SPACE RACE 2.0

China launches key part of its permanent space station

Issued on: 29/04/2021 - 
Text by: FRANCE 24

China launched an unmanned module on Thursday containing living quarters for three crew on a permanent space station that it plans to complete by the end of 2022, marking another major advance for the country’s space exploration.





The module, named "Tianhe", or "Heavenly Harmony", was launched on the Long March 5B, China's largest carrier rocket, from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre on the southern island of Hainan.

Tianhe is one of three main components of what would be China's first self-developed space station, rivalling the only other station in service – the International Space Station (ISS).

The ISS is backed by major countries including the United States, Russia and Japan. China was barred from participating in the ISS due to US objections over the Chinese programme’s secretive nature and close military ties.

>> 3, 2, 1… Thomas Pesquet blasts off, back to the ISS


Tianhe will form the main living quarters for three crew members in the Chinese space station, which will have a life span of at least 10 years.

The Tianhe launch was the first of 11 missions needed to complete the space station, which will orbit Earth at an altitude of 340 to 450 kilometres (211-280 miles).

In the later missions, China will launch the two other core modules, four manned spacecraft and four cargo spacecraft.

Mars and lunar rovers

The space programme is a source of huge national pride, and Premier Li Keqiang and other top civilian and military leaders watched the launch live from the control center in Beijing.

A message of congratulations from state leader and head of the ruling Communist Party Xi Jinping was also read to staff at the Wenchang Launch Center.

The launch furthers the “three-step” strategy of building up China's manned space programme and marks “an important leading project for constructing a powerful country in science and technology and aerospace," Xi's message said.

Thursday's launch comes as China is also forging ahead with crewless missions, particularly in lunar exploration. It has landed a rover on the little-explored far side of the moon.

A Chinese probe carrying a rover is also due to set down on Mars sometime around the middle of next month, making China only the second country to successfully accomplish that after the US.

China has prioritised space exploration in recent years, with the aim of becoming a major space power by 2030.

By 2045, it hopes to establish a programme operating thousands of space flights a year and carrying tens of thousands of tonnes of cargo and passengers.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS, AP)

Poland clinches 'historic' deal to phase out coal by 2049

The deal marks the first time the powerful coal mining sector has agreed to reduce its presence. With this pledge, Poland can meet EU climate goals by 2050.



Poland depends on coal for 70% of its energy needs


Poland's government and unions signed an agreement with the coal mining industry on Wednesday, to phase out coal production by 2049.

Industry representatives agreed to shut all coal mines by the target date, with severance payments for workers in the Silesia coal basin.

The agreement marks the first time that the powerful coal mining sector has agreed to reduce its presence.

A statement made by the state assets ministry, which negotiated on behalf of the government, praised the move as a "historic agreement."
Unions want 'alternative jobs'

The subsidies set aside for coal miners would represent a large burden on the state budget, and could possibly be in violation of EU regulations for subsidies to dying industries.

Dominik Kolorz, head of a local branch of the Solidarity union, was quoted by Gazeta Wyborcza as saying "It is hard to be satisfied when you are liquidating such an important industry."

Watch video 04:57 Big energy sues Netherlands over coal phase-out

"We did what we needed to do, which was to assist the workers," Kolorz said, adding, "It's not like everything ends today. We have a lot of work to do to create alternative jobs."

Government and union representatives signed the agreement on Wednesday in Katowice, a city in the coal-mining heartland of Silesia, in southern Poland, state news agency PAP reported. The action clears the way for the plan to the European Commission for approval. The final signing is expected in May.
Polish coal loses edge at home

Coal sector employment has traditionally been a politically sensitive issue in Poland. The country depends on coal for around 70% of its energy needs, although it is planning to reduce this to 11% by 2040. From there, the EU member would need to phase its use out entirely before the bloc-wide deadline of 2050.

Environmentalists have said that the 2049 deadline is still not early enough.

VIDEO 02:53 Coal pollution: Black snow falls over Russia

The coal sector is in decline in much of the world, as renewable and other energy sources come down in price and societies increasingly reject the damaging environmental impact of burning fossil fuels. Poland's coal has also become increasingly uncompetitive, often piling up unused as the country imports cheaper coal from Russia and other countries.

lc/dj (AP, AFP

COMMODIFICATION

New Zealand Rugby agrees £202m deal with US private equity firm

NZR outgoing chairman Brent Impey: "We are thrilled that our Provincial Unions... have recognised the importance of private equity in driving commercial revenue and enabling investment to ensure rugby thrives and survives into the future"

By Reuters

Last Updated: 29/04/21 

The deal with US private equity firm Silver Lake includes the All Blacks

New Zealand's 26 provincial unions have unanimously approved the sale of a 12.5 per cent stake in the commercial arm of New Zealand Rugby (NZR), including the All Blacks, to U.S. private equity firm Silver Lake.

