Bharat Biotech on Saturday announced the prices of Covaxin. (Express photograph by Arul Horizon)
Coronavirus India Highlights: Days after Serum Institute of India came up with the prices of Covishield, Bharat Biotech on Saturday announced the prices of Covaxin which are pegged at Rs 600 per dose for state hospitals, Rs 1,200 for private hospitals.
Uttar Pradesh Saturday recorded its highest single-day rise in fresh infections and deaths with 38,055 fresh cases and 223 fatalities, pushing the tally to 10,51,314 and toll to 10,959. West Bengal’s tally too reached 7,28,061 with 14,281 new COVID cases — highest till now. Karnataka and Gujarat too added record number of cases — 29,438 and 14,097 respectively — to their total infection counts that crossed 17 lakh and 4.8 lakh in respective states.
Ahead of the roll-out of immunisation of people between 18 and 45 years of age from May 1, the Centre Saturday asked states to register additional private vaccination centres and ensure effective crowd management at sites, reported PTI. The Union government also emphasised on inoculation through “only online registration” for beneficiaries eligible for vaccines.
Taking a slew of measures to boost the availability of medical oxygen in the country amid Covid surge, the central government Saturday decided to waive basic customs duty and health cess on the import of oxygen and related equipment for next three months with immediate effect, PTI reported. At a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it was also decided to exempt basic customs duty on the import of Covid vaccines with immediate effect for a period of three months, a government statement said.
India recorded over 3.46 lakh new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours ending 8 am Saturday. The rapid uptick in new cases has taken India’s total infection count to over 1.66 crore. Out of these, over 25.52 lakh cases are currently active while over 1.38 crore people have recovered after testing positive. With 2,624 new fatalities the death toll is now over 1.89 lakh.
A Covid-19 patient outside LNJP hospital in New Delhi on Thursday. (Express Photo: Tashi Tobgyal)
Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister and Health Minister Nitin Patel tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday even as the state added 14,097 new cases, taking the state’s total infection count to nearly 4.81 lakh. As many as 152 people also succumb to the infection, the highest one-day fatality so far, a bulletin released by the state government said.
Patel, 64, has been admitted to the U N Mehta Institute of Cardiology and Research Centre in Ahmedabad. He had taken the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine over a month ago. Read More
With the quota of medical oxygen and Remdesivir injection supplies for Maharashtra cut down, the state government has urged the Central government to retain the supply of medical oxygen and Remdesivir injections to the state to meet the increasing demand.
“The Maharashtra government had managed to arrange 250 metric tonne of medical oxygen from Jamnagar-based Reliance company plant in Gujarat. However, it has been informed by the company that the supply has now been cut down to 125 metric tonne of medical oxygen per day for the state,” said Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Saturday.
This has happened because the Central government has taken control of the medical oxygen supply of the entire country to meet the demand of various states in the country, Pawar added. Read More
With hospitals reeling under acute shortage of oxygen supply for the fifth day in a row, several patients were left in the lurch — some hospitals reached out to families to discharge patients while others reduced the number of Covid beds.
On Saturday morning, two hospitals in Delhi — Saroj Super Speciality and Batra Hospital & Medical Research Centre — raised an alarm over their oxygen tanks running dry.
At Saroj hospital, 27 patients were discharged on Saturday. The hospital, which has an occupancy of around 200 patients, has admitted 121 out of which 116 have Covid. Read More
Days after Serum Institute of India came up with the prices of Covishield, Bharat Biotech on Saturday announced the prices of Covaxin which are pegged at Rs 600 per dose for state hospitals, Rs 1,200 for private hospitals.
Uttar Pradesh Saturday recorded its highest single-day rise in fresh infections and deaths with 38,055 fresh cases and 223 fatalities, pushing the tally to 10,51,314 and toll to 10,959. West Bengal’s tally too reached 7,28,061 with 14,281 new COVID cases — highest till now. Karnataka and Gujarat too added record number of cases — 29,438 and 14,097 respectively — to their total infection counts that crossed 17 lakh and 4.8 lakh in respective states.
