The Evening Wrap: India begins COVID-19 vaccination from January 16

The Hindu Newsletter - Here are the latest updates and the big news stories to follow today [The Hindu Logo](dF8B9HlHIB91HtGAABeY2PE/link17) [Facebook](dF8B9HlHIB91HtGAABeY2PE/link1) [Twitter](dF8B9HlHIB91HtGAABeY2PE/link3) [Youtube](dF8B9HlHIB91HtGAABeY2PE/link34) [Linkedin](dF8B9HlHIB91HtGAABeY2PE/link15) [Instagram](dF8B9HlHIB91HtGAABeY2PE/link14) Saturday 09, January 2021 [alt_text](dF8B9HlHIB91HtGAABeY2PE/link33) The Evening Wrap Here are the biggest news stories of the day [alt_text](dF8B9HlHIB91HtGAABeY2PE/link28) Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. We hope you are staying safe. First phase of vaccination to start on January 16 India’s Covid-19 vaccination drive is [scheduled to start on January 16](dF8B9HlHIB91HtGAABeY2PE/link25), with priority given to an estimated three crore healthcare workers and frontline workers, the Health Ministry said on Saturday. It added that this will be followed by voluntary vaccination of those above 50 years of age and the under-50 population groups with co-morbidities, numbering around 27 crore. The announcement followed a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to review the status of the pandemic in the country and the preparedness of States and Union Territories for the roll-out of the vaccine. Emergency Use Authorisation or Accelerated Approval has been granted by the National Regulator for two vaccines — Covishield and Covaxin — whose safety and immunogenicity have been established, the release said. “The vaccination exercise will use the principles of people’s participation (Jan Bhagidari), and the experience of elections (booth strategy) and Universal Immunisation Program (UIP). There will be no compromise of existing healthcare services, especially national programmes and primary health care. We aim for it to be an orderly and smooth implementation driven by technology,” noted the release. The Prime Minister was also apprised of the Co-WIN Vaccine Delivery Management System, noted the release. “The digital platform will provide real time information of vaccine stocks, their storage temperature, and individualised tracking of beneficiaries of the COVID-19 vaccine,” said the Ministry. It added that this platform will assist program managers across all levels through automated session allocation for pre-registered beneficiaries, their verification, and for generating a digital certificate upon successful completion of the vaccine schedule. More than 79 lakh beneficiaries have already been registered on the platform. Army apprehends Chinese soldier south of Pangong Tso A [Chinese soldier was apprehended](dF8B9HlHIB91HtGAABeY2PE/link24) in the early hours of January 8 on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the area south of the Pangong lake in eastern Ladakh, the Army said on Saturday. “The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldier had transgressed across the LAC and was taken into custody by Indian troops deployed in this area. The PLA soldier is being dealt with as per laid down procedures, and the circumstances under which he had crossed the LAC are being investigated,” an Army statement said. Troops from either side are deployed along the LAC since a stand-off erupted in May last year due to “unprecedented mobilisation and forward concentration by Chinese troops,” the Army added. In a similar incident in October last year, a Chinese soldier identified as Corporal Wang Ya Long was apprehended in the Demchok area and was later handed over to the PLA. [ A view of the Pangong Tso lake in Ladakh region. File ] A view of the Pangong Tso lake in Ladakh region. File The Defence Ministry recently said that the Army has completed “Advance Winter Stocking” and winter preparations and troops are “well entrenched to counter any misadventure by Chinese forces”. With temperatures plummeting to minus 30 degrees Celsius and set to go down further, both sides have dug in for the harsh winter. In a pre-emptive move on August 29 and 30, the Army took control of some unoccupied heights in the Chushul sector from Thakung to Rechin La within the Indian perception of the LAC, foiling the PLA’s attempts to dominate the heights and change the status quo. Since then, both sides have deployed troops and tanks in close proximity of just a few hundred metres in this area. The Army has deployed around 50,000 troops in addition to tanks and other equipment along the disputed boundary in eastern Ladakh to match the Chinese deployments since the beginning of the stand-off. Boeing 737-500 plane feared crashed after losing contact in Indonesia An Indonesian Sriwijaya Air [plane is feared to have crashed into the sea](dF8B9HlHIB91HtGAABeY2PE/link21) after the Boeing 737 lost contact with air traffic control in the capital Jakarta, with flight tracking data suggesting that the jet plunged into a steep dive just four minutes after take-off. It was unclear how many passengers and crew were aboard Sriwijaya Air's Boeing 737-500 when it left Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta international airport. It had a capacity of about 130. However, 62 passengers and crew were listed on an unconfirmed manifest, including seven children and three infants, local media reported. [Relatives of passengers on board missing Sriwijaya Air flight SJY182 wait for news at the Supadio airport in Pontianak on Indonesia's Borneo island after contact with the aircraft was lost shortly after take-off from Jakarta, on January 9, 2021.]Relatives of passengers on board missing Sriwijaya Air flight SJY182 wait for news at the Supadio airport