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[ad_1] The head of UK’s COVID vaccination programme said the National Health Service (NHS) is contacting thousands more people from Wednesday urging them to book a booster vaccine and have a “Jabby New Year” as the country recorded another 129,471 coronavirus cases. Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters during a visit to a vaccination centre in London on Wednesday that the Omicron variant continues to cause problems but all signs indicate that it is milder than the previously dominant Delta variant of COVID-19. He highlighted that estimates show that around 2.4 million eligible double-vaccinated people are yet to take their boosters and urged them to come forward to mark the New Year in a “sensible way”. “The Omicron variant continues to cause real problems. You are seeing cases rising in hospitals. But it is obviously milder than the Delta variant and we are able to proceed in the way that we are,” said Johnson. “I’m sorry to say this but the overwhelming majority of people who are currently ending up in intensive care in our hospitals are people who are not boosted,” said Johnson. “I’ve talked to doctors who say the numbers are running up to 90 per cent of people in intensive care, who are not boosted. If you’re not vaccinated, you’re eight times more likely to get into hospital altogether. So it’s a great thing to do. It’s very, very important. Get boosted for yourself, and enjoy New Year sensibly and cautiously,” he added. The surge in cases in the UK continues to be driven by the Omicron variant but it does not show a similarly sharp rise in hospital admissions, taking into account the lag between infections and hospital treatment. However, Tuesday’s COVID infections data only includes data from England and Wales over the Christmas holiday period, with a UK-wide picture covering Scotland and Northern Ireland expected only in early January 2022. “The NHS Covid vaccination programme continues to break records with almost 250,000 people jabbed on Monday, the second-highest number for a Bank Holiday so far,” said Dr Emily Lawson, head of the NHS Covid Vaccination Programme. “We are contacting hundreds of thousands of people this week urging them to ensure they have maximum protection in the face of the threat from Omicron. Experts are clear that two doses does not give the protection we need from the new strain so everyone eligible should get boosted now and enjoy a Jabby New Year,” she said. The NHS said there are more than a million appointments available through its national booking system between now and January 1, 2022. With boosters being offered to all adults, around 650,000 text messages and 50,000 letters are being sent to people who have not yet had their top-up third dose – applicable any time after a three-month gap from the second dose of a COVID vaccine. It has also emerged that not all patients in hospital will have been admitted for COVID, with latest official data suggesting about three in 10 have the virus but were admitted to hospital for something else. Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers which covers staffing at NHS trusts, said some trust bosses thought self-isolating staff would be a “bigger problem” than the number of people being treated for COVID. A number of scientists are now calling for the UK to follow in the footsteps of the US and reduce the country’s COVID self-isolation period to five days, in an effort to protect frontline services struggling with staff absences. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Monday that Americans who catch COVID and don’t have any symptoms only need to self-isolate for five days, so long as masks are worn for another five. In England, those who have tested positive for COVID are able to leave self-isolation after seven days, as long they can produce two negative lateral flow tests.Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, told the BBC that he believes Omicron has become “effectively just another cause of the common cold”. “We’re going to have to let people who are positive go about their normal lives as they would do with any other cold,” said Hunter.“I think the whole issue of how long are we going to be able to allow people to self-isolate if they’re positive is going to have to be discussed fairly soon, because I think this is a disease that’s not going away,” he said. Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of medicine at Oxford University, added that a negative test is a “better way to measure if we’re allowing people to go back into community” instead of isolation periods. But a UK government spokesperson said the current stipulated isolation period – which was recently lowered from 10 to seven days – remained “critical for limiting the spread of the virus”. “There are no further changes to the isolation period planned at this time, but we keep all rules under review based on the latest health data,” the spokesperson said. Meanwhile, pharmacists have warned of patchy supplies of the rapid antigen lateral flow COVID tests, boxes of which are available free of cost via a booking code to be used to self-test at home. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said that the delivery capacity for lateral flow testing kits has doubled to 900,000 a day since December 18, due to unprecedented demand. [ad_2] Source link

