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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 24

India on Tuesday declared a 21-day lockdown across the country with effect from midnight as a major enforcement exercise to make people stay at home and prevent rapid spread of Covid-19 as the country enters a decisive stage to combat the global pandemic.

As the number of infected continues to mount, PM Modi said experience of countries affected severely and those which exercised restraint showed that social distancing was the only way to prevent the spread and required 21 days to break the cycle.

He said these 21 days could make or break this fight and “if we do not control (the pandemic), the country can be pushed back by 21 years, some families will be devastated. Forget going out, stay at home…do not violate the Lakshman Rekha at your doorstep”, the PM Modi said, appealing to the citizens with folded hands.

The PM said as per World Health Organisation estimates, one person with Covid-19 infection could spread it to thousands. An infected person may appear normal initially as symptoms take several days to manifest, he warned. Citing statistics on the geometric progression of the disease, he said if the world touched 1 lakh cases in 67 days, the count would reach 2 lakh cases in 11 days and 3 lakh in four days.

The governments, both Centre and state, he said would accord priority to healthcare and were shoring up testing facilities, personal protection equipment, isolation beds, intensive care units, ventilators and other equipment. The Centre had earmarked Rs 15,000 crore to meet this health challenge.

PM Modi said while the Janata Curfew demonstrated the collective resolve of the citizens, experience of the past two days during lockdown in several parts of the country showed people were not taking it very seriously and if this trend continued, India would have to pay a very heavy price. Thanking everyone — doctors, nurses paramedics, support staff, pathologists, lab technical staff, ambulance drivers, health workers, the police, law-enforcing agencies and the media — he urged the citizens to exercise utmost restraint during this period of trial.

What is exempt

• Grocers, meat, fish, fruit, veggie, fodder outlets
• Banks, ATMs, hospitals, chemists
• Print and electronic media
• Power, sanitation, water, telecom
• Petrol pump, LPG outlets

Under Lockdown

• Rail, road, air transportation
• Offices, edu institutions, parks, places of worship etc

6 more +ve in Punjab

With six more persons testing positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, the total number of cases has gone up to 29 in Punjab. The six were relatives of the 70-year-old Nawanshahr resident who died of the disease last week. While three of the six who tested positive are his grandchildren, the remaining are his relatives, including brother-in-law (50), in Phillaur. Two of the patients had accompanied the victim to a doctor during a check-up. TNS

EC defers RS elections

The EC on Tuesday decided to postpone the Rajya Sabha elections scheduled for March 26 in view of the coronavirus outbreak. Election to fill 55 seats in the Upper House of Parliament was to be held on March 26, but 37 candidates from 10 states have already been elected without a contest. The decision on holding the election for the remaining 18 seats will be taken based on the prevailing situation. TNS

Tokyo Olympics put off

Tokyo: The 2020 Tokyo Olympics have been postponed to no later than the summer of 2021 following the Covid pandemic, the International Olympic Committee said on Tuesday. The Games were scheduled for July 24-August 9.

US may pip Europe

Geneva: The Covid-19 outbreak in the US has the potential to exceed that in Europe, the WHO said on Tuesday as the number of reported cases in the US surged. WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said 85 per cent of new cases reported to the global body overnight came from Europe and the US, “now the two main drivers of the outbreak”. AFP

New virus in China

Beijing: A man in China’s southwestern Yunnan province has died of hantavirus, a disease spread by rodents, official media reported on Tuesday. The development comes even as China prepares to lift prolonged lockdown over Covid-19 epicentre Wuhan on April 8, thus lifting the mass quarantine over the city with a population of over 11 million. AFP

PATIALA: In Ropar, around 284 people, most of them foreign r ..

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CHANDIGARH: In an unprecedented step, the Indian Army has perhaps for the first time postponed the training of officers at the prestigious Officers Training Academy (OTA) in Chennai to avoid the spread of Covid-19. The training for the short service commission (SSC) courses was to commence from the first week of April to train around 260 officers (including women).
While 111 cadets were to report for training for SSC non-technical course, 54-candidates for technical course, 25 for SSC women (nontechnical and technical), 47 cadets for SSC (NCC special entry for men and women) and 24 cadets were to join for SSC (judge advocate general) branch course. OTA Chennai conducts training courses twice in year—April and October. The interview conducted by the SSB for October course has also been ordered to be suspended by the authorities.

