Wuhan Coronavirus Thread

[Gautam Sarkar]

One million tablets en route to Oman from India

April 21, 2020 | 6:58 PM

Munu Mahawar, India’s ambassador to the Sultanate.

Muscat: One million pills of hydroxychloroquine, which is being used to treat the symptoms of COVID-19, are on their way from India to Oman.

The shipment will be cleared for delivery once all of the related cargo security procedures have been completed, said Munu Mahawar, India’s ambassador to the Sultanate.

“We received a request from the Oman government, asking us to assist with the provision of medicines to help combat COVID-19, and we were more than happy to help,” he explained. “We conveyed this message to our colleagues in New Delhi, and they then sent it to a special team that has been formed to look at and process such requests. They agreed to provide these medications, and the decision to send them to Oman was agreed upon.”

“The medicines that India is giving to Oman are the same as those which have been shipped to other countries as well,” added the ambassador. “Many governments around the world have asked the Indian government for medications to help against COVID-19, and we are of course happy to assist during these tough times.”

The ambassador went on to say that should Oman required further assistance from India, he would not hesitate to help provide it, with the Sultanate already importing many food products from his country to ensure that enough supplies are available in supermarkets for people to buy.

“Oman Shipping Company has operated dedicated shipping lines from India to Oman, providing many much-needed foodstuffs and other supplies to people in the Sultanate, and Oman Air is also flying its cargo planes to and from the country to provide goods,” said the ambassador. “We have very strong relations between the two countries and Oman is a valued strategic partner of India, so we will definitely be willing to help if we are able to.”

As of April 13, Oman Shipping Company has sent more than 15,000 shipping containers’ worth of goods through direct shipping lanes to Oman from India, and another 7,000 containers to other Gulf countries.

“To enable this process, the company was able to purchase and rent over 4,200 regular containers and 100 refrigerated containers that were stored in Sohar Port for the purpose of local import and export services,” said the company in a statement. “The company has the technical and commercial ability to expand and meet the requests of merchants according to the needs of the local market, and is now communicating directly with the merchants and importers through a commercial team from ASYAD.”

https://timesofoman.com/article/3014089/oman/one-million-tablets-en-route-to-oman-from-india

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Trump threatens to terminate trade deal if China does not honour it citing coronavirus crisis

While China has reported 82,788 novel coronavirus cases, including 4,632 fatalities, the US-registered over 824,600 cases and more than 45,290 deaths -- the highest in the world.

www.indiatoday.in

Trump to terminate trade deal if China does not acknowledge coronavirus crisis originated in China

 

[LETHALFORCE]

India halts coronavirus antibody tests; Poland's total cases exceed 10,000

India has ordered a pause in testing for antibodies to the coronavirus because of concerns over the accuracy of the results.

www.cnbc.com

India halts coronavirus antibody tests as reliability questioned
India has ordered a pause in testing for antibodies to the coronavirus because of concerns over the accuracy of the results, health officials said on Wednesday, Reuters reported.
Earlier in April, India’s health authorities approved blood tests for coronavirus antibodies as a faster way to bolster the screening effort and they ordered more than a half-billion testing kits from China.
But the chief of epidemiology at the Indian Council of Medical Research said he had asked health authorities to temporarily stop the tests for antibodies because of conflicting results. India has almost 20,000 confirmed cases of covid-19

 

[LETHALFORCE]

India wants to build an ultra-intrusive ‘wristband’ to track coronavirus patients’ every move

After launching its coronavirus contract tracing app, Aarogya Setu, earlier this month, India is preparing to introduce smart wristbands to monitor movements of COVID-19 patients. According to a report by the Economic Times, the government

thenextweb.com

India wants to build an ultra-intrusive ‘wristband’ to track coronavirus patients’ every move

 

[Gautam Sarkar]

India’s Indian Ocean Diplomacy in the COVID-19 Crisis

By Niranjan Marjani - April 22, 2020

The outbreak and spread of COVID-19 has created multiple challenges for the entire world. Apart from containing the spread of virus and treating infected patients, there are related political issues such as the blame game between the United States and China, the role of the World Health Organization (WHO), and questions about the future world order.

Amid this entire crisis, India has been playing an important role. India’s role could be considered at both the domestic level – the steps taken to tackle the crisis at home — and the diplomatic level — India’s assistance to other countries, especially in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), amid the pandemic.

