News updates: In race for monkeypox vaccines, experts see repeat of Covid

Live news updates: Critics fear a repeat of the catastrophic inequity problems seen during the coronavirus pandemic

12:49 PM

I-Day celebration in Bihar to be subdued due to COVID-19

Independence Day will be celebrated in a subdued manner in Bihar due to a surge in COVID-19 cases across the country, a circular said.

 

Invitees from other states, besides common people from Bihar, will not be allowed to enter the flag hoisting venues.

 

There will be no cultural events on the occasion except in Patna, the circular issued by the Cabinet Secretariat Department on Friday said.

 

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will unfurl the National Flag at Gandhi Maidan on August 15.

12:31 PM

Facing humiliation at the hands of minister, Vice-Chancellor resigns in Punjab

Facing humiliation at the hands of a minister in the AAP government, one of country's top orthopaedic surgeons and Vice-Chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences Raj Bahadur sent his resignation to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday.

 

Raj Bahadur resigned citing humiliation by Health Minister Chetan Singh Jouramajra during his visit to Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital in Faridkot on Friday.

12:17 PM

Arpita Mukherjee informs ED about duplicate keys of Belgharia residence

Arpita Mukherjee, the close aide of Partha Chatterjee tainted in connection to the multi- crore West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment scam, has informed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that her residence at Belgharia in the northern outskirts of Kolkata had multiple duplicate keys and hence accessed by many others in her absence.

 

Starting from Wednesday evening till the early morning of Thursday, ED sleuths recovered cash worth Rs 27.90 crore and 6 kg of gold from this particular residence officially owned by Mukherjee.

 

ED sources said that they will try to confirm Mukherjee's confession on this count from the caretaker, security personnel and other residents in the said housing complex on whether they have noticed anyone other than her entering the flat by opening the keys.

11:48 AM

Ease of justice is equally important as ease of doing business, ease of living: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that Ease of justice is equally important as ease of doing business and ease of living.

Addressing the inaugural session of the First All India District Legal Services Authorities, PM Modi said: "This time is a time of Azadi Ka Amrit Kaal. This is the time for those resolutions which will take the country to new heights in the next 25 years. Ease of justice is equally important like ease of doing business and the ease of living in this Amrit Yatra of the country."

Sharing a stage with Chief Justice NV Ramana at the event held at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi today, PM Modi said: "As important as access to the judicial system is for any society, justice delivery is equally important. The judicial infrastructure also has an important contribution to this. In the last eight years work has been done at a fast pace to strengthen the judicial infrastructure of the country."

11:40 AM

Mumbai won't have money and cease to be financial capital if Gujaratis, Rajasthanis removed: Maha governor

Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Saturday said there will be no money left in Mumbai and it will cease to be the financial capital of the country if Gujaratis and Rajasthanis are removed from the city.

 

The Congress criticised the governor over his statement and demanded an apology from him.

 

Speaking at an event in Mumbai, Koshyari said, "I tell people here that if Gujaratis and Rajasthanis are removed from Maharashtra, especially Mumbai and Thane, you will have no money and Mumbai will not be a financial capital."

 

He made the statement after the naming ceremony of a chowk in Andheri, a western suburb of Mumbai.

11:30 AM

Speed up release of undertrial prisoners: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday urged the judiciary to speed up the release of undertrials languishing in various jails awaiting legal aid.

Addressing the first All India District Legal Services Authorities Meet here, he also said that ease of justice was as important as ease of doing business and ease of living.

"There are several undertrials in jails awaiting legal aid. Our District Legal Services Authorities can take up the responsibility of providing legal assistance to undertrials," the prime minister said.

Modi urged district judges attending the conference to speed up the release of undertrials using their offices as chairpersons of district-level undertrial review committees.

11:29 AM

Amit Shah to inaugurate conference on drug trafficking, national security in Chandigarh today

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be on a day-long visit to Chandigarh on Saturday where he is scheduled to inaugurate a conference on drug trafficking and national security, officials said.

 

Besides Shah, the national conference will be addressed by Punjab Governor and Chandigarh Union Territory Administrator Banwarilal Purohit, chief ministers of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir and the Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment.

 

At the conference, over 30,000 kg of drugs will be burnt and disposed of by Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) teams in Delhi, Chennai, Guwahati and Kolkata, according to an official release.

 

10:52 AM

Suspected monkeypox virus case detected in Himachal, sample sent to Pune

The health department in Himachal Pradesh has detected a person with symptoms similar to monkeypox in Solan's Baddi. The health condition of the person is improving as it has been 21 days since he first showed the symptoms.

As a precautionary measure, the person has been isolated and surveillance is being done in his surrounding areas.

Samples have been sent to National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune for lab testing.

Himachal government has urged people to do not get confused or scared about monkeypox, and appealed them to take necessary precautions if they experience any symptoms of the disease.

10:36 AM

Uttarakhand rains: Part of Badrinath NH-7 washed away

Amid the ongoing orange alert in the northern state of Uttarakhand, a part of the Badrinath National Highway-7 (NH-7) was washed away due to the rising water in the Khachda drain located at Lambagad, said officials.

