Relax curbs in parts of TN that have Covid under control, suggest experts

Relax curbs in parts of TN that have Covid under control, suggest experts

‘Lockdown Not The Only Way To Check Spread of Covid Pandemic’

Pushpa.Narayan@timesgroup.com

04.06.2021

Public health experts say there are no epidemiological reasons to extend the lockdown uniformly across the state to control the Covid-19 pandemic. Vaccination, people’s behaviour and viral mutations need to be factored in while devising strategy, they say, stressing that lockdown isn’t the only solution.

Consider this: A week after fresh cases began to fall from a peak of 36,184 cases on May 21, active cases in the state began to drop (from May 28) for the first time since March 6. Besides, say experts, deaths, which are nearly plateauing at around 480 a day, are likely to fall within a day or two.

“These graphs should help the state make a policy decision on lockdown,” said Vellore-based senior virologist Dr T Jacob John. The growth rate of cases was at the peak at around 9% in April. After the fall in this “momentum peak”, the state touched the “numerical peak” of cases on May  21. On that day, the growth rate fell to 2%. By the time, active cases began to record a fall, the growth rate was almost negative at -0.1%.

Dr John said there were no epidemiological reasons for extending the lockdown across the state. Several other public health experts agree.

On Wednesday, National Institute of Epidemiology deputy director Dr Prabhdeep Kaur, who is also a member of the state medical expert committee, had said the government lockdown should be relaxed in certain parts of the state such as the Chennai region where cases have drastically fallen. “The second wave started and peaked in different parts of the state at different times. Bed availability is also different in different districts. So, the same rules of lockdown cannot be extended to all districts,” she said.

Activity is more inside hospitals, than in the community, said Dr John. “On an average there is a 12- to 14-day gap between fall in fresh cases and peaking of deaths. So, tier 2 cities and small towns must forecast mortality peaks, plan human resources, drugs and infrastructure,” he said.

While officials worry about a drop in seropositivity – number of people with antibodies against the infection –from 32% in October 2020 to 23% in April this year, experts say it is expected. “We do not maintain high antibody levels to every pathogen we have ever encountered. If the memory response has been set up, we will be able to respond quickly when re-infected and mitigate the severity of disease,” said Christian Medical College senior microbiologist Dr Gagandeep Kang.

Nevertheless, there is a large population that is still unprotected and hence the threat of a third wave remains. Factors such as vaccination, people’s behaviour and viral mutations may influence another wave. Scientists say a close watch on genomic changes is essential.

CBSE Certificates - 'Students May Fail To Notice Errors Due To Young Age & Inadvertence' : Supreme Court Calls For 'Different Approach' In Time-Limit For Changes/Corrections

CBSE Certificates - 'Students May Fail To Notice Errors Due To Young Age & Inadvertence' : Supreme Court Calls For 'Different Approach' In Time-Limit For Changes/Corrections: The Supreme Court has observed that there should be a 'different approach' by the Central Board o

25% doses allotted to pvt hospitals, but they account for only 7.5% of total jabs

25% doses allotted to pvt hospitals, but they account for only 7.5% of total jabs

95% Shots By Public Sector In Nearly 80% Dists

Rema Nagarajan & Atul Thakur TNN

04.06.2021

The government’s vaccination policy has reserved a 25% quota for the private sector, but analysis of actual inoculations till May 30 shows that private centres account for barely 7.5% of total doses administered. The proportion exceeds10% in only seven states/UTs and 80-odd of the 750 districts listed on CoWin. Even the little the private sector has done is concentrated in a few urban pockets, with just 25 districts in some of the country’s largest metropolises accounting for 54% of all private vaccinations.

In almost 80% of districts, the public sector has provided more than 95% of all vaccine doses so far. The private sector’s share is less than even 1% in half the districts, especially in predominantly rural areas and in the Northeast.

The highest share of private hospitals in vaccination is, not surprisingly, in urban mega sprawls like Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai with the Bengaluru municipal corporation (BBMP) area recording the highest share of 44% of the private sector.

TOI downloaded data from the CoWin portal for more than 1.6 lakh vaccination centres as of 7am on Sunday. The centres were then categorised into public and private and the data analysed to arrive at these numbers. The data is for all doses of vaccines administered from the start of the drive on January16, about 20.8 crore doses, of which the private sector administered about 1.6 crore. Of these 1.6 lakh centres, we were unable to clearly categorise a little more than 17,000.

