BASTAR: More than 8,000 square kilometres area of Bastar, one of the worst Naxal-hit region in the country, has now been freed from the clutches of CPI Maoists in recent years, said Inspector General of Bastar P. Sundarraj on Tuesday.

Sundarraj said this was possible due to more than 24 security camps established in these areas followed by development works initiated by the local administrations.

“In last few years due to the multi-pronged development and security strategy of the government, the security forces and local administration have made inroads into the erstwhile stronghold areas of Left Wing Extremists in Dandakaranya area,” Sundarraj said.

“The well thought out strategy by the government is yielding tremendous positive outcomes and in the last couple of years, more than 8,000 sq km area of Bastar region have been liberated from the clutches of CPI Maoists. This was primarily possible due to more than 24 security camps established in these areas followed by development works initiated by the local administrations,” the IG said.

Sundarraj said the road networks and bridges being constructed with the help of these security camps in Minapa, Tarrem, Galgam, Dharmawaram, Bodli, Kademeta, Koleng, Sonpur, Kohkametta, Kamdeta, Katgaon, Fundri and Potali have opened up the doors for the local tribal population to the outside world.

“CPI Maoist general secretary Basavaraju and his gang very well knew that once the tribal youth from the Dandakaranya gets connected to the outside world, the hollow and false propaganda being carried out by Naxals against the institutions and establishments of the legitimate democratic governments would get exposed,” he said.

Sundarraj further said that the fear of being exposed and getting extinct is stimulating the Maoist leadership to unleash cruelty and terror against the local population in order to confine them to the dark world, which they were trying to manage for the last four decades.ANI

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday tested positive for Covid-19. Giving out the information on Twitter, he urged people who came in contact with him in last few days to follow required protocols.

“After experiencing mild symptoms, I’ve just tested positive for Covid. All those who’ve been in contact with me recently, please follow all safety protocols and stay safe,” the Wayanad MP wrote on the microblogging site.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday wished Rahul Gandhi good health and speedy recovery. “I pray for the good health and quick recovery of Lok Sabha MP Shri Rahul Gandhi Ji,” tweeted Prime Minister Modi.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also wished for the speedy recovery of Rahul Gandhi. “I pray for ur good health and speedy recovery,” tweeted Kejriwal.

Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma too tested positive for Covid-19 and has been shifted to a private hospital in Gurgaon, PTI reported Tuesday.

The 68-year-old Sharma, who was admitted to the Delhi’s Apollo Hospital late last night, tested positive for the infection Tuesday and has now been shifted to the Gurgaon’s Medanta Hospital, sources close to him told PTI.

In view of India’s Covid-19 situation, Rahul Gandhi had earlier suspended his campaign for the ongoing Assembly elections in West Bengal and urged others to “think about consequences of holding large rallies”.

On Monday, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was admitted to the trauma centre of All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) in Delhi after testing positive for the virus.

The day also saw Union Minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region Jitendra Singh saying that he has contracted the Covid-19 virus.

Confirming it on Twitter, Singh said “I have today tested Covid positive with symptoms. Please get yourself screened if you were in my contact recently and take care.”

Over the last few days amid the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic being witnessed in the country, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju, Chief Ministers of Telangana K. Chandrasekhar Rao, and Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath, and many others have tested positive.

In the last 24 hours, India reported as many as 259,170 new Covid-19 infections and 1,761 deaths, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

Amid complaints of oxygen scarcity in hospitals throughout the country owing to the massive spike in coronavirus infections, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday appealed to the Centre to “urgently” provide oxygen to the national capital, saying that hospitals are facing acute shortage due to an unprecedented surge in cases.

“Serious oxygen crisis persists in Delhi. I again urge centre to urgently provide oxygen to Delhi. Some hospitals are left with just a few hours of oxygen,” Kejriwal tweeted. He had earlier made a similar appeal to the central government, saying that hospitals in the national capital are running low on oxygen as well as ICU beds.

