India on Wednesday recorded its highest single-day toll of 4,529 Covid-19 deaths. The country also recorded 267,334 new cases of coronavirus in 24 hours, taking the total case tally in the country to 2,54,96,330.

The active caseload in the country has registered a dip, dropping by more than 1.27 lakh. It now stands at 32,26,719, which is the second-highest caseload after the US. The top five states which have registered the maximum number of cases are Tamil Nadu with 33,059 cases, followed by Kerala with 31,337 cases, Karnataka with 30,309 cases, Maharashtra with 28,438 cases, and Andhra Pradesh with 21,320 cases. Together, these five states account for 54.05 percent of the new cases reported.

As India recorded its highest daily death count, medical health experts stated that the trend may continue to rise for another week at least before the numbers start settling down in proportion to the number of daily cases.

“It is true that the total number of Covid-19 cases and the positivity rate has declined in the last 10 days or so but the number of deaths is still very high. It is because a large number of patients are still admitted in ICU in various hospitals and because of medical interventions (many may be on rigorous life support) they may survive for many days. However, because of the complications of Covid-19 and prolonged stay in hospitals, they may lose the battle, thus resulting in increased figures of death,” ANI quoted public health expert Dr V.K. Monga as saying.

Experts also highlighted that the severity of the infection directly affecting the standard operating procedures (SOPs) in a very short span, especially the oxygen parameters, is responsible for deaths in the second wave. Variants of Covid-19 spreading in rural India have also increased the death toll. This is also being augmented by inadequate health infrastructure, added the experts.

Dr Rajiv Parakh, Chairman, Vascular Surgery, Medanta, told ANI, “There are more than 4,000 reported deaths taking place and there are many more who have not even been tested and passed away. The death rate in the second wave is high because this time it has struck a large number of the population. The intensity and the mutation capacity have been responsible for the severity. Last time the virus was not as severe and virulent compared to the second wave.”

Although cases pan-India are showing a downward trend with 267,334 positive cases, as per the official data of the Union Health Ministry, the number of deaths remains a concern.

Dr Suresh Kumar, Director of Delhi government’s Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital said, “This is a matter of concern because we have seen this for the first time. In Delhi, the death toll is coming down but if we see in other states death tolls are escalating… If we compare with last year, the oxygen level of patients is dropping to 60 percent to 70 percent on an average. We have also seen patients dying while on their way to the hospital. We have seen severe patients who were brought to the hospital when his/her oxygen level is dipping down and are in need of ICU beds immediately and all these are directly responsible for the higher death toll.”

Maharashtra tops the chart of registering the maximum number of deaths with a total of 83,777, followed by Karnataka which has recorded as many as 22,838 Covid-19 deaths since the onset of the pandemic last year. Delhi and Tamil Nadu are next on the list with 22,111 and 18,369 deaths reported, respectively. Compared to India, only the US has had a worse single-day death toll, when it lost 5,444 people on 12 February, a Reuters tracker shows.

With overwhelmed hospitals and crematoriums, it is also being said that the official figures for Covid-related deaths do not present the true picture. Some experts are putting the real numbers to be many times higher.

Data from private labs like Thyrocare also seems to support this argument as nearly two-thirds of the people tested across the country have shown exposure to Covid-19, reported Reuters. According to Thyrocare’s data, accessed by Reuters, 63.5 percent of the people tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies on an average over the last seven days, up from 45 percent a month ago.

WITH AGENCY INPUTS

An alumni of the prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, Ranna Gill launched her label ‘Ranna Gill’ two decades ago. Over the years, she has carved a space of her own in the Indian fashion Industry. Ranna recently joined NewsX’s special series NewsX India A-List and not only her journey till now but also how the pandemic has changed the fashion industry. 

Speaking about how the pandemic has impacted her label and how she overcame the challenges, Ranna said, “We are still fighting. The challenges were big. We overcame them a little bit and then we came back to the fighting ground again. We have two businesses, so we have an export business in United States and then we have stores and retail in India. So, we kind of need to paddle both. When this side of the river is stormy, we jump to the other side. We kind of need to paddle both sides and somehow try to come out of it, get out of the troubled water and we will.”

