17.06.21 Daily [Assam] APSC Current Affairs

Assamis on alert over reports of a possible Covid-19 third wave striking soon. The Centre has asked the state Health department to prepare for the worst.
The Assam health department has asked medical college hospitals to immediately ready for childcare. The Population below 18 years, who are yet to be vaccinated, may be worst hit by the third wave, if it comes.

The recent guidelines on Operationalization ofCovid Care Servicesfor Children & Adolescents from the Union Government mentioned that as intermittent surges are expected, a combined effort from the private and public sector is needed to handle rising cases after the easing of the lockdown, school re-opening or as the third wave sets in over the next three to four months.

A target of achieving 1,000Paediatric Intensive Care Units(PICU) has been set in Assam, out of which the minimum goal is 10 in each district. Though children are the most vulnerable in the third wave, villages are also on the radar as they may turn into super-spreaders. State capital Guwahati is no more the biggest concern for virus infection as the focus has shifted to the districts with vast areas under gram panchayats.

The Centre on Monday told theSupreme Courtthat its notification of May 28 delegating powers to collectors of some of districts to grant to members of the minority community from Afghanistan,Pakistanand Bangladesh was not related to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and that such exercise had been done earlier too since 2006.

By the notification, the Centre has delegated power to grant citizenship in such cases to the collectors of 13 more districts Morbi, Rajkot, Patan and Vadodara in Gujarat; Jalore, Udaipur, Pali, Barmer and Sirohi in Rajasthan; Durg and Balodabazar in Chhattisgarh; Faridabad in Haryana; and Jalandhar inPunjaband to the Home secretaries ofHaryanaand Punjab. Now, district collectors of 29 districts and home secretaries of 9 states can exercise such powers.

A Chinese spacecraft “Shenzhou XII” with three crew members docked with China’s new space station module Tianhe 1. This follows the launch of the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft, which delivered critical supplies to the space station.

Highlights:

About six hours after taking off from the Jiuquan launch centre in the Gobi Desert, the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft connected with the Tianhe space station module.

The three-man crew will spend three months on the Tianhe module, which will orbit the Earth at 340km to 380km altitude.

This is the first of two manned space missions scheduled for this year, as part of a intense launch schedule aimed at completing the Chinese space station by 2022.

The three astronauts are the first to live in the main living module, where they will conduct experiments, test equipment, perform maintenance, and prepare the station for the arrival of two laboratory modules next year.

The World Health Organization (WHO) highlighted the risk that children working in informal processing face as a result of discarded electronic devices, or E-Waste, in its report Children and Digital Dumpsites. It is the world’s first WHO report on electronic waste and child health.

Approximately 12.9 million Women work in the informal waste sector, exposing them to toxic e-waste (such as nickel, lead, and mercury) and putting themselves and their unborn children at risk.

Children are especially vulnerable to the toxic chemicals found in e waste because of their smaller size, less developed organs, and rapid rate of Growth and development.