News / Author / R Sukumar

R Sukumar

Sukumar Ranganathan is the Editor-in-Chief of Hindustan Times. He is also a comic-book freak and an amateur birder.

Articles by R Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

There are many existing drugs whose efficacy, when it comes to treating Covid-19, is the subject of clinical trials around the world.

India’s drug regulator, Drug Controller General of India, the Indian Council of Medical Research, and the Union and state health ministries must ensure that no one pitches a cure for Covid-19 without going through due scientific process.(Reuters photo for representation)

india news

Updated on Jun 24, 2020 02:10 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

India’s positivity rate (the number of people testing positive for Covid-19 as a proportion of those tested) has been rising for the past four weeks.

A medical worker sits inside a classroom as she takes a break at a school, which was turned into a centre to conduct tests for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), amidst its spread in New Delhi, India June 22, 2020.(Reuters photo)

india news

Updated on Jun 23, 2020 06:07 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

Globally, too, the consensus is that the number of cases will continue to rise as countries open up, or the virus shows up in hitherto uninfected or less-infected parts.

With positivity rates continuing to rise, or, at best, staying the same in many states, India’s numbers are certain to increase with more widespread testing(Amal KS/HT PHOTO)

india news

Updated on Jun 21, 2020 08:05 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

There are many promising candidates in various stages of testing and trial, and we could have a vaccine by next year. But it won’t be widely available immediately.

A woman wears a facemask she walks down a street in Manchester, north west England(AFP)

india news

Updated on Jun 20, 2020 01:37 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

It is clear from the global experience that data and science are the best weapons a country can use to deal with the coronavirus disease.

Healthcare workers stand in front of a statue of Babasaheb Ambedkar, founder of the Indian Constitution, before the start of a check-up camp for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in Mumbai.(Reuters)

india news

Updated on Jun 18, 2020 06:08 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

Almost half of the people with underlying conditions — what we call co-morbidities; usually heart problems, diabetes, or lung disease, although, in India, kidney disease seems to be a co-morbidity that has a high correlation with Covid-19 fatalities — were hospitalised.

Volunteers offer funeral prayers in front of an ambulance carrying abandoned bodies of victims who died from the Covid-19 coronavirus at a graveyard in Chennai on June 16, 2020(AFP)

india news

Updated on Jun 17, 2020 06:04 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

India has consistently underinvested in health care. It was only in 2018 that the government thought a nationwide health insurance scheme was needed.

A health worker in a PPE bodysuit handles swab samples collected from police personnel for coronavirus testing in Police Lines, Gurugram.(Photo: Parveen Kumar/ Hindustan Times)

india news

Updated on Jun 16, 2020 05:45 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

The bad news for Indian cities and states being ravaged by the coronavirus right now is that the trend line is still pointing north — not due north (that would be alarming), but north all the same.

An Indian woman wearing a mask walks on a road as rain clouds hover over in Guwahati, India.(AP)

india news

Updated on Jun 15, 2020 05:00 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

As on Thursday, three states — Delhi, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu — accounted for 66% of all new Covid-19 cases reported in the country.

An artists paint a wall to honour Corona warriors, during the ongoing Covid-19 lockdown at Mahim in Mumbai on Friday.(Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo)

india news

Updated on Jun 13, 2020 02:02 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

Delays and lapses in recognising coronavirus related deaths, and outright exclusions that are now coming to light, mean that states once feted for their response to the pandemic may not have done all that well.

Medical professionals wearing PPE coveralls prepare a stretcher for a suspected Covid patient outside the Covid-19 ward at LNJP Hospital in New Delhi on Tuesday.(Biplov Bhuyan/HT PHOTO)

india news

Updated on Jun 12, 2020 06:18 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

For the first time recoveries have exceeded active coronavirus cases in India. After all, with a case fatality rate of 2.8%, a little over 151,000 of those whose infections were reported in May will recover.

