After the outbreak of COVID-19 in China during early January this year and its dissemination globally within a few days, health experts have suggested ways to check its spread exponentially among the Rest of the population. In the age of internet connectivity, work-from-home and self-isolation have been advised as solutions to ensure social distancing and avoid large-scale social gatherings. Experts have asked governments and private enterprises to keep people at...

-The Hindu These cases can expose a large population to the virus than would otherwise occur Chennai: Eighty-six per cent of people in China who were infected with novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) were not tested in the two-week period before travel Restrictions came into force on January 23 in Wuhan and other cities. And these undetected cases contributed to the majority of virus spread in the community, says a paper published in the...

-The Indian Express Govt has issued guidelines on home quarantine for people who have been exposed to novel coronavirus. What are these guidelines, and how is this regime different from being quarantined in an Army facility? In India’s fight against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID 2019), the Union Health Ministry has issued elaborate guidelines on how to enforce “home quarantine” for a fortnight. While less stringent than being quarantined in an Army...

-The Hindu The absence of playgrounds and electricity in govt. schools speaks poorly of policy priorities It should rank as an irony that as a founder-leader of the International Solar Alliance, India has not yet electrified a significant number of government schools, while extolling the elegance and virtue of photovoltaic electricity to the Rest of the world. The lack of power in schools is taken note of by the Parliamentary Standing Committee...

-The Hindu 30 participants from eight States take part in the five-day training programme VISAKHAPATNAM (Andhra Pradesh): A five-day national training programme on millets discussed the possibilities of intercropping millets in commercial crops and major millets. Since the area that had been traditionally used to cultivate millets is presently replaced by cash crops like soya, groundnut and cotton intercropping is an option to bring back millets, according to M.L. Sanyasi Rao, Programme Manager...