Issue 342 - 27/03/2020

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Mamata pays surprise visit
to markets, pulls up police
Kolkata : West Bengal Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee on Thursday paid surprise
visits to markets, pulling up police officers
for shutting shops selling essentials and
marking circles to denotie how people should
queue up in markets and before retail and
wholesale outlets to maintain social distance
amidst the ongoing lockdown to prevent
spread of Covid-19. Accompanied by city
Police Commissioner Anuj Sharma, Banerjee
- with a hankerchief covering her mouth and
nose - first reached the wholesale market at
Posta in Burrabazar of central Kolkata.
She spoke to the traders and asked them to
keep their shop open. However, some of the
35 companies in race to produce
wonder vaccine to prevent
COVID-19, trials started
traders complained that police were forcibly
closing down shops by beating up buyers and
sellers. An angry Banerjee asked Sharma
why they were not allowing the wholesalers
to do their business, and received assurance
that everything will be taken care of.
Then some more traders stepped forward
and complained about police highandedness.
Clearly peeved, the Chief Minister asked for
the police officer concerned and gave strict
instructions to let the traders do their business
smoothly. The next stop was the market
on Free School Street. There Banerjee
stressed on social distancing and drew circles
to denote how the buyers should stand in
queues by maintaining proper social distancing.
From central Kolkata, Banerjee's convoy
headed to Gariahat market. There she
asked the traders to use hand santizers frequently
and gave live demonstration on how
they can conduct their business while adhering
to safety norms.
Banerjee's last halt was at Lake Market.
There she was not satisfied with the distance
maintained between two circles for buyers in
queue. She took a small brick and started
drawing the circles before a shop selling
potatoes and onions. "This is how you should
do it. There must be adequate distance
between two people," she told the trader.
27/03/2020 25
BE MORE HUMANE,
Punjab CM tells police
Chandigarh : Taking cognizance of reports of excesses against
residents for the enforcement of the curfew in the state, Punjab
Chief Minister
Amarinder Singh
on Thursday
directed Punjab
Police to be more
humane and sensitive
in dealing
with violations.
Urging the
police personnel
to exercise maximum
restraint in
the difficult situation,
the Chief
Minister asked them to find more compassionate ways of handling
curfew violations, especially in cases of individuals found moving
out for essentials.A
Use of corporal means to punish violators could not be allowed,
said Amarinder, directing Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar
Gupta to take all possible steps to sensitise the police personnel and
warn them against taking the law into their hands in dealing with
cases of curfew violation.
The Chief Minister also appealed to the people to stay at home
and reach out to the police and the civil administration through
helpline numbers in case of emergency.
All efforts are being made to provide doorstep delivery of essential
goods and services, he said, adding that the entire police and
civil administration was working day and night to ensure that the
citizens do not face any inconvenience or hardship.
The Chief Minister's warning came even as the police on
Thursday registered 170 cases and arrested 262 for curfew and
home quarantine violations. Out of the total 170 cases, four were
registered for violation of home quarantine guidelines, with three
FIRs registered in Sangrur and one in Bathinda.
As of Thursday, a total of 40,153 police employees in different
ranks have been deployed on the ground in various districts for
enforcement of curfew as well as maintenance of essential supplies.
These included 1937 volunteers.
Priti Patel calls for UK
borders to be closed
London : As the world anxiously
awaits a possible vaccine
to prevent thousands of people
getting infected from COVID-19
virus, around 35 pharmaceutical
companies and institutes are racing
against time to create such a
vaccine. At least four such companies,
have already started testing
in animals.
The science journal of
American Association of
Advancement in Science
(AAAS) reports that Boston
based biotech firm, Moderna
Therapeutics is speeding the
vaccine through an internal safety
trial in collaboration with
National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Disease. The company
said that it plans to distribute
the vaccine to health care workers
by September, this year.
Moderna has shared little detail
in published papers about the
technology it's developing.
This unprecedented speed to
create a vaccine stems from the
early Chinese efforts to sequence
the genetic material of Sars-
CoV-2, the virus that causes
Covid-19.
The Chinese medical authorities
wasted no time in sharing
that sequence with research
groups as early as January. The
cooperation enabled the research
companies around the world to
grow the live virus and study
how it invades human cells and
makes people sick. In fact
Coronaviruses have caused two
other recent epidemics -- severe
acute respiratory syndrome
(Sars) in China in 2002-04, and
Middle East respiratory syndrome
(Mers), which started in
Saudi Arabia in 2012. Leading
english daily Guardian in its
report says that "both cases, work
began on vaccines that were later
shelved when the outbreaks were
contained. One company,
Maryland-based Novavax, has
now repurposed those vaccines
for Sars-CoV-2, and says it has
several candidates ready to enter
human trials this spring."
London, March 26 (IANS) UK Home
Secretary Priti Patel has called for the country's
borders to be closed in order to stop
people arriving from coronavirus hotspots in
an effort to halt the pandemic from further
spreading, a media report said on Thursday.
Patel was seeking support for her plans to
stop passengers being able to fly in to the UK
from countries with high levels of infections
such as Iran, the US and Chin, the Daily Mail
quoted a report by The Telegraph newspaper
as saying. Patel believes flights from virus
hotspots should not be allowed when the
country was on lockdown to prevent its
spread. The lack of a travel ban in the UK
was in stark contrast to policies in the
European Union (EU) and the US, which
Srinagar : The J&K
government on Thursday
decided to continue the
ban on high-speed internet
across the Union Territory.
An order issued by
Shaleen Kabra, Principal
Secretary to the government
of J&K, said the
decision was taken while "taking note of the
overall security situation in the UT of J&K and
the latest report of the law enforcement agencies."
The order says that internet speed shall be
restricted to 2G only in connection with mobile
have closed their borders to travellers from
foreign countries. Flights headed to the UK
from New York, Tehran, Rome and Beijing
all took off on Wednesday, reports the Daily
Mail. An estimated 100,000 passengers were
data services. "The postpaid
SIM card holders shall be
provided access to internet.
However, such access will
not be made available on prepaid
SIM cards unless verified
as per the norms applicable
for post-paid connections,
the order read. It said internet
connectivity with Mac-binding shall be available
for fixed line internet connectivity.
The order said the directions shall be effective
immediately and remain in force up to April
3, 2020.
still arriving through UK airports each day -
around one fifth of the number before the
pandemic. Many of these are Britons returning
from abroad, but government scientific
advisers have warned that around 500 coronavirus
cases may be linked to foreign nationals
coming in to the UK.
"We are most concerned about the daily
flights from the US and Iran which are coming
in on a daily basis," the Daily Mail quoted
a source as saying to The Telegraph.
"We want to stop non-EEA nationals from
flying into the UK. The EU is not a problem
for the most part because their domestic
lockdowns are so severe." This development
came as the UK reported 9,640 confirmed
coronavirus cases with 46 deaths.
High-speed internet ban to continue in J&K