A worker sanitizing the area of the Jama Masjid complex with authorities contemplating closing it to the public due to rising coronavirus cases in New Delhi on Wednesday.(Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO)

india news

Updated on Jun 11, 2020 05:01 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

Countries and cities affected early by Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, are now opening up. Experts say that while the virus seems to have run its course in these countries and cities, scattered flare-ups of infections cannot be ruled out.

Commuters wear protective masks while riding the subway at Pennsylvania Station in New York, US on Monday.(Bloomberg)

india news

Updated on Jun 10, 2020 05:02 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

India continues to do better than other countries in terms of Covid-19 fatality rate which is currently at around 2.8%, less than half the global rate.

People in the food court at Select Citywalk mall as malls and restaurants reopen to the public following lockdown relaxations in Saket, New Delhi on Monday(Amal KS/HT PHOTO)

india news

Updated on Jun 09, 2020 05:00 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

We are in a stage where many of us know people (people like us, may I add) who have been infected with the virus. The people behind the numbers we see in the papers are no longer nameless and anonymous

Masks, gloves (when venturing out shopping), hand washing, and social distancing are all that are required — and perhaps now, more than ever. Photo by waseem Andrabi Hindustan Times

india news

Updated on Jun 07, 2020 04:22 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

The country has added roughly 50% of its cases in the past fortnight – it is time to revisit some questions.

India recorded 9,962 new cases of the coronavirus disease on Thursday.(Bloomberg)

india news

Updated on Jun 06, 2020 05:59 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

Another is that science can only answer questions set for it – for instance, a study on whether HCQ has prophylactic benefits cannot answer questions on its therapeutic ability.

As for its ability as a therapeutic, The Lancet is reviewing a study that dismissed this (because it seems based on dodgy data), and the World Health Organization, which suspended HCQ trials following the study, has said it will now revive them.(Pratik Chorge/HT Photo)

india news

Updated on Jun 05, 2020 03:54 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you must know every day

We’ve always associated masks with superheroes – with the extraordinary. And Moore created the greatest superhero comic ever, Watchmen, along with illustrator Dave Gibbons.

The coronavirus disease has changed our perception of masks – despite claims through March and even some part of April that they weren’t really necessary.(HT File Photo)

india news

Updated on Jun 04, 2020 05:43 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What we still don’t know

Tuesday, the beginning of the second, saw another milestone – India crossed 200,000 Covid-19 cases. The country ended Tuesday with 207,112 cases, of which 101,070 remain active.

The country is currently testing just a little under 3,000 people per million population, although some states are doing much more.(Satish Bate/HT Photo)

india news

Updated on Jun 03, 2020 05:26 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

Today, India enters what the home ministry calls Unlock 1.0, the next phase of the exit from the lockdown with 190,533 cases.

The number of people with active infections on each of these dates were: 151 (March 18); 486 (March 24); 10,398 (April 15); 32,143 (May 4); 58,040 (May 18); and 93,362 (May 31).(Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo)

india news

Updated on Jun 01, 2020 05:44 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Year 2020: When a punch in the mouth left all plans upended...

Everyone had plans for 2020 — individuals, companies, even countries. Maybe it’s because of the ring 2020 has; or perhaps it’s because 20-20 stands for perfect vision.

The Covid-19 pandemic is definitely an unknown unknown and the only known cure for it — breaking the chain of infections through isolation, quarantines, and lockdowns — challenges the fundamental tenets of a networked and globalised world.(Amal KS/HT Photo)

india news

Updated on May 31, 2020 06:12 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

In Delhi, and in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, the proportion of tests returning a positive result remains high. In the seven days to May 21, the average daily positivity (as it is called) rate was 9.4% in Delhi. It was 17.9% in Maharashtra, and it was 5.7% in Tamil Nadu.

People gathered at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus to move back to their respective states by train during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the spread of the Covid-19 in Mumbai on Friday, May 29, 2020.(Pratik Chorge/HT Photo)

india news

Updated on May 30, 2020 07:44 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

There have been sporadic news reports of how the return of migrants has caused a spike in cases in some states.

