and attempted or actual breach of cockpit”.

A passenger charged under the first level can be grounded for up to three months; up to six months under the second level and for third level, grounding can be upwards of two years with no maximum limit (meaning up to a lifetime). For repeat offenders in the same level, the period of grounding can be doubled.

IIT Madras launches interdisciplinary dual degree course in Electric Vehicles

c-Jagriti.Kumari@timesgroup.com

10.10.2022

To create a skilled workforce needed to serve the growing electric vehicles (EV) sector, IIT Madras has started an interdisciplinary dual degree programme in Electric Vehicles. Currently, the programme is open to students of the Institute and enrolment to the course is expected to start soon. “Students who are already enrolled in the BTech, except Bio-Science, and dual degree programmes at IIT Madras are eligible to apply for the programme in the third year of their course. Shortlisted candidates will pursue a five-year dual degree course and after the completion of the programme they will be awarded BTech in their core Engineering discipline and MTech in Electric Vehicles,” says CS Shankar Ram, professor, Department of Engineering Design, IIT Madras.

“As part of the course students will get an opportunity to learn the foundation for EV engineering and gradually will pursue electives in specific areas of their choice. They would also do a project in this domain,” says Ram.

Why CAT is dominated by male Engg grads

Comparatively fewer women appear for the exam, which results in less representation of successful female candidates in the CAT

c-Puniti.Pandey@timesgroup.com

10.01.2022

The recently announced CAT 2021 results have yet again highlighted that the exams continue to be dominated by male candidates. All the nine top scorers who have secured 100 percentile are male. Also, all the 19 candidates scoring 99. 99 percentile are male. Around 19 candidates have achieved 99. 98 percentile of which only one is female. Among the top scorers, most candidates are from an Engineering background.

“If you look at the CAT registration data, the number of male candidates is substantially larger than the number of female candidates. It is quite natural that on account of the larger pool of male candidates applying, there is a continued consistency in male candidates performing better in large numbers,” says MP Ram Mohan, professor and CAT 2021 Convenor, IIM Ahmedabad.

Traditionally, Engineering students write CAT in large numbers, he adds. Moreover, the exam pattern of CAT comprising of VARC, QA and DILR is designed to test a candidate’s ability to solve problems. The kind of skill-based education an Engineering student or a student in a similar discipline gets could be giving them the edge and an innate ability to solve problems.

“There is less representation of successful female candidates in the CAT results as fewer females appear for the exam as compared to male candidates”, explains Arks Srinivas, head faculty, Career Launcher. Around 35% of female candidates write the CAT as against 65% of males. Most of the top positions are again occupied by male candidates from Engineering background as they have an edge over candidates from other non-engineering backgrounds. After BTech, the second most dominating degree in CAT is BCom, BSc and then BBA.

To improve the male-female ratio in the business colleges, the IIMs and the top MBA institutes are encouraging female candidates to ap-

Workload increases for teachers due to school closures

10.01.2022

The transition to online-offline-online classes during the pandemic has created an additional strain on teachers. Educators are back to facing challenges including increased working hours, parental interference in online classes, and distraction from other non-academic activities that they have to carry out at the behest of government departments.

Many teachers feel that it is important for children and teachers to return to physical schools as the teaching-learning process in hybrid mode can be taxing for both teachers as well as students. “The productivity is being affected and the environment is not conducive at home and many students also don’t take online classes seriously. Sometimes parents and grandparents interfere and disrupt the teaching-learning process. At times, teachers can hear cooker whistles in the background and they have to put students on force mute. It’s a bumpy terrain for both the students and teachers and but we don’t have any choice,” says Alka Kapur, principal, Modern Public School, Shalimar Bagh, New Delhi.

Some state governments have asked teachers to take online classes from school premises even as the students study from home. “Teachers are expected to dispense classes from the school untilt he circumstances change. We understand that teachers too are going through a tough time due to changing modes of learning at regular intervals. Schools have to abide by government rules and regulations and carry out academic tasks accordingly,” says Aloysius D'mello, principal, Greenwood High International School, Bengaluru.

As schools begin to shut across the city, students, teachers, and parents have to again adapt to remote learning. “It is a difficult transition for families who were just getting used to a different routine and enjoying the pre-Covid normalcy of attending school and work in person. Teachers as well, are once again impacted and will have to adapt to teaching remotely. We have learnt a lot in the past two years as educators, and schools are oftensafer environments than public places that children continue to visit,” says Shweta Sastri, managing director, Canadian International School, Bengaluru.

students take MBBS

STORY BOARD

students take MBBS

ARUN RAM

When chief minister M K Stalin convened a meeting of all legislature parties on Saturday to buttress the demand for repealing the National Eligibility-cum-En- trance Test (NEET), the lone voice of dissent was that of BJP legislator Vanathi Srinivasan. After walking out of the meeting, she told reporters that the government should focus on preparing school students for the test instead of opposing it. That’s some sane advice.

Here is what the DMK and the other parties that participated in Saturday’s meeting say: NEET gives an undue advantage to the economically well-off who can afford special coaching, and it denies equal opportunity to poor students, especially those in the state government schools. Disheartened students have been ending their lives. NEET should go.

Vanathi must have been duty bound to defend the Centre that her party rules, but beyond the political part of the argument (that the DMK-inclusive UPA government had initiated the entrance exam), she made sense when she spoke about equipping students for the test. To correct the BJP leader on curriculum revision (she said Tamil Nadu has not upgraded school syllabi for 12 years), the state did revise its school syllabus between 2017 and 2019 broadly on the lines of NCERT, but there is a long way to go before we can say our children have equal opportunities in school to crack entrance tests.
What could be done faster is something no politician talks about:

Rationalising MBBS fees. Some of the deemed universities charge MBBS students more than 25 lakh a year. This means about ₹1. 5 crore to be a medical graduate. Now, how many of us can afford that? Will the government bring in a law to implement an affordable ceiling for medical course fees in the state? It is one of the worst kept secrets that leaders of several parties, including the DMK, own medical colleges that charge exorbitant fees. And this is the height of hypocrisy of those who speak of social justice in medical education.

Here’s the real social injustice: A student from a rich family can get a seat even if she has scored 138 (the qualifying mark in the open category last year), while a student who scored four times higher will not make the cut for a seat in a government medical college (598 was the cut-off in the open category). In other words, money can get you a medical seat that marks can’t.
The Saturday meet, which “decided to explore legal options”, was at best a symbolic protest that yielded nothing.

After the Supreme Court insisted that all states should follow NEET, the Tamil Nadu government was either ill-advised or posturing when it passed the Permanent Exemption Bill for NEET in Tamil Nadu in September last year. Or probably it was an exercise in face-saving after the DMK made abolition of NEET its poll promise, which it followed up with the appointment of the A K Rajan committee that promptly submitted a report the government wanted.

Whether NEET is the best possible eligibility test for medical education is a moot question, but experts feel the Tamil Nadu NEET abolition bill may not stand legal scrutiny. While the government questions the governor’s inaction over the bill, the Constitution seems to be silent over the powers of the governor to act or choose not to act. If the anti-NEET crusade has to be successful, the only way is political action by the Centre. And that would mean revamping the medical admission process in the country because making an exemption for one state would open a Pandora’s box. Jallikattu was different. NEET is a different bull game.

arun. ram@timesgroup. co

m

Toll collection on ORR from today

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: User fee collection at toll plazas on the newly-constructed Chennai Outer Ring Road will begin on Monday.

Tamil Nadu Road Development Corporation (TNRDC), which constructed the 60-km stretch between Vandalur and Minjur, recently notified the toll rates for each of the four plazas at Varadharajapuram, Kolappancheri (near Nazarathpet), Nemmelicheri and Chinnamullaivoyal

Accordingly, cars, jeeps or other fourwheelers should pay ₹17 t o ₹109 for a single trip from Monday. The rates will be subjected to revision.

FASTag scanners have been fixed at all toll lanes, and vehicles without FASTag stickers entering these lanes will be made to pay double the toll fee. Similarly, overloaded vehicles will pay ten times the toll fee as penalty.