Delhi has highest private sector share in vaccination

But these accounted for barely 0.4%, or 9 lakh, doses administered and so would not change the picture significantly.

The analysis raises questions about whether a 25% quota for the private sector is justified by actual performance. It also underlines that such a quota seems to be discriminating against semi-rural and rural populations since the private sector is almost entirely limited to urban settings and within them to the larger cities, one of the concerns flagged by the Supreme Court.

Among states and UTs, the highest private sector share in vaccination (21%) was in Delhi, followed by Chandigarh (15%), Telangana (14%), Maharashtra (13%), Tamil Nadu (12%) and Karnataka (12%). However, even in Delhi, there were districts like northeast where 99.85% of vaccinations have been done in government centres. Similarly, even in the most urbanised state of Tamil Nadu, there are districts like Kallakurichi, with a population of about14 lakh, where the private sector hardly exists in the vaccination landscape.

With rural India being home to over 65% of the country’s population, and hence being almost entirely dependent on the government for Covid vaccination, this raises the question of how giving the private sector such a big role is supposed to spur vaccination as argued by the Centre.

In many ways, vaccines are more necessary for rural populace which has little or no access to health infrastructure.

Times View

The analysis raises questions about whether a 25% quota for the private sector is justified by actual on-ground delivery. It discriminates against rural and semi-rural populations — that’s over two-thirds of India — since the private sector is almost entirely limited to urban settings and within those, to the larger cities, one of the concerns flagged by the Supreme Court. In many ways, vaccines, which are said to reduce hospitalisation and guard against death, are even more necessary for a rural populace that has little or no access to health infrastructure. Also, how does it serve the larger objective of spurring vaccination and achieving ‘herd immunity’? If the pandemic should have taught the world one lesson, it is that no woman or man, nation or region is an island – and for urban Indians to believe that what happens in our villages will stay in our villages would be a fatal fallacy.

Docs Advise Caution As Students Under Stress

No consensus on Class XII exams

Docs Advise Caution As Students Under Stress

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:04.06.2021

Parents and students want the state board Class XII exams cancelled in line with the CBSE, while teachers want to hold them.

The state government has asked around 7,000 higher secondary schools to find out what parents and teachers think. The schools compiled the feedback and sent it to the directorate of school education on Thursday. The school education department will hold an online meeting of health experts, educationists and officials on Friday. It will submit a report to chief minister M K Stalin on Saturday on the issue.

C Thenmozhi, a parent from Kolathur, said students were under pressure due to the postponement of exams. "Health experts are also saying the third wave will affect the children. So, it is better if the exams are cancelled," she said.

K P O Suresh, state president of Tamil Nadu Post-Graduate Teachers Association, said the board exams are necessary for admission to higher education courses. "A majority of students do not have access to online classes. The question paper pattern should be more liberal," he said.

"In a survey among parents and students, only 25% of parents wanted the board exams. Parents say the life of a child is more important than exams," said Agnes Rita, principal of GRT Mahalakshmi Vidhyalaya Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Ashok Nagar.

"Due to uncertainty and long wait, a majority of parents and students were not in favour of board exams. The state government should have conducted some form of online assessment earlier," said B Purushothaman, senior principal of Everwin Group of Schools in Chennai.

Padmaja R, headmistress of Chennai Girls Higher Secondary School in Saidapet, said teachers and top rankers want exams. "But, a majority of students were not for exams citing mental exhaustion and tiredness. They were also not confident of writing the exams after facing just three months of offline classes. Some students only gave Covid-19 as a reason for not wanting exams," she said.

Parents from government schools also were not in favour of exams . "Of 600 students in our school, parents of above 400 students were not for exams," a headmaster of a government school in the city said.

"In our school 30% students and 100% teachers were in favour of conducting the exams. The state government should at least conduct an online assessment test to evaluate the students," said GJ Manohar, principal of MCC Higher Secondary School in Chetpet.

N Vijayan, senior principal of Zion Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Tambaram, said the state government should conduct the exams after the cases come down.

CATCH 22: One survey said only 1 in every 4 parents wanted the Class XII board exams to be conducted on schedule

Driven from Covid wards, attendants now crowd hosp premises

Driven from Covid wards, attendants now crowd hosp premises

A Prathap & Komal Gautham TNN

Chennai:04.06.2021

Despite the directorate of public health’s order banning relatives of Covid patients from wards, these attendants remain a problem at government hospitals in the city.