The NZ$387.5m (£202m) deal, which values NZR's commercial rights at $2.23bn (£1.6bn) still needs to be approved by the New Zealand Rugby Players' Association (NZRPA), who have expressed reservations about the deal.

The equity deal would mean that for the first time in more than 115 years, the All Blacks would not be wholly owned by New Zealanders.

"We are thrilled that our Provincial Unions ... have recognised the importance of private equity in driving commercial revenue and enabling investment to ensure rugby thrives and survives into the future," said NZR's outgoing chairman Brent Impey.

"Today's vote for Silver Lake represents a transformational opportunity for our game and one we must grasp."

NZR, who also announced an operating loss of NZ$18.7m (£9.8m) at Thursday's annual general meeting, has promised grassroots rugby a cash windfall if the Silver Lake deal goes through.

The NZRPA, backed by All Blacks captain Sam Cane, had written to NZR in January saying they would block the sale, citing concerns over a loss of control and the risk of "cultural misappropriation", according to New Zealand media.

NZRPA chief executive Rob Nichol said on Thursday the union had put negotiations with NZR on hold "for a few weeks".

"Between us, we need to resolve what the collective [agreement] will look like beyond this year in order for the players to respond to NZR's request for approval of the proposed Silver Lake transaction," he said.

Impey said it was disappointing the players' union had not consented to the deal.


New Zealand captain Sam Cane is among those who have raised concerns about the deal

"The game has to change, and Silver Lakes capital injection would allow us to re-imagine rugby and invest in the areas of the community game that need it most," he added.

"The players are a critical part of this journey ... We hope the NZRPA will realise the significance of the opportunity in front of us and will continue to work toward an agreement in coming weeks."

Silver Lake, mostly invests in technology companies and has over $79bn (£57bn) in assets under management.

In 2019, it paid $500m on a 10 per cent stake in the City Football Group, which owns Manchester City and other teams around the world.

UK

NatWest Group sees profits jump 82% as bad debt provisions cut

ALL CAPITALI$M IS STATE CAPITALI$M

HOLLY WILLIAMS,

 PA DEPUTY CITY EDITOR

29 April 2021




NatWest Group posted an 82% surge in first-quarter profits as it joined rivals Lloyds and HSBC in cutting reserves for debts that may turn sour due to the pandemic.

The taxpayer-backed group, which is 59.8% owned by the Government, reported pre-tax operating profits of £946 million for the first three months of 2021 against £519 million a year earlier.

It released £102 million of cash put aside for loans that may not be repaid as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

A year earlier, it put by £802 million for loan losses and took a mammoth hit of £3.2 billion for these provisions over 2020 as a whole.

Profits across the sector are surging as banks begin to cut their reserves for loan losses thanks to a brighter UK economic outlook due to the vaccination programme and lifting of lockdown restrictions.

HSBC said on Tuesday that it has released 435 million US dollars (£313 million) of loan loss reserves, with Lloyds Banking Group also cutting its provisions by a net £323 million on Wednesday.

But NatWest – rebranded from Royal Bank of Scotland last year – has not changed its outlook for the full year as it remains cautious amid ongoing economic uncertainty and with Covid-19 business loans becoming due for repayment.

Chief executive Alison Rose said: “Defaults remain low as a result of the UK Government support schemes and there are reasons for optimism with the vaccine programmes progressing at pace and restrictions being eased.

“However, there is continuing uncertainty for our economy and for many of our customers as a result of Covid-19.”

The group saw gross new mortgage lending soar to £9.6 billion, up from £8.4 billion in the previous three months, as it benefited from the housing market boom spurred on by the stamp duty holiday.

Retail bank customer deposits also surged by £7.3 billion, or 4.2%, to £179.1 million since the end of 2020 as spending slumped and savings increased in lockdown.

The first-quarter figures mark a significant improvement on last year, when the group slumped to a £351 million loss against operating profits of £4.2 billion in 2019.

But the group is facing a court case next month after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) launched criminal proceedings in March against the bank for alleged failures under money-laundering rules.

The City watchdog claims that NatWest’s systems and controls failed to properly monitor and scrutinise suspicious activity, which took place between November 11 2011 and October 19 2016.

The case is due to be heard at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on May 26.

Aside from the boost from the loan provision release, NatWest’s figures showed first-quarter income falling 15.9% year on year to £2.7 billion as lower stock market volatility saw a slowdown in its NatWest Markets investment banking arm.

Costs across the group fell £72 million as it continued overhauling the group, with a 5.7% drop in its workforce over the year.

