Negative RTPCR report mandatory for passengers arriving at Port Blair

The Government has said that wider people participation is vital to check the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic saying the next four weeks are very critical for the country. Addressing the media in New Delhi, NITI Aayog, Member (Health) said that extraordinary situation is emerging due to the spike in COVID cases and strict compliance of COVID appropriate behaviour is vital to the fight the pandemic. He also urged the people to get over vaccine hesitancy and get themselves vaccinated. He also asserted that nowhere in the world has vaccination been opened up for those above 45 years.The Government however said that India is still among the lowest in terms of COVID cases or deaths per million population globally. Briefing  Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said, the COVID Cases per million in the country are 9192 as compared to the world average of 16,783 cases per million. He said, COVID-19 cases had grown in mid-September, after which it had continuously declined and then started climbing up from the 1st week of April. Mr Bhushan said, currently the number of active cases in the country are over seven lakh 88 thousand. He said, there are ten districts in the country which are the major contributors of active cases and out of which seven are from Maharashtra and one each from Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Delhi.

-The Centre has issued an order asking all its employees aged 45 years and above to get themselves vaccinated in order to effectively contain the spread of COVID-19. In its order, DoPT has advised the Central Government employees to continue to follow COVID-appropriate behaviour, even after vaccination, by frequent washing of hands, wearing a mask and observing social distancing. The Government has been monitoring the situation very closely, and based on the strategy adopted for prioritizing the groups for vaccination to contain the spread of COVlD-19.

-The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has urged private TV channels to generate greater awareness on the message of Dawai Bhi Kadai Bhi by disseminating messages for COVID-appropriate behavior and vaccination of eligible persons. The Ministry issued an advisory to all private television channels in view of the rising COVID-19 cases in the country. It has reiterated the leadership role played by the TV channels in spreading message in the public interest. The  advisory also cited Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting on Sunday to review the emerging situation, where it was decided to focus on a five-fold strategy of Testing, Tracing, Treatment, COVID appropriate behavior and Vaccination.

-In view of the recent surge in Covid-19 cases in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, District Administration of South Andaman has decided to conduct random Rapid Antigen Test on incoming passengers at VSI Airport in Port Blair from Wednesday. The Random Rapid Antigen Test is not chargeable.The decision has also been driven to tackle allegations of fake RTPCR negative test reports by passengers arriving at Port Blair airport from the mainland. Few months back the flight operations between Port Blair and Mainland were enhanced to facilitate the passengers. Thousands of passengers land at Port Blair airport on every single day.The negative RTPCR report had been made mandatory for arrival at the airport in December last year. Prior to that RAT test of all incoming passengers was used to be conducted. On April 4th a total of 1432 passengers presented a negative RTPCR report at the airport. Passengers landed in Port Blair were found positive in testing during their inter-islands movement.

-More than 1,800 inmates escaped from a Nigeria prison after an attack by gunmen carrying rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns, explosives and rifles. The attackers used explosives to blast the administrative block of the prison in the southeastern town of Owerri and enter the prison yard. Owerri is about 400km southeast of Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos. Several police stations have been attacked in southeastern Nigeria since January, with large amounts of ammunition stolen since January. No groups have claimed responsibility for the attacks.