30-07-2021

frIDAY, JUlY 30, 2021
7
India logged 43,509 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to
3,15,28,114, while the active cases registered an increase for the second consecutive day, according
to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.
Photo : AP
Active COVID-19 cases register increase
for second consecutive day
NEW DELHI : India logged 43,509
new coronavirus infections taking
the total tally of COVID-19 cases to
3,15,28,114, while the active cases
registered an increase for the second
consecutive day, according to the
Union Health Ministry data updated
on Thursday.
The number of people who have
recuperated from the disease surged
to 3,07,01,612, while the case fatality
rate stands at 1.34 per cent, the data
stated.
The death toll climbed to 4,22,662
with 640 fresh fatalities.
The active cases have increased to
4,03,840 and comprise 1.28 per cent
of the total infections, while the
national COVID-19 recovery rate
was recorded at 97.38 per cent, the
data updated at 8 am showed.
The daily positivity rate was
recorded at 2.52 per cent, the
ministry said, adding the weekly
Taliban surge poses
'existential crisis':
US watchdog
WASHINGTON : The Afghan
government faces an
"existential crisis" after the
Taliban doubled their attacks
following the February 2020
US deal with the insurgents, a
watchdog report said
Thursday.
The report said Taliban
attacks on Afghan targets
surged from 6,700 in the three
months up to the Doha
agreement to 13,242 in the
September-November 2020
period.
Attacks have stayed above
10,000 in each subsequent
three-month period, according
to the report by the US Special
Inspector General for
Afghanistan Reconstruction
(SIGAR).
While the rise in attacks had
long been clear, data had not
previously been available to
demonstrate how intense the
rebels' offensive had become.
The United States agreed to
withdraw all troops from
Afghanistan in expectation the
Taliban would negotiate a
peace deal with the Kabul
government.
Since then the Talibangovernment
talks have stalled
but the US has steadily pulled
out troops to a level of only
several hundred now, with an
August 31 deadline for full
withdrawal.
The SIGAR report makes
clear that the Doha agreement,
instead of propelling Taliban-
Kabul talks, unleashed an
offensive that caught
government forces unprepared
and increased the number of
civilian deaths.
Over January-March of
2020, there were only 510
civilian deaths and 709
casualties, the report said,
quoting data from the US-Nato
joint force in Afghanistan.
After that the numbers
surged, hitting 1,058 deaths
and 1,959 injured in the third
quarter that year and
continuing at high levels.
positivity rate was recorded at 2.38
per cent. An increase of 4,404 cases
has been recorded in the active
COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24
hours.
Cumulative vaccine doses
administered so far has reached
45.07 crore under the nationwide
vaccination drive.
India's COVID-19 tally had crossed
the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30
lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on
September 5 and 50 lakh on
September 16. It went past 60 lakh
on September 28, 70 lakh on
October 11, crossed 80 lakh on
October 29, 90 lakh on November 20
and surpassed the one-crore mark
on December 19. The country
crossed the grim milestone of two
crore on May 4 and three crores on
June 23.
As many as 17,28,795 tests were
conducted on Wednesday taking the
total cumulative tests conducted so
far for detection of COVID-19 in the
country to 46,26,29,773.
The ministry said the 640 new
fatalities include 286 from
Maharashtra and 131 from Kerala.
A total of 4,22,662 deaths have
been reported so far in the country
including 1,32,145 from
Maharashtra, 36,456 from
Karnataka, 33,995 from Tamil Nadu,
25,049 from Delhi, 22,755 from
Uttar Pradesh, 18,109 from West
Bengal and 16,286 from Punjab.
The ministry stressed that more
than 70 per cent of the deaths
occurred due to comorbidities.
"Our figures are being reconciled
with the Indian Council of Medical
Research," the ministry said on its
website, adding that state-wise
distribution of figures is subject to
further verification and
reconciliation.
Sydney police call
for military to
enforce lockdown
SYDNEY : Police in Australia's largest city
have requested military help to enforce a
coronavirus lockdown as infections in
Sydney reached a new record Thursday.
Commissioner Mick Fuller said New
South Wales police had asked for 300
Australian Defence Force personnel to be
deployed "to boost its operational
footprint".
The city of five million people is in its
fifth week of a lockdown that is set to run
until the end of August.
Stay-at-home orders have failed to
reduce new infections to zero, and
compliance has been patchy.
Sydney residents are only allowed to
leave their homes for exercise, essential
work, medical reasons, and to shop for
necessities such as food.
But for weeks, parks and beach
promenades have been filled with
Sydneysiders drinking coffee and chatting
with friends.
