India, US to deploy full strength of ties to fight pandemic, PM assures Trump
NEWDELHI:PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday had a telephonic conversation with US president Donald Trump on the Covid-19 pandemic threatening countries all over the world. The two leaders agreed to put the full weight of the India-us partnership to fight the deadly Covid-19 disease.
“Had an extensive telephone conversation with President @realdonaldtrump. We had a good discussion, and agreed to deploy the full strength of the India-us partnership to fight Covid-19,” the prime minister said in a tweet.
The discussion between the two global leaders comes at a time when both countries are in the grip of the highly contagious coronavirus.
The United States, has so far confirmed 2,78,458 cases of Covid-19 and more than 7,100 deaths.
India on Saturday reported 3,072 coronavirus cases and 75 deaths across its various states.
On Saturday morning, the Prime Minister also chaired a joint meeting of the Empowered Groups constituted for planning and ensuring implementation of Covid-19 response activities in India.
The maximum percentage of Covid-19 positive cases stands at 42% in the country and have been reported among people in the age group between 21 and 40 years, the government’s data showed on Saturday.
The government also released the age profile of all the 3,072 Covid-19 positive cases reported till date since January 30.
The situation in the United States is more severe. The total Covid-19 affected cases in the US has climbed to 2,78,458 so far, surpassing Italy, Spain and even China where the coronavirus originated in December 2019.
This 2017 film by Dylan Bank, Daniel Dimauro and Morgan Pehme examines the workings of American political lobbyist Roger Stone, who was instrumental in designing the Donald Trump campaign. In exploring the style of Stone, which includes smear campaigns, provocative speeches and lies, we get an early view of a political climate that would go mainstream in numerous countries over the following few years.
BALLET, THEATRE, ART
The best of Russia’s Bolshoi ballets (youtube. com/user/bolshoi): Nnormally, you’d have to fly to Moscow, cross your fingers and pay exorbitant sums to watch Russia’s legendary Bolshoi Theatre ballet performances. Under lockdown, the theatre’s Youtube channel is streaming its most popular classic performances free. The Tsar’s Bride streamed on April 1. Coming up are Marco Spada on April 4, Boris Godnov on April 7 and The Nutcracker on April 10. All performances go live at 7pm MSK (9.30pm IST) and are available online for 24 hours. about seven days post-infection, and its levels rise and fall by three to four weeks after the infection. The second type of antibody, IGG, appears at about 10 days and can take up to three weeks to reach measurable levels. Since antibody responses vary widely with people, experts suggest that 21 days post-infection is about when most people are expected to show both IGG and IGM. “Together, these antibodies, IGG and IGM, are expected to give protective immunity for a limited time; we do not yet know if and for how long these antibodies will protect, but that data will speedily come in,” said Dr Vijayraghavan.
“A negative antibody test does not tell if the virus is present and if the body has not yet responded, but a positive does tell that the body was exposed to the virus. The antibody tests, even when used for screening, must be used with care, as with all tests, and interpreted by a professional. As of now, when so used, they can inform how groups of people have been exposed. When combined with nucleic acid tests, the antibody tests can give a complete status,” said Dr Vijayraghavan.
The government, in its Saturday advisory, also laid out guidelines of what to do in the case of a positive or negative rapid antibody test result -- asking for the RT-PCR test to be conducted in case of a negative result and clinical examination and quarantine for 10 days in case of a positive result.
Dr David Nabarro, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) special envoy on Covid-19, highlighted the importance of antibody tests in the fight against the disease.
“There are some very exciting developments with rapid virus (antibody) tests coming on to the market. These are being examined to ensure that they have the right sensitivity, which means they pick up small virus loads as well as big ones, and they have specificity, which means they are not picking up other coronaviruses beside Covid-19. As soon as we know they are okay, they are going to be very important,” Nabarro said.
RT-PCR remains the most accurate test to detect infections because of its accuracy and specificity at early stages of the infection -- essential for containment as most people are most infective long before showing symptoms.
“In epidemics, such as Covid-19, testing for the presence of the viral genome in swabs is the