Prime Minister Narendra Modi commented on the Covid-19 situation in the country. He was delivering a virtual address at the 90th birthday celebrations of Reverend Joseph Mar Thoma Metropolitan. He said that while any loss of life is unfortunate, India’s death rate per million, due to Covid, is under 12. He drew a comparison with other countries like the US, UK, France, Spain and Italy. He said that it was time to focus on economic growth of 130 crore Indians, without letting the guard against Covid down. Watch the full video for more. 

A trader of Chinese descent in Shimla said that he feels more Indian than Chinese and that is also the sentiment of people in the city. He was commenting on the ongoing tension between India and China which deteriorated into deadly physical clashes between soldiers in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley on June 15. Others supported the call for boycott of Chinese goods but sought adequate preparation to fill the gap, and also said that Chinese products already in the market should be allowed to be sold.

UP CM Yogi Adityanath congratulates students of class 10th and 12th for passing Board exams. UP CM also congratulated minister for conducting exams well despite Covid-19 pandemic. Adityanath praised girls for scoring more marks than boys in the exams.

The lack of adequate cold chain and post-harvest management in the vicinity of farm-gate is causing gaps in value chains. The government’s focus has been on short-term crop loans while investment in long-term agriculture infrastructure has often not been enough, the minister indicated.

This is the third phase of announcements by the Union Finance Ministry elaborating on the Centre’s Rs 20 lakh crore economic stimulus package.

Coronavirus infections are about to cross a major milestone globally as cases surge towards the 10 million-mark. Several states in the US marked a huge spike in cases, Asia continues to report new cases.

There is no decline in global coronavirus cases with the US, Mexico, India and Brazil reporting a high number of cases. Russia saw a slight dip but daily reported cases continue to remain over 6,000. Italy reported eight deaths and 175 new cases as the nation fights back from the pandemic. South Korea and China report new cases as both these governments continue to control second-wave outbreaks.

The Prime Minister in his last Mann Ki Baat episode on May 31 cautioned that the battle against the coronavirus pandemic is a long one as he warned against complacency and reiterated the need for social distancing and wearing masks.

2 of 3 ‘doctors’ in rural India have no formal medical degrees: Study

Although 75% of villages have at least one health care provider and a village on average has three primary health providers, 86% of them are private “doctors” and 68% have no formal medical training, found a survey.

The study supports the World Health Organization’s 2016 report on ‘The Health Workforce in India’, which had also found that 57.3% people practising allopathic medicine in India did not have a medical qualification, and 31.4% were educated only up to secondary school level.

At least two of every three “doctors” in rural India are informal providers of care, with no qualifications in modern system of medicine, according to India’s first comprehensive assessment of public and private health care availability and quality, as measured by their medical knowledge.

The serological test or sero-surveillance study is a part of the new Covid-19 response plan prepared by the Centre for Delhi.

Delhi, which has overtaken Mumbai as the worst-affected city in the country has 73,780 infections so far and 2,429 people have succumbed to the disease.

Authorities in Delhi will start a mammoth campaign on Saturday to determine the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) amidst a rising number of cases in the national capital.

The serological test or sero-surveillance study is a part of the new Covid-19 response plan prepared by the Centre for Delhi.

Delhi, which has overtaken Mumbai as the worst-affected city in the country has 73,780 infections so far and 2,429 people have succumbed to the disease.

Here is all you need to know about the serological survey.

A diagnostic method, serological tests are used to identify antibodies, which are created by the immune system when someone is infected with the virus, and antigens in a person’s blood.
It may be performed to diagnose infections and autoimmune illnesses. It can also be conducted to check if a person has immunity to certain diseases.

Serology (antibody) tests are largely used for surveillance among communities and can be used on people who have already been tested positive for the virus or even those who are asymptomatic.

Epidemiologists often use serological surveys to determine who has antibodies and find out who has been infected with the virus, even if someone never reported a positive test or experienced symptoms.

“Depending upon the level of seroprevalence of infection, appropriate public health interventions can be planned and implemented for prevention and control of the disease. Periodic serosurveys are useful to guide policymakers,” an official of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had said earlier.

The serological survey will be done throughout Delhi between June 27 and July 10 to enable authorities to undertake a comprehensive analysis of Covid-19 and then prepare a broad strategy to combat the pandemic in the national capital.
“As per the directives of HM @AmitShah, discussion was done on the serological survey in Delhi, which will be carried out jointly by NCDC and Delhi Government. Survey will begin from June 27, training of all the concerned survey teams was completed yesterday,” a home ministry spokesperson tweeted on Friday.

The National Centre for Disease Control, under the Union health ministry, and the Delhi government will jointly conduct the survey that will focus on antibody-based blood tests to find out residents’ past exposure to the Sars-Cov-2 virus, which causes Covid-19.

The sero-surveillance study will be conducted in all the 11 districts of Delhi focusing on as many as 20,000 households on a random basis, including individuals below 18 years of age.