Ms Rose said the shift towards digital banking was continuing at pace, with 61% of retail customers only using online services,up from 50% a year ago.

The group continues to keep it branch network “under review”, she added.

Shares in NatWest dropped 3% after the figures.

Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Overall these are not bad results per se, they just don’t contain much to get excited about.”

Foreign aid: UK cuts its pledge to UN family planning by 85%

IMAGE COPYRIGHTSHEENA ARIYAPALA/DFID/FLICKR

The UK government has been accused of going back on its promises by cutting 85% of aid funding pledged to the United Nations global family planning programme.

The UN Population Fund says the UK had pledged £154m for its projects but now says it will get around £23m this year.

Advocates for family planning say it improves the rights of women and girls around the world.

The government said Covid meant tough but necessary decisions were needed.

A spokesperson for the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) said temporary reductions in aid spending were vital as the pandemic had badly affected public finances.

The government announced last year it would cut UK aid spending from 0.7% of national income to 0.5% - which amounts to a reduction of more than £4bn. It has yet to confirm which programmes will be affected.

Some MPs defended the cuts at the time as being backed by the public, with some politicians arguing that domestic spending should come first during the pandemic.

Family planning includes the provision of contraceptives and maternal health care for millions of women in some of the world's poorest countries.

The UN Population Fund - known as UNFPA - said the UK decision would be "devastating for women and girls and their families across the world".

UNFPA executive director Dr Natalia Kanem said it "deeply regrets the decision of our longstanding partner and advocate to step away from its commitments at a time when inequalities are deepening and international solidarity is needed more than ever".

She estimated the £130m lost would have helped prevent about 250,000 maternal and child deaths, 14.6 million unintended pregnancies and 4.3 million unsafe abortions.

MSI Reproductive Choices, an organisation that provides contraception and safe abortion services around the world, is set to be affected by the cuts. In 2020 it received an estimated $8.5m (£6m) worth of commodities from the UNFPA.

"Over the last 10 years, we have seen the difference that the UK's leadership on this issue has made to millions of women around the world. The cuts will do untold harm to the progress made on preventing women dying from pregnancy related causes and jeopardise the government's commitments on girls' education and increasing resilience to the climate crisis," CEO Simon Cooke said.

Bekky Ashmore, an adviser with the charity Plan International UK, said the cuts would "devastate the lives of so many women and girls, often in the poorest and most marginalised communities around the world".

Manuelle Hurwitz, from the International Planned Parenthood Federation, said the cuts were "shameful".

"Globally, 217 million women want to avoid pregnancy but do not have access to modern contraceptives. With the funding withdrawal, this number will undoubtedly increase," she said, adding that the cuts would also force more girls out of school and contribute to an increase in maternal deaths and unsafe abortions.

'Basic right'

Ministers have previously said the UK was "world-leading" and "at the forefront of global efforts to promote sexual and reproductive health and rights for women and girls living in the world's poorest countries".

The former Department for International Development - which became part of an enlarged Foreign Office last year - described family planning projects as helping to break the "cycle of poverty" for many women.

Announcing a five-year funding plan worth £600m in 2019, former International Development Secretary Alok Sharma said the package would "help give millions of women and girls control over their bodies, so they can choose if, when and how many children they want".

"That is a basic right that every woman and girl deserves," he said.

IMAGE COPYRIGHTSHEENA ARIYAPALA/DFID/FLICK

UK aid has supported family planning and women's health services around the world

Former international development minister Baroness Sugg, who resigned last year over the aid cuts, told the BBC that reducing support for family planning would "mean that women in 40 of the world's poorest countries will not have access to the voluntary contraception that will prevent millions of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions".

Tory MP Caroline Nokes, who chairs the Women's and Equalities select committee, said the cuts were "really regressive" and "a big mistake".

She told the BBC News Channel the UK needed to maintain its commitment to the poorest and "shouldn't be balancing our books on their backs", adding that MPs did not get to vote on the changes to the aid budget.

The Labour MP Sarah Champion, who chairs the International Development select committee, said she was "appalled and ashamed", describing the decision as "incredibly short sighted".

An FCDO spokesperson said: "The UK is a world leader on international development. In 2020 we were the third biggest aid donor globally, spending £14.5bn.

"The seismic impact of the pandemic on the UK economy has forced us to take tough but necessary decisions, including temporarily reducing the overall amount we spend on aid. We will still spend more than £10bn this year to fight poverty, tackle climate change and improve global health.

"We are working through what this means for individual programmes. Decisions will be announced in due course."

Asked about the cuts, the prime minister said the government had always been clear that it intended to return to spending 0.7% of national income on aid when it was "fiscally prudent to do so".