The Solicitor General of India says 9.1 million across India; Uttar Pradesh says it has seen the return of 1.8 million; and Bihar says 1 million.(Pratham Gokhale/HT Photo)

india news

Updated on May 29, 2020 07:38 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

According to a Reuters poll of economists released on Wednesday, the global economy will shrink by 3.2% this year.

The consensus estimate for the fiscal cost of India’s $277 billion package is around $29 billion.(Reuters)

india news

Updated on May 28, 2020 07:25 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

There are reports that India plans to reopen schools in July, at least for some classes. That’s the beginning of the term in some parts of the country (including Delhi).

Denmark reopened schools in April. Japan opened some in May, as did Korea. Even China reopened schools in Wuhan, where it all began, in May.(Reuters image)

india news

Updated on May 27, 2020 01:16 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

Between April 27 and May 24, India saw 78% of its coronavirus disease cases, and 78% of its deaths. According to the HT dashboard, the number of cases and deaths were 138,474 and 3,949 respectively on Sunday night.

In the first of the four weeks, India added 14,540 cases and saw 516 deaths for an average of 2,077 cases a day and 74 deaths. In the second, it added 24,558 cases and saw 747 deaths. The per-day averages were 3,508 and 107.(PRATHAM GOKHALE/HT PHOTO)

india news

Updated on May 26, 2020 08:28 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

Bloomberg News reported on Sunday that a joint paper by the country’s National Centre for Infectious Diseases and the Academy of Medicine showed that patients were no longer contagious 11 days after infection.

India has now reached a stage (138,474 cases as of Sunday night; 3,949 dead), where it has to start looking at whether its health care resources are adequate to deal with the pandemic.(Samir Jana / Hindustan Times)

india news

Updated on May 25, 2020 03:47 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

Some states start off by not testing enough; others start off well, but as cases continue to rise, the message goes out to go easy on the testing. Tamil Nadu, Delhi, and Maharashtra, then, deserve credit for actually continuing to test more.

For some time in the late 1990s and the 2000s, EVA or economic value added was the hottest buzzword among financially inclined management types.(Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

india news

Updated on May 24, 2020 01:44 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

The big middle-seat-in-aircraft question in India doesn’t concern armrests, but why the ministry of civil aviation believes it is alright to seat people there.

india news

Updated on May 23, 2020 05:05 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

On the Delhi-Mumbai route, which is India’s busiest one, for instance, the minimum fare will be Rs 3,500 and the maximum Rs 10,000. There’s a further requirement – that 40% of the tickets be sold at the median price of Rs 6,700.

Stranded migrant workers queue outside Rajkiya Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya for transit buses to ferry them to the railway station amid the lockdown, in West Vinod Nagar, in New Delhi, India, on Thursday, May 21, 2020.(Ajay Aggarwal /HT PHOTO)

india news

Updated on May 22, 2020 02:24 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

This is the 60th edition of a column on Covid-19 I’ve written pretty much everyday since March 19. Perhaps because I write it, I get asked a lot of questions.

A girl carrying her belongings walks with her family members to get token to board a train to their home state of eastern Bihar, during an extended lockdown to slow the spreading of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), in Ahmedabad, India, May 20, 2020.(Reuters file photo)

india news

Updated on May 21, 2020 04:53 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByR Sukumar

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R Sukumar

Sukumar Ranganathan is the Editor-in-Chief of Hindustan Times. He is also a comic-book freak and an amateur birder.

There are many existing drugs whose efficacy, when it comes to treating Covid-19, is the subject of clinical trials around the world.

India’s positivity rate (the number of people testing positive for Covid-19 as a proportion of those tested) has been rising for the past four weeks.

Globally, too, the consensus is that the number of cases will continue to rise as countries open up, or the virus shows up in hitherto uninfected or less-infected parts.

There are many promising candidates in various stages of testing and trial, and we could have a vaccine by next year. But it won’t be widely available immediately.

