A health worker feeds a Covid-19 patient inside Dhanvantri Covid-19 hospital, in Ahmedabad, Thursday, May 27, 2021. (PTI)
Covid-19 India Highlights: The Centre Thursday said that the country is noting a stabilisation of the second wave of Covid-19 in India. “It is reassuring that we are on the downswing of the second wave, and it will be sustained if restrictions open up systematically as the time comes,” Dr VK Paul, Member-Health, Niti Aayog said during a briefing.
Meanwhile, amid the crippling shortage of vaccines in several states, the Health Ministry said that more than 1.84 crore doses of the Covid-19 vaccine are still available with states and UTs and they will receive over 11 lakh doses within the next three days.
Earlier today, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal sought procurement of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine as soon as possible to inoculate children. This comes after the US pharma company sought fast-track approval for its jab in India. The US major has told Indian authorities that its vaccine is suitable for everyone aged 12 years or above and can be stored for a month at 2-8 degrees. “We shud procure this vaccine asap for our children,” Kejriwal tweeted.
India, in the last 24 hours, recorded 2,11,298 new Covid-19 cases. Tamil Nadu was the top contributor with 33,764 people testing positive for the virus, while Kerala saw 28,798 cases. Active cases decline to 24.19 lakh, a reduction of over 75,000 on Wednesday. However, the country also recorded 3,847 deaths reported on Wednesday. While Maharashtra witnessed 1,013 deaths, Karnataka saw 530 and Tamil Nadu 475.
Three armed security personnel accompany nine nurses and two doctors as they head to Karma Gondi, a village in Chhattisgarh’s Naxal-dominated Sukma district, to test for Covid-19. The village, more than 25 km from the nearest highway, is enclosed by a forest. In the past week, nearly one out of three people tested in this village — 91 of 239 — have tested positive for the coronavirus.
All the positive cases have been moved to a Covid care centre at the district headquarters, and the village has been declared a containment zone.
Within Karma Gondi, healthcare workers in PPE kits cross alleys trying to avoid brambles that get stuck in the plastic. The testing area, under a cluster of neem trees, includes two tables and some plastic chairs sourced from the Kukanar Police Station, about 20 km away. Read More
The Union government has approved a proposal to provide financial assistance to families of 26 more journalists who lost their lives to Covid-19 in the ongoing financial year, and dependents of each of these journalists will get financial relief of Rs 5 lakh under the Journalist Welfare Scheme (JWS) of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, the government said in a statement on Thursday.
The government has approved the committee’s proposal “to provide financial relief of Rs 5 lakh to each of the families of 26 journalists who died due to Covid-19” in 2021-22 financial year, beginning April. In the last financial year, assistance was given to families of 41 journalists, the statement said. Read More
Over 1.25 crore persons residing in 25,49,464 houses in Haryana’s villages have been screened in the last 12 days as part of state government’s door-to-door screening campaign for health checkup in villages. During the screening that is being conducted since May 6 by over 8,000 multidisciplinary teams found 91,439 persons with flu-like symptoms and provided prompt treatment.
Samples of 1,07,852 (90,474 rapid antigen tests and 17,378 RT-PCR tests) were collected under the Haryana Village General Health Check-up Scheme (HVGHCS), in which 3,781 patients were found positive. Read More
District residents continue to face problems in getting their Covid-19 jabs, while health officials termed it a ‘temporary’ problem.
The number of vaccination sites were also reduced. The number has gone down from 170 to only 40 at the moment, said an official from the health department. Read More
The government is hopeful of a speedy launch of single-dose Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik Light in India and all stakeholders, including the Russian manufacturer and its Indian partners, have been directed to fast-track the application and regulatory approval procedures for the jab to boost the country’s vaccination drive, sources said on Thursday.
An application seeking regulatory approval for Sputnik Light is expected to be filed in the next couple of weeks and it could become the first single-dose vaccine to be launched in India, sources said, citing high-level discussions held among top government officials in the recent days to boost domestic availability of Covid-19 vaccines. Read More
Punjab on Thursday received a batch of 1.14 lakh doses of Covaxin for inoculating beneficiaries in the age group of 18-44 years directly from manufacturer Bharat Biotech, the first direct supply of the vaccine to Punjab government against its order.
“Some of these doses might be allocated to industries for vaccinating their workers, but we will decide on that on the distribution of these doses among priority groups later,” said Vikas Garg, nodal officer for vaccines, Punjab.
Till now Punjab had only received 4.29 lakh doses of Covishield for 18-44 age group against its order of 30 lakh doses from the Serum Institute of India (SII). Read More
Families of those who have died due to lack of oxygen in the capital may receive up to Rs 5 lakh as ex-gratia compensation, after a case-by-case deliberation by a Delhi government-appointed six-member committee.
This compensation will be over and above the Rs 50,000 ex-gratia compensation previously announced by the Delhi government for the kin of every person in Delhi that died of Covid. The government had also announced an additional Rs 2,500 monthly pension for families which have lost their breadwinner. Read More
Citing financial hardship faced due to the prevailing lockdown-like restrictions, Shopping Centre Association of India (SCAI) on Thursday demanded that shopping complexes and malls be allowed to reopen in Mumbai while following Covid-19 safety guidelines.
The association on Thursday wrote to Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal seeking that malls and shopping centres be allowed to reopen as the number of cases are declining in the city.
