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COVID-19: HC calls for strict action against air passengers violating masking, hygiene norms

kaazmi2012@gmail.com (Super User) — Fri, 03 Jun 2022 14:47:57 +0000

The Delhi High Court called for strict action against those found violating masking and hand hygiene norms at airports and in aircraft, observing that the COVID-19 pandemic has not abated

The Delhi High Court on Friday called for strict action against those found violating masking and hand hygiene norms at airports and in aircraft, observing that the COVID-19 pandemic has not abated and keeps springing up its ugly head.

The high court said all such persons, who are found to be violating these norms, should be booked and fined and they should be placed on the no-fly list and added that it is essential to introduce sufficient deterrence to enforce compliance of norms.

It said it is noticed that very often the norms are not implemented on the ground with the seriousness with which they are framed and therefore, it is essential for the authorities, including Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to ensure that the implementation on the ground is effected properly.

For this purpose, we are of the view that the DGCA should give separate binding directions to all airlines to authorise the staff at airports and in aircraft, including air hostesses, captains, pilots and others to take strict action against passengers and others who violate the masking and hand hygiene norms, a bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Sachin Datta said.

The court noted the submission of DGCA's advocate Anjana Gosain, who herself is inflicted with COVID-19 and appeared through video conferencing, that the Ministry of Civil Aviation has issued another an order on May 10, calling for strict enforcement of COVID-19 protocol.

She said the authorities are seriously implementing norms regarding masking at airports and in aircraft by all concerned.

The issuance of said order, in our view, is the right step since the pandemic has not abated and keeps springing up its ugly head, the bench said, adding that guidelines are always in place and it is the practical compliance which becomes a problem and we falter .

It said let necessary steps be taken and further action taken report be placed before the court and listed the matter for further hearing on July 18.

The court's order came in a PIL, registered on the experience of a sitting judge of the high court while travelling by a domestic flight during the pandemic.

Justice C Hari Shankar had on March 8, 2021, taken suo motu cognisance of the situation after witnessing passengers not wearing masks properly during transportation from airport to the flight and their stubborn reluctance to wear mask properly.

The court, which had issued various guidelines to the DGCA and airlines for immediate compliance, had said it was constrained to pass the order because of an alarming situation which was witnessed by the judge himself during an Air India flight from Kolkata to New Delhi on March 5, 2021.

During the hearing, the court observed that people may not wear N-95 masks in flights but they must at least wear a surgical mask as the idea is to reduce the risk of contracting the virus.

Doctors also wear surgical mask the whole day, the bench said, adding that only at the time of meals the passengers can take off the mask and the moment they finish their meals, they have to wear it again.

People violating should be physically removed from the area if they have to be.., it said.

The DGCA had earlier informed the court that they were taking action against passengers who were not properly wearing mask after repeated warnings and they will be de-boarded before departure and may be treated as unruly passengers .

The DGCA had also said in its circular that passengers shall wear masks and maintain social distancing norms at all times during air travel. The mask shall not be moved below the nose except under exceptional circumstances, it had said.

CISF or other police personnel deployed at the entrance of the airport shall ensure that no one is allowed to enter the airport without wearing a mask, it had said.

In case, any passenger is not following COVID-19 protocol, they should be handed over to security agencies after proper warning. If required, they may be dealt as per law, it had said.

The high court had earlier taken strong note of an alarming situation of passengers not properly wearing masks in flights and issued guidelines to all domestic airlines and DGCA for strict compliance, including penal action for offenders and periodical checks of the aircraft.

Passengers in a flight are in a closed air-conditioned environment, and, even if one of the passengers suffers from COVID-19, the effect on other passengers could be cataclysmic. It is a matter of common knowledge that being within arm's length distance of a COVID-19 carrier, even if he is asymptomatic and is merely speaking, is more than sufficient to transmit the virus, it had said.

If despite being reminded, he or she refuses to follow the protocol, action should be taken against the passenger in accordance with the guidelines issued by the DGCA or Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, including placing him or her on a 'no-fly' regimen, either permanently or for a stipulated, sufficiently long, period, it had said.

COVID-19: 42 people test positive at BJP headquarters in Delhi

kaazmi2012@gmail.com (Super User) — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 14:45:01 +0000

42 staff members at the BJP headquarters in Delhi have tested positive for COVID-19, sources said. A mass COVID testing was done ahead of BJP's core group meeting, after which they were found positive.

42 staff members at the BJP headquarters in Delhi have tested positive for COVID-19, sources said. A mass COVID testing was done ahead of the BJP's core group meeting, after which these people were found positive. These include staff members as well as security officials.

According to a report in NDTV, several of those infected are sanitation workers, sources said. Everyone has been asked to self-isolate.Headquarters of BJP in central Delhi's Minto Road was fully sanitised later, sources said.The saffron party has started a new protocol where all staff members at their headquarters in Delhi will be tested for COVID-19 ahead of any big meeting.

