Save country from lockdown, use as last resort: PM to states

Save country from lockdown, use as last resort: PM to states

Invokes Ramzan, Ram Navami To Counsel Restraint

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:21.04.2021

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said current strategies to contain the rapid resurgence in Covid-19 infections were aimed at ensuring least loss of lives and livelihoods and appealed to states to impose lockdowns only as the very last resort.

Addressing the nation, the PM said he would appeal to states to consider micro-containment zones rather than lockdowns. “In today’s situation, we have to save the country from lockdowns,” he said. The comments assume significance in the wake of Delhi being placed under lockdown for a week and reports that Maharashtra was considering similar measures.

The possibility of a lockdown imperilling a nascent economic recovery seemed to weigh heavy on the PM who said state governments should work to assure migrant workers that there was no need to leave for their homes. “They should be asked to stay where they are and assured that they will be vaccinated and also continue to be employed,” he said. The PM laid emphasis on efforts to improve the supply of oxygen at several levels with the measures, including setting up new plants and making sure industrial-use oxygen was utilised for medical purposes. “This time, the corona crisis has meant that the demand for oxygen has risen in many parts of the country. The Centre, states and private sector are all working to ensure that everyone who needs oxygen gets it,” he said.

The PM referred to Navratri and Ramzan, and said Ram Navami, which is on Wednesday, reminds us of the need to remember our limits (maryada) and Ramzan is about selfdiscipline and restraint. “Covid discipline should be followed completely,” he said.

Vaccinating 18+ will lead to secure workplaces: Modi

Modi expressed condolences and sympathy for those who had lost loved ones to the fresh Covid surge, saying the country should not lose courage and hope in facing the challenge that only a few weeks ago seemed to be manageable. “We will take the steps that we need to take without losing courage. That is how we will win,” he added.

Referring to the decision to permit all above 18 to be vaccinated, Modi said this would help secure the workforce and lead to faster vaccinations. Referring to the decision and other measures such as states and hospitals being allowed to procure vaccines, he said the decisions would soon bring down the rising curve of infections.

Urging people to follow Covid protocols carefully, the PM appealed to the younger population not to venture outdoors unless absolutely needed. “In your mohallas and apartments, please form small committees and help maintain discipline,” he said.

“The decision to make vaccination available to those above 18 is intended to ensure that the workforce in cities is able to access vaccines rapidly,” he said, adding that the ongoing programme of vaccinating vulnerable groups would continue in government hospitals.

The PM said leading figures in the pharma industry had stepped forward to increase production of medicines. “Beds are being increased and special and big Covid hospitals are being set up. We started work on vaccines early and scientists have developed the cheapest vaccines. The private sector has shown innovation and enterprise and we have speeded up approvals,” he added.

› Divert oxygen to hosps now, HC tells Centre, P 6 › SC stays HC order to lock down 5 UP cities, P 7 › Centre steps in as states hold up oxy supplies, P 10

How To Insulate Yourself From Negative Forces

THE SPEAKING TREE #AShotOfHope

How To Insulate Yourself From Negative Forces

Swami Sukhabodhananda

21.04.2021

A Zen student asked his Master, “Why does a fish in an ocean try to jump out?”

“The fish is trying to explore a world beyond the ocean,” answered the Master.

The consciousness that is present in each one of us is like the fish that wants to break out of the bounds of the familiar and explore the unknown. It compels us from within to evolve and grow.

In order to achieve this, we have to insulate ourselves from negative forces that inhibit our exploratory zeal.

Negative forces neutralise the creative energies that foster growth. So, it is necessary not to struggle in life and not allow influences to control your life negatively. One has to learn to float in life, to let go, let in the essentials and negate unessential feelings.

How do we insulate ourselves from negative influences?

Fear is a negative force. Whenever fear is present, the level of pro-life energy drops. Fear creates a hurt body and it then tries to survive leaning on philosophy and logic.

We try to offset the effects of fear by acquiring money, power, name and fame in abundant measure. These are but poor defences against fear. In spiritual terms, faith is the only effective antidote to fear.

Trust that when one door closes, another opens. This optimistic outlook takes the worry out of the sight of a closed door. In the spiritual way, one has to dis-identify with any impression of fear in the mind. This detachment or dis-identification is the insulation. In yoga it is called ‘atma smaranam’, self-remembrance. We have to remember to bring forth an impression of trust, assert our faith, and discard the spirit of distrust and fear.

Worldly forces do not affect us in our insulated state. Instead, our insulated selves rise to higher levels of energy, vibrations and understanding. The higher centres in us are constantly communicating something profound to us, but we close ourselves to them. It is like a cup turned upside down … no amount of water can fill the cup. The moment we are available for higher vibrations, we attract the noble aspects of life. Our state of being attracts situations in life. Lower states attract lower aspects of life while the higher states attract higher aspects of life. This is the law of attraction.

Devotion activates the higher centres of our being, purifies our emotions, and allows vibrations to flow into our lives. Devotion consists not in going through long sessions of prayers or tough regimens of rituals and penance, but in submitting ourselves to the will of God in love and gratitude.

With pure devotion, our third eye or our faculty of intuition opens, enabling us to see the grand patterns and structures connecting together what we had always taken to be isolated things and events. We feel the invisible hand of God stretched over us. Devotion transforms us from physical beings to spiritual entities. It liberates us from the confines of sensory perception and leads us to the realms of intuitive understanding. In such a state, many meaningful coincidences occur in one’s life. One is able to see the mysterious hand of God’s blessing.

For ongoing online workshops by Swamiji, contact: 63666 01235/ 63666 01236/ 990177 7003

Wedding shops sell cremation items now

Wedding shops sell cremation items now

Rajeev.Mani@timesgroup.com

Prayagraj:  21.04.2021 

Ankit Agarwal has been the go-to person for several generations during every wedding season as his shop in Chowk area of Prayagraj in UP had all paraphernalia needed for marriage ceremony. With Covid-19 second wave continuing its lethal run in the city and people calling off wedding plans till the pandemic subsides, the same shop is now forced to sell items used in last rites. Another nearby shop too has started selling items needed for cremation.

“Although my family is in the business of wedding items, we are now selling things needed for last rites,” said Ankit. This is also to help people as there was no such shop in the area and customers had to go to different markets, he added.

Besides these two shops of the Chowk area, outlets selling items needed for cremation have mushroomed in several other localities.

“I am not sure if deaths are happening only because of Covid or due to other ailments also, but one thing is for sure, despite working from dawn to late night, I am unable to meet the order for ‘titti’(a stretcher made of bamboo) ,” said Nanku, a craftsman.

How big is risk of clots from Covishield?

A SHOT OF HOPE

How big is risk of clots from Covishield?

The risk is extremely low, and the link between blood clots and the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is still not 100% clear. Also, the clots can be treated if patients report them early

Abhilash.Gaur@timesgroup.com

21.04.2021

Covid patients are sharing hospital beds and in some places the dead have shared pyres. It couldn’t get worse, you think, until yet another report raises doubts about the safety of the Oxford-Astra-Zeneca vaccine.

Since February, scientists in Europe have suspected a link between the vaccine and rare but recurring cases of fatal blood clots. Some countries have stopped using the vaccine, which is called Covishield in India and Vaxzevria abroad.

The West has the luxury of choice, but for us Covishield is the mainstay of the entire vaccination drive. If you are in line for a Covid shot, should you be afraid? Should you wait for another vaccine to launch? Here are answers to some of the questions on your mind.

Why is Europe worried?

Blood clots are a common problem. You can get one by sitting too long in one place. While these ordinary clots are easy to treat, those linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine are not. In fact, they combine clotting with the risk of internal bleeding.

Scientists have named this condition “vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT).” Somehow, a tiny percentage of people who take the AstraZeneca vaccine seem to face this dual problem of clots and internal bleeding.

The clots can occur anywhere in the body, but the deadliest ones occur in the brain. They are called cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) or cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST).