Spike in arrivals from abroad at airport in Nov, Dec

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

10.01.2022

Chennai: The surge in Covid-19 cases has drastically affected travel plans of many in the last few days, but November and December raked in good passenger traffic for airlines and the city airport.

Passenger traffic, especially international, increased at a faster rate despite restrictions and a need for testing, in the last two months. However, domestic traffic growth remained sluggish.

The airport handled more international travelers after Delhi and Mumbai while it lagged far behind in domestic traffic than the five other metro airports. The airport handled 10. 75lakh passengers in November and 12. 93lakh passengers in December. There were 1. 82lakh international travellers in November while it increased to 2. 46lakh passengers in December. The number of domestic passengers was 8. 93lakh in November and 10. 4lakh in December.

There is a faster growth of international passengers (up by 65%) when compared to the same period last year.

An airport official said that there is a good demand for international travel because people from other towns are boarding flights in Chennai. "The launch of flights to Singapore gave a boost to passenger traffic,” he added.

S Bhaskar of Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) said flights to UAE, Saudi Arab and Singapore are packed, while Maldives remain popular. “The demand is huge on the international sector because of limited number of flights,” he added. However, there is a lull in the domestic sector because airlines have cut frequencies or are combining flights based on the traffic on many sectors.

"Airlines have withdrawn many flights to smaller cities and have redeployed them on profitable routes. There are not enough flights to Port Blair, Mumbai, Ahmedabad as there used to be earlier,” he added. Airlines and airports authorities expect a dip in the number of domestic passengers in the coming days. “People are likely to put off their leisure travel plans after the Pongal holidays because of a surge in Covid-19 cases,” said an airline official.

Surge in cases, lack of planning affects students

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

10.01.2022

Chennai: Thousands of college students are worried about their exams and careers as a lack of planning from the higher education department owing to the Covid-19 third wave threatens to offset their career goals.

Sankarbabu, a final-year engineering student from a city college, worried about a possible delay in semester exams and completing his course on time. He got placed in a software company with a rider that he should clear all his exams without arrears.

Ankita Kerketta from Andaman and Nicobar islands, a first-year MSc student in a city college, is stuck in her hostel and awaiting the announcement for her exams. She says she will return to her native place only if her college allows her to take her exams in online mode. She is not sure if she would be able to return to the city to write physical mode exams.

Colleges say that the syllabus was completed last month but the government gave two months’ time for semester exams without considering the Covid-19 situation. Now, there is an uncertainty regarding the exams.

“If the exams had got over in December 2021, I could have focussed on the next semester. Now, I have to study for the last semester and the next semester at the same time. I’m not sure when physical mode exams will be conducted,” Sankarbabu said.

A senior professor from a city college said that postponing exams by two months after completing the syllabus has created uncertainty among final year students. This could have been discussed with academicians before a decision was taken.

Higher education minister K Ponmudi had earlier granted two months time to students to prepare for physical mode exams. The state government also postponed semester exams for all colleges, including autonomous colleges and deemed universities to January 21.

Because of this decision, many colleges repeated what they taught online in physical mode classes as well.

“The lack of planning on the part of higher education department has created uncertainty among students. It was a good move to conduct physical mode exams. But they wasted a month when exams could be conducted and students could have moved on to the next semester,”said a principal who spoke on a condition of anonymity.

S Vaidhyasubramaniam, vice-chancellor of Sastra, said final year students should be given priority over other students. He requested the government not to return to online mode of exams citing a surge in Covid-19 cases.

Meanwhile, students from Class X and Class XIIcontinue to attend physical classes despite an increase in cases.

Hemavathi, a Class XII student from a city school said she was more worried about her board exams than the rapidly spreading Covid-19 cases in Chennai.

Time taken to get RTPCR results shoots up in city

Omjasvin.MD@timesgroup.com

10.01.2022

Chennai: While it should generally take four to six hours for Covid-19 RTPCR test results to arrive, for many residents of the city, results are being delayed by one to three days.

Lakshmi S, a resident, said her father who had given a test on Wednesday in a private lab received his results only on Saturday. “We took a test in a private hospital. We could not wait for the test results. We went ahead with the CT scan and began his treatment,” she said.

