Daily The Hindu Editorial With Vocabulary in Detail : 5th April 2020

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Editorials/Op-Eds in newspapers are useful sources for adding analytical points to the facts on any issue. For example, while discussing any new law, you can read about the various provisions of the law from the summary of law itself but to analyze it further, you will need to understand the pros/cons. merits/demerits, or advantages/limitations, shortcomings etc. of the law. It is here Editorials/Op-Eds and other Columns are useful (as some knowledgeable people write such columns).

THE HINDU EDITORIAL is one of the important sessions to read and to practice as english section is considered as the one which cannot be cracked. Break the Myth by preparing for the English Language section in various exams like SBI PO 2020, SBI Clerk 2020, IBPS PO 2020, IBPS CLERK 2020 and many others.

These topics are widely expected to be asked in the reading comprehension, Cloze Test or Error Detection in the forthcoming exams. So gear up your Exam preparation and learn new words daily.

A million and counting: On global coronavirus spread

On April 2, the number of novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infections in 181 countries/regions crossed one million, and deaths passed 50,000. On April 3, the total number of cases and deaths stood at 10,39,166 and 55,092, respectively. With 2,45,646 cases, the U.S. accounts for 24% of the global total, while Italy, with 13,915 deaths, has over 26% of total mortality. Four countries — the U.S., Italy, Spain and Germany — have more cases reported than China. The exponential increase becomes striking considering that the time taken to report 1,00,000 more cases has been reducing. If it took 12 days to double to 2,00,000, it took just three days each to cross 0.3 and 0.4 million. Thereafter, 0.1 million more cases have been reported every two days except on two occasions — the increase from 0.6 million to 0.7 million and 0.9 million to 1 million happened in a single day. Yet, the cases reported so far might be a small percentage of the actual numbers in most countries. The main limiting factor in knowing the true spread has been the restricted number of tests done in most countries, India included. In about a month after restrictions on testing were loosened, the number of tests in the U.S. crossed one million on March 30. While this may be a huge number, there is still a bottleneck in the number of people being tested. According to The Washington Post, as on March 28, only 2,250 tests per million were performed, which is two-thirds of what South Korea did three weeks earlier.

Besides missing out those exhibiting mild symptoms and under-reporting by countries, the actual number of infections might be manifold higher as most countries have not made attempts to test those who do not show symptoms. There is accumulating evidence suggesting that a “substantial fraction” of people infected with the virus are asymptomatic. For instance, in South Korea, more than 20% of asymptomatic cases did not develop symptoms during hospitalisation. If in Italy the virus was spreading silently for about 50 days before the first case was reported on February 20, in Iceland, nearly half of the 20% who tested positive for the virus were either asymptomatic or showed only mild symptoms. The South China Morning Post said more than 43,000 people in China who tested positive by end-February were asymptomatic and unreported. Since April 1, China has been reporting new cases that are asymptomatic. China’s National Health Commission reports that as on March 31 there have been 1,541 asymptomatic cases. The World Health Organisation maintains that the virus mainly spreads through droplets and contact with contaminated surfaces, and the risk of getting infected by an asymptomatic person is “very low”. In India, it is important to test travellers and trace and monitor their contacts. Otherwise, there remains the risk of continued spread once the lockdown is withdrawn.