-Article-14.com In the sprawling rural hinterland beyond the Taj Mahal, in a region dotted with hospitals, we found a deluge of unreported and unrecorded sickness and death, because the administration of chief minister Yogi Adityanath discourages record keeping, restricts testing and insists the pandemic is under control. Agra (Uttar Pradesh): In normal times, only a few bodies were cremated every week at the Poiya Ghat crematorium in rural Agra, 12 km and...

-The Hindu Balram Bhargava says more Rapid Antigen Tests will be conducted from now on. The national COVID-19 positivity rate stood at 21% and 310 of the 734 districts had reported positivity greater than or equal to the national average, Balram Bhargava, Director-General, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), said on Tuesday. At the Health Ministry briefing, Dr. Bhargava said the country now had the RTPCR testing capacity of about 16 lakh a...

-The Hindu U.P. govt. ill-prepared to deal with spread of infections in rural areas, says Allahabad High Court The Election Commission, the higher courts and the government failed to fathom the disastrous consequences of permitting the elections in a few States and the Panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Allahabad High Court has noted. The Uttar Pradesh government is having tough time in controlling the spread of COVID-19 in urban areas and it...

-Newsclick.in As India faces a grim economic scenario due to the second wave of the pandemic in India, the government needs to step in to create employment opportunities. The second wave of COVID-19 beginning from February 2021 has not only severely impacted the economic recovery in India, but has also threatened a contraction in its GDP and consequently a sharp spike in unemployment. S&P’s moderate and severe severe downside scenario has estimated...

-Newsclick.in About 200 families residing in the informal housing settlements in Delhi were directly or indirectly affected by the demolition drive carried out by the authorities in the month of April. Slum dwellers in the national capital find their woes compounded by the looming threat of forced evictions by the government authorities – that continued apace last year and has not spared families despite the resurgence in COVID-19 cases now. About 200 families...