05th October 2020 Current affairs

1. Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan revealed India’s COVID-19 vaccination plan during his ‘Sunday Samvad’ on October 4, 2020. The health minister asserted that India is expecting to receive and utilise 40-50 crore doses to cover 20-25 crore people by July 2021 and has started working on plans to boost training capacity on a massive scale. 

2. The United Nations designated the first Monday of October of every year as the World Habitat Day to reflect on the state of our towns and cities and on the basic right of all to adequate shelter. 

3. The United States President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have tested positive for Coronavirus. The news was shared by the US President through his official Twitter account. 

4. France, India’s foremost strategic partner in Europe, will be taking part in ISRO’s mission to Venus, scheduled to launch in 2025, expanding decades-old cooperation in the space sector. 

5. Reliance Life Sciences has developed an RT-PCR (real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) kit that will be able to diagnose COVID-19 infection in just about 2 hours. Currently, the test for the qualitative detection of nucleic acid from SARS-CoV-2 takes up to 24 hours for the results. 

6. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Atal Tunnel, the world’s longest highway tunnel at Rohtang on October 3, 2020. The 9.02 kilometres long tunnel has been built at an altitude of 3000 meters. It will connect Manali in Himachal Pradesh to Lahaul-Spiti valley throughout the year. 

7. Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has successfully flight tested the Supersonic Missile assisted release of Torpedo, SMART. 

8. The fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces have continued over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, with Azerbaijan accusing Armenia of targeting the country’s cities that are far beyond the conflict zone. The two former Soviet republics have rejected all International calls for negotiations and a halt to the fierce fighting over the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh.