[mayankk]

Originally Posted by locusjag

The ground water situation in parts of Chennai is getting worse again. Washing one's hands frequently will not be sustainable very soon.

The saddest thing perhaps about the Coronavirus episode is that it has probably upended the National Ground Water Scheme that our PM had intended to start implementing soon. India's ground water situation may not get ameliorated as planned.

Don't worry. There will be a lot of plans whose ameliorations as planned will be blamed on this virus.

Also, I read some news piece of groundwater levels rising in Bangalore during lockdown, so maybe it'll help this at least.

[volkman10]

In April, Govt predicted zero new Covid-19 case by May 16. What went wrong?

The presentation mentioned a NITI Aayog member who also heads one of the 11 empowered groups (Empowered Group-1) formed by the central government to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic in India. Empowered Group-1 is responsible for coordinating medical emergency management plan.
In the presentation, using mathematical modeling and data analysis, he predicted the future course of Covid-19 in India.
started seeing the effect of lockdown from April 4-5. Since then, there has been a slowing down of cases and we are flattening the curve. Since the effect of the lockdown will continue through the next 14-20 days, we will continue to see this slowing down till the first or second week of May

However, 22 days on, it is ample clear from the daily numbers put out by the Union Health Ministry that the chart and predictions are far from reflecting the "true picture" of Covid-19 in India.

Link

[BoneCollector]

Originally Posted by volkman10

In April, Govt predicted zero new Covid-19 case by May 16. What went wrong?

I feel that no one was or is aware of how this thing will go on. Take for example this report published on 21st April in The New Indian Express which predicted 38220 deaths and over 30 lakh positive cases by mid May. When you go through the report and the agencies quoted by them, you can only wonder. Someone I shared this report with, asked me what if this is the true picture and the Government is hiding information from us? To this question, I told him that I don't think it's possible to hide such high numbers in days of social media with so much hype on COVID19. If such was the scenario, we would have seen many places with multiple deaths and cases. Moreover, as of yesterday, the majority of cases (around 79%) are concentrated in just 30 municipal limits.

[Miyata]

The nerve of these guys roughing up a doctor.

Police beat up doctor who complained about lack of PPE kits, drag him on street

What is point of all the flower showering; plate banging; etc if the respect is not accorded where it matters. Where is the respectful handling of a situation/citizen?

roughed up a doctor, tied his hands and dragged him on the road for allegedly creating nuisance and abusing the state government in an inebriated condition

Sudhakar, an anesthesiologist at Narsipatnam Government Hospital, was suspended earlier this month after he alleged that the state was not providing an adequate number of Personal Protective Equipment and N95 masks to doctors combating the coronavirus pandemic.

[JithinR]

A video on the different tests types that are generally available for virus detection (in this case for SARS-COV-2) and the associated challenges with using them.

https://youtu.be/VUvtuKUP-M0

[srini1785]

And so it begins :

India Joins 61 Nations To Seek "Impartial" Probe Into Coronavirus Crisis

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/indi...=home-bigstory


We can expect a showdown when the report is tabled.

[vharihar]

Originally Posted by Miyata

The nerve of these guys roughing up a doctor.

Police beat up doctor who complained about lack of PPE kits, drag him on street

What is point of all the flower showering; plate banging; etc if the respect is not accorded where it matters. Where is the respectful handling of a situation/citizen?

This has a different story about the incident:

https://www.ndtv.com/andhra-pradesh-...pended-2230442

It says the doctor took off his shirt on his own, was drunk, had a history, etc. Always better to wait passing opinions till more and fuller reports come out, rather than basing it on just one report. Often we don't know the full story behind the incident.

[locusjag]

Here's what I learnt yesterday about Pandemics from the eponymously named docu-series on Netflix.

Even with Ebola in the Congo, as it was with the Coronavirus in India:
1) Healthcare workers are attacked at worst, or are viewed with suspicion by people at the very least. But they continue to soldier on and protect the very people who do them harm.
2) Quarantine doesn't work. In the Congo, as it was in many instances in India, people go to great lengths to avoid getting quarantined.

Aside from the above commonalities, I've also learnt that migrating people and birds are the greatest spreaders of pandemic diseases. I hate those pigeons that nest all over my apartment building now! But I don't have the heart to chase them away, especially when there's a new egg or hatchling every 2 weeks...damn those cute but potentially super-spreading birds!

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by locusjag

Even with Ebola in the Congo, as it was with the Coronavirus in India:
1) Healthcare workers are attacked at worst, or viewed with suspicion by people. But they continue to soldier on and protect the very people who do them harm.

Ebola & covid-19 are very different diseases. Ebola mainly spread in Africa from someone developed a severe infection, the folks in the family/community were infected. Health workers were attacked since they meddled with local community practices, including burial rituals. Later WHO had to initiated education of ebola among tribes and measures of controlling it. It was after safe-practices were adopted, ebola was controlled. There is TED talk on this.