Earlier this week, the BBC obtained an internal FCDO memo that said funding for global water, sanitation and hygiene bilateral projects would be cut by more than 80%, prompting criticism from a leading charity.

UK's aid cuts for clean water projects criticised

Charity warns UK aid to see 63% cut in funding

UK's foreign aid spending cut by £2.9bn

Covid surge in India at level ‘never imagined’, says doctor with family in Delhi

Dr Meenal Viz, a Luton-based doctor with family members in India, said the country is facing a ‘humanitarian crisis’.

Dr Meenal Viz

By Emily Chudy
EVENING STANDARD UK

4/28/2021



The surge in Covid-19 cases in India will soon create a “humanitarian crisis”, a doctor who has family members in Delhi fears.

The country of nearly 1.4 billion has seen a dramatic spike in infections and deaths in recent weeks, overwhelming the national health system and leaving some dying without access to beds or oxygen.

Dr Meenal Viz, a Luton-based doctor, said that the next few weeks could see people “dying at numbers we probably have never imagined”.

Dr Viz, 28, described Delhi, where several family members including her aunt, uncle and cousin have been infected with Covid-19, as one of the country’s “worst-hit places at the moment”

“For a good part of the year, I’ve been trying to stay in touch with my family and especially my elderly grandmother, who hasn’t left the house in a year because she’s so terrified of what could potentially come her way.

“Last year we had lots of relatives who’ve been unwell with Covid; one of them had to actually get admitted into hospital, but luckily that was at a time where there wasn’t so much of a shortage of oxygen or ICU beds.

“I knew a year ago that there was going to be a point, whether a variant would come along, or once everyone could travel, that this would actually be quite deadly to the population in terms of the number of ICU beds, number of respirators… it would be catastrophic.”

HEALTH Coronavirus

She added: “One of my biggest worries is that it took some time for our leaders to put India on the red list for travel.

“I’m not sure why exactly that happened, but the worry is that if that comes here, all the hard work that we put in in the last year in lockdown and isolation and getting vaccinated might not be as fruitful as we’d hoped it would be.”

Dr Viz highlighted the need to deliver the vaccine to developing countries and work together to “help communities and societies”.

“I was reading a few days ago that a lot of companies don’t want to sell the patent in developing countries, because of the business side of things, but it’s actually our duty now as doctors and as scientists,” she told PA.

“We’re not just here to take care of patients, we’re here to help communities and societies come back from this really tragic year.

“There’s a damage that can’t be undone. We really need to think of the next few months, and I feel like a lot of leaders have failed to do that.”

Along with several other healthcare workers, Dr Viz works for Team Halo, a UN-backed initiative that has seen doctors and scientists volunteer to make TikTok videos addressing vaccine hesitancy.

Dr Punam Krishan, a Glasgow GP who is also part of the initiative, said: “My heart is breaking for what’s happening in India. It feels frighteningly close to home that anything can change at any time.

“We are so fortunate to have vaccines available.

“The situation in India highlights just how critical the continued take-up is as the vaccine rollout starts to reach younger generations here.”

The surge in India’s Covid-19 cases was described as “beyond heartbreaking” by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Dr Maria van Kerkhove, of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, warned: “This can happen in any country if we let our guard down… The situation can grow if we allow it to and that is why it is important that every single person on the planet knows they have a role to play.”

The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has said the first of nine plane-loads of life-saving kit, including ventilators and oxygen concentrators, would arrive in New Delhi early on Tuesday, with further consignments due to be dispatched later this week.

GASPING FOR BREATH

As Covid-19 reaches rural India, 

“people are dropping dead like flies”

Tough times.

By Arunabh Saikia & Utpal Pathak

April 28, 2021

On the evening of April 23, Dhanraj Singh, a 40-year blind man, arrived at the Sikanderpur community health centre in eastern Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia district, complaining of breathlessness. Singh, a resident of the nearby Bansi Bazar village, was running a temperature too. According to the doctor who attended to him, Singh collapsed within “hardly five-seven minutes”. The body was handed over to the family.

In any case, the doctor said he would not have been able to help–the centre has no oxygen supplies, not even for emergencies.

Singh looked like a “suspected Covid case”, but the doctor said he had no way to be sure. The centre has inexplicably stopped testing for a month.

“What can we say, we want to test but we can’t, it is an administrative decision,” said the doctor, who did not want to be identified. “We send people to the block primary health centre where testing is still happening, that is around 5 km-6 km away. It is a tragedy that we are such a big centre and yet we do not test in these times.

The Sikanderpur community health centre caters to almost 200 villages in the area.