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[ad_1] Mamata Banerjee’s battle cry ‘Khela Hobe’ (game will happen) was emblematic of the hostility and confrontation that lay in store for West Bengal in 2021 amid a raging pandemic and political turmoil, as a string of bitterly fought elections left the state on edge for major part of the year. Banerjee, the stormy petrel of West Bengal politics, led her TMC to emphatic victories in all elections despite her personal loss in Nandigram, the scene of an anti-land acquisition movement years ago that had catapulted her to power in 2011. A decade after scripting history by defeating the longest-serving democratically elected Communist government in the world, Banerjee emerged as the most formidable opposition leader as she stormed back to power for a third straight term trouncing the BJP in the assembly elections. Flashpoints in Bengal were one too many, as political violence rocked the state and allegations of electoral fraud flew thick and fast. The CBI and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the West Bengal Police are probing the cases of post-assembly poll violence that left scores dead and injured, and reduced houses and other property to ashes. The BJP, which established itself as the main opposition party after the last Lok Sabha polls, had its top leaders go all out with its rallying cry of ‘Hindutva’, only to find that there were not too many takers for its narrative.The TMC invoked ‘Bengali pride’ to checkmate the saffron party and clinch 213 seats in the 294-member House, leaving 77 for the BJP and one each for an Independent and an ISF candidate. In the do-or-die assembly election, the Left Front, which had ruled Bengal with an iron fist for 34 years, ended up empty-handed. The Congress, too, was pushed to the margins, failing to open its account. While Banerjee destroyed any dreams that the BJP had of ruling West Bengal, her defeat in Nandigram against freshly minted BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, a confidant-turned-bete noire, came as a huge embarrassment. She, however, emerged victorious from her home turf Bhabanipur in a bypoll by a record margin. Fresh from the impressive victory, the feisty TMC boss, who had called BJP leaders from Delhi “outsiders” during her assembly poll campaign, wasted no time trying to spread her wings beyond Bengal’s skies, with an eye on her next target – the 2024 general election.The TMC forayed into Tripura in civic body elections. It gained little in terms of seats but managed to pitch itself firmly as a major opposition party in the BJP-ruled state. In Meghalaya, where it was hardly a force to reckon with, her party pulled off a coup of sorts as 12 of the 17 MLAs of the Congress deserted the ship and joined the TMC, making West Bengal’s ruling party the main opposition in the northeastern state in a jiffy.In Goa, where elections are due early next year, the TMC has decided to contest all 40 seats, and netted a prize catch in former Congress chief minister Luizinho Faleiro in the run up to the polls. The face-off between the BJP and the TMC in Bengal continued through the year. Within a week of the new government taking oath, the CBI arrested two ministers, a TMC MLA and a former party leader in the Narada sting operation case, provoking accusations of the Narendra Modi government using central agencies to settle political scores. A combative Banerjee led hundreds of her supporters at a dharna outside the CBI office in Kolkata demanding unconditional release of those arrested. The court later granted them bail.Banerjee’s national ambitions came in the way of TMC’s ties with the Congress, as she held the grand old party responsible for the BJP’s rise across the country. The war of words escalated between the two parties, with the TMC claiming it was now the “real Congress” and the Congress’s leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury returning fire, calling Banerjee “BJP’s Trojan horse”. COVID-19 held the state in a vice-like grip with over 16 lakh people having been infected with the deadly virus as on December 28. Altogether 19,733 people have lost their lives to the disease. As West Bengal battled the contagion, the TMC blamed the Election Commission’s decision to hold a staggered eight-phase assembly polls for the surge in COVID cases.Nature unleashed its fury as cyclone Yaas buffeted the state, leaving a trail of death and destruction. The acrimony between the state government and the Centre touched a new low, when Banerjee skipped a review meeting on cyclone Yaas chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi while taking exception