Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 04 May 2021

SSC CGL Current Affairs

::NATIONAL::

The Supreme Court has directed the Centre to revisit its COVID-19 vaccine pricing policy, saying it would prima facie result in a detriment to the right to public health.
A bench headed by Justice D Y Chandrachud said as of date, the manufacturers have suggested two different prices, a lower price which is applicable to the Centre and a higher price which is applicable to the quantities purchased by state governments.
The top court said that compelling state governments to negotiate with manufacturers on grounds of promoting competition and making it attractive for new vaccine manufacturers will result in a serious detriment to those in the age group of 18 to 44 years, who will be vaccinated by state governments.
The social strata of this age group also comprises persons who are Bahujans or belong to other underprivileged and marginalised groups, like many in the other population age groups. They may not have the ability to pay.
"Whether or not essential vaccines will be made available to them will depend upon the decision of each state government, based on its own finances, on whether or not the vaccine should be made available free or should be subsidised and if so, to what extent. This will create disparity across the nation. The vaccinations being provided to citizens constitute a valuable public good," the bench said.

The Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday declared the end of an Ebola outbreak that infected 12 people in the eastern province of North Kivu and killed six of them.
The outbreak was contained using Merck's (MRK.N) Ebola vaccine, which was given to more than 1,600 of the patients' contacts and contacts of contacts, the aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), said.
The cases were genetically linked to the 2018-20 Ebola epidemic that killed more than 2,200 people, the second-highest toll recorded in the disease's history.
The latest flare-up emerged on Feb. 3 in the city of Butembo with the death of a woman whose husband had contracted the virus in the previous outbreak.
The virus can remain in certain body fluids, including semen, of a patient who has recovered from the disease, even if they no longer have symptoms of severe illness.

Odisha government today launched a health insurance scheme for working journalists in the state.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched the scheme called "Gopabandhu Sambadika Swasthya BimaYojana".
In the first phase, as many as 3,233 working journalists will get health insurance coverage up to Rs 2 lakh a year. At least five members of the journalists family will be covered under the scheme, said an official statement.
The scribes will get their health insurance card from the District Information and Public Relations Officer (DIPRO) in their respective districts.
A delegation of Bhubaneswar-based journalists met Patnaik at the state secretariat and thanked him for the scheme. They also drew the attention of the chief minister to the problems faced by scribes while performing their duties in the state.
"We have also urged the chief minister to introduce a pension scheme for journalists," said PradumnyaMohanty, a member of the delegation that met Patnaik.

Scientists have discovered a new type of uranium that is the lightest ever known. The discovery could reveal more about a weird alpha particle that gets ejected from certain radioactive elements as they decay.
The newfound uranium, called uranium-214, is an isotope, or a variant of the element, with 30 more neutrons than protons, one fewer neutron than the next-lightest known uranium isotope. Because neutrons have mass, uranium-214 is much lighter than more common uranium isotopes, including uranium-235, which is used in nuclear reactors and has 51 extra neutrons.
This newfound isotope isn't just lighter than others, but it also showed unique behaviors during its decay. As such, the new findings will help scientists better understand a radioactive decay process known as alpha decay, in which an atomic nucleus loses a group of two protons and two neutrons — collectively called an alpha particle.

The Indian Premier League, suspended earlier as a new coronavirus wave hit India, will be finished in the United Arab Emirates in September and October, the Board of Control for Cricket in India said on Saturday.
The world’s richest cricket tournament was half-finished when it was halted on May 4 after a number of players and team officials caught coronavirus despite being in bio-secure bubbles.