India’s approach, including on the diplomatic front, has been proactive since the outbreak of the crisis. One of the first steps taken by India was to evacuate citizens of different countries along with its own citizens from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the first COVID-19 outbreak. Those evacuated as compassionate cases included citizens from IOR countries such as Bangladesh, Myanmar, the Maldives, South Africa, and Madagascar. India not only evacuated these people, but also quarantined them in India as a precautionary measure before sending them to their respective countries.

Second, India has emerged as a major supplier of medicines to different countries worldwide in the fight against COVID-19. As part of that effort, India was the first responder to Mauritius and the Seychelles. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured all possible help to both these countries to face the challenge of COVID-19. Accordingly India sent a consignment of life-saving drugs, including hydroxychloroquine, to Mauritius and the Seychelles.

Third, COVID-19 has provided India an opportunity to address the irritants in its ties with some countries, most notably Iran and Malaysia. In the past few months India’s relations with both these countries were strained owing to Iran and Malaysia’s criticisms of India. However, recently India and Iran cooperated with each other in order to evacuate the Indians stranded in Iran. Later Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani wrote to Modi seeking India’s assistance to deal with COVID-19. Rouhani also reached out to Modi with the expectation that India would stand with Iran against the United States’ sanctions. Apart from this, India has sent a wheat consignment to Afghanistan through Iran’s Chabahar port. With respect to Malaysia, India has agreed to supply anti-malarial drugs, indicating improvement in the bilateral relations.

India’s recent actions, which could be termed as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) operations, build upon its outreach to the IOR, in particular the western Indian Ocean, in the past few years. India has made efforts to reach out to countries like Mauritius and the Seychelles, both of which Modi visited in 2015. In 2018 an agreement between India and the Seychelles was signed to jointly develop a naval base at Assumption Island. Similarly India is engaged in the development of Chabahar port in Iran, which has become operational.

India’s outreach in the IOR and the broader Indo-Pacific Region has been parallel to China’s outreach by way of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). India’s competition with China could be considered asymmetric owing to differences in the economic and military capabilities of both countries. However, China’s development projects have resulted in indebtedness for many countries with limited resources. This situation creates an opportunity for India to present its own alternative to countries in the Indian Ocean Region, which would also facilitate increasing India’s footprint in the region.

The COVID-19 crisis presents a similar opportunity for India. This entire crisis has put the focus on China from different quarters. There is a blame game of sorts between the United States and China about the virus, with segments in each claiming that the virus originated from the other. Questions are also being raised about the role of the WHO, with critics saying the global health body was slow to take actions against the pandemic. Moreover, the WHO also defended China when questions were raised about China’s intentions and failure to control the virus.

In contrast, India started screening international travelers in January. On March 25, India announced a lockdown of 21 days, which was later extended until May 3. This is considered an unprecedented step from India, since its population of more than 1.3 billion makes it the biggest lockdown in the world. Many countries including the United States, Italy and Spain were slow to announce their own lockdowns and as a result are the worst-affected countries, with hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the tens of thousands. In comparison, India’s numbers stand at around 20,000 infected and 645 dead as of April 22. India has also received praise from institutions such as the UN, the WHO, and the IMF for the response to this crisis.

The COVID-19 crisis has raised a debate about the future world order. At present, more and more countries in the world have an unfavorable opinion about China. On the other hand, India has been nimble-footed enough to take this opportunity and build up goodwill, which could result in elevated status in the post-COVID-19 period. India has also concentrated most of its efforts in the strategically important Indian Ocean Region, which has given it leverage. India’s diplomacy in the IOR could define its position in the changed world order.

Niranjan Marjani is a political analyst and researcher based in Vadodara, India. Follow him on Twitter: @NiranjanMarjani

https://thediplomat.com/2020/04/indias-indian-ocean-diplomacy-in-the-covid-19-crisis/

 

[ganesh177]

What's with this central govt teams giving report that Mumbai to have 6 lac cases by 15 may ? Isn't this something that will cause panic in people

 

[lcafanboy]

Watch this

 

[Blue Water Navy]

Thank the lord almighty I'm in the green zone!!

I am in the yellow zone.

In the meantime Modiji is going to talk to CM's on April 27.

 

[captscooby81]

So WB has done only 5800 tests so far which shows its very less number of positive cases . Odisha state which has half the population of WB has done 13k tests so far.

 

[captscooby81]

Where is the report ? Please don't go by media speculations . we are seeing how much truth these presstitutes are speaking these days . unless until ICMR or Mhofw gives out any such report we cant trust any social media or MSM news .