Highest single-day spike of 14,281 COVID cases takes Bengal's tally to 7,28,061, said State Health Department.
With a huge surge in coronavirus infections and deaths, the Tamil Nadu government Saturday announced stringent curbs, including closure of cinema theatres and shopping malls. The government has also declared a complete lockdown on Sunday. Here's what all will be closed
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Saturday said that there is enough stock of medical oxygen in the state.
He said the state currently has 1098 D-type cylinders, 242 oxygen concentrator machines and 90 ventilators.
To ensure that there is no shortage of enough oxygen, the state had given permission to a private hospital to start producing oxygen. This is in addition to the existing three oxygen generating units including two private firms and one at state run Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS).
The “pressure swing adsorption” plant being installed at JNIMS is likely to be operational by Monday.
The Chief Minister also said that there is enough stock of Remdesivir medicine and another 1000 vials will arrive on April 25.
Dwelling into the preparedness, he further informed that JNIMS currently has 100 COVID beds while RIMS has 52 beds. In addition to this, he said, all the district hospitals and different private hospitals also have dedicated COVID beds.
N Biren Singh said that at the initial stage of COVID-19 pandemic the state used to face many issues owing to lack of ambulance at many healthcare centres and districts. However, swift purchase of 14 new ambulances by the State Government helped significantly in the effective tackling of the pandemic, he added.
Informing that all the districts have ambulances now, Singh said that the State has a total of 12 Advanced Life Saving ambulances and 14 Basic Life Saving Ambulances excluding those which were donated by NHIDCL. On Saturday the NHICDL donated 15 ambulances to Manipur. --Jimmy Leivon reports from Imphal
Linde Group and the Tata Group have sourced 24 cryogenic oxygen tanks to help augment oxygen delivery in the fight against COVID, the German firm's India unit said in a statement. "To respond to the national urgency, Linde India has joined hands with Tata group and Government of India to undertake measures to augment the availability of LMO across the country," it said. To bolster the delivery infrastructure for medical oxygen, Linde India in partnership with Tata Group has secured 24 cryogenic containers for the carriage of medical oxygen from international sources. "These containers have arrived by airways to the eastern part of India, from where Linde would be transporting them to their liquid oxygen manufacturing facility. At the Linde facility, these cryogenic ISO containers would be conditioned and certified for liquid medical oxygen (LMO) usage," it said. --PTI
Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel on Saturday informed that he has tested positive for coronavirus infection. Patel, 64, who also holds the health portfolio, was admitted to the U N Mehta Institute of Cardiology and Research Centre here after testing positive. "I had my RT-PCR test done after showing mild symptoms of coronavirus, the result of which is positive. On the advice of doctors, I am getting admitted to UN Mehta Hospital," he tweeted. --PTI
Four containers of cryogenic oxygen tanks donated by Tata Group was moved from Singapore.
As part of the Indian Air Force’s ongoing mission to transport cryogenic oxygen containers to fight the medical oxygen crisis in the face of a massive Covid surge across the country, four empty containers were loaded at the Pune Air Base and flown to Jamnagar for refilling, the IAF said on Saturday.
Officials said the IAF is currently in mission mode and has deployed its various assets for carrying tankers of medical oxygen to be refilled and also for transport of various COVID testing equipment and other systems required in the fight against surge. Read more
Ahead of the roll-out of vaccination of people aged between 18 and 45 from May 1, the Centre on Saturday asked states to register additional private vaccination centres and ensure effective crowd management at sites and stressed on inoculation through "only online registration" for beneficiaries in the age bracket. --PTI
Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh orders shutdown of operations in the state’s iron and steel industries to divert Oxygen for medical use, along with immediate establishment of Oxygen Control Rooms at the state & district levels amid escalating Oxygen crisis in the state.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration announced a 34-hour curfew from 8 pm on Saturday amid a surge in coronavirus cases. "Complete corona curfew to be observed in the Union Territory from 8PM, 24th April (Saturday) till 6AM, April 26 (Monday). Essential and emergency services to be allowed. All market, commercial institutions will remain closed," the office of J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha tweeted. --PTI
"I am happy to announce that Covid vaccines for citizens of the State above 18 years will be provided free of cost in government health facilities by the Haryana government from May 1st onwards," Manohar Lal Khattar tweeted on Saturday.
