17.05.21

Government health schemes to cover Covid expenses in Manipur

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Manipur chief ministerN Biren Singhhas asked the public to avail benefits from the state Health scheme of chief minister-GI Hakshelgi Tengbang (CMHT) and Ayushman Bharat Yojana for Covid-19 treatment.

The CM made the announcement on Sunday while interacting with Covid-19 patients under Home isolation through a video conference. Biren advised the patients to not feel depressed during their isolation period and said that they could easily recover from the infection within 14 days with proper medication.

DRDO’s new Covid drug not to be used on a mass scale: Assam health department

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TheCoviddrug DRDO 2-DG will not be used inAssamon a mass scale but only on an experimental basis. The state is awaiting the first consignment of 1,000 packets of the medicine for emergency use.

Without major trials, it is seen as experimental medicine but Health officials are optimistic that the 2-DG drug can turn into a stroke of luck for states such as Assam, where decreasing Oxygen level has raised the daily Covid death numbers. With the enhancement of the testing rate, the number of new cases has become stable, and the positivity rate has fallen below 6%. However, there has been no respite from the deaths, which continue to hover between 80-90 per day.

Breast implant gains popularity in state

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Breast augmentation surgery, gaining popularity in metros and big cities, is also slowly catching up in tier-2 states likeOdisha.

Experts believe Social Media, peer pressure and rising aspirations have led to Women shedding their inhibitions and embracing their bodies. A growing middle-class that is exposed to celebrity lifestyle, wooed by the cosmetics and influenced heavily by the huge wedding market, does not mind shelling a lakh or two for a fuller body shape.

A small segment of such women want to restore their breasts, in case they have become disfigured or have been lost to cancer. This apart, women having amastia (absence of breasts) or hypomastia (small-size breasts) take recourse to surgery.

New school academic year will be online this time too in Kerala

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Kerala Education Minister V.Sivankutty said that with the Covid pandemic continuing its surge, the new academic school year will start in the online mode from June 1, this time as well.

Sivankutty said that at the moment there is no way one can think of returning to classrooms and hence like the previous academic year, this time also it would be in the digital mode.

The classes will be aired through KITE-Victers (an edutainment channel). Certain changes have been made to make the classes more interesting and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate it on June 1. The state level inauguration would be held at the Hill Girls School here.

Sivankutty also added that the annual welcome function for the kids who enter the field of education for the first time will also be able to be held virtually.

Slump in demand leaves dairy sector in Karnataka in the lurch

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In a huge blow to farmers inKarnataka, milk unions have decided to slash purchase price by Rs 1.5 per litre from June 1, owing to plummeting consumption amid the pandemic-induced lockdown.

Ironically, low demand has been compounded by a glut in production because of decent rains. The Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), the apex body of milk unions, receives about 87 lakh litres daily as against normal inflow of 73 lakh litres. Daily sales, on the other hand, have dipped from 60 lakh to 49 lakh litres.

KMF, which is under pressure to continue procurement, has appealed to the Centre to allow milk unions to borrow under the interest subvention scheme on the lines of its package for last years lockdown when the milk unions availed Rs 800 crore.

Telanganas Covid curve to flatten from June 21: IIT model

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The Susceptible, Undetected, Tested (positive), and Removed (Sutra)mathematical modelfor tracking the trajectory ofCovid-19infection has predicted that will peak around May 12, reaching a daily case mark of around 9,000 to 9,500cases. As per the model, the state will start seeing a flattening of thecurvefrom around June 21 while the peak will continue from around May 12 to May 20.

The team of professors from IIT Kanpur and Hyderabad have made these predictions as per the revised estimated for states in the past few days. Interestingly, Telangana has already touched the 10,000 daily cases mark 10,122 last Monday which was the highest single-day surge since the pandemic outbreak. The number was higher than the predicted peak for Telangana.

Nearly 95% families in Andhra Pradesh under Aarogyasri

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Nearly 95% families inAndhra Pradeshare benefitting fromAarogyasri, the state governments flagship Health scheme, with the enhancement of the annual income limit to Rs 5 lakh, according to health officials.

The Andhra Pradesh government has spent Rs 2,398 crore in bills since June 2019 to provide free healthcare under Aarogyasri. This is in addition to clearing Rs 680 crore in arrears of the previous government.

Under YSR Aarogyasri, patients can avail free treatment for as many as 2,434 diseases, including cancer. Around 130 super-speciality hospitals in Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai have also been brought under the Aarogyasri Network.

The has also taken up modernisation of government hospitals on a large scale under the Nadu-Nedu programme. As part of this programme, the government is working on 10,032 YSR village clinics, 560 urban health clinics, 1,147 primary health centres, 52 area hospitals and 191 community health centres across the state for Infrastructure development.

The state government has set up 1,180 mobile clinics and ambulances through the 104 and 108 Services departments with Rs 210 crore to provide emergency medical care. As part of the 104 services, medical personnel go to villages and provide 20 types of medical services, including diagnostics and supply of medicines.

Smart labour card to benefit employee and employer: Goa CM Pramod Sawant

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Chief ministerPramod Sawant launched the smart labour card for those working in the unorganised, private and industrial sectors to enable record of EMPLOYMENT.

The card will be beneficial to both the employee and employer, the chief minister said while appealing to workers to apply for the card as soon as possible. He said that once they avail of it, they wont have to do any paperwork to get the benefits of any of the labour departments schemes.

Presently, Labour Welfare schemes were not getting good response, but with the introduction of this card, their implementation will become easier, he said.

Palghar township to come up on 337 hectares of Cidco land

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A new, planned satellite will be built inPalghar, about 115km from Mumbai. This will be the second such township after Navi Mumbai, the development of which started in the 1970s.

The township will be developed on 337 hectares given to theCity and Industrial DevelopmentCorporation (Cidco) in lieu of constructing the district headquarters, spending Rs 1,000 crore. Cidco has been given 400 hectares, of which 70 hectares is prime sea-facing land. The 337 hectares, which can accommodate 35Oval Maidans, is on the other side of the newly developed district HQ spread over 103 hectares.

The draft plan is ready and depending on the response Cidco may allow four to five master developers to build the township. If the response is not good, Cidco will build Infrastructure and auction plots.