Surgeons led by an Indian-origin doctor have performed a double-lung transplant on a second patient whose lungs were damaged by COVID-19, within a month after the same team conducted what is believed to have been the first such surgery in the US. The patient, an Illinois man in his 60s, spent 100 days on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a life support machine that does the work of the heart and lungs. He received the transplant last weekend at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, the hospital said in a statement. Read the full PTI story here

After Bollywood stars Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan, Taapsee Pannu and a few others, Arjun Kapoor too, has resumed shooting after a long hiatus due to the nationwide lockdown. Arjun Kapoor recently got back to work and advocated for others to do the same while following all safety precautions. In a statement, Arjun said, “I think every one of us will have to adjust to the new normal and slowly start resetting our lives. Things have changed forever but we will all have to work, we will all have to support our families. So, everyone concerned will make their environment as safe as possible so that all are protected and we resume some sort of normalcy on our work front. I shot for the first time after 4 months.”

 

 

 

 

 

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Everyone of us will have to adjust to the new normal and slowly start resetting our lives. My work life restarted and I shot for the first time after 4 months... सब बदल चुका है New World Order "Accepted"🙌

A post shared by Arjun Kapoor (@arjunkapoor) on Jul 10, 2020 at 10:32pm PDT

The Tamil Nadu government Saturday said it was not in a position to conduct college examinations for the final year/semester students in September 2020, pointing out that several educational institutions have been converted into Covid care centres, reported PTI. Such a move will jeopardise the future of students facing their final year/semester exams, Chief Minister K Palaniswami said. He further requested the central government to grant "freedom to states to work out their own assessment methods, without compromising on the quality and academic credibility". In a letter to Union HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, he said the July 6, 2020 UGC guidelines mandated that all educational institutions across the country conduct exams by September 2020 for the final semester students.

The guidelines have many constraints, which include that of students reaching the exam centres with many of them residing outside the district or state and some even outside the country.

With the World Health Organisation (WHO) lauding the efforts taken to arrest the spread of the COVID-19 in Mumbai's Dharavi, one of the world's largest slums, the local civic body said "proactive screening with the assistance of private doctors and community support helped it in the fight against the disease". WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, had said during a virtual press conference in Geneva on Friday that there were many examples from around the world that have shown that even if the outbreak is very intense, it can still be brought back under control.

Talking to PTI on Saturday, Kiran Dighavkar, Assistant Commissioner of the G North ward of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said the civic body had to change its traditional approach of waiting for patients, contact tracing, isolation and home quarantine to begin proactive screening instead.

Strict lockdown curbs were reimposed on Saturday in parts of Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district following a spurt in Covid-19 cases, officials told PTI. The entire Rajouri city and adjoining areas were sealed and people were asked to stay indoors. The restrictions were reimposed as a precautionary measure after some locals tested positive for Covid-19. While in most cases the source of the infection is known, there are some cases where the source is unknown, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Rajouri, Sher Singh told PTI. He said the restrictions would continue till the completion of the contact tracing of all the positive cases, their sampling and receipt of the reports.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday lauded the efforts of the Centre, state and local authorities in containing the Covid-19 situation in Delhi and directed that similar approach be adopted by the other state governments in checking the pandemic in entire NCR. He made these remarks at a review meeting on coronavirus situation in the country, a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said. PM Modi reiterated the need to observe personal hygiene and social discipline at public places. He said the awareness about the pandemic should be spread widely and there is no room for any complacency in this regard, according to the statement.

A three-day lockdown was imposed from Saturday in Kashipur in Uttarakhand's Udham Singh Nagar district in view of rising cases of COVID-19.The lockdown which came into effect at 10 am on Saturday will continue till the midnight of July 13, an order issued by Kashipur's Joint Magistrate Gaurav Kumar said. Barring essential services, all commercial activities in the market area will remain suspended during the period, it said advising people to stay at home and not venture out unless it was absolutely necessary. (PTI)

Half-centuries by Kragg Brathwaite and Shane Dowrich set up the West Indies’ first-innings lead of 114 against England on day three of the first Test at the empty Rose Bowl. The Windies were all out for 318 less than an hour before stumps on the first full day of the rain-affected Test. England vs West Indies 1st Test Day 4 Live Cricket Score Updates

The Delhi government has decided to cancel exams for all the state government-run varsities in the national capital. The deputy chief minister of Delhi and state Education Minister, Manish Sisodia had taken to Twitter and informed about the decision. “In light of the major disruptions caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, Delhi govt has decided to cancel all Delhi state university exams including final exams,” he wrote on Twitter.

Sisodia in a video message said, “These are extraordinary times and we need to have extraordinary decisions”. He said all intermediate and term-end university exams will be canceled and evaluation will be based on previous year exams, internal assessment, or any other “progressive” evaluation mode deemed fit by the respective university.

Nearly 200 nursing staff working on contract at the Gandhi General Hospital in Hyderabad, Telangana’s nodal centre for treatment of Covid-19 cases, sat on an indefinite strike Saturday morning in support of regularisation of their services and payment on par with newly recruited outsourcing nursing staff.