"Only people engaged in important activities related to the office are coming to the headquarters," news agency ANI reported quoting an unnamed BJP official.Some senior members of the party have already tested positive. These include Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, Defence minister Rajnath Singh and BJP national president JP Nadda and they have been under home quarantine.

This raid increase in Covid positive cases at the BJP headquarters may have an impact over the party's discussions over election strategy in five states for upcoming assembly elections.

Govt must act fast to deal with COVID third wave, projected to extract a great toll of lives and livelihoods

kaazmi2012@gmail.com (Super User) — Thu, 06 Jan 2022 15:24:37 +0000

Govt must prepare for an impending crisis within days in terms of medical facilities and preventing a devastating disruption in supply chain of essential commodities and relief needed to people.

By the morning of January 6, it was clear that lives and livelihoods in India are at an even greater risk from the third wave of COVID-19 than many among us believed. The total daily reported cases were about 91,000 with a sharp spike of over 56 per cent new infections a day and 325 deaths. Infection from the Omicron variant stands at 2630, which is also spreading fast.

On December 31, 2021, the daily case tally was only 16,724 which increased in five days to 90,928 on January 5. Even if the situation does not become worse and the rate of infection continues at the same rate, daily infections in the country could be above 5 lakh within five days, and may go up to around 25 lakh within 10 days. Only a few days ago, an estimate had claimed that India may be witnessing 16 lakh infections daily by January 15.

It will, of course, not help to panic but we must understand the risks. Going by the present death rate, that is 325 in 91,920, the toll may be unacceptably high if daily cases rise to 16-25 lakh. We must remember that at the peak of the second wave, daily infections had risen to around 4.15 lakh and deaths to 3741. At the present rate of death, India may be witnessing more deaths in absolute numbers within ten days, in the business-as-usual scenario.

Now come to the rate of hospitalization which rose to around 24,000 a day at the peak of the second wave when infection was around 4.5 lakh. In the present third wave, hospitalization rate is still low, but it should not be considered a basis of inaction, because one estimate has claimed that at the present rate of hospitalization, India may witness a sharp rise in the absolute number of daily hospitalization needed to around 60,000 to one lakh range within ten days from now.

These are only some projections which must be taken into account while planning for the strategy to face the third wave. One wishes that such predictions would prove false, but we must prepare for the worst in terms of enhancing medical facilities, since it is only just the beginning of the third wave and the data shows that R naught value in India, that is the rate of spread of COVID-19, is higher at 2.69 than the second wave peak at 1.69.

India’s active caseload stood at 2,85,401 in the morning of January 6, and the active cases account for less than 1 per cent of the total cases. Recovery rate is 97.81 per cent, which should be a matter of concern since 2.19 per cent infected people are still at a very high risk. Total recoveries in the last 24 hours were only 19,206 while new cases were 90,928. The daily positivity rate is 6.43 per cent which is much higher than the weekly positivity rate of 3.47 per cent.

Though the focus of the government is presently on Omicron, which has been termed ‘milder’ than other variants, the combined threat from the third wave cannot be underestimated in any case. WHO’s warnings still stand valid and India should quickly change its strategy.

“Even if Omicron does cause less severe disease, the sheer number of cases could once again overwhelm unprepared health systems. … Vaccines alone will not get any country out of this crisis. Countries can – and must – prevent the spread of Omicron with measures that work today,” the WHO chief had warned last month.

Individuals, in the present scenario, must take precautionary measures to reduce their risk of COVID-19, including proven public health and social measures such as wearing well-fitting masks, hand hygiene, physical distancing, improving ventilation of indoor spaces, avoiding crowded spaces, and getting vaccinated.

As for the Centre and the state governments, they need to quickly deploy appropriate measures at the ground level to save lives and livelihoods, through containment measures, enhancement of medical care, and economic reliefs to households that cannot afford even food, due to likely disruption in economic activities, or else the situation may turn into a great health and humanitarian crisis.

The leaders of the ruling establishment have a great responsibility. Wait and watch is not a good policy at present. Mass gatherings, especially public rallies, must be avoided, and stringent measures put in place, if not a complete lockdown.

Action should take the place of simple advisories and there should not be any delay, given the sharp rise in rate of hospitalization across the country in the first week of January 2022.

The Centre and the states should immediately prepare themselves for the impending unprecedented emergency within ten days not only in terms of drugs, hospital beds, medical personnel, oxygen etc but also in terms of preventing a devastating disruption in supply chain of essential commodities and relief needed to people.

UK medics warn of looming breaking point as omicron spreads

kaazmi2012@gmail.com (Super User) — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 17:58:47 +0000

British Medical Association has warned that almost 50,000 doctors, nurses and other health staff in England could be off sick with COVID-19 by Christmas unless additional measures are introduced.

Britain's main nurses' union warned Monday that exhaustion and surging coronavirus cases among medical staff are pushing them to breaking point, adding to pressure on the government for new restrictions to bring down record-high infection numbers driven by the omicron variant.

