Kerala reports 26,701 new cases
The Hindu
28,900 persons recover, TPR at 17.17%
Kerala’s COVID-19 case graph dipped again on Sunday and the State reported 26,701 new cases, when 1,55,543 samples were tested in 24 hours. The test positivity rate on the day was 17.17%. Current ICU occupancy of COVID-19 patients in both public and private hospitals in the State went up again to 2,411 (2,387 on Saturday), while the number of patients requiring ventilator support dipped from 1,009 to 997 on Sunday. The State’s active case pool rose to 2,47,791 patients on Sunday, with 28,900 patients reported to have recovered on the day. The official cumulative COVID-19 case fatality now stands at 21,496 with the State adding 74 recent deaths to the official list on Sunday.“Writing, in general, is a very solitary process,” says Yauvanika Chopra, Associate Director at The New India Foundation (NIF), which, earlier this year, announced the 12th edition of its NIF Book Fellowships for research and scholarship about Indian history after Independence. While authors, in general, are built for it, it can still get very lonely, says Chopra, pointing out that the fellowship’s community support is as valuable as the monetary benefits it offers. “There is a solid community of NIF fellows, trustees, language experts, jury members, all of whom are incredibly competent,” she says. “They really help make authors feel supported from manuscript to publication, so you never feel like you’re struggling through isolation.”
Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.