Kashmir halts sample collection after 5,000 test kits ‘mysteriously’ diverted to Jammu
The Directorate of Health Services (DHS), Kashmir, has stopped taking samples from potentially infected persons in the Valley after a senior health official bypassed directions and diverted a Srinagar-bound consignment of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) allotted five boxes, carrying 5,000 test kits, to Jammu. Official sources said the alarm was raised by top […]
Medical store owners face hardships in getting curfew passes in Samba district
A number of medical shop owners in different areas in Samba district are facing hardships to bring medicines stock for the visiting customers due to the ongoing lockdown amid Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Even though the Samba district administration has issued curfew passes to the chemist shop owners to purchase medical stock from Jammu but the […]
Scientists divided over strain mutation: ‘Need more evidence’
A mutation in the coronavirus strain isolated in India has the potential to jeopardise global efforts to develop a vaccine against Covid-19, which has infected 2 million people and killed at least 126,000 in four months, according to a preliminary analysis of 106 Sars-CoV-2 and 39 SARS genome sequences. Scientists, however, warn against reliance on […]
Staying away from families, Kashmir health care professionals soldier on in fight against Covid
As the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise in Jammu and Kashmir, the frontline workers — doctors, nurses, health care workers — are carrying out their duties amid the danger of exposing their families to the illness. So far, six doctors and a nurse have tested positive for the virus. Dr Mir Waseem is […]
Foreign dream will have to wait as Covid-19 layoffs in US cast shadow on IIT, IIM placements
New Delhi: IIT and IIM graduates with foreign dreams might find themselves in a fix as the economic fallout of the Covid-19 lockdown threatens the job prospects of H-1B visa holders in the US. Thousands of Indians work in the US on the prized H-1B, a non-immigration visa that allows American companies to hire foreign workers for roles that require […]
Coronavirus: How India’s Kerala state ‘flattened the curve’
On 12 March, a 33-year-old salesman disembarked from a flight from Dubai at an airport in southern India, feeling very sick. He was suffering from the chills, dry cough and breathlessness. Airport officials quickly moved him to hospital in the city of Trivandrum in Kerala state, where they tested him for coronavirus. Then they put […]
‘Hero’: Pakistani-American doctor takes on ventilator shortages
Saud Anwar is taking on the novel coronavirus on multiple fronts: as a Connecticut resident, a state senator, and first and foremost, he says, as a doctor. “I am just a doctor, who happens to be in [the] public and policy arena,” Dr Anwar, a pulmonary specialist in the United States, told Al Jazeera. “I’m […]
Germany to begin easing coronavirus shutdown: Merkel
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced the first steps in undoing coronavirus lockdowns in the coming weeks, stressing, however, that the measures had only achieved a “fragile, partial success” against the pandemic. Stores up to 800 square metres (8,600 square feet) will be allowed to reopen once they have “plans to maintain hygiene”, Merkel said on Wednesday following talks […]
Covid-19 cases breach 12,000-mark in India, death toll at 414
The number of Covid-19 positive cases in India breached the 12,000-mark on Thursday morning, and the number of deaths reached 414. The figure of 12,380 includes 10,477 active cases, 1,488 cured/discharged/migrated and 414 deaths, the Union Health Ministry said in the figures released at 8 am on its website. Maharashtra continues to be the state […]
Coronavirus lockdown: 7 million jobs are on the line, losses piling up, restaurants stare into lockdown abyss
Coronavirus (COVID-19): An estimated 7.3 million jobs are on the line as the restaurant industry braces to be battered by the second phase of the national lockdown, set to now span at least 40 days. Counting its losses each hour, its challenges are sweeping: from supplies to labour, skilled and semi-skilled, real estate to credit, overheads and […]