Patricia Marquis, England director for the Royal College of Nursing union, said the situation over the next few weeks looked very bleak, as growing absences from sickness and self-isolation hit hospitals struggling to clear a backlog of postponed procedures and treat normal winter sicknesses alongside coronavirus cases.In many places they're already under immense stress and pressure, and so they are starting to go off sick themselves with COVID, but also mental and physical exhaustion, she told the BBC. So, staff are looking forward now thinking, Oh my goodness, what is coming?'"

Having repeatedly promised that there will be no repeat of last year's lockdown-marred Christmas, Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces an agonising choice: wreck the holiday plans of millions or face a tidal wave of cases and disruption.Many governments in Europe and the US face similar dilemmas about how hard to come down on omicron, which appears more transmissible than the previous delta variant that itself led to surges in many parts of the world. Early evidence suggests omicron may also produce less serious illness though scientists caution it is too soon to say and that it could better evade vaccine protection.

Even if it generally causes fewer serious cases, omicron could still overwhelm health systems because of the sheer number of infections.But many political leaders are reluctant to impose the stiff measures they resorted to earlier in the pandemic often because they promised their people that vaccines would offer a way out of such restrictions and it may be politically untenable to impose them again.

In the US, the prospect of a winter chilled by a wave of coronavirus infections is a severe reversal from the optimism projected by President Joe Biden some 10 months ago, when he suggested that the country would essentially be back to normal by this Christmas.France is desperately trying to avoid a new lockdown that would hurt the economy and cloud President Emmanuel Macron's expected re-election campaign.

Meanwhile, Johnson, whose authority has been hammered by weeks of political scandals, is caught between calls from scientific advisers for new limits on social interaction now, and vociferous opposition within his Conservative Party to any such restrictions.Earlier this month, Johnson's government reinstated rules requiring face masks in shops and ordered people to show proof of vaccination or a negative coronavirus test before entering nightclubs and other crowded venues. But many scientists say tougher action is needed.

UK Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said Monday he could not make hard and fast guarantees that new restrictions would not be announced this week.Government ministers are discussing several options, ranging from non-binding guidance for people to limit festive gatherings to mandatory social distancing and curfews for bars and restaurants.

The speed of omicron's spread in the UK, where cases are doubling about every two days, is decimating the economy in the busy pre-Christmas period. Usually teeming theatres and restaurants are being hit by cancellations. Some eateries and pubs have closed until after the holidays because so many staff are off sick or self-isolating.

The Natural History Museum, one of London's leading attractions, said Monday it was closing for a week because of front-of-house staff shortages . The hospitality industry is urging the government to offer financial support, as it did earlier in the pandemic with grants, loans and a scheme that paid the salaries of millions of furloughed workers.

Those programmes were wound down after Britain lifted restrictions in the summer.The Dutch government began a tough nationwide lockdown on Sunday to rein in sharply rising infections, at least partially attributed to the omicron variant. But other European countries have opted for something less.France and Germany have barred most British travellers from entering. Ireland imposed an 8 pm curfew on pubs and bars and limited attendance at indoor and outdoor events.

These countries are warily watching the UK, which for now appears among the places most dramatically hit by the omicron variant.Confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK have surged by 50% in a week. The government on Sunday reported 82,886 more lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in a day. With over 147,000 deaths, Britain has Europe's highest COVID-19 death toll after Russia.The number of hospitalisations is growing much more slowly, but medical groups are warning that hospitals are already under strain in London, hardest-hit so far by the omicron-driven wave.
The British Medical Association has warned that almost 50,000 doctors, nurses and other National Health Service staff in England could be off sick with COVID-19 by Christmas Day unless additional measures are introduced.Medics' time and energy are also being diverted to delivering vaccine boosters in keeping with early data that the extra shot helps protect against the variant. Johnson has set a goal of offering everyone 18 and up a booster by the end of December.More than 900,000 booster shots were delivered on Sunday, as soccer stadiums, shopping centres and cathedrals were turned into temporary inoculation clinics.

Report asks world to prepare for next global health threat; current system can't protect us, warns WHO

kaazmi2012@gmail.com (Super User) — Tue, 23 Nov 2021 18:58:30 +0000

The WHA special session must do its best for a binding Global Treaty to save humanity from the present and future pandemics that can strike anytime, the panel said presenting the accountability report.

The six-month accountability report presented just a week ahead of the special session of the World Health Assembly (WHA) from November 29 to December 1, only the second in the history of the World Health Organisation (WHO), has presented clear evidence of two most important issues – first, the current system is incapable of protecting us from the next pandemic, which could happen anytime from now, and the second is that the world needs to prepare for the next global health threat.

Health ministers from WHO’s 194 member states will be participating in the three day WHA to consider negotiating a treaty aimed at preventing future pandemics. If it succeeds, it would only be the second global public health treaty after a 2003 accord to control tobacco use. This special session was decided in May last when the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response had submitted its report on COVID-19, which had assessed the progress made in the eight months prior to the regular WHA, which is usually held every year in May. The panel had evaluated as to how the WHO and member countries handled the pandemic, and had recommended a new global response system to be set up to ensure that no future virus can cause a pandemic as devastating.

