oppn parties Devastating Wednesday: Alarming Surge In Fresh Cases And Deaths

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  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
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  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
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Devastating Wednesday: Alarming Surge In Fresh Cases And Deaths

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-05-06 04:51:29

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

In an alarming surge that belied hopes of fresh Covid cases reaching a plateau in some states, India reported 412784 new cases on Wednesday. The worst part was this was even when lower tests were conducted on the day. 16.6 lakh tests were conducted on Monday and India reported 382000 cases on Tuesday. But on Tuesday only 15.4 lakh tests were conducted yet infections jumped by over 30000. On Wednesday, positivity rate (PR) was nearly 27 percent, which has now passed even the alarming stage as this has been going on for more than 15 days. In some places, the PR is as high as 55%. Deaths are also increasing alarmingly. On Wednesday, 3980 people died due to Covid which was 5% higher than the previous day. After showing signs of control, Maharashtra once again reported alarming numbers on Wednesday, Karnataka continues to lead in PR and Delhi is totally in the grip of the second wave. Healthcare and dead body disposal infrastructure is under severe strain and if fresh cases and deaths continue to rise at this rate, there are chances that there will be anarchy and then cases will rise exponentially.

The government needs to immediately enforce a lockdown, if not nationally then at least in the identified 150 districts that are reporting a PR of more than 15% for the last 10 days. Districts with high death rates must also be identified and similar lockdown must be imposed there. It is extremely surprising that a national lockdown that continued for almost three months was imposed when there were less than 1 lakh cases per day in the first wave but no decision is being taken now when daily cases have reached 4 lakh. Jaan bhi jahaan bhi is a noble thought but what will the jahaan be without jaan? Travel restrictions must also be placed (West Bengal, along with several other states have already made it mandatory for travelers to carry a current RT-PCR report before entering the state). The vaccination drive needs to be brought back on the rails. Although experts have used mathematical models to predict that the second wave will peak soon and the cases are likely to drop as fast as they rose, if the current PR and death rate continues for even 10 days, it will be tragic. We have to remember that the government has already said that no expert had predicted the severity with which the second wave would hit. Then the prediction that the second wave will peak soon cannot be relied upon in full. Further, experts have already said that a third wave is inevitable given the floating infections in the second wave.  

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