It is clear from the global experience that data and science are the best weapons a country can use to deal with the coronavirus disease.

Almost half of the people with underlying conditions — what we call co-morbidities; usually heart problems, diabetes, or lung disease, although, in India, kidney disease seems to be a co-morbidity that has a high correlation with Covid-19 fatalities — were hospitalised.

India has consistently underinvested in health care. It was only in 2018 that the government thought a nationwide health insurance scheme was needed.

The bad news for Indian cities and states being ravaged by the coronavirus right now is that the trend line is still pointing north — not due north (that would be alarming), but north all the same.

As on Thursday, three states — Delhi, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu — accounted for 66% of all new Covid-19 cases reported in the country.

Delays and lapses in recognising coronavirus related deaths, and outright exclusions that are now coming to light, mean that states once feted for their response to the pandemic may not have done all that well.

For the first time recoveries have exceeded active coronavirus cases in India. After all, with a case fatality rate of 2.8%, a little over 151,000 of those whose infections were reported in May will recover.

Countries and cities affected early by Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, are now opening up. Experts say that while the virus seems to have run its course in these countries and cities, scattered flare-ups of infections cannot be ruled out.

India continues to do better than other countries in terms of Covid-19 fatality rate which is currently at around 2.8%, less than half the global rate.

We are in a stage where many of us know people (people like us, may I add) who have been infected with the virus. The people behind the numbers we see in the papers are no longer nameless and anonymous

The country has added roughly 50% of its cases in the past fortnight – it is time to revisit some questions.

Another is that science can only answer questions set for it – for instance, a study on whether HCQ has prophylactic benefits cannot answer questions on its therapeutic ability.

We’ve always associated masks with superheroes – with the extraordinary. And Moore created the greatest superhero comic ever, Watchmen, along with illustrator Dave Gibbons.

Tuesday, the beginning of the second, saw another milestone – India crossed 200,000 Covid-19 cases. The country ended Tuesday with 207,112 cases, of which 101,070 remain active.

Today, India enters what the home ministry calls Unlock 1.0, the next phase of the exit from the lockdown with 190,533 cases.

Everyone had plans for 2020 — individuals, companies, even countries. Maybe it’s because of the ring 2020 has; or perhaps it’s because 20-20 stands for perfect vision.

In Delhi, and in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, the proportion of tests returning a positive result remains high. In the seven days to May 21, the average daily positivity (as it is called) rate was 9.4% in Delhi. It was 17.9% in Maharashtra, and it was 5.7% in Tamil Nadu.

There have been sporadic news reports of how the return of migrants has caused a spike in cases in some states.

According to a Reuters poll of economists released on Wednesday, the global economy will shrink by 3.2% this year.

There are reports that India plans to reopen schools in July, at least for some classes. That’s the beginning of the term in some parts of the country (including Delhi).

Between April 27 and May 24, India saw 78% of its coronavirus disease cases, and 78% of its deaths. According to the HT dashboard, the number of cases and deaths were 138,474 and 3,949 respectively on Sunday night.

Bloomberg News reported on Sunday that a joint paper by the country’s National Centre for Infectious Diseases and the Academy of Medicine showed that patients were no longer contagious 11 days after infection.

Some states start off by not testing enough; others start off well, but as cases continue to rise, the message goes out to go easy on the testing. Tamil Nadu, Delhi, and Maharashtra, then, deserve credit for actually continuing to test more.

The big middle-seat-in-aircraft question in India doesn’t concern armrests, but why the ministry of civil aviation believes it is alright to seat people there.

On the Delhi-Mumbai route, which is India’s busiest one, for instance, the minimum fare will be Rs 3,500 and the maximum Rs 10,000. There’s a further requirement – that 40% of the tickets be sold at the median price of Rs 6,700.

This is the 60th edition of a column on Covid-19 I’ve written pretty much everyday since March 19. Perhaps because I write it, I get asked a lot of questions.

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