NEWS

BJP released its second list of 27 candidates for the Punjab polls on Thursday, picking the chairpersons of two national commissions and as many sitting Congress MLAs who crossed over to the saffron camp recently. The list has three women candidates, including former chief parliamentary secretary Seema Kumari from the Bhoa (SC) assembly segment.

Former Union minister of state and chairperson of the National Commission of Scheduled Castes, Vijay Sampla, has been fielded in the Phagwara (SC) constituency, while National Commission for Minorities chairperson and former IPS officer Iqbal Singh Lalpura will contest the Ropar seat.

The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) will meet today to discuss the further easing of curbs in view of declining cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the national capital. The active caseload in Delhi dropped by more than 50% within 12 days after it reached a peak of 94,160 on January 13. During the second Covid wave, it took 21 days for the active caseload to decline by half.

Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said that the government will recommend the reopening of schools as excessive caution is now harming students. While the Covid cases and positivity rate are on the decline, Sisodia said, it would not be suitable to keep children away from schools, reported PTI.

Cold day conditions are going to continue in most parts of central and northwest India as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecasted the same in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, among others, for the next three days.

According to the latest bulletin by the Met department, there will be no significant change in the minimum temperatures over northwest India till January 30. However, the mercury will commence dipping by two to three degrees Celsius thereafter.

The IMD has also forecasted heavy rainfall in most parts of northeast India, including Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh till January 28. Under the influence of two different western disturbances, fresh snowfall is likely over Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and western Himalayan region between January 29 and February 4.

Over 21 million new Covid cases were reported globally last week, which is the highest since the beginning of the pandemic, WHO stated on Wednesday. Meanwhile, India logged 2,115,100 new cases with a 33 percent increase in the total tally of the week. India on Wednesday also saw a surge in the cases, many states saw cases touching higher numbers.

Kerala in the last 24 hours logged 49,771 fresh COVID-19 cases and Delhi recorded 7,498 fresh infections, on the other hand, Karnataka 48,905 cases and in Maharashtra over 35K new infections were detected.

Kerala with 49,771 fresh COVID-19 cases took the active caseload to 57,74,857, while the death toll rose to 52,281 with 140 COVID-19-related deaths being registered.On Tuesday, the state had recorded 55,475 fresh cases, the highest ever single-day spike in the infection since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020.