Despite the lack of testing, it seems fairly clear that Covid-19 is sweeping through the towns and villages of Ballia, a district bordering Bihar. Even Ballia’s chief medical officer Rajendra Prasad admitted as much. “The spread is a little too much this time,” he said.

 “The rural areas are not spared.”

Uttar Pradesh started experiencing a surge in the first week of April with the number of cases exploding beginning the second week. On April 8, the state reported 8,490 new cases, crossing the previous peak of 7,016 cases registered in September 2020. However, half of these 8,490 confirmed cases were limited to the four districts of Lucknow, Prayagraj, Kanpur and Varanasi.

But things have grown worse from there. On April 25, the state reported nearly 38,000 cases. As of April 27 morning, the state has over 300,00 active cases. Experts say the true numbers are likely to be much higher given the state’s lackadaisical testing.

More ominously, the virus is no longer restricted to urban centres. The beleaguered health infrastructure of rural Uttar Pradesh, which recently saw migrants return home from city hotspots to vote in the panchayat elections, is already overwhelmed, conversations with people, doctors and administrators in multiple districts suggest.
“Gasping for breath”

“People are dropping dead like flies,” said Imran Ahmed.

A local activist from Ballia’s Sikanderpur, he has been helping people get access to oxygen, but rarely with any success. “All their family members have the same story to share: they develop a fever and then all of a sudden they are gasping for breath, but there is no oxygen anywhere.”

The doctor at the Sikanderpur community health centre confirmed as much. “Our daily patient load is 200-250 patients per day and 90% of the cases come with problems of cough, fever and breathlessness,” he said. “The more severe cases who need oxygen, there are eight-ten everyday, we refer to the district hospital.”

But there is no guarantee of oxygen in Uttar Pradesh’s district hospitals either, as Shivakant Pal of Sitapur’s Babupurwa village found out on April 24.

Pal’s mother Ramdevi Pal, 42, had been running a fever since April 20, but that morning she was struggling to breathe.

The family hired an autorickshaw and took her to a nearby private hospital where the doctor asked them to rush to the district hospital located some 30 km away. Ramdevi Pal’s oxygen saturation level had dropped to 35%, the ideal level being above 95%.

There, Shivakant Pal counted 72 beds–and one oxygen cylinder. His mother did not get any oxygen from it. She died gasping for breath at around 6.30 pm. “During the time we were there, at least five people died apart from my mother in the hospital, all of whom had come looking for oxygen. I saw with my own eyes,” said 20-year-old Pal. Officially, Sitapur did not report a single Covid-19 death that day.

That’s because, like Dhanraj Singh of Balia, Ramdevi Pal had never been tested for Covid-19.

Sitapur’s chief medical officer was not available for comment. A person in her office said she was in a meeting and there was “no problem” as such in the district.

SCROLL.INRamdevi Pal died gasping for breath in the Sitapur district hospital. She was never tested for Covid-19.

Desperate for oxygen

Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister Adityanath has repeatedly claimed that there was no shortage of oxygen in the state and even threatened to seize the property of those spreading “rumours” and trying to “spoil the atmosphere.”

Yet, accounts from across the state suggest it is facing a severe oxygen crisis.

For instance, when Sanjay Kushwaha, a resident of a village near the Indo-Nepal border, took his 35-year-old breathless elder brother Manoj Kushwaha to the Kushinagar district hospital on April 18, the doctors administered an injection, but no oxygen. Nor was a Covid-19 test done, Sanjay Kushwaha said, as it was a Sunday. “His condition was not improving so we moved him to a private hospital,” he added.

His brother was immediately put on oxygen at the private hospital, but a Covid-test was not done there either, according to Sanjay Kushwaha.

Manoj Kushwaha stayed on oxygen support for four days at the private hospital—but after that it too ran out of oxygen. “We were told to arrange our own cylinder because the hospital’s stocks had run out,” said Sanjay Kushwaha.

On April 24, the private hospital asked the family to transfer Manoj Kushwaha to the tertiary-care BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur, which according to Sanjay Khushawa refused to admit him. “They told us they are not taking in patients from private [hospitals],” he said.

Manoj Kushwaha was brought back to the Kushinagar district hospital, where died on April 25, bereft of any oxygen support.

Kushinagar’s chief medical officer did not respond to repeated calls seeking comment.

SCROLL.INSanjay Kushwaha, struggling to breathe, died without oxygen support at the Kushanagar district hospital.

‘Arrange your own cylinder’

It is the same story across districts: hospitals are asking relatives to get their own oxygen cylinders.

In Bahraich, when Akshay Srivastava’s mother’s oxygen levels dropped, the family managed to get a cylinder, but under tragic circumstances. An acquaintance, whom the cylinder was meant for, died the previous night. “Well, I don’t know whether there is an oxygen shortage or not, but I can tell you that we entered the district hospital with our own cylinder,” said Srivastava.

