A Covid-19 patient waits for admission outside the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad on May 4, 2021. (Express Photo: Nirmal Harindran)Coronavirus India Live Updates: India reported a record 3,780 deaths on Tuesday, the highest daily toll since the pandemic began. Over 900 deaths were from Maharashtra, while Delhi and Uttar Pradesh reported 338 and 351, respectively. At least 13 states are reporting more than 100 deaths a day. These include previously uncounted deaths from earlier days.
The country reported 3.82 lakh cases of the novel coronavirus in the 24 hours ending 9 am Wednesday. Of these, Maharashtra recorded 51,880 cases, while Karnataka reported 44,631. Active cases are now more than 34.87 lakh.
As India continues to report over three lakh Covid-19 cases a day, several states are still flagging a shortage of oxygen supply. The Haryana government told the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday that several lives would be lost if it didn’t receive timely supply of oxygen; the Maharashtra government and Mumbai’s civic body BMC wrote separately to the Centre requesting enhanced allocation of oxygen; and 41 hospitals in New Delhi with 7,000 patients raised alarm bells on a single day on May 3.
The central government on Monday told the Gujarat High Court that not only was it augmenting supply within India, but also “importing oxygen from other countries using diplomatic channels… personal intervention of the political executive”. It said it had allocated 8,410 MT of oxygen to 22 high-burden states against a demand of 8,462 MT.
The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday observed that the “death of Covid patients just for non-supplying of oxygen to the hospitals is a criminal act and not less than a genocide” by those responsible for ensuring the continuous procurement and supply.
Meanwhile, production has come to a halt in the country’s largest oxygen cylinder manufacturing units as they were included in the ban on use of industrial oxygen. Despite a clarification from the Centre, the ban is yet to be lifted by the Gujarat government.
Family members of Covid-19 patients wait to fill their empty cylinders with medical oxygen outside an oxygen filling centre, at Bhogal, New Delhi. (Express Photo: Amit Mehra)
As a new wave of Covid-19 ravages the national capital region, crematorium staff have seen their workload multiply several times over, working, at tremendous risk, with bodies of Covid patients and dealing with crowds of mourning family members. Yet, 29-year-old Kumar is not wearing a PPE suit. “Yes, I know the risks, but it is impossible to do the job I do in a PPE suit. The heat makes the suit shrivel and stick to our skins. We can handle neither wooden pyres nor CNG machines wearing PPE,” he says. Yashee reports
Mamata Banerjee was sworn in as West Bengal Chief Minister for a third straight term after spearheading the Trinamool Congress to a remarkable victory in the recently-concluded Assembly polls. After taking oath, Banerjee said her first priority would be to tackle the Covid pandemic, and appealed to people to maintain peace in the state. Bengal on Tuesday reported 107 deaths due to the virus, the highest single-day toll reported in the pandemic so far. Read live updates here
From April 7 to 9, when several districts in Maharashtra had to shut down their vaccination centres on account of shortage of vaccines, Jalna stood out, with a surplus that would last at least 10 more days. Home to Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope, Jalna district received 60,000 vaccine doses more than its allotment of 17,000 when fresh supplies of 26.77 lakh doses were received by the state from the Centre on March 31 — and distributed to all districts. Sources said Tope called Health Department officials and asked them to increase the allocation to his district to 77,000 doses.
Tope told The Indian Express “no particular district was preferred” and that if Jalna got more stocks, this was done “to encourage more vaccination”. Read Tabassum Barnagarwala's report
IndiGo has transported a total of 4,142 oxygen concentrators, weighing nearly 72,500 kg, across India. Out of the total oxygen concentrators, 2,717 have been airlifted from Thailand, China, Qatar, Hong Kong, and Singapore to India, while 1,425 have been transported domestically between 36 airports. IndiGo has also transported a total of 1,60,596 kg of Covid-19 vaccine shipments between January 12 to May 3, 2021.
While pulling all stops to transport oxygen in a speedy manner from Bokaro steel city, Punjab government is faced with a peculiar problem as majority of its tankers — 14 out of 15 available — are not being allowed on the ‘Oxygen Express’ for not meeting the height standards. As a result, the Punjab-bound tankers are being forced to take the road route which is taking them 3 days to reach the state instead of 30 hours by train. Read Navjeevan Gopal's report
Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das has announced measures to ease the economic impact of the second wave of Covid-19. The central bank chief announced a term liquidity facility of Rs 50,000 crore for access to emergency health security. He said wide-ranging and swift actions are needed against the spread of the second wave of Covid. The Governor said the RBI would closely monitor the emerging developments in the economy. Read more here
India reported a record 3,780 deaths on Tuesday, the highest daily toll since the pandemic began. Over 900 deaths were from Maharashtra, while Delhi and Uttar Pradesh reported 338 and 351, respectively. At least 13 states are reporting more than 100 deaths a day. These include previously uncounted deaths from earlier days.
The country reported 3.82 lakh cases of the novel coronavirus in the 24 hours ending 9 am Wednesday. Of these, Maharashtra recorded 51,880 cases, while Karnataka reported 44,631. Active cases are now more than 34.87 lakh.
Proning a medically approved position — which is also being promoted by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare — in which patients are made to lie on their abdomen to boost their oxygen levels. Proning as an exercise is being advised to Covid patients in hospitals, so that they may not require additional oxygen support. Raakhi Jagga explains the positions, how it improves oxygen levels
Good morning and welcome to our live blog on the Covid-19 situation in India. The Delhi High Court on Tuesday slammed the Centre for not complying with judicial orders on oxygen supply to the national capital, saying it might choose to "dig its head like an ostrich in the sand", but the court would not. Noting that people were dying, the HC asked the government: "Are you living in ivory towers?" Read Sofi Ahsan's report