Nursing officers’ exam postponed
Even on Monday, the Army authorities announced suspension of any kind of medical examination or appeal against rejection in medical examination for new candidates for the officer cadre.
The examination to train girls as nursing officers (on commissioned officers rank) in the defence forces has also been postponed by the authorities.
With this the entire training as well as selection process for officers for the force has been suspended in the country.
Military veterans have never heard of postponement of training of officers in the past. They only remember early commissioning of cadets undergoing training at academies during the 1971 war.
“Situation has never been like this in the past. In 2009, when the swine flu broke out in the country, we told our cadets not to go out of academy,” said Major General B S Grewal, former deputy commandant of national defence academy (NDA).
Lt Gen K J Singh, former Army Commander of Western Command, termed the postponement of training as a timely and pragmatic action.
“Whenever the situation gets normalised, the candidates can be informed through e-mail or telephonically to join back immediately,” he added.
The Army has already suspended recruitment rallies for selection of jawans in the first week of March.

Amritsar: Ignoring all health protocols and government directions, president of Istri Akali Dal, women’s wing of the Shiromani Akali Dal, Bibi JagirKaur has been regularly attending public functions, just 12 days after her return from Italy.
According to Jagir’s Facebook page, she was at the centre of Europe’s coronavirus outbreak, launching Istri Akali Dal’s Italy wing. She appointed Amarjit Kaur and Harvinder Kaur as president and vice-president of the wing in Italy on February 26.

While talking to TOI on Tuesday, Kaur said she had returned to India on February 27. She said she underwent thermal scanning both at Italy and Kiev but not in Delhi. “Then there wasn’t much talk about coronavirus in India and the thermal screening had not begun. Even where I stayed in Italy, there wasn’t much hullabaloo about Covid-19,” she claimed.
Yet, according to Italian media reports, 11 persons had died due to coronavirus in Italy by February 25.
After 12 days of her arrival from Italy, Jagir attended several functions on March 11. As par her Facebook posts, on March 11 she held several meetings in Bholath assembly constituency, including election of the SAD’s Boparai circle chief, a meeting at Dialpura circle, and two marriage and engagemens sceremonies. On March 13, she honoured party leader Ranjit Singh Rindhi at Gurdwara Sant Prem Singh Ji Murarle walia. Since then she has been attending several functions.
Kaur said she had taken medical advise and also took some tests but not the virology test since she was not advised for the same . “For 14 days I confined myself to my room only reciting Gurbani and if I had to urgently attend a religious function, I had gone for a while but maintaining good distance with other people,” she claimed.

Even as the entire tricity got together on Sunday to cheer for doctors, nurses and other hospital staff battling coronavirus, a team of about 14 at the virology department of the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) was quietly but efficiently going about its business.

Putting in 19 hours of work, finishing up as late as 2.30am every day, the team is testing samples for Covid-19 and ensuring real time delivery of reports.

The team, which started testing the samples for coronavirus from last week, is suddenly seeing a spike in the number of samples coming in from Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana. Till reports last came in a total of 140 samples had been tested and 26 found positive. About 18 samples were being processed.

The lab is at present testing 40 samples daily though it has a capacity for 100. In an attempt to ease the lab’s burden PGIMER director Dr Jagat Ram recently urged states adjoining UT to set up their own testing centres.

About the testing facility, Dr Mini P Singh, nodal officer, COVID, laboratory services and professor at the virology department, says they have been working from 9am to 2am for the past week. “We are working in teams because this is highly specialised diagnostics work and safety of staff is also our concern. Since these are highly infectious samples, we are using bio-safety cabinets.”

The cabinets through their unique air flow system protect people from exposure to the samples. These are disinfected thrice a day, before and after testing the samples, many of which are positive, Singh says.

The samples are decontaminated first. “When the samples reach the virology lab these are stored safely in a dedicated refrigerator in one room. Once 12 to 14 samples are collected two people wearing Personal protective equipment (PPE) take them to the bio-safety cabinet for decontamination,” she says.