On Sunday evening, the family was struggling to get a refill–the district hospital authorities had told them they could not help since all the oxygen was earmarked for the Covid ward and Srivastava’s mother’s Covid test was still pending.

Srivastava’s mother has since been shifted to a Covid ward where family members said the hospital was administering her oxygen.

Bahracih’s chief medical officer Rajesh Mohan Srivastava said there were ample critical care beds in the district. “Our positivity rate is 1.5%,” he said. “People are getting whatever they want.”

But few other officials and doctors in the state seem to share that optimism. A senior official in the state’s health department based in one of the eastern districts, currently down with Covid-19 along with the rest of his family, said he was thanking his stars no one in the family needed oxygen yet.

“It is all about chance, in all probability I could not have managed too,” he said.
Deaths in the villages

Professor Gopal Nath heads the Virus Research and Diagnostic Lab at the Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, expressed a grim view of the situation. “The community spread is so bad in the villages that people don’t know what to do or where to go,” he said. “Also, testing such huge numbers is difficult because where is the health staff to collect so many samples. To meet the current demand, we need ten times more staff.”

Nath who hails from a village on the Jaunpur-Varanasi border said he shuddered at the prospect of going there anytime soon. “We have done massive blunders,” he said. “The gram panchayat elections should have been postponed because not only did it see big gatherings, the elections have so much prestige attached to them that people from cities came home to vote carrying the virus with them.”

A four-phase panchayat election that began on April 15 is currently underway in Uttar Pradesh. The Allahabad high court refused to postpone it, despite an unprecedented Covid-19 surge in the state.

Nath’s fears about a surge in the wake of the elections seem to be well-founded. Situated on the outskirts of Varanasi town, Ramna was of late seeing four-five deaths each day, of people showing Covid-like symptoms, said Amit Patel whose wife is the elected head of the village

“Last night three people died in my village,” Patel told Scroll.in on Monday. “None of them were tested.”

The primary health centre at Ramna is neither testing people for the virus nor treating people with symptoms. Currently, it is only administering Covid-19 vaccines.

Varanasi’s chief medical officer was not available for comment. A representative from his office said he was attending the funeral of his father who died late Monday evening. The representative, however, did say that the “situation was extremely bad in the district.” “Probably the worst in the whole of Uttar Pradesh,” he said.

In adjoining Chandauli, the District Combined Hospital at Chakia, which serves a largely rural population, is predictably getting overwhelmed. The hospital has 50 critical care beds reserved for Covid patients. “Last year, at any point of time, a maximum of 13-14 beds were occupied,” said Usha Yadav who till recently headed the facility. “Now my staff tells me there are 100 patients with makeshift beds everywhere. So you can imagine what the situation is.”

The burst of cases in the mofussil districts has meant additional pressure on already overburdened health facilities in urban centres like Lucknow. “It is not like we are dealing with patients just from Lucknow–people from the villages are now flooding our hospital,” said Madhulika Singh, who owns a private hospital and a medical college in the city “From Faizabad, Gonda, Raebareli, Basti, Ambedkar Nagar, everyone is coming to Lucknow. There just aren’t enough hospitals there.”

This article first appeared on Scroll.in. We welcome your comments at ideas.india@qz.com.

Covid 19 coronavirus: Indians turn to black market for oxygen as health system crumbles

28 Apr, 2021 

India's Covid-19 death toll has exceeded 200,000 after a record number of 3293 were reported on Wednesday, as patients across India continue to pay extortionate black market prices for oxygen and essential medicines.

The second wave of Covid-19, believed to be driven by more contagious variants, has wreaked devastation on India and the current daily death tolls are thought to be up to 20 times higher than recorded figures.

A Covid-19 patient sits inside a car and breathes with the help of oxygen provided by a Gurdwara, a Sikh house of worship, in New Delhi, India. Photo / AP

Many state governments are not reporting Covid-19 deaths if there is comorbidity, in order to reduce panic and for political point-scoring, while testing shortages mean many Indians are dying before it is confirmed they have the virus.

"I can easily say that around 1000 Covid-19 cases are getting funerals every day. This figure is seven to eight times higher than the official figures," the manager of one crematorium in Delhi told the Daily Telegraph.

Multiple funeral pyres of victims of Covid-19 burn at a ground that has been converted into a crematorium for mass cremation in New Delhi, India. Photo / AP

Despite emergency ventilators and oxygen concentrators arriving from the United Kingdom, as well as Australia, Germany, and Ireland, there continues to be critical oxygen shortages across much of the country. Hundreds of patients are dying outside hospitals and in their homes each day as a result.

