How important personal hygiene is to fight against Covid-19?

We know the virus is transmitted through direct contact with respiratory droplets of an infected person through coughing and sneezing, and touching surfaces contaminated with the virus. The virus may survive on surfaces for a few hours up to several days.

Taking necessary precautionary measures will help us to fight the deadly virus. Precautionary measures such as use of masks, maintaining social distance norms and sanitizing hands and  should be strictly followed.

Covid-19 case numbers and deaths were exponentially rising in India. We all have seen how effectively our corona warriors have fought the battle. The second wave was too powerful and the number of cases in a single day stretched our health community badly. Though, the cases are now in control but we are not in that environment where we can live like the normal days. This is the time when we all need to come together and have a spirit by doing our bit in fighting against the disease.

Have we ever questioned ourselves, why the second wave took this drastic shape? This happened because of not having the right attitude, taking the virus as a normal flu, not wearing the mask properly. When the cases came drastically down in January, people thought that the virus has gone and this resulted the spike in the cases. As a responsible citizen, we need to understand that our focus should be on maintaining personal hygiene not only for ourselves, but for others also. Wherever we go, we should sanitize the area properly, maintain social distance, and wash our hands properly to win the war against the deadly virus.

Keeping in mind the situation many brands stood up and launched products in hygiene and safety category at affordable prices.

The main purpose is to prevent UTI, which is becoming a common concern among women. The infection involves greater risk when one uses public washrooms that are often unclean and unhygienic. Apart from Toilet seats and toilet tops it is important to spray the disinfectant on flush, faucets, door knobs and other hard surfaces to avoid the chances of getting infected.

Increase in COVID- 19 cases saw a spike and this generated a surge in the requirement of masks, sanitisers and other COVID products as well.

The pandemic has caused tremendous disruption to the lives and work processes. Irrespective of how severely or mildly it affects a person, it is still capable of wreaking havoc with our physical and mental fitness and ability to perform various tasks. In such a scenario, using hygiene and sanitation products and adhering to cleanliness can keep us safe from illness.

People are requested to take utmost care of themselves by using mask, sanitisers and break the COVID- 19 chain which is a duty of every citizen and don’t take safety for granted. 

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U.P. ranked best under Smart Cities Mission

News : 25 JUN 2021 – Ministry of Housing and
Urban Affairs 6th year – three transformative Urban Missions
 Smart Cities Mission (SCM)
 Atal Mission for Urban Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT)
 Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-
U).

• 45 years – National Institute of Urban Affairs
 Autonomous body Ministry of Housing and Urban affairs.
 Body – bridge the gap between research and
practice on issues related to urbanization.

Smart cities Mission

• Cities – engines of growth for the economy of every nation, including India.

• Urban areas – 40% of India’s population and contribute 75% of India’s GDP by 2030

• Need – physical, institutional, social and
economic infrastructure.

• Major role – improving the quality of life as well as in attracting people and
investments to the city.

• Smart City – wish list of infrastructure and
services.

• Urban eco-system – four pillars of comprehensive development – institutional,
physical, social and economic infrastructure .

• Objective:
 Core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens
 A clean and sustainable environment
 Application of ‘Smart’ Solutions.

• Purpose – drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of people .

• Operated as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme
• Core infrastructure elements – Smart City :
 Adequate water supply
 Assured electricity supply
 Sanitation, including solid waste management
 Efficient urban mobility and public transport
 Affordable housing, especially for the poor
 Robust IT connectivity and digitalization
 Good governance, especially e-Governance and
citizen participation
 Sustainable environment
 Safety and security
 Health and education.

• Scheme – Centrally Sponsored Scheme

Atal Mission for Urban Rejuvenation and Urban
Transformation (AMRUT).

• To provide basic services to households and build
amenities in cities .

• Purpose
 Ensure that every household has access to a
tap with the assured supply of water and a sewerage connection.
 To Increase the amenity value of cities by developing greenery and well maintained open spaces like parks.
 To reduce pollution by switching to public
transport or constructing facilities for non- motorized transport.

Components:


 Capacity building
 Reform implementation
 Water supply
 Sewerage and septage management
 Storm water drainage
 Urban transport
 Development of green spaces and parks.

• Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) will strive to include some smart features in the physical infrastructure components.
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U).

• Flagship Mission of Government of India.

• Implemented – Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Addresses – urban housing
shortage among the Economically Weaker
Sections / Low Income Group and Medium Income Groups • Demand driven approach

• Mission – Ownership of houses in name of female member or in joint name.

• Preference differently abled persons, senior citizens, SCs, STs, OBCs, Minority, single women, transgender and other weaker & vulnerable sections of the society.

• Adopts – cafeteria approach to suit the needs of individuals

India’s Smart Cities Awards 2020 :
 Uttar Pradesh to be ranked one followed by Madhya Pradesh in the second place
and Tamil Nadu in the third place.
 Indore and Surat were – Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry for their work
under the Smart Cities Mission.

• 22% in terms of the total value of the projects proposed and 52% in terms of the total number of projects proposed by the
100 Smart Cities had been completed so far.