LEAD

In a historic move, the government of India has moved nearly 50,000 additional troops to its border with China as tensions between the two nuclear-powered countries continue after clashes between the two sides in the Galwan Valley and eastern Ladakh.

A Bloomberg report said that the Narendra Modi govt at the Centre has moved troops and squadrons of fighter jets to three different areas along its border with China in the recent months. As of now, India has about 200,000 troops deployed on the border, representing an increase of more than 40% from last year.

Although India and China have fought 1962 war, India's strategic focus has been primarily on Pakistan and the long-time rivals have fought three wars over the disputed Kashmir region. 

Seeking to counter vaccine hesitancy and dispel rumours around inoculation, PM Narendra Modi on Sunday exhorted people to accept vaccines by trusting science and scientists. Over 31 crore Indians, including his nearly 100-year-old mother, have got the jab, he said.

During his monthly radio programme 'Mann ki Baat', the PM warned people Covid-19 wasn't gone as it had the potential to hit back in mutated forms. It was, therefore, important to get vaccinated and follow all Covid-appropriate behaviour, he added. "This ailment is like a master of disguise. It keeps changing its looks... surfaces in myriad new forms and colours," Modi said during his conversation with two persons of a tribal village, Dulariya, in MP's Betul district.

As Maharashtra sounds alert over corona's Delta Plus variant, media spoke to state Covid Task Force member Dr Om Shrivastava to know what it means and what next.

On the question that is this a case of sounding the alarm too early or learning from mistakes. He said that the state agencies know from experience that there might be unpleasant surprises. So it's good to be watchful and see where it's headed before you can say there is nothing to be worried about. I don't think it's sounding the alarm too early, but we don't have all the information. And the information may take ten days or up to two months or more.

The government has admitted that the Delta Plus strain of coronavirus is a variant of concern. With India reporting around 40 cases of the variant, there are speculations that it might trigger the third wave of the pandemic. However, India's top genome sequencer has denied any such threats.

Talking to a national TV channel, Dr Anurag Agarwal, Director of the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) said that there is no data to prove that the Delta Plus variant will cause the third wave.

“At this point, there is no evidence to suggest that Delta Plus...has anything to do with a possible third wave," he was quoted as saying by the news channel. 

The new variant of Covid-19 has been a topic of concern across the globe. This is one of the main reasons that scientists are working on such a vaccine, which will keep people safe from every variant of the coronavirus. This vaccine is under its final stages. Once this vaccine is ready, then the world will have a powerful weapon to fight such epidemics in the future. 

Scientists have developed a universal vaccine that protected mice not just against COVID-19 but also other coronaviruses while triggering the immune system to fight off a dangerous variant. While no one knows which virus may cause the next outbreak, researchers from the University of North Carolina (UNC) in the US noted that coronaviruses remain a threat after causing the SARS outbreak in 2003 and the global COVID-19 pandemic.