When asked about the brand ‘Ranna Gill’ and how was it conceptualised, she responded, “It is a lot of work. I started this brand with my mother, so the company is owned by my mom and me. I always loved fashion as a young student. I went to fashion school, it was my passion, it was my first love. It was what I always wanted to do so it’s not a plan B. It’s not like I wanted to be something else and i just rolled into fashion. I studied fashion. I have got bachelors in fashion from FIT New York, so I am a student of fashion and as well as a fashion designer. So, I have trained in fashion and i have always loved it. Even to this date, after having designed over twenty years, I still get excited when I look at products when I look at fashion I look at colours. Colours to me, are like what candy is to children. It’s just such a special treat to look at the colour palette, to look at swatches, to dip die, to look at textures. Prints are very important USP to our brand. Even now, I am wearing a print from my collection. I love prints, the play of prints, and colours. We like to do easier, more playful, more ready to wear bodies, using these tools. We always stay closer to the story, what it is speaking, what the brand is speaking to its customers. You will always we see colour in our collection and you will always see prints in our collection.”

Talking about the trick or mantra behind increased online sales amid the pandemic, she said, “I think it’s mostly product and the price point. It’s not very expensive, not very pricey and it’s not very difficult to wear. You don’t need to think of an occasion before coming onto our website or our stores to buy a line. To buy our products, whether it is a blouse, a tunic or a dress, you can always buy them over this weekend or two weekends down. You can wear it in the summer or bring it up in the falls. I think the product is always king and we kind of stay close to our language or the message we are sending to our customers. We don’t pivot from sarees  to sometimes go on to making a blouse. We are always going to make the blouses, the dresses and tunics and that’s what we are going to always be designing into and circling back to. I think product is very important, which helped us through this time, price point, sensible pricing. sensible making of products. It’s not too fashionable that it won’t be relevant next year or two years down the line. So it’s all of those things that we kind of always come back to.”

Finally, when asked about the lessons she learned during this phase and future plans for her brand, she said, “We want to 100% focus on our online business. That is where we are headed and that I think is the future. Having said that I think we can bring more to our stores maybe. I am a little old school but i still think that they are very lovely to come in shop. The customer has this special feeling. When she comes to our store, the girls know her she wears the garment so I think it’s gonna be a bit of both. It’s really not gonna be some clear messaging but at the moment it’s online, of course.”

She added, “There have been some really hard learning lessons. I think one has to for all of us. For our brand, it was just mainly we just decided to fight for the brand. We won’t gonna give it away, we won’t gonna let it go and we just kind of all  held hands. When did our business quietly and just fought for what we stood for so many years. One thing we learnt in our business, is working via technology. In the past, we would take a flight and go to any place and really quickly. We would meet a buyer or meet or go to fashion fare or meet. I feel that one of the great learning is that we all got out of this phase was using technology for fashion, for all streams of business, even to connect with friends and family and fighting for your own business. Those were the two big learnings for me.”

Covid-19 is the biggest challenge India has faced in these past two years. From big cities to rural areas, the pandemic has left everyone helpless. Amid these difficult times, organisations like Population Foundation of India have been helping to spread awareness on various key healthcare issues. NewsX recently interacted with PFI’s Executive Director Poonam Muttreja as part of its special series NewsX India A-List, wherein she shared PF I’s efforts towards community building and sensitisation in detail.

Speaking about PFI’s efforts towards spreading awareness on key healthcare issues, especially family planning, in the rural sector amid Covid-19 pandemic, Ms Poonam said, “PFI took the responsibility of doing both- Covid-related information, which was desperately needed and the government asked us to help develop materials from the time India went into lockdown in March. We did simultaneously on family planning and reproductive sexual health issues. So, the first thing we did was that we found out that reproductive health services have totally stopped because of the onslaught of Covid and the whole health system, especially frontline healthcare workers, being engaged with fighting this unexpected pandemic that came up upon us. We did a quick field survey and got back to the Government of India, we wrote a letter to the prime minister, health minister and to the health ministry, explaining what was happening in the field, how women weren’t getting deliveries, family planning services had stopped and even government data was showing that. We used data and I’m very happy to tell you that the health secretary was headed by a woman at the time and the additional health secretary Vandana Gurnan, both of them took one day to write a letter to every health secretary in every state to start at least minimal services and they put all these issues, including family planning, under essential health services.”

