India backs calls for further probe into Covid-19 origins
Without naming China, govt says follow up of WHO report and further studies ‘deserve the understanding and cooperation of all’
India on Friday backed calls for further investigations into the origin of Covid-19 and sought the cooperation of China and other parties for such studies, days after US President Joe Biden asked intelligence agencies to submit a fresh report on the issue.
Biden’s directive to the US intelligence community to redouble their efforts to collect information to facilitate a definitive conclusion on the origin of the coronavirus has angered China, which said on Thursday that the US is playing politics. China again dismissed the theory that the virus could have leaked from a laboratory.
External affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said the World Health Organization (WHO)-led study was an “important first step”, but more studies were needed to reach “robust conclusions”.
“The WHO convened global study on the origin of Covid-19 is an important first step. It stressed the need for next phase studies as also for further data and studies to reach robust conclusions,” Bagchi said in a statement.
Without naming China, he added, “The follow up of the WHO report and further studies deserve the understanding and cooperation of all.”
This comes at a time when multiple news reports have spoken of several angles the American intelligence is looking at. On Thursday, the New York Times reported that Biden’s directions to the intelligence agencies came on the basis of yet-to-be examined evidence that requires computer analysis.
Citing people aware of the situation, the report said that this evidence could include databases of Chinese communications, movement of lab workers and the pattern of the outbreak of Covid-19 in and around Wuhan, the ground zero of the pandemic.
On May 23, a report by the Wall Street Journal cited current and former officials to describe intelligence reports that determined that three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick with flulike symptoms in November, 2019.
The report notes that while this in itself was not enough to link to a lab leak, the timing and the number of people who fell sick and their ties to the lab
NEW DELHI: Many of India’s largest conglomerates and companies are focusing on vaccinating their employees, largely through partnerships with private health care providers and, in some cases, government vaccination centres.
The list of companies that are doing this includes Tata Consultancy Services, India’s largest employer in the IT sector (over 400,000 staff), M&M, Ashok Leyland, and Sundaram Clayton. Many firms are also extending the facility to families of their employees. In most cases, the shots, for both the employees and their families, are free.
In a statement, TCS said it started vaccination camps in a few cities in early May and has now increased the scale. “TCS is setting up over 100 CVCs (COVID Vaccination Centres) across India; this includes CVC’s across TCS offices in 21 cities and CVCs launched with our primary medical partner across 33 cities...,” the company said in a statement.
Another IT firm Accenture, said it is organising vaccinations in Bengaluru and NCR.
In all cases, the employees have to register on government’s Co-win portal, but will not have to schedule appointments -- a process that has become difficult given the crunch in supplies.
Arjun Vaidyanathan, COO of KPMG in India, said the firm has tied up with Ekincare to vaccinate employees in more than 150 centres across the country.
“We have already had our vaccination camps in Delhi, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Mumbai..,” he said.
Employees are delighted. Mukul Dikshit, senior consultant at EY and his colleague Divya Deora posted pictures of a vaccination camps on Linkedin. Deora said: “Indeed we are building a better working world.” .