New Delhi: After a long gap, coronavirus made headlines on prime time debate Sunday night as cases rose in five states. NDTV 24×7 and Mirror Now discussed the pandemic, while Times Now focussed on poll-bound West Bengal.
As Maharashtra sees a spike in its coronavirus cases, several districts and cities have put preventive measures in place — primarily, a week-long lockdown, in the hope of arresting the spread of the virus. Mirror Now discussed whether this strategy is enough or was it time for us to “mutate” our approach.
Dr S.K. Sarin, Director, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, Delhi, said, “The virus has to mutate to survive in the human body but we also have to mutate. We have to improvise our strategies. We have become lax.”
Meanwhile, former health secretary Sujata Rao said a “lockdown only helps you to buy time to prepare”. She said wearing a mask has a “far more lasting contribution to checking disease transmission”.
Echoing the same argument, Dr Anoop Amarnath, Chairman, Geriatric Medicine, Manipal Hospitals noted, “Lockdown is just one weapon in our armamentarium. We need to use it judiciously. Active testing, identifying acute cases, increasing immunisation, vaccination is far more effective.”
NDTV 24×7 turned to NITI Ayog member Dr V.K. Paul for an expert opinion on the vaccine, the new strain in Maharashtra and more.
“We should wait for official statements on the Maharashtra strain being indigenous or not. Since the UK strain, we have ramped up sequencing of this virus. We have also strengthened our laboratories,” explained Paul.
He noted the several strains found in Maharashtra, but didn’t appear too concerned: “The virus is mutating all the time, it is its nature. We have a network backed by the best laboratories and a scientific advisory group of the highest level.”
Moving on to what preventive measures should be taken, Paul noted, “Fundamentals of pandemic control need to be invoked and never forgotten. This virus has not yet gone away.”
Times Now looked east and to the upcoming West Bengal state assembly elections as the atmosphere heats up between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.
On the debate, BJP’s national spokesperson Guru Prakash alleged that “there is no transparency, internal democracy in the TMC”.
“TMC since its inception has had only one national president. There is no semblance of internal democracy or collective leadership in TMC,” he added.
TMC’s Riju Dutta replied with generalisations: “We believe in the law of the land.”
At Aaj Tak, anchor Saeed Ansari talked of Mamata Banerjee’s nephew’s wife being summoned by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the alleged coal pilferage case. Ansari asked TMC spokesperson Jeetendra Tiwari if this would be a setback for the party in the upcoming elections.
Tiwari replied: “Everyone in our party follows the law and respects it but we have seen the way Home Minister Amit Shah has spoken about Abhishek Banerjee (Mamata Banerjee’s nephew). Banerjee even filed a case against Shah and the case is being heard tomorrow (Monday).”
Turning to BJP spokesperson Saeed Zafar Islam, Ansari asked, “So is the CBI working according to what you (BJP) say?”
To this, Islam replied, “…what does the BJP have to do with it? CBI is an independent agency. Any independent agency has complete rights to summon people — they work on the basis of leads. Till they have no leads, they don’t investigate anyone. They do it on the basis of evidence.”
India TV focussed on the news developments of the day (Sunday) beginning with Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi’s letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on high fuel prices, which she said were at a “historic high” despite the low prices of crude oil, globally. India TV reported that Gandhi explained how prices could be decreased and that the government instead of “making excuses should focus on the solution”.
The channel also reported the harrowing experience of Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath who was stuck in a lift when he went to meet a Congress leader in an Indore hospital. The lift had a freefall of 10 floors, filled up with smoke and the locked doors refused to open.
Following this incident, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan called up Kamal Nath, and has also ordered an inquiry into the matter, said India TV.