The strike comes barely a month after junior doctors at the hospital had staged a protest seeking decentralisation of Covid-19 treatment, immediate recruitment of additional staff, and enhanced security for all frontline workers.

A few contractual nurses, who stepped out on the road outside the hospital campus as media was not allowed inside, said they never receive their salaries on time and that a few months’ payment remains pending.

When precious vats of COVID-19 vaccine are finally ready, jabbing the lifesaving solution into the arms of Americans will require hundreds of millions of injections.

As part of its strategy to administer the vaccine as quickly as possible, the Trump administration has agreed to invest more than half a billion in tax dollars in ApiJect Systems America, a young company. Its injector is not approved by federal health authorities and the company hasn’t yet set up a factory to manufacture the devices.

The commitment to ApiJect dwarfs the other needle orders the government has placed with a major manufacturer and two other small companies.

The World Health Organisation has praised the efforts taken to contain the spread of the COVID-19 in Dharavi, one of the world’s largest slums, underscoring the need for community engagement along with national unity and global solidarity to turn the pandemic around.

Dharavi, which is located in India’s commercial capital Mumbai, is spread over an area of 2.5 square kilometres and has a population of 650,000. People live in shanties and dilapidated buildings with narrow lanes and open sewers.

The first COVID-19 patient in Dharavi was found on April 1, nearly three weeks after Mumbai recorded its maiden positive case on March 11.

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will discuss reducing the exam syllabus and changing the entrance exam format for the coming JEE Advanced. This among other proposals will be pitched for discussion at the review meeting of Joint Admission’s Board (JAB). The meeting is scheduled to be held in the coming week and the final decision will only be taken after the meeting.

This year, the IIT-Delhi is conducting the JEE Advanced. Talking to indianexpress.com, V Ramagopal Rao confirmed, “The proposal on the format of exam, syllabus, social distancing norms are up for discussion in the review meeting next week. The decisions will be taken after JAB’s nod and would be for the JEE Advance 2020.”

The pandemic has spared no one, including the leadership of Latin America, with two more presidents and powerful officials testing positive this week for the coronavirus.

An Associated Press review of official statements from public officials across Latin America found at least 42 confirmed cases of new coronavirus in leaders ranging from presidents to mayors of major cities, along with dozens, likely hundreds, of officials from smaller cities and towns. In most cases, high-ranking officials recovered and are back at work. But several are still struggling with the disease.

In Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro, 65, announced his illness Tuesday and said he was taking hydroxychloroquine to treat the virus. Bolsonaro has been advocating the unproven malaria drug for COVID-19 for the last few months.

Certain nursing homes in New York can allow visitors — with restrictions — starting July 15 as the state eases a ban aimed at limiting the spread of Covid-19 among vulnerable elderly residents.

Only nursing homes and long-term care facilities without any new coronavirus cases among residents and staffers in the last 28 days can allow limited visits, state Department of Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said Friday. The department said the state’s policy follows federal guidance and is limited to nursing homes without staffing shortages that have tested all residents.

In other news, Kentucky’s Governor said a new requirement for people to wear face masks in public took effect at 5 pm Friday. Governor Andy Beshear said masks were mandatory regardless of anything other information being circulated.

Meanwhile, Florida is facing an alarming surge in cases, two months after businesses began reopening.

South Korea reported 35 new cases of coronavirus, bringing its total caseload to 13,373, with 288 deaths. The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said Saturday that 13 of the new cases came from Seoul. Infections have also been detected in other major cities such as Gwangju and Daejeon. At least 15 new cases were linked to international arrivals.

With new coronavirus cases dropping sharply in China, authorities have turn their attention to concerns that the virus could spread through imported food. Testing has been ramped up on incoming food shipments, and customs officials Friday said they were halting imports from three Ecuadorian shrimp producers after tests showed the presence of the virus in recent shipments. Authorities said the virus was detected on the outer packaging of shipments on July 3. The inner packaging and the shrimp, had, however tested negative.

Starting coming Tuesday, Pune will undergo another round of complete lockdown, this time for ten days. Some neighbouring areas of Mumbai, like Thane, Mira-Bhayandar and Kalyan-Dombivili, that were already under a lockdown have been asked to remain under restrictions for at least another week.

In the last two weeks, a re-imposition of lockdown has been tried in Chennai and nearby towns in Tamil Nadu, in Guwahati and neighbouring areas in Assam, and in Bengaluru and Hyderabad as well, all with limited success. There has been no noticeable slowdown in the growth of cases in any of these areas. Read More

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said, "The Indian economy has started showing signs of going back to normalcy after the easing of restrictions… Building buffers and raising capital is crucial to ensure credit flows and build resilience in the financial system." Das’ remark comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “green shoots” of recovery were visible in the country’s economy, and that India had undertaken “deep structural reforms” and implemented “targeted” relief packages for the country’s poor during the pandemic.