She added, “We do policy work, we give feedback to the government in a constructive way with evidence, persuade them to change, change quickly mid-course but, most importantly, what we did was for the state government, on menstrual health management, on family planning. We had a lot of materials on using condoms and so on. We immediately sent it to states across the country to use that material, which was sent through sms, WhatsApp messages to people. Second, for instance, in states like Bihar, where we do a lot of work, we requested the government to distribute condoms to migrants who were reaching in large numbers. I have experienced that the minute migrants go for a holiday during Chatt, Diwali or any festivity, that’s when pregnancies happen. We ourselves supported some of our community, for example, adolescent girls. In Bihar, they set up a bank of sanitary pads because schools distribute sanitary pads. Suddenly, with the closure of schools, the primary healthcare centers were not being available to give free sanitary pads. We sent a lot of messages to Ashas, tried to assure that goods that were stuck in lines of trucks, were hurried up, sending contraceptives materials and so on and so forth. But, our main work was using digital media and helping government using digital media across the country through both NGOs to prevent Covid and raise issues like violence against women and the need for preventing pregnancies, taking carte and so on and so forth. It was a firefighting operation we did, because everything was closed. We had to develop films during the lockdown. We made a very encouraging film on frontline health workers, which millions of people saw to honour them and make people realise what a great job these 3.3 million women were doing. Globally and in India, it went viral. People like Smriti Irani, Minister for Women and Child Development, tweeted it.”

When asked about how the foundation has been driving attention towards the need for vaccination drive in rural areas, Ms Poonam said, “We recognise that there is vaccine hesitancy and that people don’t know the positive and preventive aspects of the coronavirus vaccine. We developed behaviour change material for both the state governments and we are using it through our state offices across three states. We have to educate people. Right now, there is a huge need to educate people on the importance of vaccine and removing the myths and misconceptions. We have again developed some very interesting spots, which are being shared with people in the community by NGOs. We have enlisted a large number of NGOs across the country, who are going to use it, especially those who believe that vaccine is a very very important preventive and projective measure. What we are doing is that we are in touch with a large number of NGOs, which have set up groups. These groups that are going to work in the field on even providing services once the vaccines are available. Third, we are doing translation of materials in Hindi because CoWin is in English. We are translating it and putting it out in Hindi. Right now, it is through NGOs but state governments have agreed to use our material. As I speak to you, we have developed the material and we are transferring it. We have also done a campaign with Facebook, on all the handles on vaccines.”

Talking about her own journey till now, she expressed, “Since I was in school, I got sensitised to the fact that, we the middle class, are immune to poverty and suffering around us. We just think that it happens in the villages but I fortunately was exposed to the domestic science lab worker, a lady who I discovered earns Rs 50, she is a widow and her children don’t go to school. After that, there was no looking back. I gave her my pocket money so that her 5 kids could go to school and you have no idea what pleasure it gave me and there was no turning around. So, what I do is, I respond to the needs of the most marginalised communities in the institutions I have set up, the movements I have been involved with. I don’t think of what is going to be my career path, none of that till today. I think about the need and what struck me were Dalits and untouchability. I started by designing and working with leather workers on developing products. In villages, I discovered that women had no livelihoods or agency so I started working on women empowerment and I set up an NGO called Dastakaar, which works with artisans but we brought women in big way. My thing is bring people to work with you and Dastakaar had a great team of people. I’m still associated with the NGO but what I do is that I set up NGOs. When Mrs Gandhi was assassinated and there were riots in Delhi against the Sikh community, I jumped in and we started an organisation called Nagre. So, you have to respond to what is the crisis in the community and what are the real issues. At the heart of what I do is Gender, particularly women. We have to now work on scale. Time for conversations is gone. We have to really make changes and scale, if we want to change the reality. 50% of people in country are women. We have to take advantage of the talents and the ability, capability and multitasking, doing great jobs is a huge potential.”

The BJP on Tuesday hit out at the Congress over an alleged “toolkit” of the opposition party, saying it wants to tarnish the image of the country and Prime Minister Narendra Modi by calling the new Covid-19 strain as “Indian strain” or “Modi strain”. The Congress, however, said the toolkit was fake, and that it had filed a police complaint over it, naming several BJP leaders.

In a tweet, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra also said that Congress extending help to the needy is “more of a public relations exercise with the help of friendly journalists and influencers than a soulful endeavour”.

“Disgusting to say the least Rahul Gandhi wants to use this opportunity of pandemic to destroy the image of Prime Minister Modi. Congress workers instructed to call the mutant strain as Modi strain,” Patra wrote on Twitter.

Patra also alleged that no stone has been left unturned to tarnish India’s image with the help of foreign journalists. He further alleged that the “Congress toolkit” has also suggested calling the Kumbh Mela the “Super Spreader Kumbh”. Several other BJP leaders also trained guns at the Congress. BJP national president J.P. Nadda alleged that Congress is a master in “dividing society and spewing venom against each other.

“Dividing society and spewing venom against others… Congress is a master at this. India is seeing Congress’ antics, while the nation is fighting Covid-19. I would urge Congress to go beyond ’Toolkit Models’ and do something constructive,” Nadda tweeted. Union Minister Smriti Irani alleged Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of having a “Shame Hindu, Blame Hindu” tactic.

