SERO SURVEY IN NEW DELHI LIKELY AFTER LOCKDOWN
NEW DELHI: The sixth sero survey in Delhi may resume after the ongoing lockdown is lifted, health department officials said. The survey was launched on April 12 but halted only after two days with the unprecedented spike in daily cases and the imposition of curbs to break the chain of transmission.
The government has been carrying out sero surveys to measure the rate of exposure to the Sars-Cov-2 virus, which causes Covid-19. “The sero survey had to be stopped after two days because of the increasing number of cases. Now, there hasn’t been any discussion on when the sero survey will be completed. It is likely to happen only once the lockdown is lifted. This sero survey will capture the number of people who were exposed to the infection during the current wave,” said an official from Delhi’s health department.
A senior district official confirmed the development, stating that the government has given no direction on what is to be done with the samples that were collected for two days in April. “The samples are sent to the labs every day after collection. However, we have not received any guidance on whether the samples will be included with the fresh samples when the sero surveillance resumes,” the official said.
The survey followed the protocol followed in the previous round – just over 100 samples to be collected at random from each of the 272 municipal wards in the city. The total sample size was fixed at 28,000. With a portion of population being vaccinated, the survey was also to ask about vaccination history of the participants.
The fifth serological survey in Delhi, conducted between January 15 and January 23, showed that 56.13% of the 28,000 people sampled tested positive.
MUMBAI: Almost 10 years after three coordinated bomb explosions in Mumbai left 27 dead and 127 injured, the trial in the 13/7 blasts case is less likely to start in the near future.
The framing of charges is being delayed as some of the accused are insisting for their physical presence before the trial court to respond to the allegations to be framed against them. However, the Maharashtra government has issued an order prohibiting the physical production of those on death row in other terror-related cases.
On July 13, 2011, a series of blasts took place at Zaveri Bazaar, Opera House and Dadar between 6.52pm and 7.05pm. Mumbai Police had arrested 11 accused and said they belonged to an outfit named Indian Mujahideen. In 2017, special public prosecutor Ujwal Nikam had moved a plea for issuance of production warrant against the accused for a speedy trial. Most of the accused had been lodged in Taloja jail, Tihar jail and Hyderabad jail for various offences. Hence, the prosecution sought for their production.
Two years later on March 29, 2019, the special MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) court passed an order to frame the charges against the 11 arrested accused. However, till date, the court has been able to frame charges against only a few accused as the rest have been insisting on physical appearance before the court.
The prosecution has expressed its inability to produce all the accused before the court as few of them are facing capital punishment in the Hyderabad blasts case. One of the accused, Ajaz Shaikh, who is facing a
death sentence in connection with the Hyderabad twin blasts case, had approached the court for his physical production for framing of charges.
The prosecution as well as the prison authorities informed the court that the state government passed a general order for the non-removal of present applicant from prison as he has been facing a death sentence passed in another case.
Considering this, the court rejected Shaikh’s application, observing, “Frequent directions have been issued earlier for proceeding expeditiously into the matter. The various other accused persons are however, not cooperating for framing of the charge on the similar ground as that of the present applicant raised, for insisting their physical presence before the court.”
The court in its order has hence said, “The accused persons concerned must cooperate to proceed further expeditiously, otherwise the appropriate procedure will be adopted in furthering the proceeding.”