Coronavirus Updates: The Centre and the state governments were also asked to provide a breakup of the current and projected availability of COVID-19 vaccine stocks for the next 6 months
Latest Updates: As per Bar&Bench, the Supreme Court in an order released late Sunday night has directed the Central government to create a buffer stock of oxygen along with the states so that the stock can be used if the regular supply chain is disrupted due to any reason.
The National Capital reported 407 fatalities and 20,394 cases with a positivity rate of 28.33 per cent on Sunday, according to a bulletin issued by the Delhi health department.
On the instructions of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the Bihar government on Sunday decided to give status of frontline workers to the journalists, who will get COVID vaccination on a priority basis.
The third and the largest phase of vaccination, under which beneficiaries in the 18-45 age group will be given jabs against , will begin in Delhi on Monday.
Around 90 lakh people in this category will be eligible for the jabs. Five vaccination booths each have been set up at 77 schools for the inoculation exercise, an official told news agency PTI.
Mumbai's civic body on Sunday said vaccination for those above the age of 45 will remain suspended on Monday as well while that for those in 18-45 age group will be carried out at five Centres.
Leaders of 13 Opposition parties Sunday urged the Centre to launch a free mass vaccination drive across the country in view of the unprecedented surge in cases.
In a joint statement, they also called upon the Centre to ensure uninterrupted oxygen supply to all hospitals and health centres as they manage the staggering patient loads in view of the rising cases.
The Delhi High Court on Sunday directed the Delhi government to ensure that medicines and equipment like oxygen cylinders and concentrators needed for treatment not be sold above the maximum retail price (MRP).
During the hearing in the Delhi High Court, Sita Ram Bhartiya Hospital, Venkateswara Hospital, Maharaja Agrasen Hospital raised SOS calls before the bench regarding shortage of oxygen, said reports. MD City Hospital also told Delhi High Court that it was facing a crisis and has oxygen left for only one hour, said reports.
Senior advocate Rahul Mehra informed the Delhi High Court that the Centre has taken over oxygen plants and allocation to states. He alleges that Delhi is given 40 percent less than the demanded quantity, while some states were given the quantity they asked for and some states likes Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra were given more than what they asked for.
The Centre has told the Supreme Court that a total of 122 crore doses of vaccine would be required to vaccinate a population of 59 crore in the age group of 18 to 45 years.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting to review the human resource situation in dealing with the pandemic and ways to augment it, said reports. After the meeting, reports said final year MBBS and nursing students may be roped in for Covid duty.
A total of 86,023 beneficiaries in the age group of 18-44 years received their first dose of COVID vaccine across 11 states on 1 May, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday.
Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik declares working journalists of the state as frontline warriors, reports news agency ANI quoting the CMO. He said working journalists are doing a great service to the state by providing seamless news feed, making people aware on COVID-related issues and they're great support for war against ,the CMO added.
A record 3,689 daily fatalities pushed India's death toll to 2,15,542, while the infection count reached to 1,95,57,457 with 3,92,488 more people being confirmed positive for the disease, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday.
The active cases have crossed the 33-lakh mark, the data updated at 8 am showed.
Registering a steady increase, the active cases have increased to 33,49,644, comprising 17.13 percent of the total infections, while the national recovery rate has further dropped to 81.77 percent.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1, 59,92,271, while the case fatality rate has further dropped to 1.10 percent, the data stated.
India's tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on 7 August, 30 lakh on23 August, 40 lakh on 5 September and 50 lakh on 16 September. It went past 60 lakh on 28 September, 70 lakh on 11 October, crossed 80 lakh on 29 October, 90 lakh on 20 November and surpassed the one-crore mark on 19 December.
The country crossed the grim milestone of 1.50 crore on 19 April.
According to ICMR, 29,01,42,339 samples have been tested up to 1 May with 18,04,954 samples being tested on Saturday.
The 3,689 new fatalities included 802 from Maharashtra, 412 from Delhi, 304 from Uttar Pradesh, 271 from Karnataka, 229 from Chhattisgarh, 172 from Gujarat, 169 from Jharkhand,160 from Rajasthan, 147 from Tamil Nadu, 138 from Punjab,125 from Haryana, 107 from Uttarakhand, 103 from West Bengal and 102 from Madhya Pradesh.
A total of 2,15,542 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 69,615 from Maharashtra, 16,559 from Delhi ,15,794 from Karnataka, 14,193 from Tamil Nadu, 12,874 from Uttar Pradesh, 11,447 from West Bengal, 9,160 from Punjab and 8,810 from Chhattisgarh.
The health ministry stressed that more than 70 percent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.
"Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research," the ministry said on its website, adding state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.