PM Narendra Modi chairs high-level meeting on measures to increase oxygen supply, oxygen-related equipment.
"We haven't received backup oxygen supply yet. We have 70 patients who are in critical condition and need oxygen. If we don't get oxygen supply there could be a big disaster. We have started discharging patients," said COVID in-charge, Saroj Hospital.
Observing that citizens cannot be allowed to die for the lack of oxygen, the Delhi High Court on Saturday directed the Centre and Delhi to coordinate between themselves for arranging the cryogenic tankers to ensure that hospitals in the national capital are given the complete allocated quantity of 480 MTs of oxygen. Delhi on Saturday received only 305 MTs against the total allocation of 480 MTs.
The division bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli also asked the Delhi government to make all-out efforts on its part as well for procurement of the tankers. It directed the oxygen suppliers to share the complete information with Delhi government about their supply to hospitals, the timing and quantity. Read more
Delhi High Court’s order read: Once again we are faced with the issue of shortage of oxygen. The problem that Delhi contributes to is faced primarily on account of the fact that supply to oxygen even at the rate of allocation of 480 MTs is not taking place. One of the reasons is three plants are situated in Orissa and West Bengal. We have been informed empty tankers have been airlifted to Durgapur and Railways is ready to transport them as soon as they are filed. We are informed Delhi has not made arrangements for tankers for other two plants. Delhi government has stated since it's industrial state, it does not have tankers. However, the Centre has informed that other states have made arrangements.
Let Delhi government also take steps in this regard alongwith the Ministry of Road Transport Highways. SG Tushar Mehta says the Centre will look into the issue in coordination with the Delhi government. Delhi government should not leave it entirely to the Central government.
Delhi has stated yesterday only about 309 MTs of liquid oxygen was reduced till midnight. We are informed that this again was on account of arrangements not being made due to tanks not being made available. The Delhi government should make all our efforts for procurement of tankers from all sources and look for all avenues. Ministry of Road Transport Highways shall also help in this regard and we expect the officers of both governments to coordinate in this regard.
Delhi has also informed that suppliers of medical oxygen are not providing details about the supply to Delhi government. We direct all the suppliers to provide complete details of supply to government by providing the details of hospitals, the time of supply and quantities which are supplied. Information should be provided to nodal officer Udit Prakash Rai.
(With inputs from Sofi Ahsan)
Six patients died due to shortage of oxygen at a private hospital in Amritsar on Saturday. Five of these patients were Covid-19 positive.
The managing director of Neelkanth Hospital, Sunil Devgan, blamed the district administration for the deaths. “We repeatedly asked the district administration to provide us oxygen but we got no response,” said Devgan.
He alleged that the district administration has captured oxygen plants in Amritsar to supply oxygen to Government Medical College.
Congress MLA from Jobat constituency of Madhya Pradesh’s Alirajpur district, Kalawati Bhuriya (49), died in the wee hours of Saturday owing to Covid-related complications. She was undergoing treatment at a Shalby hospital in Indore over the past two weeks.
Kalawati, who was a four-time district panchayat president from the adjoining Jhabua district, had won the elections in 2018 from Jobat in Alirajpur.