The association said that the industry is facing financial losses since last year, resulting in loss of employment to millions of workers. Read more
Weekly COVID-19 positivity rate in the state has reduced and now stands at 10.46 per cent. Data of the Covid-19 situation in Maharashtra, which was presented at the state cabinet meeting on Thursday, showed that there had been a significant impact due to lockdown-like restrictions.
However, restrictions will be eased in a mindful manner, based on sound public health principles, said Dr Shashank Joshi, expert on the state Covid task force. "We don't want a yo-yo effect," he said.
For instance, in the week from May 19 to 25, weekly positivity rate of Maharashtra was 11.06 per cent as against 24.26 per cent in the week from April 28 to May 4. While districts like Satara, Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Raigad and Hingoli are of concern, as positivity rate is higher than the state average, there is some hope as trends also point to a steady decline. Read more
Maharashtra reported 21,273 Covid-19 cases and 425 deaths on Thursday, taking its active caseload to over 3 lakh and total deaths to 92,225.
The public health department on Thursday presented state statistics to the cabinet. According to the data, Pune, Mumbai, Thane, Satara and Kolhapur districts contributed 42 per cent of new infections. Nagpur and Nashik, which until recently came in the top five, have seen a reduction in new cases, and have been replaced by Satara and Kolhapur.
While 18 districts had a higher positivity rate than the state last week, the count reduced to 14 on Thursday. Maharashtra’s positivity rate is 10.4 per cent, down from 22.5 per cent a fortnight ago. Read More
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) on Thursday claimed that it has arranged 5,000 Covaxin doses that will be administered free-of-cost to devotees at Golden Temple on May 29.
It also claimed that it has access to 10 lakh Pfizer vaccine doses through Sikh bodies in the US, but the import of these vaccines was being blocked by the Centre.
Sources in the SGPC, meanwhile, said that they have been informed by the Centre that Pfzier has not applied for an Indian licence yet.
The SGPC plans to inoculate 2,500 devotees on May 29. Read more
Haryana reported 2,322 new Covid-19 cases while 98 patients died in the last 24 hours. The cumulative Covid-19 positivity rate was 8.48 per cent while the daily Covid-19 positivity rate, Thursday, was 5.51 per cent, while the recovery rate had reached 95.18 per cent as 5,679 patients recovered in the last 24 hours.
The positivity rate in Haryana (March 1 till May 27) has been recorded at 15.10 per cent.
In the last 24 hours, while Gurgaon added 171 new patients, Faridabad added 158, Sonipat (80), Hisar (213), Ambala (106), Karnal (120), Panipat (84), Rohtak (78), Rewari (137), Panchkula (114), Kurukshetra (105), Yamunanagar (135), Sirsa (193), Mahendragarh (71), Bhiwani (55), Jhajjar (84), Palwal (64), Fatehabad (127), Kaithal (66), Jind (104), Nuh (15) and Charkhi Dadri (42). Read More
Even As the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s decision to allow a private hospital to set up a drive-through vaccination facility where one could get Covid vaccine for Rs 1,000 without prior registration received flak, the civic body plans to “facilitate” another such centre in collaboration with another private hospital.
Sources revealed that the second facility will come up in a day or two at Drive-in Cinema, in partnership with Shalby Hospital. An existing facility at the venue where vaccination was suspended following Cyclone Tauktae will be used for the upcoming facility under public private partnership (PPP) mode.
The drive-through vaccination centre launched by Apollo hospital under PPP with AMC at GMDC ground saw a long queue of vehicles on Thursday morning with beneficiaries saying that it was “far more convenient and easy” than at a government-run facility. Read more
Some private hospitals in Delhi-NCR have started offering monoclonal antibody therapy for mild to moderate ‘high-risk’ Covid patients.
This treatment uses the combination of Casirivimab and Imdevimab — popularly being called an ‘antibody cocktail’ — now available in India. Roche India and Cipla had announced its launch in the country on Monday.
Priced Rs 59,750 for a dose, the accessibility of this treatment will be limited. More details here.
The Manipur government on Thursday launched a mobile application to monitor patients in home isolation.
"The mobile app 'Manipur Home Isolation Management (MHIM)' was developed with a mission to avail real-time health data and information of Home Isolation COVID-19 patients at monitoring level," an official statement issued by the state said.
"With this App, patients can upload their health status including pulse rate, SPo2, body temperature and blood pressure among others using fixed parameters at fixed intervals as set by the Health Department from time to time," it said.
The Mobile App can be downloaded from mhim.in. It will also be available on Google Play Store soon. (Jimmy Leivon reports)
The total number of active cases in the state stands at 1,17,154, while as many as 11,99,120 have been discharged.
The Delhi government has notified Black Fungus (Mucormycosis) as a disease under the Epidemic Diseases Act. All healthcare facilities are to report every suspected, confirmed cases of black fungus to the health department, a Delhi govt notification said.
As many as 474 people died due to Covid-19 in Tamil Nadu raising the toll to 22,289, while the infection count climbed to 19,78,621 with 33,361 fresh cases, an official said on Thursday. In Chennai alone, 2779 new infection and 79 deaths were reported.
Karnataka reported 24,214 new cases, 476 deaths and 31,459 discharges today; active cases rise to 4,02,203 in the state. Of the fresh cases reported Tuesday, 5,949 were from Bengaluru Urban, as the city saw 6,643 discharges and 273 deaths.
Kerala on Thursday recorded 24,166 fresh Covid-19 cases on Thursday, taking the caseload to 24,18,529, while 181 deaths pushed the toll to 8,063.
Recoveries outnumbered new cases with 30,539 people under treatment testing negative for the virus, taking the total recoveries to 21,98,135.