The 2021 Asia Cup has been cancelled due to a significant rise in numbers of coronavirus in Sri Lanka on Wednesday. The one-day international cricket tournament whose location was shifted from Pakistan to Sri Lanka, was last held in 2018. It was scheduled to be held in June this year in the island nation.
India registered a 13 per cent decrease in new COVID-19 cases in the past week but the number of fresh infections was still the highest around the world, the WHO has said. The number of new cases and deaths continued to decrease with just over 4.8 million new cases and just under 86,000 new deaths reported globally in the past week.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday reviewed the functioning of the Revenue and Disaster Management Department and issued instructions regarding the mitigation of floods. Reviewing flood preparedness ahead of the rainy season in Assam, the Chief Minister directed that relief items should immediately reach the areas expected to be hit by inundation.
As many as 26 personnel on board accommodation barge P305 that went adrift in Cyclone Tauktae fury before sinking in the Arabian Sea off Mumbai coast are dead and 49 are still missing, as the Navy continued search and rescue operations through the night, an official said on Wednesday. The Navy said its personnel, battling extreme weather, have so far rescued 186 of the 261 people who were onboard barge P305 and also two from tugboat Varaprada. Chances of finding more survivors are looking bleak, an official said.
In view of increasing cases of Covid-19 in two villages of Sonapur and Azara, the Kamrup Metropolitan district administration has clamped containment zones for the next 14 days. The containment zones have been imposed in Luri village under Sonapur Revenue Circle and Tatimara village under Azara Revenue Circle of the district.
As many as 233 prisoners in 16 jails across Assam have tested positive for COVID-19, sources said. In Dibrugarh jail, a total of 54 prisoners contracted the virus, while in Sivasagar, 51 have tested positive for the infection. Both the jails make up 105 cases of the total tally, the highest among the 16 jails. The rest 128 are from jails in other districts.
An earthquake of 3.2 magnitude has struck in the Kamrup region on Wednesday evening. This is the second earthquake to have hit the state during this week. According to the data published by the National Centre for Seismology, tremors of 30km deep were felt at 5.55 pm with the epicentre located at 27km WNW of Guwahati.
A major setback to the tea industry in Assam, scanty rainfall causing drought-like situation has severely affected tea production in the state.
In yet another achievement for Assam's filmscape, Utpal Borpujari's short film 'Xogun' in the Assamese language has been selected for the 21st New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF). The film is based on writer-journalist Manoj Kumar Goswami's acclaimed short story of the same name which means 'Vulture'. 'Xogun' is one of the 58 films of different formats from across India selected for NYIFF.
The ICMR Wednesday advised against indiscriminate COVID-19 home testing using Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs), saying it should be used only on symptomatic individuals and on the immediate contacts of laboratory-confirmed positive cases. All individuals who test positive through the RAT kit may be considered as true positives and no-repeat testing is required, the Indian Council of Medical Research said in an advisory.
As many as 90 people have died of the fungal infection `mucormycosis" in Maharashtra so far and there is a shortage of a key medicine needed to treat it, state public health minister Rajesh Tope said on Wednesday. More than 200 patients of mucormycosis (also called Black Fungus) were detected in the last one week and he had urged the Union government to increase the supply of Amphotericin-B injection which is used in its treatment, he said.
In a fresh development, Mucormycosis or 'Black Fungus', which has affected a number of people in the last few weeks, has been declared as an epidemic in Rajasthan. According to doctors, the disease primarily affects people who are infected with COVID-19. It has affected recovering COVID patients as well.
The partial lunar eclipse on May 26 will not trigger any tidal waves and cannot be linked to the cyclone that is in the forecast, a senior astrophysicist said on Wednesday. People can be deprived of witnessing the cosmic phenomenon if the sky is overcast, Director of MP Birla Planetarium Debiprasad Duari told PTI.
COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna work against B.1.617 variant of the virus that was first identified in India, according to a new study. The study shows that the newly identified SARS-CoV-2 variants identified in India are neutralised well by antibodies in individuals vaccinated with both vaccines.
With oxygen becoming a crucial need in these trying times, Khalsa Centre North East of Guwahati has started a new initiative to tackle the same by providing 'Oxygen Langar' to the needy through Oxygen Concentrators. The initiative has been launched in association with the internationally acclaimed Khalsa Aid, which has provided 20 machines for the same.
