Guj faces twin crisis of battling cyclone amidst Covid-19 surge

Guj faces twin crisis of battling cyclone amidst Covid-19 surge

Critically Ill Patients Moved Out; O2 Stock, DG Sets Ramped Up

Team TOI

17.05.2021 

Ahmedabad/Rajkot/Surat:

The very severe cyclonic storm Tauktae could not have come at a worse time for Gujarat.

Just as the state battles with the second wave of deadly Covid-19, the cyclone threatens to compound the woes of critically ill patients and overwhelmed hospitals.

To prevent a doublewhammy for Covid-19 patients remained on top of state administration's mind. By Sunday evening, 34 critical Covid patients of Porbandar and Gir Somnath districts were shifted to Junagadh Civil Hospital as a precautionary measure.

Some 46 patients of a Kutch hospital located close to the sea shore were shifted to Bhuj Samaras hospital.

“On one hand, there are Covid-19 patients in hospitals. On the other hand, there is the cyclone and its effects. We are working to ensure there is zero casualty,” Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani briefed on Sunday. P 2, 3 & 4

Base hospitals designated

Seven hospitals in Saurashtra region have been designated as base hospitals where the patients from districts such as Bhavnagar, Amreli, Botad, Junagadh, Gir Somnath, Porbandar, Jamnagar, Devbhoomi Dwarka, Kutch, etc. would be shifted at the time of contingency.

Diesel generators are being installed or shifted to major hospitals to ensure that life support systems and communication systems are not interrupted in case of power outage.

Several hospitals close to the coastal region also went for ‘wind proofing’ by blocking the doors and windows with wooden logs.

State energy minister Saurabh Patel held a meeting of the preparations of PGVCL and Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporation (Getco) in Rajkot on Sunday.

In Surat, 40% of the 1200-odd ventilators are occupied. “Most of the hospitals have their own generators and power supply back up and patients on ventilators are in the big hospitals including SMC-run SMIMER hospital,” Ashish Naik, deputy municipal commissioner (Health), SMC, told TOI.

Dr Bharat Gadhvi, president of private hospitals in Ahmedabad, said that they have stocked adequate oxygen supply and have asked all member hospitals to ensure checking generators for critical equipment.

DMK’S CABINET FULL OF FOES-TURNED-FRIENDS

DMK’S CABINET FULL OF FOES-TURNED-FRIENDS

One-Fourth Of M K Stalin’s Ministers Have Been Part Of MGR And Jayalalithaa’s Coterie

R Rangaraj

17.05.2021

Nearly one-fourth of the DMK cabinet under M K Stalin comprises former AIADMK men, including two who had served both the M G Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa cabinets, and some who had joined the party when it was founded by MGR in 1972. With eight former AIADMK men adorning the government it is like an amalgamation of the Dravidian majors.

The eight ministers – K K S S R Ramachandran, S Muthusamy, R S Raja Kannappan, S Regupathy, E V Velu, Anitha Radhakrishnan, P K Sekar Babu and Senthil Balaji — have not just been inducted into the cabinet, they have been given powerful and prestigious posts as well, from revenue to electricity.

This exercise seems to be part of a larger scheme to attract other senior leaders of the AIADMK. By weaning away its second-rung leaders and giving them importance in the DMK, Stalin appears to be sending the message that AIADMK men who move to the DMK camp will be treated well and have a glorious future ahead of them.

While M Karunanidhi did give the early entrants from the AIADMK some posts, it is Stalin who is going out of the way to make them feel comfortable in the DMK. In the past few years, he had given them party posts. He has also struck the right balance between rewards to party loyalists and new entrants.

Now, that Stalin is CM, he is using the opportunity to confer more benefits on these leaders. Senthil Balaji is a classic example of an AIADMK man once sidelined and now honoured in the DMK. He had been active in the AIADMK since 1997 and grew up the ranks to be minister for transport in the J Jayalalithaa cabinet from 2011 to 2015. He was dropped from the cabinet in July 2015 and after the demise of Jayalalithaa, when the AIADMK underwent a split, he stood by T T V Dhinakaran.

Part of the group of 18 disqualified MLAs, Senthil Balaji joined the DMK on December 14, 2018. He was fielded by the DMK in the byelection to Aravakurichi constituency in 2019. In 2021, he was reelected to the state assembly from Karur constituency. He has been given important portfolios of electricity, prohibition and excise, indicating that he enjoys the goodwill of chief minister M K Stalin. Among the senior members of the new government’s cabinet is K K S S R Ramachandran. A member of the Karunanidhi cabinet 2006, his time he has the important portfolio of minister for revenue and disaster management. He was in MGR’s cabinet as well. Close to Jayalalithaa for supporting her after MGR’s death, he was also key in enabling the revival of the unified AIADMK in the 1990s. In the DMK, he is considered an important leader, especially in the southern districts.

