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)