Covid-19 Daily Update - May 6

Karnataka government faces flak for its decision to stop inter-state travel for migrant workers. 62 'root' patients infected 426 others in the state. Ethical hacker points out privacy issues with Arogya Setu app. All this and more on the daily update with Akhil Kadidal and Suraksha Pinnu.

Links: https://medium.com/@fs0c131y/aarogya-setu-the-story-of-a-failure-3a190a18e34

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This the daily Covid update from Deccan Herald.
On the bulletin today:
Karnataka reports 20 new cases of Covid-19…the state government faces flak for cancelling inter-state trains for migrants and the story of the spread of the virus in Karnataka so far.
But first, a look at the national numbers.
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Nearly 3000 new cases have been reported in the last 24 hours as we go into this recording..More than 35,000 people are active carriers of the virus.
Nearly 15,000 patients have recovered since they were first tested and...The country has registered 1,772 covid-related deaths so far. The country has reported more than 52,000 cases since January.
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The Indian Council of Medical Research has tested nearly 13 lakh samples from across the country.
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Maharashtra has reported 1,233 cases, the highest yet. The state is building a 1000-bed Wuhan-style makeshift hospital in Bandra-Kurla to deal with the spike in cases. Wipro will turn its campus in Hinjey-wadi into a 450-bed intermediary care hospital. Tamil Nadu has reported 771 new cases and Gujarat has 380 new cases.
---Karnataka has reported 20 new cases today. A total of 693 cases have been reported so far, out of which 309 are still active. 6 patients are in ICU and 354 patients have been discharged until now.
Out of 20 new cases, 13 are from Badami in Bagalakote. All except one are contacts of Patient-607. 1 patient from Badami has presented with Influenza-Like-Illness
Dakshina Kannada district has reported 3 cases. 2 cases have come in from Bengaluru Urban and 1 each from Kalaburagi and Vijayapura. All these cases are contacts of previously diagnosed patients.
Kalaburagi and Bengaluru Urban have had 6 deaths each, the highest in the state.
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In national news...Following the on-going migrant crisis across the country, an RTI query has revealed that the office of the Chief Labour Commissioner does not have data about migrant workers stranded due to Covid-19 lockdown. This is in spite of the commissioning of an official survey in early April. On April 8th, Chief Labour Commissioner Rajan Verma had written to heads of its 20 Regional Offices across the country to collect data on relief camps and migrant workers. This was instructed to be done at state and district level within three days. The letter had even said that the day to day progress had to be intimated to him.
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Five days after Shramik trains were announced to help workers reach their home-towns from various parts of the country, several states are now re-thinking their decision to enable such travel. Karnataka was the first to stop inter-state travel pointing to a halt in development activities. Telangana Chief Minister who had initially promised 40 trains, has asked workers from other states to stay back.
On the other hand, states like Bihar have refused to accept 5 trains from Kerala, which were subsequently cancelled. The Maharashtra government has alleged that Uttar Pradesh government has refused to allow a bus full of migrants to enter. Maharashtra has subsequently stopped all trains from the state and says it has no plans to start them in the near future.
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In news from Karnataka...A day after the government cancelled inter-state travel arrangements, in Bengaluru, migrant workers oblivious to the fact
continued to line up in front of police stations and BBMP offices to enrol for the programme to go back to their hometowns. In Varthur, over 100 migrants who were standing in front of the police station were beaten up by the police.
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Meanwhile Opposition leader Siddaramaiah has hit out at the government for cancelling inter-state trains saying the action was against the fundamental rights of the workers.
In his tweet, he said the decision exposed the mindset of the government which is willing to sacrifice the lives of labourers. The Chief Minister’s decision had come after a meeting with representatives from Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Association of India.
In another tweet, he said that the decision to stay back or leave, must be with the workers; and not with the government.
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CITU has also condemned the move, calling it ‘inhuman’ and ‘cruel’ blaming the real estate lobby for the misery that the workers are facing.
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However, Revenue Minister R Ashok on Wednesday dismissed reports that the state is forcing migrant labourers to stay back. Addressing a press conference, he said the government is not trying to stop them from returning, but there is resistance from other states like West Bengal to take the migrants back. On cancellation of trains, Ashok said that the government was forced to cancel the trains as labourers changed their mind on returning to their native states.
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In the meantime, more than 56,000 people have applied to return to Karnataka. A majority of them are from Bengaluru Urban and are returning from states like Gujarat and Rajasthan. Their return, along with expats from overseas, is expected to burden the testing infrastructure in the state as they will have to be screened for Covid-19.
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In the meantime, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has announced a 1,610 crore special package for farmers as well as those in the unorganized sector today. The move is being seen as an attempt to handle the crisis in the State.
For floriculturists who have suffered losses, the government has announced compensation of 25,000 rupees per hectare, limited to the maximum extent of one hectare. Yediyurappa also promised benefits to farmers who grow vegetables and fruits and has promised to announce a relief package soon.
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Dhobis and barbers who were bereft of earnings during the lockdown will get a one-time relief of 5,000 rupees. So will the taxi and autorickshaw drivers. The CM said the move will benefit about 60,000 washermen, 2.30 lakh barbers and 7.75 lakh auto and taxi drivers.
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To prevent migration, Yediyurappa announced an additional 3,000 rupees financial assistance for construction labourers. The government has reportedly already paid 2,000 rupees to more than 11 lakh construction workers out of the total 15.80 lakh registered.
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For the MSMEs, the monthly fixed charge in electricity bills will be waived. For larger industries, the payment of fixed charges in their electricity bills will be deferred without penalty and interest for a period of two months.
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Electricity consumers across all categories have been included in the special package. Those paying their bills on time or in advance will get incentives and concessions. Electricity connection of consumers who have not paid the balance bill amount, will not be disconnected till June 30. The interest charged on delayed payments will also be reduced. Arrangements will be made for the balance bill to be paid in installments.
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The government also announced a new scheme for weavers. Under the Nekarara Sammana Yojane, the government will deposit 2,000 rupees directly into the bank accounts of 54,000 handloom weavers.
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Moving on to news from the coronavirus… The state war room has released data analysing the spread of Covid-19 infections in the state and according to the data...
a total of just 62 “root” Covid-19 positive patients have been responsible for infecting 426 others in the state.