Similarly, another 84 year-old woman, who got tested in a government hospital on Wednesday, received the results on Friday. “After my mother tested positive, the corporation officials visited my house in Velachery and took swabs of my wife and children on Saturday. We have not received the results till Sunday night,” said a resident, who did not want himself or the government hospital to be named.

While Covid-19 norms say a person can be discharged if they observe no fever after three days of testing positive in an RTPCR, a delay in results may end up the quarantine period for the patients. The delay has its mental aspects too.

A doctor from the microbiology department of Stanley GH said there was a rise in samples coming in from the corporation lately. “We process the day's samples fully. A day’s delay in RTPCR status can only occur in one or two cases,” the doctor said.

City corporation commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi said more than 30,000 tests were being done in the city lately.

This is an increase from the 20,000-odd tests done till last week.

“To our knowledge, results are given at the right time and there has been no delay. In case of specific private labs delaying the results, we will follow up with them,” he added.

Lockdown lessons on learning outcomes

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

10.01.2022

Chennai: The school education department will impart training based on learning outcomes to teachers between January 10 and February 25.

The training will take place during the closure of schools for Classes I to IX owing to a spike in Covid-19 cases. The program will be organized in hi-tech labs in government high schools at block level.

“The State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) has defined learning outcomes for each lesson. To clarify doubts on learning outcomes and to make sure each student achieve those learning goals, further training is needed,” a circular from the school education department said.

Teacher associations, however, opposed a move to conduct training for more than 100 teaches at a location when the Covid-19 cases are set to reach the peak in the coming weeks.

“When Covid-19is spreading fast, asking teachers to assemble at block-level in one place may result in spread of Covid-19 infection.

It isn't possible to ensure social distancing within the hi-tech labs. Hence, the training program needs to be conducted after the Covid-19 cases subside,” said P KIlamaran, president of Tamil Nadu Teachers Association.

Confusion over Pongal special buses next Sunday

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

10.01.2022

Chennai: With no clarity yet on whether there will be a lockdown next Sunday (January 16), those who had booked tickets in Pongal special buses for return journey to Chennai have started to either cancel or reschedule their trips.

The TNSTC had announced that over 2,300 buses would be operated next Sunday from different parts of the state to Chennai and began online ticket booking three weeks ago on government website http:// www. tnstc. in/ as well as through private sites like RedBus, PayTM, and Abhibus. Over 25 per cent of the seats were reserved by last Thursday, according to official data. It was against this background that the state government announced that January 9 (Sunday) will be a complete lockdown. No government bus was allowed to ferry passengers on Sunday.

"We have put the online ticket reservation on hold as none knows whether there will be a lockdown next Sunday," said a senior transport official, seeking anonymity. Those who had planned to return to Chennai next Sunday in private buses are also in a fix. “The government has to announce its decision soon, not wait till Thursday evening again,” said D Deepak, who cancelled his January 16 ticket from Nagercoil to Chennai in a private A/C sleeper bus. "We had booked tickets in advance to avoid crowd and last minute confusion. It, however, looks like our return trips are going to be chaotic," he added.

Meanwhile, the Southern Railway, which has not cancelled any of its express trains, is expected to operate all long-distance trains to Chennai as per schedule. In Pongal special trains, only tatkal tickets are available .

7 states in red with high fortnightly TPR

ALL-INDIA TPR AT 4%

7 states in red with high fortnightly TPR

Pradeep.Thakur@timesgroup.com

10.01.2022

New Delhi: The third wave of Covid may be here but not all states need to worry yet. Fortnightly Covid positivity rates or total confirmed cases per 100 tests measured over a 14day period (December 26-January 8) have gone up to 17% in West Bengal, Maharashtra, Goa, Mizoram, Punjab, Kerala and Delhi, but the situation in other parts of the country has not taken such a serious tur n.

The situation may be alarming in West Bengal where the pandemic has rapidly spread in thelast fortnight with the positivity rate going beyond 17%, much above the World Health Organisation’s red line of 5%,which acted as a threshold during the second wave, breaching which a state must set up containment zones under strict lockdown. At present, Tamil Nadu’s TPR stands at 8. 7%.