Oxygen cylinders are being sold on the black market for over £1000 ($1900) in Delhi, despite India's capital running out of oxygen. In non-Covid times an oxygen cylinder was available for around £60 ($115).

Indians unable to get admitted into a hospital are increasingly being forced to set up a makeshift Covid-19 ICU in their homes with a cylinder and hiring nursing staff to provide care.
A health worker gives cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to a Covid-19 patient waiting to be attended outside a government Covid-19 hospital in Ahmedabad, India. Photo / AP

However, this option is only open to wealthier Indians and on Wednesday morning, a 15-month-old baby died outside a government hospital in the eastern city of Visakhapatnam, after the hospital was unable to provide oxygen.

The girl's parents told the Indian media they begged staff for admission for 90 minutes before her tragic death and could not afford to purchase oxygen themselves.

On Tuesday, the Delhi high court warned the city's politicians that it would hand over control of the city's affairs to India's nationally ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), due to an escalating black market for medicines.
Beds lie inside an indoor stadium converted into a Covid-19 treatment centre for emergencies in the wake of the second serge of cases. Photo / AP

One Delhi resident told the Daily Telegraph they had been forced to pay £484 for a vial of remdesivir, despite the World Health Organisation (WHO) stating there is no evidence to suggest it improves survival and the market cap being £19.50.

"The price is going up every day but when your grandma is sick you are desperate and will pay that price," they said, after being told to purchase the drug by a doctor.

Relatives and municipal workers prepare to bury the body of a person who died of Covid-19 in Gauhati, India. Photo / AP

"The issue is that the Indian Government guidelines for drugs like remdesivir says that they may play a role in Covid-19 recovery whereas WHO has a conditional recommendation against it due to insufficient data," explains Dr Jyoti Joshi, the Head of South Asia at the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy.

"This potential of use – even without evidence-based benefit – has created a huge demand for use in each patient, causing the public sector and even the private supplies to run out and lead to black marketing."

Relatives of a patient who died of Covid-19, mourn outside a government hospital in Ahmedabad, India. Photo / AP

Criminals have now begun taking advantage of the desperation and in the western city of Pune, four people were arrested for selling liquid paracetamol as seven vials of remdesivir at £334 each.

Many Indian states are currently under curfew to control the spread of the virus and the western state of Maharashtra, home to the financial capital of Mumbai, may extend its lockdown until mid-May.

Meanwhile, nearby Goa will enter into its first lockdown this year from Thursday after a spike in cases.

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Wearable  glucose monitors shed light on  progression of Type 2 diabetes in Hispanic adults

Study by Sansum Diabetes Research Institute and Rice University points to new directions for improved diabetes care

RICE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: DAVID KERR IS THE DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION AT SANSUM DIABETES RESEARCH INSTITUTE. view more 

CREDIT: IMAGE COURTESY OF SANSUM DIABETES RESEARCH INSTITUTE

HOUSTON - (April 29, 2021) - In one of the first studies of its kind, medical and engineering researchers have shown wearable devices that continuously monitor blood sugar provide new insights into the progression of Type 2 diabetes among at-risk Hispanic/Latino adults.

The findings by researchers from Sansum Diabetes Research Institute (SDRI) and Rice University are available online this week in EClinicalMedicine, an open-access clinical journal published by The Lancet.

"The fresh look at the glucose data sheds new light on disease progression, which could have a direct impact on better management," said Rice study co-author Ashutosh Sabharwal, professor and department chair in electrical and computer engineering and founder of Rice's Scalable Health Labs. "An important aspect of our analysis is that the results are clinically interpretable and point to new directions for improved Type 2 diabetes care."

The study builds on SDRI's groundbreaking research to address Type 2 diabetes in underserved Hispanic/Latino communities. SDRI's Farming for Life initiative assesses the physical and mental health benefits of providing medical prescriptions for locally sourced fresh vegetables to people with or at risk of Type 2 diabetes, with a focus on the Hispanic/Latino community. SDRI recently added a digital health technology called continuous glucose monitoring to this research.

Continuous glucose monitors track blood sugar levels around-the-clock and allow trends in blood glucose to be displayed and analyzed over time. The devices typically consist of two parts, a small electrode sensor affixed to the skin with an adhesive patch and a receiver that gathers data from the sensor.

"We found that the use of this technology is both feasible and acceptable for this population, predominantly Mexican American adults," said study co-author David Kerr, SDRI's director of research and innovation. "The results also provided new insights into measurable differences in the glucose profiles for individuals at risk of as well as with noninsulin-treated Type 2 diabetes. These findings could facilitate novel therapeutic approaches to reduce the risk of progression of Type 2 diabetes for this underserved population."