E V Velu, who was on Janaki’s side during the AIADMK split, is now a senior DMK leader. He had served the Karunanidhi cabinet from 2006 to 2011 as minister for food and civil supplies. Velu, now minister for public works, is considered an important leader for the party in north Tamil Nadu.

With plans of boosting the DMK’s efforts in the western part of the state, the elevation of S Muthusamy appears crucial. The region is traditionally the DMK’s weak spot and using a former AIADMK man to shore up the DMK image in the gounder belt is a deft move. Muthusamy had been a part of the MGR and Jayalalithaa government.

The law minister S Regupathy was the labour minister in the AIADMK cabinet from 1992 to 93, and later the minister of urban development and housing till 1996. The prominent leader from Pudukkottai was made minister of state for home during the UPA rule at the Centre, and minister of state, environment and forests.

A popular face in Chennai, P K Sekar Babu, is another former AIADMK leader. The minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments is expected to play a key role in further consolidation of the DMK in the Greater Chennai region.

Among the ministers who had an onand-off relationship with the AIADMK is R S Raja Kannappan, holding the transport portfolio. A powerful minister in the Jayalalithaa cabinet from 1991-96, Kannappan in 2000 formed the Makkal Tamil Desam party. Six years later, he merged it with the DMK. He rejoined the AIADMK in 2009, but 10 years later appealed to the people to vote for the DMKled alliance. He formally made the switch to the DMK in February 2020.

Anitha Radhakrishnan, who was expelled from the AIADMK in 2009 for anti-party activities He joined the DMK, and was suspended briefly when he greeted Jayalalithaa after her acquittal in the disproportionate assets case. In the 2021 assembly election, he was reelected from Tiruchendur constituency and has now been appointed as minister for fisheries. He is expected to play a crucial role in the expansion of the DMK network in the southern districts.

While Stalin has successfully launched a programme to woo the AIADMK leaders with the promise of opportunities both in the party and the government. It remains to be seen how many AIADMK men will swallow the bait

(The writer is senior journalist)

Email your feedback with name and address to southpole.toi@timesgroup.com

TNPSC: Results to be released on June 8

TNPSC: Results to be released on June 8

17.05.2021

The Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC), centrally responsible for the recruitment of personnel in various departments of the state government of Tamil Nadu, has informed that the results of the last 14 examinations conducted by it will be released on June 8. These 14 examinations were conducted during December 2020. The results for these examinations will be announced on June 8. TNPSC had already released the results of the 120 examinations conducted in December 2020 for recruitments in various state government departments on May 8.

City colleges come forward to help Covid-19 patients

City colleges come forward to help Covid-19 patients

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:17.05.2021

In the war on Covid-19, city colleges are chipping in by opening their campuses for oxygen beds and isolation rooms, preparing food packets for frontline workers and tele-counselling patients. A majority have handed over their buildings to the Greater Chennai Corporation to convert them into Covid care centres.

Madras Christian College created a 15-bed isolation facility for patients with mild symptoms, five-bed facility for primary contacts and also launched an ambulance service. “The facility is open to all faculty members, staff members, students, alumni and general public. The centre will provide basic ambulance and isolation services,” said Paul Wilson, principal. The centre will provide online medical consultation, food and nursing services. The ambulance will be available up to a radius of 15 km from MCC. .

Loyola College is offering tele-counselling to Covid-19 patients in partnership with the corporation. “We have an additional tele-counselling facility in our college as well. The centre has three dedicated phone lines and counsellors. Social workers are giving counselling," said principal Thomas Amirtham.

The college also identified 200 community leaders to train in basic awareness. "Each person will get a corona home Kit which will have an oxymeter, masks, hand sanitizer and tablets. They will operate as community healers,” he added. The college along with GCC plans to start a 50-bed Covid care centre for asymptomatic persons at the hostel.

Some colleges are also organising vaccination drives and functioning as community kitchens. “We are conducting a vaccination drive for the general public along with the Rotaract club. We have also handed over a building for Covid care centre,” said S Santhosh Baboo, principal of DG Vaishnav College.

Alagappa College of Technology hostel at Anna University campus in Chennai functioning as Covid care centre for police personnel. “We have also handed over the knowledge park building for converting it as a Covid care centre,” a university n official said.

STEPPING UP: Madras Christian College created a 15-bed isolation facility

Kids break piggy banks to help fight Covid

SHOT OF HOPE

Kids break piggy banks to help fight Covid

Sindhu.Kannan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:17.05.2021 

They had saved up the money to buy toy cars they could sit in and drive. But when they saw how people were contributing to the fight against the coronavirus, eight-year-old Mithun Sanjith and six-year-old Mithran Sanjay from Chengalpet decided to break their piggy banks and givetheir contents to the government.

