FOCUS ON RESTAURANTS AND MARKETS

Delhi revenue minister Kailash Gahlot said teams have been formed in all 11 revenue districts to conduct inspections at major points with chances of large congregations, with focus on temples, restaurants, markets, etc. “More than 100 teams in all revenue districts will monitor if Covid-19 appropriate behaviour is being followed. Venues that have permission to hold functions will be inspected to check if videography from the start to the end of the event, temperature checks and social distancing as per DDMA rules are being done. Each approved event will have a nodal officer from our revenue department deployed on the spot,” Gahlot said.

The Delhi government’s excise department on Wednesday directed clubs, hotels, liquor shops and restaurants to ensure strict compliance of standard operating procedures (SOPs). The assistant commissioners (enforcement) has been asked to

deploy teams to check compliance of SOPs at bars in hotels, clubs and restaurants.

The Delhi Police said it apart from anti-terror and crowd-control measures, they directed their personnel to ensure all guidelines are followed.

Apart from pandals and Ramlila venues, the police have deployed personnel at prominent places such as Chhattarpur temple, Kalkaji Mandir and Kali Bari in south Delhi, Hanuman temple and Gauri Shankar temple in north Delhi and the Karol Bagh Hanuman temple.

“One ACP along with two inspectors and two platoons (nearly 50) of personnel are deployed round-the-clock at the Chhattarpur and Sai Baba temples. As far as Covid-19 measures are concerned, the temple managements will ensure wearing of masks, proper markings, social distancing, signages, and regular announcements. Our staff will educate devotees also. Those found violating the norms will be prosecuted,” said DCP (south) Atul Kumar Thakur.

Anti-terror apparatus and barricades will be placed at strategic locations.

Over 116,000 infants in India died within a month of their birth because of exposure to severe air pollution in 2019, according to the US-based Health Effects Institute and Global Burden of Disease, based on data from the latest State of Global Air report released on Wednesday, underscoring how dirty air has emerged as a factor in neonatal mortality.

Data shared by the Health Effects Institute said India had the highest burden of infant deaths from air pollution followed by Nigeria (67,900), Pakistan (56,500), Ethiopia (22,900), and the Democratic Republic of Congo (12,700). The report said that 476,000 newborns worldwide died in 2019 within a month of their birth as a result of air pollution.

Of neonatal deaths attributable to dirty air, two-thirds are related to household air pollution, and babies born in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia face the highest risk, said the report, released in the backdrop of the Covid-19, caused by a respiratory virus called Sars-CoV-1. One expert said evidence of a link between air pollution and Covid-19 was growing rapidly.

The report also comes as Delhi and its satellite towns brace for a spike in air pollution caused by post-harvest stubble burning by farmers in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh that shroud the national capital region in a thick, smoky fog in the winter months.

State of Global Air 2020 is based on a growing body of research, with evidence suggestintra-uterine ing that the mother’s exposure to polluted air during pregnancy is linked to increased mortality risks to infants weighing under 2,500 grams at birth or those born before 37 weeks of gestation, as opposed to 38 to 40 weeks. Low weight and premature birth are linked to a higher risk of lower respiratory tract and other serious infections, diarrhoea and jaundice, and brain damage and blood disorders that can be potentially fatal.

“Although the biological reasons for this linkage are not fully known, it is thought that air pollution may affect a pregnant woman, her developing foetus, or both through pathways similar to those of tobacco smoking, which is a well-known risk factor for low birth weight and preterm birth,” the report said.

Deaths of newborns can be prevented if air quality matches the standards set by the World Health Organisation, said Kalpana Balakrishnan, the director of the Indian Council of Medical Research’s Centre for Advanced Research on Air Quality, Climate and Health, adding that exposure air pollution has to be counted with other serious risk factors in neonatal mortality.

“That is how the attributable burden is identified. But the number seems large because population risks are often not perceivable because they have tiny risk on an individual level. For example, smoking, anaemia or maternal nutrition are all individual risks that can be dealt with on an individual level. But when it comes to air pollution, a very large population is at risk because of high overall exposure. India also has an underlying prevalence of low birth weight which also makes the risk pronounced,” she said.

Balakrishnan said the evidence from over 70 studies, including one done by ICMR in India, shows that exposures to household and ambient air pollution are associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes.

“India has a long history of addressing multiple risk factors contributing to adverse pregnancy outcomes, including maternal nutrition, anaemia, access to antenatal care.”

Clean household energy initiatives offer some strategic nearterm opportunities that can be directed at these vulnerable groups, Balakrishnan added. “Results from ongoing randomised control trials In India are expected to strengthen the case for such interventions.”

Of all neonatal deaths attributable to air pollution globally, household air pollution accounted for about 64% of the total. The rest were because of outdoor air pollution. The highest percentage of deaths attributable to household air pollution (80%) was estimated to be in the sub-Saharan region. The lowest was in high-income regions (less than 2%).

“I am not surprised by the findings on infant deaths. Exposure to air pollution can cause intra-uterine growth retardation and even death. Infants born to mothers exposed to extremely polluted air can have low birth weight, they are prone to infections and can cause lower immunity,” said Dr GC Khilnani, chairman of the PSRI Institute of Critical and Pulmonary care, and former head of pulmonary medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.

Long-term exposure to outdoor and household air pollution contributed over 1.67 million annual deaths from stroke, heart attack, diabetes, lung cancer, chronic lung disease, and neonatal disease in India last year, making air pollution the largest risk factor for deaths among all health risks.

Based on experience from the Sars-CoV-1 outbreak between 2002 and 2004, the report said air pollution could lead to both a higher number of Covid-19 infections and deaths.

Pallavi Pant, a scientist at Health Effects Institute, said the evidence on the link between air pollution and Covid-19 was rapidly growing.

“It is clear that long-term exposure to air pollution can cause many of the health conditions associated with increased vulnerability to Covid-19 such as diabetes and chronic heart and lung diseases. Evidence increasingly suggests that people living in areas with high air pollution are likely to experience more severe outcomes from Covid 19,” said Pant.

She added: “Even before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, India carried a heavy burden of chronic respiratory and other diseases and India has also experienced high exposures for a long time. Exposures to air pollution have been shown to affect the human body’s immune defence making an individual more susceptible to respiratory infections such as pneumonia.”