Police have increasingly been doling out
fines to those violating the restrictions and
Fuller said those efforts would be stepped
up in the coming days.
Last weekend thousands of people
gathered in central Sydney to protest
against the measures, and further
demonstrations have been mooted.
Police have also requested more powers to
shut down businesses that they say are not
abiding by rules on social distancing.
On Thursday state premier Gladys
Berejiklian warned that the outbreak-which
began mid-June when a driver for an
international flight crew contracted the
virus-is "likely to get worse".
Officials announced 239 new infections in
Sydney, a record for this outbreak, which
now totals 2,810 cases.
With under 14 percent of the Australian
population vaccinated, many experts have
warned that Sydney's lockdown could run
for months more.
Supplies of Pfizer-BioNTech shots are low
and there has been widespread scepticism
about the AstraZeneca jab, slowing the
vaccine rollout.
Police in Australia's largest city have requested military help to enforce a
coronavirus lockdown as infections in Sydney reached a new record
Thursday.
Photo : AP
Should vaccinated people
mask up with COVID-19
cases rising?
NEW YORK : Should
vaccinated people mask up
with COVID-19 cases rising?
Yes. In places where the
virus is surging, the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention recommends
that vaccinated people return
to wearing masks in public
indoor places.
The CDC recently
announced the updated
guidance, citing new evidence
that vaccinated people who
get breakthrough infections
could carry enough virus in
their noses and throats to
infect others.
COVID-19 vaccines greatly
reduce the chance of severe
illness and death and remain
effective against variants,
including the now
predominant delta variant.
But it's still possible to get
infected.
Masking could prevent the
spread of the virus to children
too young for vaccination and
people with weak immune
systems, reports UNB.
In short, the vaccine
protects you. A mask protects
others in case you are
carrying the virus without
knowing it.
You can find out your
county's level of coronavirus
transmission at the CDC's
COVID-19 data tracker
website. The CDC
recommends indoor masking
in areas where transmission
is substantial or high. Those
areas are marked in orange
and red on the site.
Forest fire near
Turkish resort
kills three
ANKARA : Three people were
reported dead Thursday and
more than 100 injured as
firefighters battled blazes
engulfing a Mediterranean
resort region on Turkey's
southern coast.
Officials also launched an
investigation into suspicions
that the fires that broke out
Wednesday in four locations
to the east of the tourist
hotspot Antalya were the
result of arson.
Turkey's disaster and
emergencies office said three
people were killed-including
an 82-year-old who lived
alone-and 122 injured by the
fires.
"Treatment of 58 of our
citizens continues," it was
quoted as saying by the
Anadolu state news agency.
The fires affected a sparsely
populated region about 75
kilometres (45 miles) east of
Antalya-a resort especially
popular with Russian and
other eastern European
tourists.
WASHINGTON : Hoping to set a model
for employers nationwide, President
Joe Biden will announce Thursday that
millions of federal workers must show
proof they've received a coronavirus
vaccine or submit to regular testing and
stringent social distancing, masking
and travel restrictions, reports UNB.
An individual familiar with the
president's plans, who spoke on
condition of anonymity to confirm
details that had yet to be announced
publicly, emphasized that the new
guidance is not a vaccine mandate for
federal employees and that those who
decide not to get vaccinated aren't at
risk of being fired.
The new policy amounts to a
recognition by the Biden
administration that the government -
the nation's biggest employer - must do
more to boost sluggish vaccination
rates, as coronavirus cases and
hospitalizations rebound, driven largely
by the spread of the more infectious
delta variant.
Biden has placed the blame for the
resurgence of the virus squarely on the
shoulders of those who aren't
vaccinated.
"The pandemic we have now is a
pandemic of the unvaccinated," Biden
said during a visit Wednesday to a truck
plant in Pennsylvania, where he urged
the unvaccinated to "please, please,
Biden woos working class with
new 'buy American' efforts
MACUNGIE : President Joe Biden checked
out the big rigs at a Pennsylvania truck
factory on Wednesday and promised
workers that his policies would reshape the
U.S economy for the working class - a
message clearly aimed at a group of voters
who have drifted to Republicans.
Biden highlighted new "buy American"
rules from his administration that he said
would put a new muscle behind an initiative
that he argued had become a "hollow
promise" in recent years.
"They got a new sheriff in town," Biden
said after touring Mack Truck's Lehigh
Valley operations facility. He said the effort
would help create jobs, a central thrust of his
administration's "build back better"
program. Administration officials, who have
made manufacturing jobs a priority, believe
Democrats' political prospects next year
might hinge on whether Biden succeeds in
reinvigorating a sector that has steadily lost
jobs for more than four decades.
Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush,
Barack Obama and Donald Trump each said
his policies would save manufacturing jobs,
yet none of them broke the long-term trend
in a lasting way.
The administration is championing a $973
8.2 magnitude earthquake
off Alaskan peninsula,
tsunami warning
WASHINGTON : A shallow 8.2 magnitude
earthquake struck off the Alaskan peninsula
late Wednesday, the United States
Geological Survey said, prompting a
tsunami warning.
The earthquake hit 56 miles (91
kilometers) southeast of the town of
Perryville, the USGS said, with a tsunami
warning in effect for south Alaska and the
Alaskan peninsula.
The US government issued a tsunami
warning for Alaska's southeast.
"Hazardous tsunami waves for this
earthquake are possible within the next
three hours along some coasts," the US
Tsunami Warning System said in a
statement.
Perryville is a small village about 500
miles from Anchorage, Alaska's biggest city.
A 7.5 magnitude earthquake caused
tsunami waves in Alaska's southern coast in
October, but no casualties were reported.
Alaska is part of the seismically active
Pacific Ring of Fire.
Alaska was hit by a 9.2-magnitude
earthquake in March 1964, the strongest
ever recorded in North America. It
devastated Anchorage and unleashed a
tsunami that slammed the Gulf of Alaska,
the US west coast, and Hawaii.
More than 250 people were killed by the
quake and the tsunami.
shallow 8.2 magnitude earthquake struck off the Alaskan peninsula late
Wednesday, the United States Geological Survey said, prompting a tsunami
warning.
Photo : AP
Biden to launch vaccine push for
millions of federal workers
please, please" get a shot. A day earlier,
he mused that "if those other 100
million people got vaccinated, we'd be
in a very different world."
The administration on Wednesday
was still reviewing details of the
expected guidance, and significant
questions about its implementation and
scope remained. It was unclear whether
the president would issue similar
requirements for the military and how
federal contractors would be affected.
The administration is announcing the
move now with the hope that it will give
agencies enough time to craft their own
guidelines and plans for
implementation before workers return
fully to the office.
The announcement is expected to
come as part of broader remarks
Thursday that Biden promised would
outline "the next steps in our effort to
get more Americans vaccinated."
The individual said the conversation
around the new vaccine guidance had
been in the works for some time and
was intended to provide an example for
private companies to follow as they get
ready for workers to return this fall. But
it's just the latest policy shift from the
administration during a week of new
coronavirus mitigation efforts, as the
White House grapples with a surge in
coronavirus cases and hospitalizations
nationwide driven by the delta variant
billion infrastructure package, $52 billion for
computer chip production, sweeping
investments in clean energy and the use of
government procurement contracts to create
factory jobs.
On the visit, Biden heard about Mack's
electric garbage trucks.
"The ability to build and sell these new
trucks would be helped by the president's
proposed investment in buy American
production incentives for domestic electric
vehicle manufacturing," said White House
deputy press secretary Karine Jeanne-Pierre.
The plant was neatly organized, with the
thousands of truck parts organized in aisles
and the hulls of half-finished trucks awaiting
the president's inspection. The plant was
silent other than the whir of fans. Work was
halted as part of a two-week hiatus during
which Biden visited.
The president won Lehigh County in the
2020 election, but he is facing the perpetual
challenge of past administrations to revive a
manufacturing sector at the heart of
American identity. Failure to bring back
manufacturing jobs could further hurt
already ailing factory towns across the
country and possibly imperil Democrats'
chances in the 2022 midterm elections.
and breakthrough infections among
vaccinated Americans.
On Monday, the Department of
Veterans Affairs became the first federal
agency to require vaccinations, for its
health workers. And on Tuesday, the
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention reversed its masking
guidelines and said that all Americans
living in areas with substantial or high
coronavirus transmission rates should
wear masks indoors, regardless of their
vaccination status.
With the latest CDC data showing
that Washington, D.C., is facing
substantial rates of transmission, by
Wednesday reporters and staff were
again masking up at the White House.
The new guidance on vaccinations for
federal employees reflects the reality
that Biden's national vaccination drive
has fallen short of his goals.
Public opinion seems to have
hardened around the vaccines, with a
recent poll from The Associated Press-
NORC Center for Public Affairs
Research finding that among American
adults who have not yet received a
vaccine, 35% say they probably will not,
and 45% say they definitely will not.
"Doing more of the same just will not
work," said Dr. Leana Wen, a former
Baltimore health commissioner who's
become a leading public health
commentator on the pandemic.