-The Hindu India needs a national policy providing for free testing and treatment of COVID-19 patients in private hospitals As India enters the second week of a national lockdown imposed in response to COVID-19, it is still unclear how well prepared the healthcare system is in dealing with the pandemic. Given the resource constraints of both the Central and State governments, it is clear that government hospitals alone will not be able...

-The Hindu There is scientific basis and epidemiological significance for the 21-day lockdown period announced by PM Modi. Is there any public health/epidemiological significance to the 21-day lockdown period announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi? It seems that rich scientific data has fed this decision to announce a 21-day lockdown period. In fact, 21-day quarantines have been discussed elaborately in the context of Ebola and the calculations are based on the estimated incubation...

-The Indian Express All comparisons between COVID-19 and TB end with the superficial observation that they are both deadly respiratory tract infections. The world has been spooked by COVID-19, the novel flu-like virus which emerged from the slaughter-houses of China and is now sweeping across the planet, propelled by the very engine of the global economy that it now threatens to pull asunder. Thanks to the waves of news engulfing us, including...

-PTI/ The Telegraph They were booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act Nagpur: One more FIR, naming five Maharashtra government officials, was registered on Wednesday by the Nagpur unit of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in the multi-crore irrigation scam. Five officials of Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC), some of them now retired, were booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act at the Sadar police station here, an ACB statement said on late Wednesday...

-The Hindu Parliamentary panel says there is still a lot of ground to cover A parliamentary committee has said only three States and five Union Territories have become kerosene-free, though the government in September last met the target of eight crore LPG connections under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana. The report of the Parliamentary Committee on Petroleum, which was tabled last week, points to the gap between the continuing use of kerosene and...