Six months have passed since May, and 90 million more people have contracted COVID-19, and 1.65 million people have died, the report noted, while assessing the progress, including the areas of leadership and governance, financing, equity, a new legal instrument, and a stronger WHO. Following the deep-dive into COVID-19 responses, immediate action was recommended for a package of international, interlinked reforms to stop a future outbreak, an now time has come to rise to the occasion for a Global Pact next week.

“There is progress, but it is not fast or cohesive enough to bring this pandemic to an end across the globe in the near term, or to prevent another,” the panel said in the report. Since December 2019, when the first case was identified in China, over 257 million people have been reported to be infected by COVID-19 and 5.5 million have died.

The accountability report has stressed on availability of finance and governance with accountability. It rightly said that “governance without finance lacks teeth; and finance without governance lacks accountability”. At least $10 billion in new financing annually and up to $100 billion in a pool of response funding is needed for a pandemic threat, the report has said while recommending that the Global Health Threats Council should also allocate and monitor funding from new financing mechanism that supports pandemic preparedness and responses.

While presenting the report the Co-chairs of the panel Helen Clark and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said that “uneven” progress in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause illness, deaths, and economic losses and have called for Heads of State and Governments to come together to make faster progress, especially at the UN General Assembly while pointing out that with much of the groundwork done, now is the time to end the pandemic and prepare for the next global threat.

“Given the scale of devastation from this pandemic and its continuing impact on people across the globe, the panel resolved to document fully what happened and why, and to make bold recommendations for change”, said Ms. Clark. In this context, the independent panel has said that the WHO must be strengthened with more funding and greater ability to investigate pandemics through a new treaty. “Strengthening the authority and independence of the WHO and developing new legal instruments are pivotal to the package of reforms required,” the panel said.

Unfortunately, vaccine inequity has changed very little, and in the poorest countries, less than one per cent of the population are fully vaccinated. Although wealthy countries have publicly pledged donations, “just a fraction of redistributed doses have actually been delivered.” The co-chairs not only emphasized on transparently planned donations to quickly deliver the vaccines, but also to develop “a true end-to-end global public goods model” that could be the only answer.

The pandemic treaty should aim to build preparedness, strengthen obligations for countries to alert the WHO to outbreaks and allow speedy on-site investigations, and ensure fair access to vaccines and drugs, the panel said. However, a global treaty in this regard still seem uncertain, while the weaknesses of the present legal instrument International Health Regulations (IHR) that govern the way WHO and countries function during health emergencies have already been exposed during COVID-19 pandemic which has necessitated the reform and hence the present special session of the WHA is scheduled to be held.

The skeptics of the success of the event are saying that since the United States, China, and Russia themselves are not very enthusiastic about a treaty for their ‘internal reasons’ and so called ‘national interests or sovereignty issues’, and thus a Global Health Treaty in this regard is unlikely to be adopted in this special session.

Despite skepticism, one can certainly hope for a modest reform, a change in the present IHR, or some better political resolution or rules. The world will know next week the final shape of the negotiations that are presently going on behind the scene. The WHA special session must do its best for a binding Global Treaty to save the humanity from the present and future pandemics that can strike anytime, as the panel says.

Srinagar Received 165 Ventilators From PM CARES It Didn't Ask For – And They Didn’t Work

kaazmi2012@gmail.com (Super User) — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 17:34:37 +0000

Two of the three implicated vendors have also featured in prominent complaints against PM CARES ventilators from other parts of the country.

New Delhi: In 2020, the Government of India set up the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (CARES) Fund that it said would mobilise help to various parts of the country as the country’s first major COVID outbreak was taking shape, and a brutal second one on the horizon.

Under this initiative, the noted Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital, Srinagar, received a batch of 165 ventilators from the Fund. And an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has now revealed that hospital authorities found all 165 units to be defective either during tests or when operated with patients.

India experienced a crucial ventilator crunch last year. Severe COVID-19 impairs lung function considerably, which means patients need these devices to be able to continue breathing. The government put out calls for enterprising engineers and doctors around the country to develop and manufacture more ventilators than were available, while groups of scientists also banded together to make their own efforts.

However, the programme was marred by two problems. First, a company to which the PM CARES fund – operated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a coterie of senior ministers – awarded a contract for 10,000 ventilators was found to have never made ventilators before.Second, the government didn’t set out any standards that ventilator designs would have to comply with, mixing up the features that were available with each candidate as well as slowing work itself.

India’s second major COVID-19 outbreak was marked by a shortage of oxygen, not ventilators. Nonetheless, while hospitals may have a sufficient number of ventilators today, their quality remains unclear. And the latest RTI finding is revealing in that regard.As it happens, the Fund’s operators sent the 165 units to the SMHS Hospital even though the Jammu and Kashmir union territory hadn’t asked for them.