Significantly, each of these states, except Mizoram and Kerala, had positivity rates ho- vering around 1% in the previousfortnight (December 13-26). A TOI study found that while most other states and Union territories too witnessed a rapid increase in cases in the last two weeks, manyarestill out of danger and away from the WHO’s red line for the second wave.

All-India positivity rate over last fortnight has been around 4%

Unlike Delta variant which caused the second wave, Omicron has turned out to be less lethal, with the overwhelming majority of the infected not requiring hospitalisation.

The situation in the five poll bound states is a mixed one. While Goa (15%) and Punjab (6%) seem to be in need of immediate and stringent containment measures, the others are yet to reach that stage with positivity rates remaining below 2%, the lowest being in UP at less than 1%. Uttarakhand and Manipur have around 2%.

The all-India positivity rate over the last fortnight has been around 4%, though it is a massive spike from 0.5% in the previous 14-day period. Situations in many other states are quite similar with at least seven of them — Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Rajasthan — having positivity rates of around 3-4% during the fortnight ending January 8.

A high positivity rate is indicative of a state testing only the sickest and lacking in tracking and treatment measures. One reason why positivity rate has not flared up yet could also be because of the larger vaccination coverage with country last weak reaching the milestone of 150 crore doses.

Bihar, Odisha, Telangana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Assam and J&K all have kept the positivity rate lower than 2%, so far.

During the peak of the second wave in April-May, Goa had the highest fortnightly positivity rate of 43%, followed by Karnataka 32%, West Bengal 30%, Kerala 27%, Uttarakhand 23% and 22% each in Himachal Pradesh, Andhra, Chandigarh and Rajasthan.

As on Sunday, the highest number of active Covid cases are in Maharashtra (1.7 lakh), West Bengal (62,055) and Delhi (48,178). Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala each have between 30,000 to 40,000 active cases while Gujarat and Jharkhand have over 21,000 cases each, UP has 18,551 cases and Rajasthan 14,000.

13k new cases push TN active caseload to 50k

10.01.2022

Chennai accounted for about half of Tamil Nadu’s 12,895 new Covid cases while active cases in the state breached the 50,000-mark. Chennai district’s test positivity rate (TPR) jumped to 16. 6%, almost double the state’s average figure. Chengalpet (14%) and Tiruvallur (12. 5%) too registered high TPR. Health minister Ma Subramaniam said TN’s average Covid bed occupancy rate was around 7% and urged public to follow Covid rules and not panic. Meanwhile, a prediction by IIT Madras put the peak of the third wave between February1and15.

NEET-PG counselling to start on Wednesday

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

10.01.2022

New Delhi: NEET-PG counselling will start on Wednesday (January 12), the Union government has said.

The decision comes after the Supreme Court on January 7 passed an interim order, allowing resumption of medical counselling for NEET-PG admissions for the year 2021-22. The SC also upheld the validity of 27% OBC and 10% EWS quotas.

“As assured by the ministry of health to the resident doctors, following the order of the Supreme Court, the NEET-PG counselling is being started by the Medical Counselling Committee from January 12, 2022. This will give more strength to the country in the fight against Corona. My best wishes to all the candidates,” health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in a tweet in Hindi. The exam was held on September 11, 2021, after being rescheduled twice.

Resident doctors of various medical colleges across the country last month held protests and boycotted work demanding that the counselling process be expedited.

Sunday, January 9, 2022

Admissions begin in Med colleges Seat Charts To Be Released On Jan 10

Admissions begin in Med colleges

Seat Charts To Be Released On Jan 10

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

09.01.2022

Bhopal: 13 medical colleges across the state are conducting counselling for admissions to PG courses. Earlier NEET-PG counselling based on existing OBC, EWS quota was cleared by the Supreme Court. On these lines, UG counselling will also be conducted. Seat charts are expected to be released on January10.

Through MP NEET PG, registration for counselling will be till Jan 11. Directorate of Medical Education in MP has started preparations for counseling. Schedule has been uploaded on the web portal of the DME. Process of registration will continue till January11. It includes 6 government medical colleges and 7 private medical colleges. JUDA doctors have expressed a sigh of relief as there were nationwide protests to start counselling.