Do you run a WA group – are you in the habit of posting / sharing posts regularly in social media .. .. .. read on ! – do you feel that our recklessness is the cause of the trouble that we are facing [worser still – some are still not aware of this]
A 48-year-old Chartered Accountant in Hyderabad was arrested this morning for allegedly circulating a fake government order that announced imposition of partial lockdown in Telangana from April 1. Hyderabad police commissioner Anjani Kumar, while speaking at a press conference on Monday, revealed that the fake ‘G.O. 45’, dated April 1, 2021, was a copy of last year’s G.O that was allegedly forged and circulated by one Sreepathi Sanjeev Kumar. The accused works as a Chartered Accountant with Karvy & Co. in Hyderabad. A native of Nellore town in Andhra Pradesh, Kumar has been living in Hyderabad since 1993. According to the police, Kumar on April 1 downloaded and forged the G.O copy issued by Telangana government last year when a lockdown was imposed. “After changing the dates of lockdown, he shared the PDF copy in a whatsapp group comprising 40 others from his badminton team. This was soon circulated to other groups via WhatsApp and soon went viral on social media,” said the police commissioner.
After the fake G.O went viral, announcing that establishments were to shut at 6 pm till 8 am, Telangana Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar quickly issued a statement saying no such order had been issued, and that the government was not considering imposing a lockdown. The Cyber Crimes police station in Central Crime Station(CCS) of Hyderabad police had registered a case invoking sections 469(forgery) and 505 (1)(b) (intention to cause fear or alarm to public). The West Zone team of Hyderabad Commissioner’s Task Force nabbed the accused Monday morning. The police also seized a Dell laptop and an i-Phone used in allegedly commiting the offence.
Meanwhile, in the grip of a second wave of coronavirus infections, Telangana has recorded over a 1,000 fresh infections for the third consecutive day. Before the sudden surge in new cases, the number of new cases in mid-March hovered over 150-mark. In my paranoia, I look into this site ‘news.google.com’ typing Covid 19 to find the statistics and they are alarming these days. Today it reads 13,13,42,071 people are affected globally and deaths of 2853631. USA leads with 30732250/554579; followed by Brazil 12984956/331433 and India 12589067/165101. The max no. of fresh cases in 24 hours threatens us beyond a point – it is India 103558; France 80629 while USA has 36670 & Brazil 31359. The curve was coming down spectacularly, but have we by our recklessness spoilt it ??
As India battles the second Covid wave, Maharashtra, the worst-hit state in the country, saw the highest-ever daily surge with 57,074 fresh infections on Sunday. Mumbai, India's financial capital, also saw the highest-ever single-day spike with 11,163 new infections, taking the city's tally to 4,52,445 cases. With 1,03,558 fresh Covid cases, India has seen the biggest-ever daily surge, taking the tally to 1,25,89,067. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on Sunday held a high-level meet to review the situation; central teams have been rushed to three states.
Delhi also recorded a huge spike of 4,000 fresh infections taking the Covid tally to 6.76,414 infections. This is the highest daily surge this year. It was one of the top five states that reported the highest number of cases in the last 24 hours. Chhattisgarh (5,250), Karnataka (4,553) and Uttar Pradesh (4,136) are the other three states that saw the biggest spike in cases in the last 24 hours, the government data shows.
Tamil Nadu recorded 3581 positive cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, bringing the state tally to 8,99,807. Among these, Chennai reported 1344 positive cases, bringing the city’s total to 2,53,760. The state recorded 14 deaths on Sunday, putting the state toll at 12,778. Twelve of them had succumbed due to comorbidities. A total of 1813 patients were discharged following treatment, taking the total number of recoveries to 8,65,071. Over the past 10 days, the Covid-19 test positivity rate (TPR), which is a measure of the spread of the infection, has almost tripled in Chennai from 3.61% on March 23 to 5.31% on March 27 to 9.13% on April 3.
Vaccine seemingly is the answer – in a few months, it’s reasonable to expect that more than 75% of the adult population of the US and the UK will have had a first dose of the vaccine. The EU, Japan and other developed nations will be not far behind; most likely they will reach that milestone in the latter part of the year. But this is not fast enough. Billions of people will still be unprotected, mainly in the developing world. India and China have made impressive strides, but it is unlikely that the whole world will have been vaccinated until the end of 2022 – and even that date is optimistic. According to World Economic Forum – this is too slow; much too slow. We need to speed the process up, enormously. The costs and the risks are too great.
Realise, be aware – whether the Govt imposes lockdown or not – don’t venture out unless it is necessary. Whilst you are out, follow basic principles – wear a mask, follow social distancing, clean your hands often. Corona virus is not yet eliminated and it is imperative that WE fight it.
It is a funny World, there were huge crowds in Election rallies – while President Joe Biden is facing criticism for continuing to wear a mask at all times despite being fully vaccinated. Biden has continued to wear his mask for various photo opportunities since being fully vaccinated. On many occasions he is joined by Vice President Kamala Harris who is also fully vaccinated.
With regards – S. Sampathkumar5.4.2021