What's with this central govt teams giving report that Mumbai to have 6 lac cases by 15 may ? Isn't this something that will cause panic in people

 

[doreamon]

India halts coronavirus antibody tests; Poland's total cases exceed 10,000

India has ordered a pause in testing for antibodies to the coronavirus because of concerns over the accuracy of the results.

www.cnbc.com

India halts coronavirus antibody tests as reliability questioned
India has ordered a pause in testing for antibodies to the coronavirus because of concerns over the accuracy of the results, health officials said on Wednesday, Reuters reported.
Earlier in April, India’s health authorities approved blood tests for coronavirus antibodies as a faster way to bolster the screening effort and they ordered more than a half-billion testing kits from China.
But the chief of epidemiology at the Indian Council of Medical Research said he had asked health authorities to temporarily stop the tests for antibodies because of conflicting results. India has almost 20,000 confirmed cases of covid-19

Their testing kit is rejected world over still we decided to import half billion testing kits.. Even a school kid has more reasoning than these bureaucrats ..

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Pakistan moves to save face as coronavirus hits Belt and Road

Government's order for work to resume a bid to foster China ties, analysts say

asia.nikkei.com

Pakistan moves to save face as coronavirus hits Belt and Road

 

[LETHALFORCE]

China promoting US lockdown protests, spreading coronavirus misinformation online: report

China, taking notes from Russia’s playbook, is spreading misinformation about the coronavirus in the United States by sending text messages, as well as boosting social media posts, aimed at sowing public fear and promoting lockdown protests amid the pandemic, according to a report published...

www.foxnews.com

China promoting US lockdown protests, spreading coronavirus misinformation online

 

[Blue Water Navy]

So WB has done only 5800 tests so far which shows its very less number of positive cases . Odisha state which has half the population of WB has done 13k tests so far.

I don't know the exact number of tests. But tests have increased since the last 6-7 days. Health workers are going house to house for samples in the hotspot red zones along with sealed areas around them which will be 5 sq km & in the case of non-hotspot zones but 2-10 infected-people neighborhoods the area of test in 3 sq km. That's why the number of cases in Bengal are rising since the last few days. Yesterday it hit 50 which is a all time high.

Actually the situation is that Bengal may not have much infected people. Because from the mid of March after Holi, TMC Govt took some steps which were good. Like quarantining the people who came back from abroad whether they showed symptom or not. Yes, some rich brats and idiots got away at first but they were only handful of cases. And yes I too think that Didi is hiding numbers though. But I also doubt that the number is too big. The majority of the cases are from Kolkata and surroundings. Rather than that the rest of Bengal only have a handful of cases.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Workers lived at plant for 28 days to make material needed for COVID-19 protective gear

DELAWARE COUNTY, Pa. – More than 40 employees lived at a Pennsylvania manufacturing plant for nearly a month to ensure that material needed to make much-needed medical gear was produced. Braskem Am…

www.pix11.com

Workers lived at plant for 28 days to make material needed for COVID-19 protective gear

 

[AMCA]

 

[Holy Triad]

And here it is. The Chinese have beaten everyone in the race. They report today (non-peer-reviewed) on PiCoVacc, the first "Heat Killed" β-propiolactone-inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine strain that confers complete protection in nonhuman primates.

Must-read. https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.17.046375v1.full.pdf…








@hit&run
@Sanatani

 

[Holy Triad]

The first cesarean delivery of a COVID19 patient took place in SVP hospital today. Both the mother and baby are stable. The baby's sample will also be taken:

Vijay Nehra, Municipal Commissioner, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, #Gujarat

 

[Holy Triad]

And here it is. The Chinese have beaten everyone in the race. They report today (non-peer-reviewed) on PiCoVacc, the first "Heat Killed" β-propiolactone-inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine strain that confers complete protection in nonhuman primates.

Must-read. https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.17.046375v1.full.pdf…

@hit&run
@Sanatani

Looks like ccp found their guinea pig to test their "cure"




Wait, it says Pak shud allow clinical trial of that chinese vaccine on Pak population so that it can be further launched depending on success of trials.

 

[Kumata]

So WB has done only 5800 tests so far which shows its very less number of positive cases . Odisha state which has half the population of WB has done 13k tests so far.

Tested is 7037 as on 22 april

odisha is 18750 more than double but less 4th of infections in bhadralok