YK MYK QATAR FOLLOWS SAUDIS AND UAE TO CLEAN ITS TEXTBOOKS OPINION Rs. 5 RANCHI MONDAY, 10 JANUARY, 2022 PG-12, YEAR—11, ISSUE—243 (RNI NO: JHAENG / 2012 / 44137) LAKSHYA SEN EYEING MAIDEN TITLE ON INDIA OPEN DEBUT NATION Morning India ‘Ensure adequate health infra at district level, maintain coordination with states’ NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday stressed on the need to ensure adequate health infrastructure at the district level and asked officials to maintain coordination regarding this with the states, in view of the prevailing COVID-19 situation. PM Modi today chaired a high-level meeting to assess the COVID-19 pandemic situation in the country, ongoing preparedness of health infrastructure and logistics, status of the vaccination campaign in the country and the emergence of new COVID-19 variant Omicron and its public health implications for the country. A detailed presentation highlighting the surge in cases currently being reported globally was given by the Secretary of Health Ministry. This was followed by the status of COVID-19 in India highlighting various States and Districts of concern, based on the surge in cases and high positivity being reported. Further, various efforts made by the Central Government so far in terms of supporting States to manage the upcoming challenge were highlighted. Various predictive scenarios of peak cases were also presented. The Prime Minister's office in its official release said that the support was pro- INDIA PREPARES TO ADMINISTER 'PRECAUTION' DOSES FROM TODAY vided to the States to upgrade health infrastructure, testing capacity, availability of oxygen and ICU beds, and buffer stock of covid essential drugs under Emergency Covid Response Package (ECRP-II). Prime Minister stressed on the need to ensure adequate health infrastructure at the district level. He asked officials to maintain co-ordination regarding this with the states. The presentation brought attention to India's consistent efforts towards the vaccination campaign, with 31 per cent adolescents aged 15-18 years having been administered with the first dose so far within seven days. Prime Minister noted this achievement and urged to further accelerate the vaccine drive for adolescents in mission mode. After a detailed discussion, PM Modi directed that intensive containment and active surveillance should continue in clusters reporting higher cases and required technical support be provided to states which are reporting higher cases presently. He highlighted the need to ensure effective usage of masks and physical distancing measures as a new normal to control the spread. Prime Minister stressed on the need for effective implementation of Home Isolation for mild/asymptomatic cases and to disseminate factual information to the community PG 5 at large. AT A GLANCE AHED OF COMMISSIONING IN 2022 NEW 'DELTACRON' COVID VARIANT FOUND IN CYPRUS IAC Vikrant sets out for new trials NEW DELHI: The third dose of Covaxin holds promise, the Indian Council of Medical Research said on Sunday just a day before the government plans to administer 'precaution' doses of COVID-19 vaccines to frontline workers, healthcare workers and senior citizens with co-morbidities. "This has been done in the light of the amount of time that the frontline workers and health care workers spend in the service of COVID-19 infected patients. In India, this has been called 'precaution dose', not booster dose. The decision on precaution dose will strengthen the confidence of healthcare and frontline workers," the Prime Minister's office said. The Prime Minister also announced that option of precaution dose NEW DELHI: Cyprus has detected a new variant dubbed as "Deltacron", that has a similar genetic background to the Delta variant, coupled with 10 mutations from Omicron. The variant has already affected 25 people in Cyprus. According to Dr Leondios Kostrikis, the head of the laboratory of biotechnology and molecular virology at the University of Cyprus, of the 25 samples taken in Cyprus, 11 were hospitalised due to the virus, while 14 were from the general population. Kostrikis stated that the fact that the frequency of the mutation among hospitalised patients was higher could point to a correlation between the new variant and hospitalisations. CORONA METER INDIA TOTAL CASES: 35,528,004 TOTAL DEATHS: 483,790 WORLD TOTAL CASES: 306,270,041 TOTAL DEATHS: 5,503,988 NEW DELHI: After two successive high-profile visits, that of the President and Vice President within a span of less than two weeks, indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC) Vikrant is heading out for the next set of sea trials, officials said on Sunday. The maiden sea trials in August last year were to establish propulsion, navigational suite, and basic operations, and the second, in October-November, witnessed it being put through its paces in terms of various machinery trials and flight trials. The ship, in fact, was out for 10 days proving its sustenance in the second sortie. Various seamanship evolutions were also successfully cleared during it. Having gained adequate confidence in the ship's abilities, the IAC now sails to undertake complex manoeuvres to establish specific readings of how it performs in various conditions. In addition, various sensor suites would also be tested. On successful completion of a series of progressive sea trials, the ship is scheduled to be commissioned as INS Vikrant later this year, the Defence Ministry said. The IAC has been a success story on numerous counts, be it Atmanirbhar Bharat, wherein 76 per cent of the equipment is indigenously sourced, or the close engagement between the design teams of the Indian Navy and Cochin Shipyard Ltd, a high-point in the largest and most complex warship ever to be built in the country. The ship has been