The RTI application had been filed by a Jammu-based activist named Balvinder Singh, with the Department of Health and Medical Education. The department’s answers were to 15 questions Singh had had about the ventilators received from the Fund.

And according to the reply received, most of the devices were unable to meet the conditions required to “support patient care management” and that they would “stop automatically”, putting “patients at risk”.Singh told The Wire he was prompted to file his RTI application after he found from conversations with doctors that “a large number of the supplied ventilators were not up to the mark and were not generating the required tidal volume”.

The tidal volume is the amount of air that moves in and out of the lungs when we breathe. A ventilator that doesn’t general the proper tidal volume is a ventilator that has failed to perform its essential function.“But [the doctors] were not ready to speak in the open or provide the correct details about the defective ventilators, maybe due to compulsions or pressure from some quarters,” Singh added.

He said he was encouraged to continue his enquiries after a member of the hospital’s anaesthesiology department “admitted that three kinds of ventilators” that [Srinagar] had received from different sources “were not generating the required tidal volume” nor the fraction of inspired oxygen – the amount of oxygen available to the lungs.

Singh filed his RTI around the middle of 2020. It was only his first appeal that elicited a proper answer, on September 25, when the head of the department of anaesthesiology and critical care at the Government Medical College (GMC), Srinagar, replied with a detailed letter. It confirmed what doctors had told Singh.

First, Srinagar had received from three sources, and they were all defective. Second, the GMC’s department of anaesthesiology and critical care hadn’t put in a request for ventilators from the PM CARES Fund. But it received some units anyway following a reported requisition request from the superintendent of the SMHS Hospital.The three sources were the following: Bharat Ventilators (37 units), Jyoti CNC Automation Ltd. (125) and AgVa Ventilators (3).

Jyoti CNC had reportedly received Rs 121 crore to supply 5,000 ventilators to HLL Lifecare, the government-owned company tasked with acquiring ventilators for India’s hospitals. The devices AgVa sold to the government were priced at Rs 1.8 lakh apiece.“Bharat Ventilators” likely refers to Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), the government-owned defence electronics company, according to a different RTI application from August 2020. It sold 30,000 ventilators to HLL for Rs 1,513.92 crore.

So the total cost of the 165 defective units amounts to Rs 304.4 crore. The PM CARES fund as such had set aside Rs 2,000 crore to fund the procurement of 50,000 ventilators; the total bill was Rs 2,332 crore.The anaesthesiology department member wrote that the department received 37 units made by Bharat Ventilators, from the medical superintendent of the SMHS Hospital, and that GMC staff set about testing them.

“However, all these ventilators [were] returned to the medical superintendent of SMHS Hospital due to compressor/heat-up problems, which resulted in sudden shut-down of these ventilators,” the letter that Singh received said.The three units from AgVa ventilators were installed at SMHS hospital but they were typified by non-functional displays or problems with generating a sufficient tidal volume”.

The 125 units from Jyoti CNC – with the brand name ‘Dhaman III’ – were stationed at the DRDO Hospital in Khanmoh, Srinagar. Two that had been tested at SMHS, however, didn’t elicit a sufficient tidal volume and also stopped working “automatically”.Jyoti CNC had said in August 2020 that the Directorate General of Health Services, under the Union health ministry, had tested the Dhaman III and qualified it for service.

The DRDO hospital also has 22 more units made by AgVa Ventilators that are being put through their paces, the letter said.The RTI reply’s revelations reinforce questions that have been hanging over two of the three implicated vendors – Jyoti CNC and AgVa.

AgVa was one of the companies that lost out to the one that had never made ventilators before. Its contract with HLL to supply 10,000 ventilators has also been called into question because of doubts that it was awarded before the technical committee the health ministry setup to evaluate applications was constituted. Similarly, Jyoti CNC received an advance payment for its contract – only for the technical committee to withhold its recommendation for the company.

That the ventilators are now lying unused is not entirely new either. In May 2021, for example, the Aurangabad Medical College said that 58 of the 150 Dhaman III ventilators it had received from Jyoti CNC were “faulty”. All these units had been funded with money from the PM CARES fund.The college also alleged that technicians from Jyoti CNC called in to fix some malfunctioning ventilators were unable to help.

More broadly, in June 2021, the New Indian Express reported that 5,500 ventilators were gathering dust in the health ministry’s warehouses. In the same month, Scroll.in found that health workers in both BJP- and non-BJP-ruled states had problems with the ventilators they had received, and that the ventilators the Centre had purchased from well-known manufacturers weren’t sent to the states but had been retained for its own use.

Singh has now written to the Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir high court requesting “serious cognisance of the ‘defective ventilators’ supplied to J&K UT through PM CARES Funds”.He also sought directions to the UT’s chief secretary – to constitute an expert committee to examine all ventilators received from the PM CARES Fund – and strict action against the offending suppliers. He has also requested disciplinary action against health department officials for endangering patients.

