12
MAY 6, 2021 | The Jewish Home
The Week In News
India Consumed by Covid Casualties
India has canceled final year exams for medical school students, allowing them to join the fight against the country’s out of control Covid-19 epidemic. The 25,000 medical students who have already completed their studies were informed by the government that they can skip the final licensing exam if they work with Covid-19 patients for a year. Another 90,000 doctors who studied in overseas universities but have not yet taken the exam to convert their licenses are also eligible for the new initiative. In addition, nurses in their final year of training can now assist in hospitals and will be prioritized when applying for positions at government medical centers if they volunteer for over 100 days at a Covid-19 ward. The new measures are expected to lighten the load on India’s medical professionals who have struggled to contain the world’s worst Covid-19 outbreak. Monday saw India record 300,000 new cases for the 12th straight day, bringing the total number of infections to 20 million. The skyrocketing infection rate has overloaded hospitals and caused a severe shortage of oxygen cylinders. New patients are being forced to wait hours and even days for a bed in hospital ICUs due to the lack of sufficient medications, medical staff, and ventilators. “Every time we have to struggle to get our quota of our oxygen cylinders,” said Narayan Rao, a health official from the hard-hit southern town of Chamarajanagar. “It’s a dayto-day fight.” In the capital of New Delhi, crematoriums have been constructing makeshift funeral pyres as they run out of space for bodies. In the South
Indian state of Karnataka that has seen 200,000 daily cases, crematoriums have put up “house full” notices on their doors. Officials are attempting to introduce innovative solutions in order to lighten the burden on cemeteries and crematoriums. In New Delhi, the Sarai Kale Khan crematorium in the capital has received permission to build 27 new pyres in a nearby park. The Health Ministry is now allowing Indians to use hiking trails and private property as makeshift cemeteries. “There has been a steady rise in the number of deaths due to Covid-19 infection in the state,” read the order by India’s Health Ministry. “It is prudent to swiftly and respectfully dispose of the body in a decentralized manner keeping in view the grieving circumstance and to avoid crowding in crematoriums and burial grounds.”
Germany to Return Artifacts to Nigeria
Germany will return the Benin Bronzes, a series of ancient artifacts looted by British soldiers during a military operation in 1897, to Nigeria. Dating back to the 16th-18th century, the golden plates and statues once decorated the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin and are considered among the most impressive works of African art. The pieces are currently located in dozens of museums scattered across Europe. Germany’s Ministry of Culture announced last Thursday that it would work towards “substantive returns” of the Benin Bronzes before 2022. The move came after the government reached a deal with museum curators regarding compensation for the artifacts and the timetable of the return. As per the agreement, museums will have until June 15 to inventory the items followed by a meeting on June 29 to hammer out the logistical details. A new website will be established in order to catalogue the arti-