On Thursday, there were at least 50 attendants of covid positive patients crowding the exit gate at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) in Chennai. They insisted that they should be allowed to enter the wards to tend to their relatives.

Hospital dean E Theranirajan told TOI that ever since the order was issued, the hospital has ensured that attendants aren’t allowed in wards. “We also sought help from the city police to manage them. We appointed 60 volunteers. But attendants insist on helping patients themselves,” he said.

Around noon on Thursday, a TOI photographer witnessed a huge crowd at the out gate and several autos waiting alongside. These auto drivers and attendants are nothing but super spreaders, said health experts, adding that since they don’t wear PPE or N95 masks, they expose themselves to high viral load.

In May, TOI reported on hospitals in Chennai, Chengalpet, Ramanathapuram and Coimbatore mandating attendants for patients due to staff shortage. Vijayageetha, whose father was admitted to a Coimbatore hospital, said she had to call the nurse every time his saturation fell. “They don’t watch the patients closely as there are many critical patients. Almost everyone here needs ICU but it is not available and if we don’t stay with the patient, we are sure they will not be cared for properly. The situation is terrible,” she said. An attendant at RGGGH told TOI that though they were sent away, attendants of patients on ventilators were asked to stay close to the ward. “The nurses told us to stay as they are unable to even take toilet breaks,” an attendant said.

Director of public health T S Selvavinayagam told TOI that the state has ensured that no relative goes into the ward. “We cannot allow that as they will be exposed to high viral load and they will expose others as well when they travel. If they crowd outside the hospital, we need to ask the police to intervene,” he said.

POTENTIAL SUPER SPREADERS: Relatives of patients crowded the exit gate of Rajiv Gandhi hospital on Thursday

WA trying to get ‘trick consent’: Govt

WA trying to get ‘trick consent’: Govt

Abhinav.Garg@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:04.06.2021

In a fresh salvo against Facebook-owned messaging platform WhatsApp, the Centre has accused it of indulging in “anti-user practices” by trying to obtain “trick consent” for its contested privacy policy.

“Millions of existing users of WhatsApp, who have not accepted its new policy, are bombarded with notifications on an everyday basis,” the Centre told the Delhi high court in an affidavit, blaming the social messaging platform of trying to “force” its users to provide consent to the new privacy policy before the Personal Data Protection Bill becomes a law.

For this, the platform has “unleashed its digital prowess on unsuspecting existing users and would like to force them to accept the updated 2021 privacy policy by flashing such notifications at regular intervals”, the affidavit by the Centre said, adding that its “game plan is very clear”.

Disappearing mode in WhatsApp soon

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has told WABetaInfo, a website, that a disappearing mode is coming to WhatsApp that automatically enables ephemeral messages in new chat threads. He has mentioned that another feature ‘View Once’ will be rolled out soon.

‘How many have accepted the updated 2021 privacy policy’

The company wants to “transfer the entire existing user base committed to the updated 2021 privacy policy before the Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill becomes the law”, the Centre said.

Backing a clutch of petitions challenging the platform’s revised privacy policy, the government has urged the HC to demand from it record of the number of times such notifications have been sent out till date on daily basis to users and what was the conversion rate — that is how many have accepted the updated 2021 privacy policy vis-a-vis the number of notifications.

It said WhatsApp is “currently having access to personal, sensitive and business data of hundreds of millions of Indian users and has also acquired role of an ‘essential digital service’ during Covid-19 pandemic” which is why its privacy policy and terms of service “should be examined on the touchstone of privacy principles as laid down in K S Puttaswamy judgment of the Supreme Court.”

The affidavit also informs HC that the Competition Commission of India (CCI), in a recent “prima facie opinion,” said that WhatsApp contravened legal provisions “through its exploitative and exclusionary conduct, in the garb of policy update.” Centre has argued that the privacy policy of WhatsApp violates rules as it fails to specify types of sensitive personal data being collected and also fails to notify users about details of the sensitive personal information which is collected. It said even when a user deletes her account, “a substantial corpus of data may be retained.”

Decide on home vaccination for elderly: HC

Decide on home vaccination for elderly: HC

04/06/2021

A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Thursday directed the State government to take a decision in 10 days on home vaccination for bedridden patients and senior citizens who cannot move out of their residences.