tadepalligudem l thursday l november 19, 2020 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Boeing 737 max can fly again as u.s. regulator ends ban The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had put in place grounding orders in March 2019 after two deadly crashes Changes in design, software and wiring However, the clearance does not mean the plane can take to the skies immediately. Existing aircraft will need to be modified before going back into service, with changes to their design. Alongside the software and wiring changes, pilots will also need training. The FAA said the design changes will “eliminate what caused the accidents” ■ 346 Aircraft will be 100% safe, says FAA ■ A probe into the crashes found that a safety feature which was meant to stop the plane from climbing too fast and stalling had improperly forced the nose of the plane down FAA administrator Steve Dickson said he is “100% confident” in the safety of the plane and that such crashes won’t recur People were killed in two fatal accidents involving Boeing 737 max CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ WARANGAL ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Be prepared for second wave of Covid-19, warns Jagan Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday told district Collectors to take all precautions in view of a possible second wave. Here’s a quick look at what he said  Number of new positive cases has reduced, but all precautions must still be followed  Be alert as schools and colleges are being opened in a graded manner Blatantly disregarding physical distancing norms, crowds throng the AU Engineering College Road on the occasion of Nagula Chavithi in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday | G Satyanarayana 9  Any infectee who calls ‘104’ for assistance must be given a bed in a government hospital new deaths  Help desks must be set up in all Aarogyasri network hospitals 69,618 1,236 new cases new samples tested report on p3 1,696 new recoveries viral watch 9.19% positivity rate 97.27% recovery rate 16,516 active cases 0.80% mortality rate 1,74,788 tests per million 6,899 total deaths 8,57,395 total cases 93,33,703 total samples tested 8,33,980 total recoveries “The entire Europe has been hit by the second wave of Covid-19. In India, the Delhi government is likely to reimpose lockdown in view of the second wave. London has been shut down and the US is witnessing a resurgence of Covid19 cases. The second wave is affecting several countries across the globe” Jagan Mohan Reddy, Chief Minister Not the time to conduct polls, govt tells SEC E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada The State Election Commission (SEC) and State government appear to be heading into yet another confrontation over the conduct of elections to gram panchayats. While State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar on Tuesday announced that the elections will be held in February 2021, hours later, the government cited the pandemic and conveyed to the SEC that the situation is not conducive ap digest On Friday, Tungabhadra pushkarams to begin Vijayawada/ Kurnool: Tungabhadra pushkarams will commence at 1.21 pm on November 20 in the State and will be held for 12 days. Tungabhadra river passes through the mandals of Mantralayam, Kodumur and Kurnool before joining the Krishna. The Kurnool district police will deploy nearly 5,000 personnel, and the district administration has been arranged 23 pushkar ghats | P2 No. of students in govt schools rises by 2.68 L Vijayawada: Government schools in the State received 2.68 lakh more admissions in the current academic year compared to last year. As against 39.78 lakh students enrolled in government schools in 2019, the number that were admitted to government/ government aided schools this year has risen to 42.46 lakh. Officials attributed it to the development of infrastructure in the government schools | P4 to hold the elections. Ramesh Kumar reportedly apprised G ove r n o r B i sw abu s h a n Harichandan of the situation. Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney wrote to the SEC saying the government will “immediately inform” the SEC regarding its preparedness to resume the adjourned elections “as and when the situation becomes conducive for the conduct of elections to local bodies”. Interestingly while the SEC’s , letter did not make any mention of resuming the adjourned elections, indicating that a fresh notification might be issued as demanded by various political parties, the government made it a point to mention the same. Detailing the state of the Covid-19 outbreak in AP Nilam Sawhney , said the high We cannot afford to have another surge (in Covid19 cases), having already lost 6,890 human lives — Nilam Sawhney, Chief Secretary Now, State govt picks December 25 to distribute house sites to the poor E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada The State government has said it will distribute house site pattas to the poor on December 25. The sites devoid of court litigation will be distributed, and construction of houses for the poor will also begin the same day it said. , In the first phase, the government will construct 15 lakh houses at a cost of `1.80 lakh each, without compromising on quality, it said, adding that the houses will be given to the beneficiaries free of cost. Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy announced this on Wednesday during the Spandana review programme with district Collectors. “We have identified 30.68 lakh beneficiaries so far. Though we launched the programme just three months after coming to power, it could not progress as some vested interests went to court. House sites in litigationfree areas will be distributed Sixth time a new date is being announced The house sites were to be distributed on March 25 (Ugadi) but was postponed to April 14 (Ambedkar birth anniversary), May 30 (govt’s one-year anniversary), July 8 (late YSR birth anniversary), August 15 (Independence Day) and later to October 2 (Gandhi Jayanthi) with D forms on December 25,” he said. The Chief Minister stated that the government has to wage a legal battle to give house sites to the poor because of the conspiracies of the Opposition parties. “Those in power earlier gave away huge chunks of land to industrialists, but are creating trouble when we are giving a cent of land to the poor,” he said, and added that the government will emerge victorious in its good intentions. Jagan stated that the government acquired 66,518 acres of land worth `23,000 crore for house sites for the poor. The government will allot house sites within 90 days to eligible beneficiaries who apply afresh, he said, and added that 1.20 lakh new beneficiaries were added to the scheme, for which 80,000 more acres would be acquired. “Complete the process of land acquisition and allotment to beneficiaries by December 10. Geo-tagging of house sites should be completed by December 25,” he told the Collectors, and asked them to take steps to get the court stay orders vacated wherever the land is under Continued on P4 litigation. Its candidate is also 94% effective in people over 65 years of age E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi The Corona vaccine world got just got another shot of excitement as US-based pharma major Pfizer on Wednesday raised its candidate’s efficacy to 95%, up from 90% a week ago, as final results of its phase 3 trials across six countries came in. The other big takeaway was the vaccine’s 94% effectiveness in adults over 65 years, who are among the most vulnerable to the virus. Just a couple of days ago, its competitor Moder na had claimed 94.5% efficacy in its initial phase 3 results. Both biotech firms intend to seek emergency regulatory approval within days. The BNT162b2, the vaccine candidate Pfizer developed along with German partner BioNTech, was reported to be consistent in performance across age and ethnicity demographics without major side effects. A review of the reactogenicity data, which consisted of at Nothing much in it for India The vaccines of Pfizer and Moderna may have little implications for India, as storage and distribution could be a major constraint. In any case, most of the doses to be manufactured till next year by them have been booked by rich nations least 8,000 participants in the phase 2/3 study, showed that the vaccine was well tolerated, with most adverse events resolving shortly after vaccination, the statement added. The adverse effects included headaches and fatigue in about 2% Congress implosion Adhir’s turn to savage sibal, says he’s free to leave Sibal was one of 23 leaders who wrote to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi calling for a The infighting within the functional leadership. After Congress intensified on the Bihar debacle, he reiterWednesday with the party’s ated his demand for an introleader in the Lok Sabha spection on the party’s failAdhir Ranjan Chowdure in elections after hury telling dissentelections. ing leader Kapil Sibal’s sharp comSibal to join another ments triggered a party if he is not war of words among happy with the Conparty leaders. While gress. Choudhury Congress Rajya Sabalso questioned ha MP Vivek Tankha Sibal’s intentions in agreed with Sibal publicly targeting and sought serious the Gandhis after Instead of giving introspection, Rajasthe party’s poor per- sermons sitting than Chief Minister formance in the Bi- in AC rooms, he Ashok Gehlot said (Kapil Sibal) har elections. the comments were “Kapil Sibal could should work on unwarranted and the ground. have raised the iswould demoralise sues inside a party Lecturing others party workers. without doing forum instead of Senior leader Salanything won’t making such embar- help. Only calling man Khurshid, who rassing remarks in for introspection is considered close public. He is a senior to the Gandhi family , without doing leader and has ac- anything on our also hit out at Sibal cess to the party’s own is of no use saying there is no top brass. Those who point in “aimless inare unhappy with the func- trospection” and that leadtioning of the party have the ers who bite nails when the freedom to form a new party party underperforms