After a barrage of tests, it takes two hours for negative samples to be reported. An additional “confirmatory” test is done for positive samples, that’s “basically a repeat of the
previous test but targeting different genes. The final report is released after doing the confirmatory test,” she says.

So processing a sample takes six to seven hours, after which, it’s tested for two hours or more if positive.

“The results of the first set of samples, which we start processing at 11am, come in by 5pm. Today, for instance, we received samples from 9am till 11pm. They are processed thrice a day in batches,” Singh adds.

The health ministry is very strict about the reporting process, so even if a sample tests positive at 12 midnight it has to be informed in real time.

More people are being trained at the moment because they are expecting the load to increase.

About testing kits, Singh says they have a sufficient supply.

Yes, “everyone’s stressed. But as team leaders we cannot think about it,” she adds.

Right now, Singh makes sure the morale of staff members is high. They are overworked, some need counselling. “We cannot let them down,” says the doctor who at 9.30 is sitting in office compiling reports.

Her work is likely to finish by 2.30 am after which she will head home to sleep, but in another room, isolated from family members.

After the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) has declared revised dates for annual examinations for Classes 5, 10 and 12, teachers have resorted to teaching students through Whatsapp groups and video calls.

EDUCATION Updated: Mar 23, 2020 09:59 IST

After the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) has declared revised dates for annual examinations for Classes 5, 10 and 12, teachers have resorted to teaching students through Whatsapp groups and video calls. A majority of the teachers stated that they are conducting regular revision tests for students. Exams have been postponed by the board in view of the coronavirus outbreak.

According to the revised date sheet, the board is conducting exams for Classes 10 and 12 from April 3 and for Class 5 students from April 1. The students have been informed about new dates.

According to board instructions, regular teachers have been asked to check answer sheets at home. However, to complete the evaluation work, many teachers, checking answer sheets of non-board classes, took the pending work at home so that when they rejoin the school, they will not have any pressure to complete the work.

District mentor of science Jasvir Singh said, “We have been conducting revision tests daily and the test paper and then answers are shared with students on the group. Every teacher is in touch with their class students and updating test results with their mentors. We are also educating students regarding hygiene and ensuring that they are following instructions to remain healthy.”

As per information, some of the teachers are following the school timetable and revising the concepts with the students through video calling. A Class 10 student, Gurjit Singh, said, “When the board postponed the exams, I was a little disappointed, but our school teachers told the students that we all have now more time to revise the lessons and online classes for 30-40 minutes are proving helpful. I am following the same routine as every subject teacher is taking online classes according to the timetable.”

The block mentors have been asked to keep in touch with students of Board classes and motivate them to revise and solve test papers. Daily practice will make them perfect. District mentor Sanjeev Taneja of mathematics, said, “Many school teachers have come up with innovative ways by taking online classes and follow the timetable. Students have been informed on the group to keep their phones free so that the 40-minute class can be attended by students. Teachers are preparing assignments and sending them to students so that they can revise the concepts.”

State government has announced a relief of Rs 3,000 each for all registered construction workers in the state; Rs 96 crore has been earmarked for this purpose

CHANDIGARH: Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday sanctioned Rs 20 crore from the Chief Minister Relief Fund for providing free food and medicines to the needy in the state.

“I have directed the provision of free food, shelter and medicines for those in need and Rs 20 crore has been sanctioned out of the CM relief fund for same,” the Punjab chief minister tweeted.

He also asked deputy commissioners (DCs) and sub divisional magistrates (SDMs) to provide all assistance to persons in need.

Meanwhile, state cabinet ministers Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa announced to donate a month’s salary to the fund.

The Punjab IAS Officers Association and Vigilance Bureau officers also offered to contribute one day’s salary to the CM Relief Fund.

Earlier, the state government had announced a relief of Rs 3,000 each for all registered construction workers in the state. A total of Rs 96 crore was earmarked for this purpose.

In the first week of February, the PGIMER administration had constituted a Corona Action Committee. Initially, the committee used to meet once a week, but after the first confirmed case was reported, meetings are now held daily.

Kolkata: Four inmates were killed and 28 others remain hospitalised after two days of violence at West Bengal’s largest prison that was allegedly triggered by resentment over the restrictions imposed in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Around 60 police personnel were injured too, some with bullet injuries, during violence at the Dum Dum correctional facility between 21 and 23 March, sources in West Bengal Police told ThePrint.

