-Economic and Political Weekly Editorial India has to substantially scale up its health infrastructure to protect lives and livelihoods. “The situation in India is a devastating reminder of what the virus can do,” said World Health Organization (WHO) Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a virtual briefing in Geneva last week. He was speaking in the context of the WHO survey findings which noted that one year into the COVID-19 pandemic around 90%...

-Hindustan Times At least 700 state government school employees on panchayat poll duty succumbed to Covid in Uttar Pradesh this month, the state teachers’ union said on Friday, underlining the risk of flouting Covid norms during a devastating surge in infections Lucknow: At least 700 state government school employees on panchayat poll duty succumbed to Covid in Uttar Pradesh this month, the state teachers’ union said on Friday, underlining the risk of...

-Hindustan Times There has been shocking, collective policy failure. Focus on controlling the spread of infections, taking care of the ill, vaccination, and genome sequencing now There are four factors why the SECond wave has hit India with such intensity. First, the variants. The B.1.1.7, the one from the United Kingdom (UK), is present in parts of northern India. B.1.617, sometimes known as the “double mutant”, is pervasive in many places across India....

-The Hindu A catastrophe has hit India and there is no sign that the ferocious SECond wave is being dealt with competently Earlier this week, a young woman in Uttar Pradesh tweeted a cry for help. Her grandmother’s oxygen level had fallen to 40. “Pls help us in getting one bed in hospital in Bareilly,” she wrote in desperation. Soon a handle that called itself “Team Hindu Unlimited” was on her: “Stop...

-Hindustan Times Earlier this week, the ministry released a user manual for online submission of an undertaking on no increase in pollution load due to expansion, on its Parivesh website. The environment ministry has allowed companies operating in several industries, including some polluting ones, to expand capacities on the basis of a self-certification that this will not “increase the pollution load”, creating the room for potential misdeclaration (and misuse), especially in light...