Brazil Senate Report Indicting Jair Bolsonaro Dissects 'Corrupt' Covaxin Deal

kaazmi2012@gmail.com (Super User) — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 20:22:37 +0000

Senate panel’s report indicts 66 persons, including the Brazilian president, his three sons, four ministers and several officials. Two firms and 11 persons are named for serious crimes in the $300-million contract for Bharat Biotech’s vaccine.

Sao Paulo: In a devastating blow to President Jair Bolsonaro, the report of a senate probe into his government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has charged the Brazilian far-right leader with nine offences, including crime against humanity and crime of responsibility. The report has also indicted the president and some of his top aides for malfeasance in the tainted deal for the purchase of 20 million doses of Covaxin made by Bharat Biotech, which has come under some scathing criticism. Two top executives of Bharat Biotech’s former business partner in Brazil, Precisa Medicamentos, have been indicted for “running an organised crime” besides committing fraud and forgery.

At a tension-filled chamber on Wednesday, the rapporteur of the parliamentary commission of inquiry (CPI), Senator Renan Calheiros, presented his report to the 11-member panel which will vote for its approval on Tuesday (October 26). Reading a summary of his report, which runs into 1,180 pages, the senator named Bolsonaro as the main culprit for uncontrolled COVID-19 infections in Brazil. The president, said the rapporteur, should be held responsible and investigated for nine crimes, including crimes against humanity, which could result in imprisonment; and crimes of responsibility, which may lead to the president’s impeachment. For all the nine crimes together, Bolsonaro can be sent to prison for up to 40 years. “The president has committed many crimes and he will pay for them,” Senator Omar Aziz, president of CPI, said at the beginning of the session on Wednesday.

Televised live on national networks and watched by millions, the CPI report was tabled just six days short of six months of CPI investigation, which has exposed how the Bolsonaro government made little effort to contain the virus. “This inquiry gathered evidence that clearly demonstrated that the federal government chose to act in a reckless manner, deliberately exposing the population [to the virus],” said Senator Calheiros, emphasising that the government allowed the spread of virus in the country as a “deliberate and conscious” policy to follow the so-called “herd immunity” strategy. The number of infections in Brazil, says the report, could have been 40% less and saved 1,20,000 lives if the government acted in time with responsibility.

Though the Brazilian president has been slapped with the maximum number of charges, the report indicts 65 persons – mostly political heavyweights – for 29 different crimes. Those indicted include Bolsonaro’s three sons, federal senator Flavio, federal deputy Eduardo and Rio city councilman Carlos, four federal ministers, three former ministers and three federal deputies. Two Brazilian companies, Precisa Medicamentos and VTCLog, have also been charged with “acting against public interest”.

Out of 65 persons named by CPI, 11 have been indicted for irregularities in the Covaxin deal. Both the Brazilian firms, too, have been charged for their role in the $300-million contract with Bharat Biotech, which has been in the crosshairs of the inquiry since June.

All about Covaxin

When the CPI began its work on April 27, the panel had a very broad mandate of looking at the “acts of omission and commission” by the Bolsonaro government. But in June, after a whistleblower exposed corruption in the purchase of Covaxin, the probe turned all its attention to the vaccine deal with India. With the burgeoning scandal, known here as CovaxinGate, becoming a symbol of Bolsonaro’s disastrous response to the pandemic, the panel summoned the maximum number of witnesses to testify about the irregularities in the contract with the Indian vaccine manufacturer. Now, the revelations about the contract make the centrepiece of the report as a 100-pages long chapter, called “The Covaxin Case”, has been devoted just to the deal with the Indian firm.

Scanning all the aspects of the contract, CPI has brutally dissected the whole Covaxin deal. From the details of the report emerges a scandalous picture in which corners were cut at every step of the $300 million contract amid a raging pandemic.

As per the CPI report, the decision to buy the Indian vaccine was a corruption scheme hatched at the highest level of Brazilian government. As Covaxin was not eligible for emergency use authorisation (EUA) by the Brazilian drug regulator (ANVISA), says the report, federal deputy Ricardo Barros, who is the leader of government in Congress, got a bill passed in 2021 that would allow the automatic authorisation of a vaccine in Brazil, if it was already approved in India. “This is serious because there was a warning from the Brazilian ambassador to India, on January 5, about the opaque and rushed approval process of Covaxin, without final efficacy data in that country [India] for emergency use, which caused strong internal distrust both among the specialists and people,” says the report, questioning the way Brazilian government sought an approval for Covaxin.

The CPI rapporteur, Senator Renan Calheiros (left), organises his report before presenting it to the commission at the senate on Wednesday.

At the heart of the Covaxin scandal, according to the CPI report, is a letter sent by Bolsonaro to the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, on January 8, 2021, just five days after the vaccine had been given EUA by the Indian drug regulator. In his letter, Bolsonaro told Modi that Covaxin had been selected for inclusion into Brazil’s national vaccination plan. The senate panel found this commitment from Bolsonaro highly incriminating. “It turns out that phase-3 clinical trials of the vaccine had not even been completed in India. During that period, by the way, Brazil ignored the offers from Pfizer, the most used vaccine in the world whose clinical trials were completed in Brazil, as well as those of Janssen (single dose) and Moderna,” says the report.