The COVID-19 restrictions may have proved the immediate trigger, but police officers said the scale of violence suggested a conspiracy that had been in the works for some time at least.

The investigation so far, they claimed, had revealed that at least 200 gas cylinders were gathered from five prison kitchens — three operational and two emergency ones — by scaring jail workers. Police have also allegedly recovered a heavy cache of arms from prisoners.

Eleven of the cylinders were allegedly used as IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) and detonated through circuits on 21 March during the clash with police. The blast blew up a portion of the correctional home, including the office of the jail superintendent where the fire burnt down all the documents.

The violence went on for two days with nearly 1,000 security personnel struggling to bring the situation under control and prevent a jailbreak. At present, around 800 police personnel are deployed in and around the Dum Dum correctional home.

Although the jail has a capacity to accommodate around 3,000 prisoners, there were 3,900 inmates on the premises at the time of the incident, including 600 women. It has been alleged that the boundary wall of the women cells was also breached and the inmates attacked.

West Bengal Police have registered a total of four cases in connection with the violence, invoking charges of arson, attempt to murder, rioting, and stocking of arms.

State Minister for Correctional Administration Ujjwal Biswas said there was resentment among prisoners who were unable to file bail pleas amid the lockdown. He added that a committee, formed on the instructions of the Calcutta High Court, was looking into the reasons for the violence.

Two days of violence 

Three days after the main incident, a team of investigators is trying to join the dots to find out how the unprecedented episode unfolded. A senior police officer said they had recovered a “huge cache of firearms” from prisoners and raids were still underway.

“We have recovered a good number of improvised guns and cartridges, which were in the possession of jail inmates. There were sharp weapons that were used against the jail security staff and our men,” the officer added.

“The inmates also laid their hands on a storage of at least 200 cylinders… meant for the five kitchens, all of which have batteries of cylinders.

“They stocked all these cylinders at one place by intimidating or threatening the staff. They were using the cylinders as IEDs. Of these, at least 11 cylinders… were lined up near the main gate and the office of the jail superintendent,” the officer added.

The officer said it was “a major fire incident and could have triggered more such explosions”. “But the fire services somehow managed to douse the flame,” the officer added.

Minister Biswas told ThePrint that the administration was “trying to update the list of prisoners, the injured and the dead”.

“As of now, around 28 inmates are in hospital,” he said. “The jail has a capacity of around 3,000 and it was a bit overcrowded. The inmates were agitating as they were unable to move bail petitions,” he added. “The Calcutta High Court has given a direction today (Tuesday) and formed a committee. The committee will submit a report and we will act accordingly.”

“Most of the prisoners at Dum Dum jail are undertrials charged under the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act and the NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances ) Act,” the minister said. “The government cannot release such prisoners anyway, we have to wait for the court’s direction.”

Prison security found lacking 

Unlike other central or state correctional homes, the Dum Dum jail, located near the Kolkata international airport, is hemmed in by residential areas.

The investigation so far is said to have revealed several lacunae in its security framework. According to police sources, investigators have flagged the fact that inmates had free access to the administrative block where the office of the jail superintendent is located.

The scale and magnitude of the jail violence is to be seen to be believed, said an officer of the correctional home.

“It was complete mayhem. The inmates started scaling walls when police deployed tear gas shells. There was heavy stone-pelting at security forces,” the officer added.

The jail is also said to be home to many Bangladeshis caught while trying to illegally cross the border and smuggle narcotics and fake currency notes, besides convicts and undertrials in important cases like the “accidental” Khagragarh blast that killed two suspected Indian Mujahideen members in 2014.

According to a senior police officer, the violence was plotted and planned long back. “They cannot gather such arms and ammunition without planning. We are also looking into the supply chain,” the officer said.

Barrackpore police commissioner Manoj Verma, who has been camping in the area for the last three days, said they were “looking into all aspects”. “The investigation is on,” he added.

Heads have already started rolling as director general of prisons Arun Gupta, who was on an extension for the last three years, has been transferred. Piyush Pandey has now been posted as additional director general for prisons. ThePrint called Pandey for a comment but he was unavailable.