In simpler terms, this means that every single “root” covid-19 positive patient infected 6.87 others.

Out of the 62 patients,
29 were identified as being Covid patients only because they showed symptoms of Severe Acute Respiratory Infections or Influenza Like Illness. According to the data, these people ended up infecting 281 others before they were identified as having the disease.

The next highest number of root patients are 18 domestic travellers, primarily Tabligi Jamaat travellers. 15 of the 18 patients have a travel history to Delhi and have accounted for 100 cases.

The report makes special mention of Patient 128, a 20-year-old man from Belgavi who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation, and single-handedly ended up infecting 36 people in the country, 15 of them in Karnataka. The overall insights records the younger the Tabligi attendee and male, the more likely he was to spread the disease.

The last group of “root” patients is made up of 15 international travellers, who infected 34 others.

The spread takes place at two levels. At level one of the spread, people most likely to turn positive are those who come into direct contact with the “root patient.” These are immediate family members.
At level two, the infection spreads among those who have not directly come in contact with the root patient. Instead, they are infected through level 1 contacts. People at this level are also more likely to catch the infection from public places.
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Before we go...The ethical hacker who goes by the pseudonym Eliott Alderson, is back again. Instead of Aadhaar, this time it’s the Arogya Setu app that has caught his attention. Many privacy activists and politicians including Rahul Gandhi have spoken about the privacy issues in the contact-tracing app released by the government of India.

On May 5th, Alderson tweeted saying that he has found an issue in the app and requested the authorities to get in touch with him since the data for 90 million Indians was up for grabs.

Within the next few hours, the Arogya Setu team issued a statement saying that ‘no personal information of any user was under risk’.

As of today, Alderson has revealed two major things:
One, anyone could access an internal file by writing a single line of code. This has been rectified now.
Two, an attacker can know who is infected or unwell in any area of his choice, including Prime Minister’s Office or the Indian parliament or even a specific house.

Alderson has demanded that the source code of the app be open source, so that people can know what the app is really doing on our phones.

Watch out for the article that will soon go out on Medium, where Alderson has promised to go into technical details.

For the latest updates, log on to deccanherald.com.