“Had a review meeting with officials on the current situation of corona. We are working on a war footing to ensure oxygen supply in Delhi, and are also talking to the central government. An increase in the number of oxygen beds is happening on a large scale,” he tweeted again.

According to sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) all possible efforts are being made to improve the situation. “Things should improve in a few hours. Oxygen has to be brought from UP and vehicles have been sent. Delhi will not go out of oxygen,” sources said.

Data shared by Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia shows that in most of the hospitals—state-run and private—the oxygen supply is available for 8-12 hours. “In most hospitals in Delhi, oxygen is available for the next 8 to 12 hours only. We have been demanding for one week to increase the oxygen supply quota to Delhi, which the Central government has to do. If oxygen does not reach the hospitals in sufficient quantity by tomorrow morning, there will be an outcry,” tweeted Sisodia.

Delhi registered its biggest daily spike with 28,395 Covid-19 cases and 277 deaths being recorded in 24 hours, according to data released by the Delhi Government’s health department on Tuesday. The national capital has gone into a six-day lockdown amid the deteriorating Covid-19 situation.

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday criticised the Centre over the delay in banning the use of oxygen by industries amid the daily surge in Covid-19 cases.

The Central Government has banned the use of oxygen for industrial purposes, except for certain critical industries, to ensure continuous supply of oxygen for medical purposes, but the decision will come in effect from April 22.

While hearing a petition concerning the Covid situation in the national capital, the High Court demanded, “Why have you not banned it from today? Every life is very important and valuable.” The Delhi High Court also asked the Centre to inform it about the industries for which the oxygen supply cannot be curtailed.

Further, the High Court ordered increasing Covid beds in the hospitals which are able to generate oxygen for their use.

During the hearing, the Delhi court also raised concerns over the issues of vaccine wastage and hoarding of essential drugs, calling for the Centre to set norms for hoarders, and declared, “We are wasting precious time.”

In response, the Centre has stated that the government is taking all possible steps and is committed to provide feasible assistance to the Delhi Government as and when it is required.

Amid massive spike in coronavirus cases, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday said the next three weeks are crucial with respect to the pandemic situation in the country.

“Centre working closely with States and UTs on public health measures to contain Covid-19. Next three weeks crucial! At a meeting held today, UTs advised augmenting hospital infrastructure, ramping up testing, creating containment zones and strictly enforcing COVID appropriate behaviour,” tweeted Dr Harsh Vardhan.

Earlier on Tuesday, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan along with Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla chaired a high-level meeting to review and discuss the Covid status, the management and response strategy.

The meeting was held via video conferencing and attended by Dr V.K. Paul, Member (Health) NITI Aayog, Dr Balram Bhargava, Secretary, DHR and DG ICMR, the chief secretaries and DGPs of all the Union Territories of India.

The Home Secretary pointed out the steep growth in the number of cases across the country. He advised the UTs to increase RT-PCR testing along with the use of RAT (Rapid Antigen Test) for screening in clusters.

The UTs shared their present efforts for containment and management of the positive cases. Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir and Lakshadweep pointed to the rise in cases due to a large number of inbound travellers.

The Chandigarh administration informed about the door-to-door counselling for increasing vaccination. 90 per cent of the patients in the UT are in home isolation who are being monitored by mobile teams.

Union Territory of Delhi discussed the shortage of beds and the efforts to augment this through Central government’s infrastructure and support through the DRDO’s newly operationalised Covid Hospital, read the release.

Dr V.K. Paul pointed out the criticality of the next three weeks for Covid response measures. The UT administrators were advised to plan in advance for three weeks.

Meanwhile, India reported 259,170 new Covid-19 infections and 1,761 deaths in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday. This has taken the total number of positive cases in the country to 153,21,089.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday interacted with vaccine manufacturers in the country via video conferencing and urged them to scale up the production capacity to vaccinate people in the shortest possible time. He also applauded them for their achievements and professionalism and said that the biggest strength of the country’s vaccine industry is its “samarthya, sansadhan and seva bhaav”, which makes India a vaccine leader in the world.