Covid causes more clots

The concern about the vaccine is based on a few hundred CVT cases recorded in Europe. In the European Economic Area (EU+Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway), 169 CVT cases were recorded after 34 million vaccinations. That’s roughly 5 out of every million AstraZeneca recipients.

Among 20 million AstraZeneca recipients in the UK – roughly the population of Mumbai – 19 died of VITT, the overall clotting/bleeding problem that includes CVT.

You might say, each one of those deaths is one too many. True, but consider the alternative. You avoid the vaccine and get Covid. What is the risk of death now? Besides, Covid also causes VITT and CVT, and new data shows it causes them far more often than vaccines.

On April 15, Oxford scientists published research claiming that the risk of CVT from Covid is 8 times greater than the risk from their a vaccine.

Are we sure the vaccine is the cause?

We still don’t know for sure if the AstraZeneca vaccine ‘causes’ VITT/CVT, but international agencies are leaning towards that view.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has said VITT should be listed as a “very rare side effect” of the vaccine. UK authorities say the evidence of a link is strong but “more work is still needed.” But WHO has held off so far. Based on data from 190 million AstraZeneca vaccinations, it feels a causal relationship between the vaccine and VITT is “plausible” but not “confirmed”.

What should you do?

With cases shooting up day after day, the most important thing is to get your vaccine as soon as you can. If you have already had your first shot of Covishield without serious side effects, UK authorities advise you take the second on schedule.

If at all you get VITT/CVT, the symptoms will appear 4 days to 4 weeks after your first shot. You should see a doctor “urgently”.

Are women at greater risk?

Initial reports said women who got the AstraZeneca vaccine were at greater risk of CVT, but that does not seem to be the case now.

“The differential could be explained by the higher number of young women being given the vaccine, in large part because there are more women working in health and care professions than men,” Anna Gross writes in Financial Times. In England, 7.5% more women have got their first dose. In the under-50 age group, women are 41% ahead.

Although the contraceptive pill also causes clotting – about 1 in 1,000 women a year – professor Adam Taylor from Lancaster University writes in The Conversation: “the mechanisms behind the type of clotting linked to the vaccine and that linked to the pill appear quite different.”

So, for now, theories linking the contraceptive pill, pregnancy and hormonal replacement therapy to clots occurring after vaccination

Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel (left) and president Frank-Walter Steinmeier (centre), and UK prime minister Boris Johnson have taken the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

SYMPTOMS OF CLOTTING

Severe headache not helped by usual painkillers

Headache seems worse when lying down or bending over Headache accompanied by blurred vision, nausea and vomiting, difficulty with speech, weakness, drowsiness or seizures

New, unexplained pinprick bruising or bleeding

Shortness of breath, chest pain, leg swelling, persistent abdominal pain

Source: Public Health England

My granny died, but hardest part was a lonely funeral

FIRST PERSON

My granny died, but hardest part was a lonely funeral

Shobita.Dhar@timesgroup.com

21.04.2021

On April 19, my maternal grandmother developed Covid-19 symptoms. She was 96, her blood oxygen level had dropped to an alarmingly low 76 and she was gasping. Fifteen minutes into the drive to the hospital, she passed away. But it was not the saddest part.

The challenges peculiar to Covid-19 became apparent the moment my parents, 69 and 67, with whom she used to live, decided to take her to the hospital on their own. They live in a third-floor apartment and the car was parked in the basement. The next-door neighbours were all down with Covid-19 and they had asked me not to come — I have a child whose health they didn’t want to risk. With help from just one person, they managed to get her in a wheelchair and then to the car.

The hospital was 23 minutes away, but she didn’t make it. Doctors told my parents to take her body to the cremation grounds right away because it could be a Covid-19 case. We couldn't know for sure because grandmother passed away before we could get her tested. My parents wanted to conduct some form of last rites before the cremation, so they took her back home but not to the apartment. They parked the car in the basement, with my granny in it, and decided to organize a small funeral right there. My father cranked up the AC of the car to keep her body protected from heat.