The Delhi High Court on Saturday asked the Centre about its plan to reduce Covid-19 deaths when the virus peak hits in mid-May. “Some people will eventually die. It's inevitable. Those who could be saved, we are losing those persons too,” the court said adding that we should be able to reduce mortality. (With inputs from Sofi Ahsan)
A day after Gurgaon’s Artemis Hospital put out an SOS tweet stating they had only three hours of oxygen left for their patients, another private hospital in Gurgaon, Max Hospital, has put out a similar message on the social media platform today, stating it has less than two hours of oxygen supply left and appealed for help.
According to the tweet, the hospital is currently treating 70 Covid patients. (With Sakshi Dayal)
Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta on Saturday requested Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to supply oxygen to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, saying the situation was bad there and the patients were in a very critical state.
Grappling with depleting oxygen levels, the hospital had got a tanker on Friday night to meet its requirements for the life saving-gas for its patients. More than 500 COVID-19 patients are admitted in the hospital, of which an estimated 140 require high-flow oxygen, according to the hospital officials. It got 1.5 tonnes of oxygen on Saturday morning as the supply ran low.
According to officials, the facility had just 200 cubic metres of oxygen left when its stock was replenished. But that is likely to last just two hours, an official said. (PTI)
The Centre on Saturday said that oxygen production is not a problem and that Delhi has been given 100 MT of supply in addition too. The problem, Centre adds, is of logistics and tankers. “Railways have said they have received requisition from Delhi but are waiting for tankers, Centre told the court highlighting that the oxygen express will start as soon as the tankers come.
The Delhi government on Saturday said that they are not aware of the specifics of Oxygen's supply line and that the hospitals should share with the state about the supplied quantity. The state also asked refilling units to disclose the number of oxygen cylinders given to hospitals.(With inputs from Sofi Ahsan)
Advocate Sachin Datta speaking on behalf of hospitals in Delhi said that "Human tragedy is about to unfold at Jaipur Golden Hospital" and that things are slipping out of hands. “Court may pass a direction and save lives of hundreds of patients, Datta added.
Representatives of Delhi’s Batra hospital and Jaipur Golden hospital were also present in the hearing. (With inputs from Sofi Ahsan)
Delhi was allocated 480MT of oxygen by the Centre on April 21. In a letter sent to the Centre by the state government on Friday, it flagged that the supply lines of the oxygen delivery has yet not been established in some oxygen plants. Due to the supplier(M/S Linde) not being able to work the logistics of the problem, Delhi is suffering from an "acute shortage of oxygen," the letter informed.
Amid a massive Covid-19 surge in national capital, the Delhi High Court on Saturday asked the Centre to stop the narrative of “I vs they.” “Let us stop this narrative of I versus they, it is us. We must be careful with what we say, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said. (With inputs from Sofi Ahsan)
On the hearing of Oxygen shortage in the national capital, the Delhi state government on Saturday told the Delhi High Court that it cannot be oblivious to the fact that the state is not getting what it was promised. “We cannot be oblivious to the fact that what has been promised is not coming, and then expect hospitals to not cry or the Delhi government not to micromanage,” it said. (With inputs from Sofi Ahsan)
The Delhi High court on Saturday asked the Delhi government to work towards creating “your own oxygen generation plants.”The court was replying to Delhi government’s comment of using whatever oxygen is provided. “Whatever will be supplied to us will be provided to the hospitals but we cannot create medical oxygen out of thin air, the state government told the court.
(With inputs from Sofi Ahsan)
Batra Hospital approached the Delhi High Court on Staurday seeking urgent intervention regarding the supply of oxygen. The hearing began at 11:15 am today. The hospital was provided with some oxygen in the morning but the amount is only supposed to last for an hour, according to the hospital. (With inputs from Sofi Ahsan)
As the national capital continues to grapple with oxygen shortages, 20 critically ill patients died overnight at Jaipur Golden Hospital. The Medical director of Jaipur Golden Hospital has said that only around 30 mins of oxygen supply is left. Over 200 covid-19 patients in the hospital are currently dependent on oxygen. (With PTI inputs)
Batra Hospital in the national capital's Tughlakabad Institutional Area received emergency oxygen supply from the Delhi government moments after it exhausted its stock, officials said on Saturday. The city has been grappling with shortage in oxygen supply amid a huge surge in coronavirus cases.