may o r j o i n o n e , ” s a i d have “no nails to bite” for Chowdhury . future. E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi Cattle conservation Madhya Pradesh becomes first grazing pasture for cow cabinet Expanded runway at V’wada gets DGCA nod Vijayawada: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) recently permitted the landing and take-off of filghts on the expanded runway at the Vijayawada International Airport. However, it will take about two or three months for the expanded runway to be used for flight operations as the parameters set by the DGCA have to be met, sources said number of active cases and the spread to rural areas is a matter of grave concern. “The entire district administration, including the police, continues to be actively involved in containment measures,” she stated. With the SEC referring to the conduct of the recent elections in Bihar and bypolls in various States, Sawhney said various States have followed different strategies to deal with the pandemic and they have been affected differently so a compari, son among States may not present a correct picture. P4 95% Efficacy in final Pfizer shot trial E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bhopal MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan has darshan in Tirumala on Wednesday | Express A day after announcing the introduction of a Bill against ‘love jihad’ in the next session of the Vidhan Sabha, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday decided to set up perhaps the country’s first ‘cow cabinet’ for the protection and promotion of cows. Announcing the decision, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan tweeted, “It has been decided to constitute a Gau Cabinet (cow cabinet) for cattle conservation and promotion. It will comprise animal husbandry, farmers’ welfare, forest, panchayat-rural development, home and revenue departments. The first meeting of the cow cabinet will be held at the cow sanctuary in Agar-Malwa district on Gopashthami festival on November 22.” Besides Chouhan, the cow cabinet will include Home Minister Narottam Mishra, Forest Minister Vijay Shah, Agriculture Minister Kamal Patel, Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Mahendra Singh Sisodia and Minister for Animal Husbandry Prem Singh Patel. Six departments will execute the decisions of the gau-cabinet, Chouhan said. Among the objectives are marketing products made from cow milk and increasing the use of cow dung cakes. Reacting to the development, the Opposition Congress said it falls short of the BJP’s 2018 prepoll promise of creating a separate cow ministry . of the volunteers. In all, the vaccine candidate was trialled on over 41,000 volunteers in the US, Germany, Turkey, South Africa, Brazil and Argentina. Global markets reacted positively though Pfizer-BioNTech , is yet to release detailed data on the study. Also, its results are yet to be analysed by independent experts. The troubling part of maintaining Pfizer’s vaccine at -700C to -800C continues, but the company said it was confident of using the cold-chain infrastructure to distribute the vaccine around the world. Pfizer-BioNTech aim to produce up to 50 million vaccine doses in 2020 and 1.3 billion by 2021-end. In all, 170 confirmed cases of Covid-19 were evaluated from the 28th day after the first shot of BNT162b2. Of them, 162 were in the placebo category while only eight were in the vaccinated group. Ten individuals went on to develop severe disease, nine of whom were in the non-vaccinated group. humane order HC directs admitting Varavara Rao at Nanavati E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Mumbai The Bombay High Court on Wednesday ordered the Maharashtra government to admit jailed octogenarian poet and activist Varavara Rao for treatment at the private superspecialty Nanavati hospital here at state expense. Rao was arrested in August 2018 in connection with an Elgar Parishad conclave in Pune in December 2017 that turned violent, and is lodged in Navi Mumbai’s Taloja Jail. A division bench comprising justices S S Shinde and Madhav Jamdar said, “Ultim at e ly t h e man is on almost death bed. He needs some treatment. Can the state say no, we will treat him in Taloja? We are only saying transfer him to Nanavati for two weeks. We will further see after two weeks.” It also directed that family members of Rao should be allowed to meet him at the Nanavati hospital, and posted the matter for further hearing on December 3. The court was hearing two cases — a bail application filed by Rao on medical grounds and a writ petition by his wife Hemalata saying his incarceration was a violation of his right to health and life. Citing his medical history, senior advocate Indira Jaising said there was “reasonable apprehension that Rao may die in jail and not even stand trial in the Bhima Koregoan case”. On Tuesday, Jaising had trashed a medical report on Rao submitted by Nanavati hospital’s doctors. Despite his deteriorating condition due to neurological problems and urinary infection coupled with dementia, he was not examined by experts, she said.