This is how I saw her when I got there with my husband and father-in-law. Five chairs had been placed on one side of the car. Five relatives came over after a while. Broken and grieving, nobody hugged. No priest agreed to come perform the last rites. We did that on our own. We had to give grandmother the ceremonial bath before the cremation. My mother, two of her sisters and I tied a bedsheet from the car to a pillar in the basement to create a private space for that. We did all we could to give her as dignified a farewell as possible.

We stumbled along with her body to the cremation ground, where five pyres were already burning. We picked up the wooden logs for the pyre, but as they were heavy, a stranger, who was there to cremate his own, helped us. We were overcome with gratitude. After the cremation, we left.

Centre has released ₹30k cr of disaster funds to states, UTs

Centre has released ₹30k cr of disaster funds to states, UTs

MP, Maha & Bengal Got Lion’s Share

Pradeep.Thakur@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:21.04.2021

Probably in one of the highest yearly spend towards disaster mitigation, the Centre has released more than Rs 30,000 crore of disaster funds to states and Union Territories since the beginning of the pandemic last year. Up to 50% of this fund has been allowed to be used for Covid-19 containment measures that may include setting up of quarantine centres, buying of medical equipment, providing for ambulances and expenditure towards testing and tracing of cases.

Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal have got the highest share of the State Disaster Relief Management Fund (SDRMF), including Rs 8,257 crore contribution made from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF). While MP has received Rs 3,700 crore of disaster fund till March 31, Maharashtra has received Rs 3,640 crore and Bengal Rs 3,260 crore. The total funds released to 28 states/UTs is more than Rs 31,500 crore during the just concluded 2020-21 financial year.

Rs 7,000 crore of the disaster funds have been released since January this year. In a directive issued last week, the government said that “in view of the surge in Covid-19 cases , by way of special one time dispensation it has decided to allow states to utilise up to 50% of their annual allocation of SDRF for containment measures” of the pandemic. In release of disaster funds to states through SDRMF, the Centre has contributed Rs 22,184 crore towards its share, which is 114% more than the Rs 10,344 crore provided in the previous year. In addition, the Centre has released Rs 8,257 crore to states from the NDRF for mitigation measures. The Centre had in March last year notified Coronavirus as “disaster” so that the states could use the funds allocated under SDRMF and NDRF for the purpose of pandemic containment.

Outside Rajkot hospital, wait stretches on

Outside Rajkot hospital, wait stretches on

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Rajkot:21.04.2021

Queues of vehicles with patients on oxygen cylinders waiting outside the Rajkot Civil Hospital has become a daily scene while the wait and number of vehicles have only increased as days go by, particularly at night. With minimum six to eight hours of waiting on an average for each patient, many a patient are seen making their own arrangements for bed even in the queue itself.

One such patient, Jenti Ramavat, who was waiting in the queue since 9pm on Monday had to get himself a bedstead when till midnight his turn did not come. His relatives told media persons that Ramamvat was feeling uncomfortable wanted to sleep outside and so they fetched him a bedstead. He finally got admission after 12 hours of waiting.

Quoting sources, about 100 vehicles were in the queue since early morning on Tuesday in the ground of Chaudhary high school on the back side of civil hospital from where Covid patients are being admitted.

Rajkot district has a total of 30 ambulances which have all been pressed into managing Covid patients. Seriously ill patients are also arriving in private vehicles, autorickshaws and any vehicle they are managing to get and waiting in the serpentine queues.

“The hospital staff is providing treatment in108 and private ambulances as well as passengers in auto rickshaw and cars. They also provide oxygen cylinders in the vehicles standing outside on the school ground,” the statement reads.

About 100 vehicles were in queue since early on Tuesday morning

850 cases in Rajkot

Rajkot:

Altogether 850 people tested Covid positive in Rajkot district on Tuesday, while 5,029 are under treatment in Rajkot city. On the same day, 66 people died in various Covid hospitals of Rajkot district in the past 24 hours ending on Tuesday morning.