Executive Director of the hospital Sudhanshu Bankata said the healthcare facility exhausted its oxygen stock around 9 am. "Just now, we received an emergency supply from the Delhi government. It will last another one-and-a-half hours. Our supplier has not been responding to calls," he said. (PTI)
Coronavirus vaccines are supposed to protect the individuals from getting infected. In the last few days, however, there have been several cases of vaccinated people, even those who have received both doses, testing positive for the virus. Such cases are referred to as “breakthrough” infections, indicating that the virus has been able to break through the defences created by the vaccine.
Very few cases of breakthrough infections have been reported, but these have led to some doubts being expressed about the effectiveness of the vaccine, and contributed to the already prevailing vaccine hesitancy. Earlier this week, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) released data that showed breakthrough infections were extremely rare in India’s vaccinated population, with an incidence rate of less than 0.05%. (Read Anuradha Mascarenhas's explainer here)
Telangana recorded its highest ever spike in Covid-19 cases as well as deaths in a single day ever with 7,432 fresh infections and 33 more fatalities. The tally stands at over 3.87 lakh while the toll rose to 1,961.
India recorded over 3.46 lakh new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours ending 8 am Saturday. The rapid uptick in new cases has taken India’s total infection count to over 1.66 crore. Out of these, over 25.52 lakh cases are currently active while over 1.38 crore people have recovered after testing positive. With 2,624 new fatalities the death toll is now over 1.89 lakh.
An Oxygen Express train carrying around 30,000 litres of liquid medical oxygen arrived here on Saturday morning as Uttar Pradesh is battling a sudden surge in coronavirus cases, an official said. The special train carrying two truckloads of medical oxygen arrived in the state capital at 6.30 am from Bokaro, Jharkhand.
"Two trucks of medical oxygen arrived in Lucknow at around 6.30 am. One of the trucks was offloaded in Varanasi late on Saturday. Each truck is of 15,000 litres capacity," Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi told PTI. He said both the trucks may be used for Lucknow and a decision will be taken soon.
The UAE on Friday updated its travel ban for India, saying that all incoming flights on national and foreign carriers from the country will be suspended, while transportation of passengers from the Gulf country to India will be allowed.
The UAE on Thursday banned travel from India for 10 days from Sunday due to the worsening COVID-19 situation in the country. (Read more here)
The Chandigarh Administration on Friday gave one-hour relaxation in night curfew timings and said there will be no weekend lockdown in the union territory. However, it decided to close the Sukhna Lake on weekends. The Chandigarh administration had imposed a weekend lockdown to tackle coronavirus last Friday.
The night curfew will continue and the timings from Friday will be 9 pm to 5 am daily, the administration said in a statement after a meeting over coronavirus, chaired by UT Administrator V P Singh Badnore. Earlier, the night curfew was imposed from 8 pm to 5 am. (PTI)
West Bengal on Friday registered the highest single-day spike of 12,876 COVID-19 cases taking the tally to 7,13,780, the state health department said in a bulletin. The death toll also went up to 10,825 with 59 fresh fatalities, it added. Since Thursday, 6,878 patients recovered from coronavirus in the state taking the total number of cured people to 6,28,218.
Delhi on Friday recorded 24,331 fresh Coronavirus cases and 348 deaths.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan informed that the state recorded 28,447 new Covid-19 cases Friday, along with 5,663 new recoveries and 27 fatalities. As many as 1,30,617 samples were tested during the last 24 hours. There are 1,78,983 active cases and 11,66,135 people have recovered so far in the state, he said.
He also said there would be lockdown-like restrictions on this weekend in the state. "Only essential services and emergency travel to be allowed. There is a cap of 75 people indoor & 150 outdoor for marriages and a maximum of 50 people for funeral services," ANI quoted him as saying.