able to carry out basic flying operations from its very first sortie, itself a landmark in the history of Indian warship construction. INDIGO TO CANCEL AROUND 20% FLIGHTS, WAIVE CHANGE FEES NEW DELHI: Airline company IndiGo on Sunday said it will cancel around 20 per cent of its scheduled flights due to rising Covid cases. "We anticipate that around 20 per cent of our current scheduled operations will be withdrawn from service," it said in a statement. "Where possible, cancellations of flights will be done at least 72 hours in advance and customers will be moved to the next available flight and will also be able to change their travel through the use of Plan B on our website," the statement said. Besides, it decided to waive change fees for all new and existing bookings made up to January 31, 2022, for flights up to March 2022. The airline operator urged the passengers to avoid connecting to the call centre, instead use its digital channels where possible, as it is getting a large volume of calls. IN JAN DHAN ACCOUNTS DEPOSITS CROSS RS 1.5 LAKH CR NEW DELHI: Deposits in bank accounts opened under the Jan Dhan scheme, launched about seven and half years ago by the government, have crossed the Rs 1.5 lakh crore mark. As per the latest finance ministry data, the total balance in over 44.23 crore Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) accounts was at Rs 1,50,939.36 crore at December end, 2021. PMJDY, the National Mission for Financial Inclusion, had completed seven years of implementa- tion in August last year. It was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day address on August 15, 2014. As per the finance ministry data, of the total 44.23 crore accounts, 34.9 crore were with the public sector banks, 8.05 crore with regional rural banks, and the rest 1.28 crore with private sector banks. Also, 31.28 crore PMJDY beneficiaries were issued RuPay debit cards. It may be noted that the number of RuPay cards and their usage has increased over time. As per the data, 29.54 crore Jan Dhan accounts were held in rural and semiurban bank branches. Nearly 24.61 crore account holders were women as of December 29, 2021. During the first year of the scheme 17.90 crore PMJDY accounts were opened. As per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guideline, there is no requirement of maintaining minimum balance in Basic Savings Bank Deposit (BSBD) accounts, including Jan Dhan accounts. Depending upon transactions carried out by a Jan Dhan account holder, the balance in any Jan Dhan accounts can vary on a dayto-day basis, and may even become zero on a particular day. As of December 8, 2021, the total number of zero balance accounts was 3.65 crore, which constituted about 8.3 per cent of the total Jan Dhan accounts, the government had informed Parliament last month. CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC will be available to senior citizens above 60 years of age with co-morbidities on the advice of their doctors from January 10, 2022. With the administration of more than 89 lakh doses (89,28,316) vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 151.57 crore (1,51,57,60,645). Admin appoints doctors for patients in home isolation SANJAY SAHAY RANCHI: The District administration has tagged 46 doctors with the incident commanders to care for patients recuperating from Covid 19 in home isolation. The doctors would either visit the patients at their homes or provide the medical service through telecommunication. The Ranchi deputy commissioner Chhavi Ranjan has tagged one doctor each with the incident commanders of Tamar and Rahe while the other 22 commanders have two doctors each. The senior officials including executive magistrate and circle officers have been appointed as incident commanders of regions consisting of one or more police station areas. The tagged doctors would be available in their areas in two shifts namely from 6 AM to 2 PM and from 2 PM to 10 PM. It may be stated here that there has been rapid rise in Covid cases in Ranchi district recently with the number of patients on Saturday being 8,535. However, the hospitalisation of patients is very low as most of them are under home isolation. The district administra- Workers sanitise entrance gate of CM’s residence in Ranchi. tion on Saturday also carried a mock drill of the oxygen plants located in Sadar hospital and the sub-divisional hospital in Bundu and Ormanjhi and the community health centre in Sonahatu. The aim was ensure that thye were functional. Another oxygen plant would be ready in Budmu area soon. In addition, the district hospital has 80 oxygen concentrators while 20 concentrators each are available in hospitals at Bundu, Angara, Bedo, Budmu, Chanho, Kanke, Lapung, Mandar, Namkum, Ormanjhi, Ratu, Silli and Tamar. The administration is also carrying out drive to ensure that people are wearing masks while going out of their homes. NEET-PG COUNSELLING TO START FROM JAN 12 NEW DELHI: The National Eligibility-cumEntrance Test (NEET)Post graduation (PG) counselling 2021 will start from January 12, said Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Sunday. "The NEET-PG counselling is being started by Medical Counselling Committee from January 12, 2022, following the Supreme Court order as assured by the Union Health Ministry to the resident doctors," Mandaviya said in a tweet. He gave best wishes to all students appearing in the NEET exam counselling, adding that it will strengthen India's fight against Covid-19 infection. The Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA), which led the nationwide agitation against delay in the counselling thanked the Union Minister for declaring the counselling date. Talking to IANS, Manish Nigam, FORDA President, said, "We all welcome this step to begin counselling from January 12." MORE ON PG 5