However, Congress refuted the allegation saying that the BJP is propagating a “fake toolkit” and attributing it to AICC research department. “It is a shame that our government is more interested in maligning the opposition than protecting our people,” a tweet from the official handle of Congress said.

 The Congress wrote to Delhi Police Commissioner seeking registration of FIR against Nadda, Irani, Sambit Patra, party leader B.L. Santhosh and others, alleging that they had shared “forged and fabricated documents with the intent to create communal disharmony and civil unrest” and to “divert attention from Modi government’s failure in providing necessary aid to people amidst the current pandemic”.

The Congress letter said that letterhead of AICC Research Department had been “forged” and “false and fabricated content” printed on it. “Through the present complaint, we seek to register an FIR against BJP president JP Nadda, national spokesperson Sambit Patra, Union Minister Smriti Irani and BJP general secretary BL Santosh and other such persons for forging the letterhead of AICC Research Department and thereafter printing false and fabricated content on the same, in order to share the forged/ BJP manufactured document from their verified Twitter handles and other social media platforms, with the intent to create communal disharmony and civil unrest in the country among individuals, escalating violence, fueling hate and spreading fake news,” the letter said.

More than a year after the Chinese army displayed aggression on the northern front, the People’s Liberation Army is carrying out an exercise in their depth areas near the Eastern Ladakh sector. The Indian armed forces are also fully alert this year despite the Covid-19 pandemic and keeping a close watch on all these movements of the Chinese forces there.

“The Chinese have been coming to these areas for many years where they hold their exercises in summer time. Last year also, they had come to these areas in the garb of exercises and diverted from here towards Eastern Ladakh aggressively,” sources told ANI.

The Chinese troops are well within their traditional areas with distances at some places ranging from 100 kms and beyond, they said. Sources said the development is important as the two sides are still discussing issues related to existing friction points including hot springs and Gogra heights after the mutual withdrawal of troops from the Pangong lake area by both sides.

The Indian side has also seen summer deployment of troops at forward locations in eastern Ladakh and other sectors. Senior officials from the forces deployed on the front have also reviewed security situation in forward areas recently and are keeping a close watch on the situation there, the sources said.

The forces deployed by the Indian side in Ladakh include the Indo Tibetan Border Police, Indian Air Force, and Indian Army which is now at the forward most locations in the sector.

The Chinese after diverting from their traditional exercise areas had come to the eastern front and the two sides have been engaged in a military standoff since then. ANI

The Delhi government will provide Rs 50,000 ex-gratia to each family that has lost a member to Covid-19, besides a monthly assistance of Rs 2,500 if the deceased was an earning member, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Tuesday. 

He also said that children who have lost both parents, or a single parent, due to Covid-19 will also be provided a monthly assistance of Rs 2,500 up to the age of 25 years. Also, the government will take care of their education, he said. 

All these announcements will be implemented after they are approved by the Delhi Cabinet, he said. 

“Due to coronavirus and the lockdown, many at home are facing financial difficulties. We have been thinking about a plan on how to help people overcome this difficulty. We have come up with several steps to provide relief during this tough time,” Kejriwal said in a digital address. 

The Delhi Chief Minister also announced free rations to poor families struggling during the Covid-19 crisis and lockdown. He announced that all ration card holders will get 5 kilograms of ration for free from Delhi government as well as 5 kilograms of free ration from the Central government and for those without ration cards, Delhi government will give ration on demand. “If someone says they are poor, we will give ration without asking for income proof,” Kejriwal said. 

“Many will ask where the government will get this money from. We are able to do this because Delhi has elected an honest government and we save money by being efficient,” Kejriwal said. He added that the decision would be implemented in the next few days.

On Kejriwal’s statement, BJP state General secretary Harsh Malhotra told The Sunday Guardian that “this government of Arvind Kejriwal is fond of making “populist” statements only and religiously not implementing it, like he said he will implement the Modi government’sAyushman Bharat Yojna, but he didn’t till today. If he had implemented it in Delhi, thousands of people would have saved their lives in this critical phase of Covid by getting themselves admitted in costly private hospitals. The Kejriwal government has done little to prepare Delhi’s health sector for Covid since last year despite a huge health budget to the tune of Rs 18,000crore. Kejriwal has spent hundreds of crores only in advertisements, promoting himself only. So I doubt whether he will fullfil his promises. He had promised Rs one crore to be given to the relatives of the frontline workers, if someone died during duty; no one has received Rs one crore.”