Telangana reported 6,206 fresh COVID-19 cases, pushing the tally to over 3.79 lakh while the death toll rose to 1,928 with 29 more fatalities, the highest-ever in a single day, the State government said on Friday.
Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) accounted for the most number of cases with 1,005 followed by Medchal Malkajgiri (502) and Nizamabad (406), it said in a bulletin providing details as of 8 PM on April 22.
Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao's son KT Rama Rao, a Minister, in a tweet today, said he tested positive for the virus. (PTI)
West Bengal on Friday registered the highest single-day spike of 12,876 COVID-19 cases taking the tally to 7,13,780, the state health department said in a bulletin.
The death toll also went up to 10,825 with 59 fresh fatalities, it added.
Since Thursday, 6,878 patients recovered from coronavirus in the state. The number of active cases currently is 74,737. (PTI)
Sixty-five healthcare personnel, including doctors, deployed on Kumbh duty have tested positive for COVID-19, officials said here on Friday.
All of them have been kept in isolation, they said.
A total of 751 healthcare personnel -- 336 doctors and 415 nurses and paramedics -- had been deployed in the Kumbh Mela area after being vaccinated. (PTI)
Karnataka's COVID-19 fatalities on Friday crossed the 14,000 mark with 190 deaths, while the single-day highest of 26,962 fresh cases took the caseload to 12,74,959, the health department said.
While the total fatalities were 14,075, the active cases in the state too crossed the two lakh mark -- 2,14,311, including 1,128 in the ICU. The state had reported the single-day highest mark on Thursday with 25,795 cases.
According to the health bulletin, 10,46,554 people were discharged cumulatively, including 8,697 on Friday, in the state.
The department said 1,77,466 tests were done today, including 1,59,681 using the RT PCR and other methods, taking the total tests done so far to 2.44 crore. (PTI)
Madhya Pradesh on Friday recorded 13,590 COVID-19 cases, taking the caseload to 4,72,785, while the death toll rose by 74 in the last 24 hours to touch 4,937, an official said.
He said 10,833 people were discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours, taking the recovery count to 3,80,208, leaving the state with 87,640 active cases.
"With 1,782 new cases, Indore's caseload went up to 98,112 while that of Bhopal rose to 77,158 with the addition of 1,753 cases. Indore reported six deaths, taking the toll in the district to 1085, while the toll in Bhopal increased by five to touch 697. Indore and Bhopal have 12,425 and 10,507 active cases respectively," the official informed. (PTI)
With Covid-19 cases surging in Pimpri-Chinchwad, 70 to 80 per cent of asymptomatic persons or those with mild symptoms continue to be in home isolation. Families of such patients have demanded that the PCMC should help them with hospital admissions in case they develop severe symptoms. The civic body has said it was closely monitoring all home-isolated patients by making at least one phone call every day. By Thursday evening, Pimpri-Chinchwad had 15,348 patients in home isolation.
"Every day, we are making one call to patients to get an update... We will make the call till the 14-day isolation period is over," said PCMC health chief Dr Anil Roy on Friday.
The PCMC has set up a call centre, the work for which has been outsourced. "As of now, we are making 10,000 calls a day to patients. It will go up as the patient count increases. In the next two to three days, we should be making 15,000 calls a day if the number remains around that figure," Dr Roy said. Read this report by Manoj Dattatrye More
Hours after the new Covid-19 restriction banning inter-state and inter-district travel was implemented, Maharashtra Director General of Police Sanjay Pandey restarted the e-pass system that was brought in place during last year’s nationwide lockdown. An explainer on how this e pass system will work.
Who needs to apply for e-pass and who is exempt? Read this explainer by Sagar Rajput
Gurgaon’s Artemis Hospital had a tense Friday as staff struggled to meet oxygen demands of patients because they hadn’t received their supply for the day.
Officials at the hospital, which is treating 140 Covid patients, with 50 in the ICU, said at 10 am that the supply would only last three hours. Over the last few days, they said, the hospital had been receiving a third of its usual oxygen supply, even as demand had increased “three to five times”.
