Tokyo Games could lead to Olympic coronavirus variant

The Union Health Ministry has said that the country is witnessing  a steady decline in number of daily new reported  cases of COVID -19 from the past 20 days after reaching a peak on May 7. Addressing the media on Thursday in New Delhi, Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry Lav Aggarwal said that on 7th May over 4 lakh 14 thousand cases were reported which has now come down to about 2 lakh 11 thousand. Aggarwal said, in the last three weeks, the number of districts reporting more than 100 cases on a daily basis has also  come down from 531 to  359 districts. He also informed that number of Active cases has now come down to 8.84 per cent from the level of 17.13 per cent  while the recovery rate has  improved to 90 per cent from the level of 81.8 per cent on May 3. He informed that in the last 17 days, the country has reported a decline of around 13 lakh active cases and now it stood at the level of 24 lakh 19 thousand. Mr Aggarwal also added that there are 24 States in the country which are reporting a decline in number of active cases in the last one week. On testing of COVID samples, the Joint Secretary said that for early identification, the government has increased the number of testing in the past 15 weeks, and it is increased by 3.1 times across the country. 

-Centre has issued guidelines for Near to Home COVID Vaccination Centres (NHCVC) for elderly and differently abled citizens. All  above 60 years with no vaccination or first dose vaccination along with all citizens below 60 years with disabilities will be eligible for COVID-19 vaccination at NHCVC. In the guidelines, the Union Health Ministry has asked all States and UTs to follow a  community-based approach  where sessions can be conducted  in a community centre, RWA centre, panchayat ghar, school buildings and old age homes to vaccinate these eligible populations. Based on the cohort of eligible population, the District Task Force and the Urban Task Force will decide the location of NHCVC to maximize the reach of services to the target population.The task forces will also be responsible for planning and implementation of vaccination at the NHCVC.The NHCVC will be linked to an existing COVID Vaccination Centres for vaccination purposes and each team at NHCVC will comprise five members including a doctor.  

-Tamilnadu Chief Minister Stalin has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give the HLL Bio tech Limited on a lease basis to the Tamilnadu Government for manufacture of vaccines. In a letter to Prime Minister today, Stalin referred to the dire need of more vaccines in the State.He said that the State could start manufacturing vaccines if permission is given by the Centre immediately. He has said that the State should be given a free hand on this issue. HLL Bio tech is a hundred percent subsidiary of HLL life care limited, a government of India enterprise under the Ministry of health and family welfare. The Tamilnadu Government has asked volunteers interested in working for covid relief to register themselves to enable better co ordination with the Government. The State's coordination team has launched a seperate facebook and mail account with the Covid War room  unit. The Government is also distributing one lakh food packets to the Covid patients and their dependants during the lock down period. 

-Enforcement Directorate has attached immovable assets worth 166 crore rupees of Varron Group of Companies and its promoter located in Mumbai, Pune and Ratnagiri.The agency had initiated the money laundering investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by the CBI against the Director of Varron Industries and unknown banking officials of Bank of India and Canara Bank.The  investigation by ED revealed that a criminal conspiracy was hatched by the Director and his accomplices to cheat Bank of India by inducing it to discount 246 forged bills backed by the Letter of Credit  of around 300 Crore rupees opened by Canara Bank, Pune on behalf of  Varron Aluminium Pvt Ltd.

-The head of a Japanese doctors' union has warned that holding the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer could lead to the emergence of an "Olympic" strain of the coronavirus.Naoto Ueyama, head of the Japan Doctors Union said that with people from more than 200 nations and territories set to arrive, the Games pose a danger. He warned that all of the different mutant strains of the virus which exist in different places will be concentrated in Tokyo and the possibility of a new strain of the virus emerging cannot be denied. However, Kenji Shibuya, director of the Institute of Population Health at King’s College, London, who has recently been helping the vaccination campaign in Japan, played down dangers specific to the Games. He said that mutation takes place when virus stays in partially immunised people for a long period of time. He opined that the current situation in Japan is more dangerous than during the Tokyo Games.