to the presence of Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of the Opposition.Shortly after, the Union government ordered the recall of Chief Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay to Delhi. The state government, however, refused to release Bandopadhyay, who subsequently retired and was appointed chief adviser to Banerjee for a three-year term.The BJP, smarting under its assembly poll defeat, faced desertions with many of its leaders quitting and joining the TMC. The party’s national vice-president and MLA Mukul Roy was the first to quit in June to return to the TMC. Four other BJP MLAs followed suit. Former central minister and MP Babul Supriyo, who was dropped during the reshuffle in July, also switched over to the TMC in September. Plagued by infighting, the BJP brought about changes in the organisation, replacing its two-time state president Dilip Ghosh with party MP from North Bengal Sukanta Majumdar, and axing several members of the old guard from important committees.The TMC’s success at the hustings continued in the second half of the year as the party registered a landslide victory in Kolkata civic polls, clinching 134 out of the 144 wards.The state government also claimed credit for the UNESCO ‘Intangible Heritage’ tag for Kolkata’s Durga puja. As another eventful year drew to a close, the Union home ministry’s refusal to renew the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FRCA) licence of Missionaries of Charity – the Calcutta-headquartered organisation founded by Mother Teresa – became a

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[ad_1] Twitter had a field day today as the opposition Samajwadi Party promised Rs 5 lakh compensation for cyclists killed in a road accident and also for those killed in a fight with a bull, if voted to power. The unique promise of compensation for bullfight victims allowed the social media users to come up with a meme-fest by taking hilarious digs. “The SP government will give Rs 5 lakh compensation to cyclists killed in a road accident,” the party said on Twitter. In another post, it said, “The SP government will give Rs 5 lakh compensation to those killed in the fight with a bull.” The original post, however, remained there till the time of filing this report. pic.twitter.com/XNtyZ4Aymd — Samajwadi Party (@samajwadiparty) December 28, 2021 pic.twitter.com/uYDRWqiRV7 — Samajwadi Party (@samajwadiparty) December 28, 2021 In reply to these promises, Twitterati came up with hilarious responses. Take a look: A user wrote, “Wonderful. Since childhood, I had a strong desire to fight with the bull because apart from this, what else is there to do in life! But I was afraid that if there was some death, what would happen to the family after me. Akhilesh Bhaiya has cleared my dilemma with this announcement. As soon as the SP government comes, my encounter with the bull is certain.” अद्भुत। मेरी बचपन से ही प्रबल इच्छा थी कि सांड से लड़ूं क्योंकि इसके अलावा जीवन में और करने को है भी क्या! किंतु डरता था कि कहीं कुछ मृत्यु हुई तो मेरे बाद परिवार का क्या होगा। इस घोषणा से अखिलेश भैय्या ने मेरी दुविधा दूर कर दी है। सपा सरकार आते ही मेरी सांड से भिड़ंत निश्चित है। — अमित मिश्रा (@kaatyayans29) December 28, 2021 Another user said, “Initially I thought this is a morphed image. Then I saw blue tick. I was then sure that this account was hacked. But no it’s still there. So that was actually the tweet!” Initially i thought this is a morphed image. Then I saw blue tick. I was then sure that this account was hacked But no it's still there. So that was actually the tweet! — ????????#Chanakya???????? (@ChankyaBihar) December 29, 2021 “How farsighted is the inventor of the universe, honorable Akhilesh Yadav ji and how fortunate are we that we were born in his era. I bow down to Akhilesh ji. Other leaders should also take inspiration from this and give at least Rs 2 lakh compensation for death in a fight with a donkey,” said another Twitter user. कितने दूरदर्शी है ब्रह्मांड के आविष्कारक माननीय अखिलेश यादव जी और हम कितने भाग्यवान हैं जो उनके युग में हमारा जन्म हुआ। कोटि कोटि प्रणाम करता हूँ अखिलेश जी को। अन्य नेताओं को भी इससे प्रेरणा लेते हुए गधे से लड़कर दुर्घटना में मौत होने पर कम से कम 2 लाख मुआवजा देना चाहिए। — Ashish Goel (@ashish_goel91) December 28, 2021 While some other uses recreated the promise. One user said that the Samajwadi Party will arrange for plaster and whitewash of the walls if the income tax team raids and breaks the wall. Another user said that SP will give Rs 5 lakh to those who got cheated in love. A Twitter user said that once the SP government is formed, it will give Rs 50,000 to youth for consuming alcohol after their breakup. The 403 assembly constituencies of Uttar Pradesh will go to the polls early next year. While the ruling BJP has been on a spree to launch new projects ahead of the polls, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has been campaigning extensively across the state. [ad_2] Source link

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