“We are getting a supply which only lasts us 24 hours, sometimes even less. Yesterday because the supply did not come, I had to put out an urgent tweet in the morning,” said Dr Devilna Chakravarty, the managing director. Read this report by Sakshi Dayal
Adhering to the Karnataka government guidelines imposing restrictions during weekends till May 4, 2021, the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) has announced no trains would be operated on Saturdays and Sundays.
However, during weekdays from Mondays to Fridays, trains will begin operations as usual at 7 am. However, the last service from terminal stations such as Nagasandra, Silk Institute, Mysuru Road, and Baiyappanahalli stations will begin at 7.30 pm.
All trains operating during the last service daily, during weekdays, will have connection trains at the Kempegowda Metro Station at Majestic as well, BMRCL clarified. (Input by Ralph Alex Arakal)
Hours after Karnataka CM Yediyurappa requested PM Modi to provide 2 lakh vials of Remdesivir to the state, state Health Minister Sudhakar says they are trying to procure it directly from abroad. "We are seeking Centre's approval for this," he said.
Andhra Pradesh announces imposing night curfew from April 24 to curb the spread of Covid-19. (PTI)
Gurgaon DC today issued orders directing all shops, including "shopping malls/ plazas/ arcades/ community markets" be closed by 6 pm every day "with immediate effect fill further orders". "Essential categories" excluded, restaurants only allowed home delivery.
The order comes as 4,319 new Covid cases were recorded in Gurgaon today. The district now has 20,760 Covid cases of which 19,667 are in home isolation.
PM Modi held a meeting with leading oxygen manufacturers across country via video conferencing. According to PMO, he said this time is not only to deal with challenges but also to provide solutions in a very short time. He stressed on need to maintain good co-ordination between government and oxygen producers.
"PM appreciated oxygen producers for increasing their production in last few weeks. He acknowledged the several steps taken to increase the production of liquid oxygen. PM also thanked the industry for diverting industrial oxygen to meet medical requirements in the country," the PMO said.
"Prime Minister said keeping in mind the requirements of states pertaining to oxygen, government is working on effective use of Railways and Air Force so that the tankers reach the production centre as soon as possible." (ANI)
Sterlite Copper plant, owned by the Vedanta group of companies, has sought approvals of the Tamil Nadu government and the Centre to operate its oxygen plants to meet the rising demand for Covid-19 patients across the country. The company has also filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking its permission to open only the oxygen plant at the copper smelter unit to produce 1,050 tonnes of oxygen per day for hospitals.
However, tension prevailed at the Thoothukudi collector’s office Friday during a public hearing on the reopening of the copper plant. The Tamil Nadu government had asked the Thoothukudi district administration to conduct a public hearing and sent its report by April 23 (Friday) to submit an affidavit before the Supreme Court. Read this report by Janardhan Koushik
Andhra Pradesh has decided to provide Covid-19 vaccine free of cost to all those above the age of 18 years, the Chief Minister's Office said in a statement. (ANI)
Haryana BKU leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni has said there should be no compulsion on the protesting farmers to get themselves tested or vaccinated and if health workers tried to force them, they will not allow them to enter.
A few days ago, Haryana's Home and Health Minister Anil Vij had said that the farmers sitting at Haryana's borders with Delhi will be tested and vaccinated.
Sonipat, along with Gurgaon and Faridabad, is among Haryana districts which are witnessing a surge in coronavirus cases.
"If they try to force us, then we will not even allow them to enter (the protest site)," said Chaduni, adding that testing or vaccination should be left to farmers' choice.
A large number of farmers have been sitting in protest against the Centre's three new agri laws for months at Haryana's borders with Delhi at Singhu and Tikri.
Sonipat Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Jashandeep Randhawa told reporters here that more than 1,100 farmers have been vaccinated so far. (PTI)