Noting that vaccines manufactured in India are the cheapest, PM Modi said the world’s largest vaccine programme is underway in the country. He also informed that the government will open the vaccination programme for every adult starting 1 May, believing in the ability of the vaccine manufacturers.

On Tuesday, Bharat Biotech also announced that it would scale up Covaxin production capacity to 700 million doses a year. To increase its capacities, the pharma company has partnered with Indian Immunologicals (IIL) to manufacture the drug substance for Covaxin. The technology transfer process is underway and IIL has the capabilities and expertise to manufacture inactivated viral vaccines at commercial scale and under biosafety containment. The manufacturing scale-up has been carried out in a stepwise manner across multiple facilities at Hyderabad and Bangalore.

India, meanwhile, reported 259,170 new Covid-19 infections and 1,761 deaths in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday. This has taken the total number of positive cases in the country to 153,21,089. There are currently 20,31,977 active cases in the country as of Tuesday.

As many as 1,54,761 people recovered from the virus. With this, the total number of recoveries reached 1,31,08,582 in India. The death toll has reached 1,80,530 with additional 1,761 fatalities.

Delhi registered its biggest daily spike with 28,395 Covid-19 cases and 277 deaths being recorded in 24 hours, according to data released by the Delhi Government’s health department on Tuesday. With the addition of fresh cases, Delhi’s Covid tally reached over 9 lakhs, while the death toll mounted to 12,638. The positivity rate in Delhi reached 32.82 percent. There are still 85,575 active cases in Delhi.

Amid the surge, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday informed that only 8 to 12 hours of oxygen was available in most hospitals in the national capital. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also tweeted for the second time about the oxygen crisis, reminding the Central Government that the city needs immediate help.

Maharashtra, one of the worst-hit states in the country, recorded 62,097 new Covid-19 cases, besides 519 deaths and 54,224 recoveries. The case tally in the state reached 39,60,359 while the death toll hit 61,343. 

Gujarat reported 12,206 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, the highest single-day count in the state so far, while 121 patients succumbed to the infection, also the most in a day, said the state health department. This was the first time the one-day case tally crossed the 12,000-mark in Gujarat.

In Odisha, as many as 4,761 new Covid-19 cases and five deaths were reported in 24 hours, the state health department informed on Tuesday. With this, the total case tally went to 3,77,464, including 27,821 active cases, 3,47,637 recoveries and 1,954 deaths. Amid the rising cases, a weekend shutdown was declared for Saturday and Sunday in all urban areas of the state with effect from April 24. Additionally, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik informed that the Biju Janata Dal would not be holding public rallies or campaign meetings in the Pipili by-poll.

The Uttar Pradesh government has also decided to impose a weekend lockdown in the state from 8 pm on Friday, while night curfew was imposed in Telangana from Tuesday.

Madhya Pradesh reported 12,897 new cases and 79 deaths in 24 hours. The number of active cases in the state is now 74,558.

In Punjab, the coronavirus fatality count rose to 8,045 with 61 more deaths reported on Tuesday as 4,673 fresh cases took the state’s infection tally to 3,09,316, according to a medical bulletin. A total of 3,198 coronavirus patients were also discharged after recovering from the infection, taking the number of cured people to 2,64,562, the bulletin stated.

The neighbouring Haryana reported 7,811 new cases, 3,367 recoveries and 35 deaths, taking the case tally to 3,71,624 and the death toll to 3,483. 

Bihar also saw no respite as 51 more fatalities took the Covid death toll to 1841 on Tuesday, with capital city Patna being the worst-hit, said the state health department bulletin. The state also reported 10,455 new cases, taking Bihar’s tally to 3,42,059, the bulletin informed.

Nagaland on Tuesday reported 82 new cases, pushing the Covid tally to 12,650, said Health Minister S Pangnyu Phom. The state currently has 257 active Covid-19 cases, while 12,110 patients have recovered from the disease, state Nodal Officer for Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme Dr Nyanthung Kikon said.

Nationwide, the total number of positive cases have reached 1,53,21,089. There are currently 20,31,977 active cases in the country as of Tuesday.