Tag: #international European treads

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. 

INTERNATIONALEuropean Union threatens U.K. over post-Brexit North Ireland trade

The European Union on Wednesday threatened the UK with retaliatory action if it refuses to implement post-Brexit trading arrangements in Northern Ireland, after talks to solve the simmering row broke up without agreement.

Visiting European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic said Brussels’ patience with London was “wearing thin” over its failure to enforce checks on goods heading to the province from mainland Britain.

“Today I can say we are at a crossroads in our relationship with the UK. Trust, which should be at the heart of all relationships, needs to be restored,” he told a news conference in London.

There were “numerous and fundamental gaps” in Britain’s compliance with the agreement, he added.

“If the UK were to take further unilateral action in the coming weeks, we will not be shy in reacting swiftly, firmly and resolutely.”

Asked what form that might take, he said it could include legal action, arbitration or other retaliatory measures, including targeted tariffs.

That has prompted talk of a potential “sausage war” on the UK side of the Channel, with a grace period on shipping chilled meat products to Northern Ireland set to end this month — and the UK threatening to extend it.

But Sefcovic insisted: “We don’t want this to happen… It’s not too late. Let’s correct the path.”

A senior UK official close to the talks also stressed that “nobody wants to get into a trade war or anything close to it,” and denied the UK had breached the agreement, saying it had been “designed to give quite wide margins to respond to events”.- ‘Frank and honest’ –

London and Brussels signed a last-gasp trade deal in December, nearly four years after the landmark Brexit referendum and just weeks before Britain left the European single market and customs union.

The two sides negotiated a separate deal for Northern Ireland, which has the UK’s only land border with the EU, to prevent unchecked goods entering the single market.

But the port checks on deliveries heading into Northern Ireland from mainland Great Britain — England, Scotland and Wales — have caused consternation among Northern Irish unionists, who say this changes their place in the wider UK.

Checks had to be suspended earlier this year because of threats to port staff, and the protocol was blamed for the worst violence in years in the British-run province.

An increase in paperwork for goods heading from mainland Britain to Northern Ireland has caused delays, and in some instances shortages in shops.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson told parliament the issue was about protecting the country’s territorial and economic integrity.

“What we are doing is prioritising the right and ability of the people of Northern Ireland to have access, as they should, freely and uninterruptedly, to goods and services from the whole of the UK,” he added.

UK Brexit minister David Frost for his part characterised the three-and-a-half hours of discussions as “frank and honest”, saying the dialogue had not broken down and more meetings were planned.

But he called for the EU to be more flexible to address the issue in Northern Ireland pragmatically, given the province’s fragile peace