For his role in the Covaxin deal, Ricardo Barros who is one of the closest allies of Bolsonaro, has been indicted with the very serious charges of “incitement to crime”, “formation of a criminal organisation” and “administrative improbity”. Two executives of Precisa Medicamentos, Emanuela Medrades and Francisco Maximiano, have also been charged with these crimes in addition to the charges of “using false documents”. After signing an MoU with Bharat Biotech in November 2020, the Brazilian firm had represented the Indian company in all its dealings with Brazil’s ministry of health. Emanuela Medrades had also signed the contract with the ministry in February as a representative of the Hyderabad-based company.

Since it came on the CPI radar, the image of Bharat Biotech has been badly sullied in this country. Now, as the senate report has put out its findings and recommendations for action in black-and-white, the vaccine manufacturer’s will be damaged further. The vaccine, says the report, could have caused serious damage to Brazilians had they been vaccinated with it. “First, it is necessary to point out that Covaxin is a vaccine questioned around the world…Furthermore, months after its launch, Covaxin has not got international acceptance and the Indians, the only people who have been vaccinated with it en masse, live the trauma of not being able to travel to most countries as fully vaccinated persons,” says the report in a part of the Covaxin chapter which points out the delay in approval to the Indian vaccine in the US and Europe.

A costly affair

Under the contract between the Brazilian government and Bharat Biotech, the highly-priced vaccine was to be sold at $15 per dose. But as ANVISA refused to grant emergency use authorisation to Covaxin with the CPI investigators looking for the money trail in the deal, the contract came under a cloud. As the scandal became too hot to handle for the Bolsonaro government, the contract was first suspended and then cancelled completely in July this year.

Throughout the CPI investigation, a number of senators raised doubts about the safety of the Indian vaccine, especially because it had not yet received the approval from the World Health Organisation (WHO). The CPI report has articulated the issue of vaccine safety quite forcefully. “WHO has delayed the decision regarding the inclusion of Covaxin in the Covax facility program (sic), which has already been awarded to dozens of other vaccines. Sabyasachi Chatterjee, president of the respected All India People’s Science Network platform, says the WHO’s repeated postponement of granting emergency use authorisation to Covaxin is yet another demonstration that Bharat Biotech has failed to convince the world of that its vaccine is effective and safe,” says the CPI report, quoting an interview Chatterjee gave to Karan Thapar for The Wire, whose link is included in the footnotes of the section.

A screenshot of a page in CPI report which carries the image of a tweet by Bolsonaro in which he had thanked Prime Minister Modi for sending the raw material of hydroxychloroquine to Brazil.

In addition to questioning the safety of Bharat Biotech’s vaccine, the Brazilian inquiry has also severely criticised the Brazilian government for accepting its business model of using shell companies. “The CPI verified that the business model of the sale of Covaxin by Bharat Biotech, passively accepted by the [Brazilian] ministry of health, with the use of “shell companies” in Singapore (Madison Biotech) and in the United Arab Emirates (Envixia), suffered wide international rejection. In the Philippines, the National Task Force against Covid-19 has publicly criticised Bharat Biotech’s demand to sell Covaxin through Madison Biotech,” says the report.

The CovaxinGate became a scandal in Brazil in June when it was revealed that a federal deputy Luis Miranda and his brother, Ricardo Miranda who is a ministry of health official, had met Bolsonaro in March to complain about corruption in the Covaxin contract. The Miranda brothers’ complaint was based on an invoice for an advance payment of $45 million to Madison Biotech, the Singapore-based shell firm which was not part of the contract. But Bolsonaro, says the CPI report, continued to bat for expediting the deal, defended the acquisition of Covaxin and failed to act on the corruption matter brought to his attention. As a police investigation into the contract was opened only on June 30, many days after the Miranda brothers had testified at the commission, the CPI has indicted the president with malfeasance in the Covaxin case.

In addition to crimes against humanity and crimes of responsibility, it is the charge of malfeasance which can politically damage Bolsonaro.

The last laugh?

The parliamentary commission of inquiry doesn’t have powers to put on trial or punish individuals indicted by it. After its report is approved by the 11-member commission on Tuesday, the report will be sent to the prosecutor-general (PGR) and the Speaker of Congress for further action. The current PGR, Augusto Aras who is considered close to Bolsonaro, is not expected to move an inch on the report. Arthur Lira, the Speaker who is also an ally of the president, is also likely to sleep over it as he has been with more than 100 pleas for Bolsonaro’s impeachment. Aware of the political reality, the CPI may move Supreme Court on whose orders the commission was set up. There is already a discussion about going to the International Criminal Court at The Hague with the charges of crimes against humanity against Bolsonaro.