The coins and notes they had assiduously put away ever since they drove their dream cars at a mall two years ago made up a tidy sum. Their mother Pramila helped them count the money that came to ₹10,045. Their father Shiva, a journalist with a Tamil daily,

said at first he did not take him seriously when Mithun asked if he could donate the money. The boys really wanted the toy cars, but they had put off a trip to the mall because of the pandemic. But then the children broke open the piggy bank and offered the money, saying they would rather give it away than buy the cars. Since Saturday was Mithun’s birthday, they decided to hand over the money on that day to Chengalpet collector John Louis, who gifted him a book.

The collector lauded Mithun Sanjith, a class three student of V S Star matriculation school, and Mithran Sanjay, a class one student of Good Shepherd public school in Kalpakkam. Shiva said the boys used to get worried watching TV news and hearing him on the phone discussing the pandemic. They would press him not to leave home.

HEART OF GOLD: Mithun Sanjith, 8, and Mithran Sanjay, 6, from Chengalpet donated ₹10,045 to the government’s Covid fund

Remdesivir to be sold directly to TN pvt hosps

Remdesivir to be sold directly to TN pvt hosps

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

Chennai:17.05.2021

After milling crowds at remdesivir sales counters opened at six places in government hospitals across Tamil Nadu sparked fear of turning into super-spreaders, the state government has decided to sell the anti-viral drug directly to private hospitals treating patients from Tuesday, and not to the family and friends of the infected. The decision was taken at a review meeting chaired by chief minister M K Stalin on Sunday.

A new online portal will be launched on Tuesday through which private hospitals can register their requirement, a press release said.

‘Hospitals required to submit records of patients in need of O2’

Health minister Ma Subramanian said, “Hospitals will be asked to submit medical records pertaining to oxygen-dependent patients. After going through the documents, Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation will approve remdesivir vials. Hospital representatives can collect them from sale depots.”

A K Ravikumar, state secretary, Indian Medical Association (IMA), said once the changes come into effect, government should not prioritise bigger hospitals (with 100-beds or more) and provide the drug to all Covidempanelled hospitals based on a common waiting list. Or else, the government can collect a weekly or15-day indent from private hospitals and supply the required quantity upfront. In order to monitor usage, hospitals can be asked to return used vials and upload patient details before making request for the next batch (as it is done for supplying vaccines), he said.

Health authorities said that they will continue to monitor private hospitals to ensure they administer remdesivir only to eligible patients and the drug is sold only at the price fixed by the government.

Though remdesivir is recommended only for severe cases, some private physicians are recommending it to all patients thereby increasing the drug’s market demand. This has led to hoarding and black marketing of the drug. Chennai police arrested people for trying to sell a vial for ₹15,000 to ₹35,000 last week.

The government has promised to take legal action against those who sell it at exorbitant rates and prescribe it without necessity, the press release said.

Study: Covaxin tackles all new strains, works against double mutant

Study: Covaxin tackles all new strains, works against double mutant

Swati.Bharadwaj@timesgroup.com

Hyderabad:17.05.2021

Indigenous Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin is effective in fighting all key emerging variants, including the double mutant B.1.617 and B.1.1.7, which was first identified in India and the UK, its developer Bharat Biotech said on Sunday while citing a study published in an Oxford journal.

Pointing out that Covaxin was successful in retaining neutralising activity against emerging variants, a top official of the company said that no difference in neutralisation was observed between B.1.1.7 (first isolated in the UK) and the vaccine strain (D614G) that was used to develop Covaxin.

Citing a study published in peer-reviewed medical journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, Bharat Biotech joint managing director Suchitra Ella tweeted: “A modest reduction in neutralisation by a factor of 1.95 was observed against B.1.617 variant compared to the vaccine variant (D614G). Despite this reduction, neutralising titre (concentration of neutralising antibodies) levels with B.1.617 remain above levels expected to be protective.”

Neutralising antibodies are part of the body’s immune system and helps defend from viruses and bacteria by neutralising their effects on the body. These antibodies are produced when one gets infected or vaccinated.

The study, ‘Neutralisation of variant under investigation B.1.617 with sera of BBV152 vaccinees’, was covered in the May 7 issue of the journal that is published by the Oxford University Press.

The study found that the sera drawn from those vaccinated with Covaxin performed better against the B.1.617 variant as compared to the sera taken from patients who had recovered from Covid.

SHOT OF HOPE: A health worker administers a vaccine dose to a woman in Bengaluru on Sunday