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Rain improves Delhi’s air

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New Delhi, Nov 18 (IANS) The air quality in the National Capital Region improved on Saturday to the “poor” level following overnight rain as the concentration of Particulate Matter (PM) decreased. Another government department, however, placed the air quality at “moderate”.

The major pollutant, PM2.5, or particles with diameter less than 2.5 micro meter, was recorded at 288 units. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) on Saturday recorded the Air Quality Index (AQI) of Delhi-NCR (at 288) at 10 a.m. as compared to 299 at 7 p.m. on Friday.

Notably, most of the 17 monitoring stations of the CPCB in Delhi found air quality on Saturday in the “poor” bracket. In neighbouring Noida, Ghaziabad and Gurugram, the AQI also showed “poor” category.

Experts say the rain in the national capital on Friday night and early Saturday morning was responsible for the improvement in air quality.

Mahesh Palwat, Director of Skymet, a private weather forecast agency, said air quality had improved due to overnight rain, wind from the northwest and cyclonic formation in Rajasthan.

“The western disturbance has moved away from hills and hill states that have witnessed rainfall and snowfall. So winds from northwest with speed of upto 15 kmph are bringing pollution levels down. The situation will be better day-by-day,” Palawat said.

He said that rain always had a washout effect on particulate matter.

According to SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research), an app instituted by the Ministry of Earth Science, the air quality levels in Delhi improved to “moderate” on Saturday morning.

SAFAR records 24-hour rolling averages of PM10 and PM2.5 and uses this data to estimate the AQI. PM10 and PM2.5 are ultra-fine particles that are the dominant pollutants in Delhi. The acceptable levels of PM10 and PM 2.5 are 100µg/m3 and 60µg/m3 respectively.

The larger particulate matter, measured by PM10, docked at 199 µg/m3 in the morning while PM2.5, which measures very poor and more dangerous particulate matter, hovered around 130 µg/m3.

An official of the India Meteorological Department said the city recorded one mm rainfall in the 24 hours till 8.30 a.m. on Saturday. The Safdarjung observatory recorded 1 mm rainfall, Palam 0.4 mm, Lodi Road 0.2 mm, Ayanagar 0.3 mm and Ridge 0.4 mm.

–IANS
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Corona

Covid toll in Karnataka is a worrying sign for state government

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Even though Karnataka recorded the lowest number of Covid deaths in April since the virus struck first in 2020, the state is recording a rise in the positivity rate (1.50 per cent). Five people died from the Covid infections in April as per the statistics released by the state health department. In March, the positivity rate stood around 0.53 per cent. In the first week of April it came down to 0.38 per cent, second week registered 0.56 per cent, third week it rose to 0.79 per cent and by end of April the Covid positivity rate touched 1.19 per cent.

on an average 500 persons used to succumb everyday in the peak of Covid infection, as per the data. Health experts said that the mutated Coronavirus is losing its fierce characteristics as vaccination, better treatment facilities and awareness among the people have contributed to the lesser number of Covid deaths.

During the 4th and 6th of April two deaths were reported in Bengaluru, one in Gadag district on April 8, two deaths were reported from Belagavi and Vijayapura on April 30. The first Covid case was reported in the state in March 2020 and three Covid deaths were recorded in the month. In the following month 21 people became victims to the deadly virus, and May 2020 recorded 22 deaths. The death toll recorded everyday after May crossed three digits. However, the third wave, which started in January 2

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