Severely damaged by six months of uninterrupted probe into his government, Bolsonaro stands on quite a sticky wicket. But on Wednesday, the president’s camp was showing a brave – and brazen – face to the media. When asked by reporters outside the senate how Bolsonaro would react to the CPI report, his eldest son, Senator Flavio, said his father would receive the report about the crimes with a hearty laughter. Then he broke into a loud laughter, as if imitating his father. Upon learning of Flavio’s reaction during the presentation of the CPI report, Senator Omar Aziz said that Bolsonaro would laugh not out of relief, but out of fear because “there is the justice of men and the Divine Justice”.

Since the virus hit Brazil in February 2020, Bolsonaro attained international notoriety for dismissing it as a “little flu”, urging people to gather in public places without masks, pushing unproven drugs as “preventive treatment” and sowing doubts about the efficacy of globally-accepted vaccines. All this while more than 6,00,000 Brazilians were killed and close to 22 million infected by the virus. Angered by the president’s attitude, the victims’ families have been demanding justice. Now, with the CPI probe done and its report submitted, a fight for justice between the two sides is in the cards.

Allahabad HC Stays Second Suspension Order Against Kafeel Khan

kaazmi2012@gmail.com (Super User) — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 19:22:38 +0000

Justice Saral Srivastava directed the authorities to conclude the inquiry against Khan within one month.

New Delhi: The Allahabad high court has stayed the second suspension order against Dr Kafeel Khan.On July 31, 2019, the doctor was suspended for the second time while he was already under suspension for allegedly forcibly treating patients at the Bahraich District Hospital and criticising policies of the government.He was earlier suspended following a tragedy at Gorakhpur’s BRD Medical College, where around 60 children had died in August 2017 due to an alleged shortage of oxygen.Hearing a writ petition filed by Khan, Justice Saral Srivastava, however, directed the authorities to conclude the inquiry against him within one month.

The court further directed that the petitioner shall cooperate in the inquiry and in case he does not, the disciplinary authority may proceed to conclude the inquiry ex parte.While fixing the hearing for November 11, the court also asked the state authorities to file a reply in four weeks.The counsel for the petitioner had argued that the suspension order was passed on July 31, 2019 and more than two years have passed but the probe has not been concluded. Hence, the suspension order cannot remain in force in view of the judgment of the apex court in the case of Ajay Kumar Choudhary versus Union of India (2015) 7 SCC 291, the counsel said.

He further argued that since the petitioner is already a suspended employee, therefore, there is no purpose of passing a second suspension order.He submitted that there is no rule which permits the state government to issue a fresh suspension order when the employee is already under suspension.However, state government’s counsel submitted that the inquiry report against the petitioner has been submitted on August 27, 2021, a copy of which has been sent to the petitioner on August 28, asking him to submit objections.He said the inquiry will be concluded expeditiously.

Last month, the Allahabad high court had quashed charges and criminal proceedings against Khan based on a speech he delivered during the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests at Aligarh Muslim University.As The Wire has reported before, the Uttar Pradesh police has filed a number of cases and even arrested Khan on two occasions for his dissenting opinions and speaking out against government policies.

COVID-19: India records 43,263 new cases

kaazmi2012@gmail.com (Super User) — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 16:59:44 +0000

The active cases increased to 3,93,614 comprising 1.19 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.48 per cent, the ministry said.

India saw a single day rise of 43,263 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,31,39,981, while the active cases increased to 3,93,614, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.The death toll climbed to 4,41,749 with 338 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The active cases increased to 3,93,614 comprising 1.19 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.48 per cent, the ministry said.India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 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.India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.

India records 46,759 COVID-19 cases, 509 deaths

kaazmi2012@gmail.com (Super User) — Sat, 28 Aug 2021 12:34:29 +0000

With 46,759 people testing positive for COVID in a span of 24 hours, India's infection tally rose to 3,26,49,947, while the count of active cases registered an increase for the fourth consecutive day.

With 46,759 people testing positive for COVID-19 in a span of 24 hours, India's infection tally rose to 3,26,49,947 on Saturday, while the count of active cases registered an increase for the fourth consecutive day, according to Union Health Ministry data.The death toll has climbed to 4,37,370 with 509 more fatalities being recorded, according to the data updated at 8 am.
The number of active cases has now increased to 3,59,775 which comprises 1.10 per cent of the total infections. The national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.56 per cent, the ministry said.

An increase of 14,876 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.Also, 17,61,110 coronavirus tests were conducted in the country on Friday, taking the cumulative number of such examinations done so far to 51,68,87,602.The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.66 per cent. It has been below three per cent for the last 33 days.

The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2.19 per cent. This has been below three per cent for 64 days now, according to the Health Ministry.The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,18,52,802, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.34 per cent, the data stated.Cumulatively, 62.29 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered under the nationwide vaccination drive till Saturday morning.

India's COVID-19 infection tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7 last year, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5, 50 lakh on September 16, 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and one crore on December 19.India crossed the grim milestone of two crore infection on May 4 this year and three crore on June 23.