Originally Posted by locusjag

The "Pandemic" series depicts the unfolding of an all-new outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2019.

Thanks for giving the context. My post was on the Ebola outbreak in Africa before 2017.

[locusjag]

Originally Posted by msdivy

Ebola & covid-19 are very different diseases. Ebola mainly spread in Africa from someone developed a severe infection, the folks in the family/community were infected. Health workers were attacked since they meddled with local community practices, including burial rituals. Later WHO had to initiated education of ebola among tribes and measures of controlling it. It was after safe-practices were adopted, ebola was controlled. There is TED talk on this.

The "Pandemic" series depicts the unfolding of an all-new outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2019. Ebola certainly hasn't been eradicated and it comes back apparently. And even though education of the public is attempted time and again, WHO workers in the region get attacked all the time (certainly in 2019 too, as the show events unfolding).

Edit: Here are gruesome details of attacks on WHO workers in 2019 during the latest Ebola outbreak - https://www.msf.org/drc-ebola-outbreak-crisis-update

[am1m]

Originally Posted by locusjag

Aside from the above commonalities, I've also learnt that migrating people and birds are the greatest spreaders of pandemic diseases. I hate those pigeons that nest all over my apartment building now!

Feral pigeons in cities are pests and potential disease carriers. At least stray dogs and cats keep rats in control (though stray dog and cat numbers certainly need to be controlled too), but I see no reason why pigeons should not be culled.

But the so called 'animal lovers' keep feeding them in places like Cubbon Park and their numbers keep rising uncontrolled. Feral pigeons and crows also push out the other rare bird species in cities since they spread diseases and are more aggressive than most other birds. Feeding birds and squirrels in public actually causes more problems, but there's no way you can make people understand that and you'll just come across as a mean person if you try.

This whole crisis is a great opportunity to mandate several good habits and get rid of old, bad ones. The government has finally announced fines for spitting in public, I hope that enforcement remains. Though it certainly hasn't stopped people, I see enough people spitting on the road. Oh yes, they now have to pull down their masks to do it!

[srishiva]

Originally Posted by am1m

Feral pigeons in cities are pests and potential disease carriers. At least stray dogs and cats keep rats in control (though stray dog and cat numbers certainly need to be controlled too), but I see no reason why pigeons should not be culled.

But the so called 'animal lovers' keep feeding them in places like Cubbon Park and their numbers keep rising uncontrolled. Feral pigeons and crows also push out the other rare bird species in cities since they spread diseases and are more aggressive than most other birds. Feeding birds and squirrels in public actually causes more problems, but there's no way you can make people understand that and you'll just come across as a mean person if you try.

)

Pigeon population is growing near my house too. We had a issue with the house behind us feeding the pigeons which then used to drop the food in our backyard. We had to warn them but the lady of the house was adamant that birds needed to be fed and helped

Friends abroad have also been complaining about pigeons. Everyone's worried about birds now ! Heard you can hang a owl toy to scare them away. Need to give it a try.

[locusjag]

Originally Posted by srishiva

Pigeon population is growing near my house too. We had a issue with the house behind us feeding the pigeons which then used to drop the food in our backyard. We had to warn them but the lady of the house was adamant that birds needed to be fed and helped

Friends abroad have also been complaining about pigeons. Everyone's worried about birds now ! Heard you can hang a owl toy to scare them away. Need to give it a try.

These damned birds are prolific breeders. There's a new egg or two every fortnight. We don't have it in our hearts to shoo away nesting birds that have young ones and so there's a nest with their droppings flowing down our bathroom window from the outside. It stinks so much!

Earlier, the other side of our building was taken over by these birds. They have for long rained down a great wall of shit and a fine spray of feathers and dried droppings hangs about in the air and on our cars.

[volkman10]

Karnataka goes after the Kerala model in COVID-19 containment.

All relaxation will cease to exist every Sunday. Every Sunday will be a complete lockdown. There’ll be no shops and the movement of people. It’ll be a complete rest day

From May 19th: - Not applicable in containment zones

Opens up all shops (except malls and theaters)and salons.
Buses, autos , maxi cabs, cabs to resume operations. Trains within the state to operate.

Curfew from 7 pm to 7 am will continue on all days.

Link

[Thad E Ginathom]

Birds, cats, dogs....

Back in London, I used to have a girlfriend who was a bit hygiene-crazy (she was a nurse by profession). She used to say, "Animals spread disease."

I would reply, "Yes, but not as much as humans do."

Can we let the dogs, cats, pigeons etc be, in this conversation? I am not claiming that what is said is all wrong, but there has not been any suggestion at all that they are involved in spreading covid19 between humans.