Sabharwal, who is also a co-investigator of the Precise Advanced Technologies and Health Systems for Underserved Populations (PATHS-UP) engineering research center, said, "The collaboration with SDRI aligns with our mission to use technology as an important building block to reduce health care disparities."

"We are excited about the application of digital health technologies for underserved populations as a way to eliminate health disparities and improve health equity," Kerr said. "This opens up potential for a larger number of collaborations to support SDRI's evolving focus on precision nutrition and also the expanded use of digital health technologies for both the prevention and management of all forms of diabetes."

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Sabharwal is the Ernest Dell Butcher Professor of Engineering in Rice's Brown School of Engineering.

Study co-authors include Souptik Barua of Rice and Namino Glantz, Casey Conneely, Arianna Larez and Wendy Bevier of SDRI.

The research was supported by the Department of Agriculture (2018-33800-28404), the National Science Foundation (1648451), the Hearst Foundation, the Mosher Foundation, Sun Life Financial, the St. Francis Foundation and the Blooming Prairie Foundation.

Links and resources:

The DOI of the EClinicalMedicine paper is: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.100853

A copy of the paper is available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.100853

High-resolution IMAGES are available for download at:

https://sansum.org/images/Lancet-graphic-print.jpg

CAPTION: Sansum Diabetes Research Institute's Farming for Life initiative addresses Type 2 diabetes in underserved Hispanic/Latino communities by assessing the physical and mental health benefits of providing medical prescriptions for locally sourced fresh vegetables to people with or at risk of the disease. In a study of participants who wore continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), devices that measure blood sugar levels around-the-clock, researchers showed CGM data can provide new insights into the progression of Type 2 diabetes among at-risk Hispanic/Latino adults. (Image courtesy of Sansum Diabetes Research Institute)

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Lateral flow testing should not be used as a green light for activities

Study suggests the screening tool is more effective at detecting higher quantities of viral RNA

PLOS

Research News

 

The United Kingdom government plans to implement mass scale population testing for SARS-CoV-2 infection using Lateral Flow Devices (LFDs), yet the devices' sensitivity is unknown. A study published in the open access journal PLOS Biology by Alan McNally at University of Birmingham, UK, and colleagues suggests while LFDs are highly effective in identifying SARS-CoV-2 in individuals with high quantities of viral RNA present on the test swab, they are inaccurate at diagnosing infections in individuals with lower viral loads.

LFDs are increasingly used to increase testing capacity and screen asymptomatic populations for SARS-CoV-2 infection in mass surveillance programs, yet there are few data indicating the performance of these devices. To determine the sensitivity of LFDs, researchers tested the nasopharyngeal swabs of 8,000 university students using the devices. Next, they validated all positive samples and randomly selected 720 negative samples out of 7,187 negatives for validation.

Using reverse transcription PCR tests, the authors estimated the true COVID-19 prevalence rate and compared it to LFD test results. The researchers were able to determine the LFDs' accuracy rate for different levels of virus, finding that while the test was able to detect infections in samples with higher levels of viral RNA at a 100% accuracy rate, the test's performance dropped significantly in samples with lower viral loads.

The results suggest that for individuals in the very early or very late stages of infection, LFDs are likely to produce a false negative result, pointing to the need for frequent testing. A limitation of the study was that emergent variants and their potential effects on LFDs' sensitivity with asymptomatic cases were not considered within the scope of the study. Independent research suggests that both the UK and South African variants can be reliably detected, but further studies are needed to determine whether the LFDs can detect infections at the same viral loads as with the SARS-CoV-2 strain examined in the current research.

According to the authors, "When used regularly, LFDs can be a highly effective tool in reducing overall community burden. We would strongly recommend that Lateral Flow Device testing is used to screen people at a very regular frequency, and that a negative result should not be used to determine that someone is free from SARS-CoV-2 infection. As such LFDs should not be used as a test-to-do"

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Research article

Peer reviewed; Experimental study; Humans

In your coverage please use these URLs to provide access to the freely available articles in PLOS Biology: http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001216

Citation: Ferguson J, Dunn S, Best A, Mirza J, Percival B, Mayhew M, et al. (2021) Validation testing to determine the sensitivity of lateral flow testing for asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 detection in low prevalence settings: Testing frequency and public health messaging is key. PLoS Biol 19(4): e3001216. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001216

Funding: The PCR testing in this manuscript is funded by the UK Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) as part of pillar 2 testing, in an award made directly to the University of Birmingham. The provision of LFD tests is funded by DHSC as part of a national student testing program, and funded directly to the University of Birmingham. DHSC have had no role in in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.