 

Following the incident, pilgrims were stranded on both sides of the highway.

 

"A part of the Badrinath NH-7 was washed away due to the rising water in the Khachda drain located at Lambagad. Pilgrims were stranded on both sides of the highway," said the district administration officials in Chamoli.

10:34 AM

Thevar community for OPS, Sasikala to take control of AIADMK

The powerful Thevar community of South Tamil Nadu has come together and want O. Panneerselvam and estranged former interim general secretary, V.K. Sasikala to reclaim the AIADMK which is mired in internal tussle.

Around 100 Thevar organisations have joined hands and sent letters to both OPS and V.K. Sasikala to team up and reclaim the AIADMK which was traditionally supported by the community.

In the letter, the community leaders said that it was the Thevar community that had given life to the AIADMK and wanted the leaders to unite and take over the party from disintegrated.

10:29 AM

BJP appoints Mahendra Bhatt its Uttarakhand unit chief

The BJP on Saturday appointed Mahendra Bhatt as the president of its Uttarakhand unit.

Bhatt, a former MLA of Nandaprayag in Chamoli district, replaces Haridwar MLA Mahesh Kaushik as the BJP's state unit chief. Bhatt lost in the assembly polls held earlier this year.

With the appointment of Bhatt, a brahmin leader from the Garwhal region, the BJP has tried to strike a balance between caste and region. Chief Minster Pushkar Singh Dhami is a Thakur from the Kumaon region.

A senior party leader said Bhatt has risen through the ranks after working in Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and the BJP's youth wing. He is of RSS background.

10:23 AM

China's Wuhan seafood market likely cause of Covid-19 outbreak: new studies in journal 'Science'

A set of compelling evidence has once again emerged that backs the claims that Wuhan's Huanan seafood and wildlife market was at the centre of the Covid-19 outbreak that has so far claimed over 6 million lives.

Two peer-reviewed studies, published in the journal 'Science' take different approaches but come to the same result that the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan was most likely the epicentre for the coronavirus.

The first study shows that the earliest known cases were clustered around the Wuhan market.

"While early COVID-19 cases occurred across Wuhan, the majority clustered in central Wuhan near the west bank of the Yangtze River, with a high density of cases near to, and surrounding, the Huanan market," the study cited in the journal Science as seen on their website says.

The study is tilted "The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan was the early epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic."

"All eight COVID-19 cases detected prior to 20 December were from the western side of the market, where mammal species were also sold. Unlike SARS-CoV-2 positive environmental samples, we found that COVID-19 cases were more diffuse throughout the building," the study in journal Science adds.

The other study uses genetic information to track the timing of the COVID outbreak and suggests there were two variants introduced into humans in November or early December 2019.

The peer-reviewed study published in the the journal Science titled "The molecular epidemiology of multiple zoonotic origins of SARS-CoV-2" and cited by CNN takes a molecular approach and seems to determine when the first coronavirus infections crossed from animals to humans.

According to the study, the first animal-to-human transmission probably happened around November 18, 2019, and it came from lineage B. The researchers further found the lineage B type only in people who had a direct connection to the Huanan market.

10:21 AM

670 fresh COVID-19 cases in Assam

Assam's COVID-19 tally rose to 738,426 on Saturday as 670 more people tested positive for the infection, 18 more than the previous day, a health bulletin said.

The positivity rate was at 7.35 per cent as 9,112 samples were tested for COVID-19.

The state had logged 652 cases, with a positivity rate of 7.07 per cent, on Friday.

The toll remained unchanged at 6,668 as no fresh fatality was recorded for the second consecutive day. Another 1,347 patients have succumbed to comorbidities so far.

10:21 AM

India logs 20,408 fresh COVID cases, 44 deaths: Govt

India logged a single day rise of 20,408 new coronavirus infections, pushing India's total tally of COVID-19 cases to 44,000,138, as the active cases declined to 143,384, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday.

 

The death toll has climbed to 526,312 with 44 new fatalities, the data updated by the government at 8 am said.

 

The active cases comprise 0.33 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.48 per cent, the health ministry said.

 

A decrease of 604 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

 

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 5.05 per cent. The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 4.92 per cent, according to the health ministry.

 

9:48 AM

NEP rooted in 'Bharatiyata', assimilates global perspective: Amit Shah

The new National Education Policy (NEP) is in sync with the nation's roots and has gained unprecedented acceptance from the entire country, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Friday.

Noting that the NEP is rooted in "Bharatiyata" while assimilating global perspective, Shah said the policy enriches knowledge and culture and is aligned with aspirations of the society.

"The purpose of education is to develop character, empathy, courage and prepare students to deal with challenges of life. Education can enable India to reach the pinnacle of success. Society is looking up to us with expectations and hope to make it happen. Our educational aspiration is not only for earning degrees and certificates but also to achieve global good," Shah said at an event on the completion of two years since the launch of NEP.