in Pontianak on Indonesia's Borneo island after contact with the aircraft was lost shortly after take-off from Jakarta, on January 9, 2021. The usual flight time is about 90 minutes over the Java Sea between Java island and Kalimantan, Indonesia’s section of Borneo island. Data from FlightRadar24 said the plane reached an altitude of nearly 11,000 feet (3,350 metres) before dropping to 250 feet. It then lost contact with air traffic control. “Sriwijaya Air flight #SJ182 lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than one minute, about 4 minutes after departure from Jakarta,” the tracking agency said on its official Twitter account. Broadcaster Kompas TV quoted local fishermen as saying they had found debris near islands off the coast of Jakarta, but it could not be immediately confirmed as belonging to the missing jet. The budget airline, which has about 19 Boeing jets that fly to destinations in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, said it was investigating the loss of contact. In October 2018, 189 people were killed when a Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX jet slammed into the JavaSea about 12 minutes after take-off from Jakarta on a routine one-hour flight. That crash — and a subsequent fatal flight in Ethiopia — saw Boeing hit with $2.5 billion in fines over claims it defrauded regulators overseeing the 737 MAX model, which was grounded worldwide following the two deadly crashes. Former Gujarat Chief Minister Madhavsinh Solanki passes away Former Chief Minister of Gujarat and former Union Minister [Madhavsinh Solanki passed away](dF8B9HlHIB91HtGAABeY2PE/link26) in Gandhinagar on Saturday. He was 94. A four-time Chief Minister, he was a Congress stalwart in Gujarat, where the party last won the Assembly polls under his leadership in 1985. The party then won 148 Assembly seats, which still remains a record in State politics. He also served as a Union Minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government. Solanki dominated Gujarat politics for decades and was regarded as a powerful politician and mass leader in the State. His social engineering theory KHAM (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi, Muslim) proved to be a powerful base in electoral politics that won the Congress landslide victories over two decades. Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the death of the leader. In a Twitter post, he said, “Shri Madhavsinh Solanki Ji was a formidable leader, playing a key role in Gujarat politics for decades. He will be remembered for his rich service to society. Saddened by his demise. Spoke to his son, Bharat Solanki Ji and expressed condolences. Om Shanti.” Solanki’s son Bharatsinh Solanki also served as Union Minister in the UPA and was Gujarat Congress president twice. Trump banned permanently from Twitter; says he ‘won’t be silenced’ [Twitter has banned President Donald Trump’s account](dF8B9HlHIB91HtGAABeY2PE/link23) citing “the risk of further incitement of violence.” The social platform has been under growing pressure to take further action against Trump following the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. “After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” Twitter said in a statement. Twitter had initially suspended Trump's account for 12 hours after he posted a video that repeated false claims about election fraud and praised the rioters who stormed the Capitol. Trump has reacted by vowing that he and his support base would not be silenced. At the time of permanent suspension, he had 88.7 million followers and followed 51 people. [ In this file photo taken on August 10, 2020 a photo illustration, the Twitter account of U.S. President Donald Trump is displayed on a mobile phone in Arlington, Virginia. ] In this file photo taken on August 10, 2020 a photo illustration, the Twitter account of U.S. President Donald Trump is displayed on a mobile phone in Arlington, Virginia. In a statement hours after he was banned, Trump said: “I predicted this would happen. We have been negotiating with various other sites, and will have a big announcement soon, while we also look at the possibilities of building out our own platform in the near future. We will not be SILENCED!” “Twitter is not about FREE SPEECH. They are all about promoting a Radical Left platform where some of the most vicious people in the world are allowed to speak freely. STAY TUNED!” he said, indicating that some announcements in this regard were forthcoming. Twitter also started deleting new tweets posted by Trump on official government account @POTUS and suspended the account of his presidential campaign. The company said accounts used by Trump to try to get around the ban could face permanent suspension as well under its “ban evasion” policies. Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The [number of reported coronavirus cases from India](dF8B9HlHIB91HtGAABeY2PE/link20) stood at 1,04,40,293 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 1,50,971. In Brief: An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan has asked the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab Police [to arrest banned Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar](dF8B9HlHIB91HtGAABeY2PE/link22) by January 18 in a terror financing case, a court official said on Saturday. Following the Pulwama terror attack in February 2019, Pakistan’s Punjab police had launched a crackdown on terrorism financing and arrested six militants of the JeM in Gujranwala, some 130 kms from Lahore. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. 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