Five A-I pilots test positive
Mumbai: Five pilots of Air India and two employees of the national carrier’s engineering services subsidiary AIESL have tested positive for coronavirus, airline sources said on Sunday. Air India, which is operating flights to evacuate Indians stranded in foreign countries, have asked its pilots to undertake coronavirus test before they operate such flights, the sources said. “Five Air India pilots have tested positive for coronavirus. These pilots were tested one after one. We suspect it could be a case of faulty testing kit as well,” one of the sources told PTI. The five pilots fly Boeing 787 planes, the second source said. A senior airline official said the five pilots had not operated any flight in the last three weeks. “These pilots had operated cargo flights to China prior to April 20,” the official said. Air India spokesperson did not offer any comment. (PTI)
Manmohan admitted to AIIMS
NEW DELHI: Former prime minister Manmohan Singh was admitted to the AIIMS here on Sunday evening after he complained of uneasiness, sources said. Singh, 87, is under observation at the cardio-thoracic ward of the premier hospital, they said. He was admitted under Dr Nitish Naik, a professor of cardiology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), around 8.45 pm. “He is under observation,” one of the sources said. Singh is a senior leader of the opposition Congress and currently represents Rajasthan in the Upper House of Parliament. He was the prime minister between 2004 and 2014. (PTI)
Ex-Chhattisgarh CM in coma
Raipur: Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi who was admitted to a private hospital here, after suffering a cardiac arrest, slipped into coma, the hospital director said on Sunday. Mr Jogi was still in critical condition, team of eight specialized doctors in the hospital is treating him. But his heart is functioning normally and his blood pressure is under control with the use of medicines, Narayana Hospital Director Dr Sunil Khemka said here. However, after respiratory attack yesterday, there may have been possible damage to his brain due to obstruction in oxygen supply to it, he said. The 74-year-old Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) head was admitted to Shree Narayana hospital here after he fell subconscious and suffered heart attack at his residence here. (UNI)
System to sanitise gadgets, notes
New Delhi: The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed an automated and contactless ultraviolet sanitisation cabinet to sanitise electronic gadgets, currency notes and papers, the Defence Ministry said on Sunday, as the country fights the COVID-19 outbreak. The system, Defence Research Ultraviolet Sanitiser (DRUVS), provides a 360-degree exposure of ultraviolet rays to objects placed inside the cabinet. Once the sanitisation is done, the system goes in sleep mode, hence the operator need not wait or stand near the device. It is developed by DRDO’s Research Centre Imarat (RCI) lab and works on contactless operation, which is very important to contain the spread of the virus, the ministry noted. The ministry noted that the DRUVS has been designed to sanitise mobile phones, iPads, laptops, currency notes, cheque leafs, challans, passbooks, paper, envelopes, etc. India has been under a lockdown since March 25 to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has infected more than 62,900 people and killed around 2,100 in the country till now. (PTI)
Medium-intensity quake hits Delhi
New Delhi: A medium-intensity earthquake of magnitude 3.4 hit Delhi on Sunday, a third in less than a month, the National Centre for Seismology (NCS) said. The epicentre of the quake was near Wazirpur in northeast Delhi, J L Gautam, Head (Operations) at the NCS, an institute under the Ministry of Earth Sciences. The same location and nearby areas were the epicentre of the earthquakes on April 12 and 13 of magnitude 3.5 and 2.7, respectively. The quake occurred at a depth of five kilometres. Of the five seismic zones, Delhi falls under the fourth zone. (PTI)
Promote all students next year: Sibal
New Delhi: With uncertainty looming over the 2020-2021 academic session of schools in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, former Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal on Sunday said either all students barring those in Class 12 be promoted or an internal assessment mechanism be put in place to save children in class 10 and other levels from examination stress. The senior Congress leader also suggested that courses can be reduced both in schools and universities and the teaching time lost in the 2020-21 session due to the pandemic could be made up in the next year with extra effort from both the teacher and student communities. Various universities will also have to take a decision on whether or not to delay the academic session and they have the autonomy to take a call and a decision cannot be forced on them, Sibal told PTI in an interview. The UGC has issued guidelines to universities that the new academic session for freshers will begin from September while for the existing students from August. (PTI)