Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, who had earlier tested positive for Covid-19, has been shifted to the Covid-19 ICU ward on Monday, in view of his severely falling oxygen saturation.

Khan, who was shifted to Lucknow›s Medanta Hospital from Sitapur jail on Sunday for his Covid-19 treatment, has been kept under constant monitoring of doctors. His son Abdullah Khan was also shifted to the same hospital and his situation is satisfactory, as per health bulletin by Lucknow›s Medanta Hospital.

The father-son duo was tested positive for Covid-19 on 30 April. Azam Khan›s health suddenly deteriorated on Sunday following which he along with his son was sent to Lucknow by an ambulance. Khan has been lodged in Sitapur jail since February last year with more than a hundred cases registered against him. His son has also been lodged in Sitapur jail in several cases filed against him. 

BJP MLA from Nandigram Suvendu Adhikari said that he will raise his voice against the post-poll violence in West Bengal on Monday. “I will work to fulfill the expectations of the people of the state. I will help the government for its positive efforts but also raise my voice against the violence going on in the state,” Adhikari told ANI after being elected as the Leader of Opposition of West Bengal Assembly.

Speaking on CID summoning 6 CISF personnel in the Sitalkuchi firing incident, he said, “It does come under the purview of CID because CRPF and CISF come under the Home Ministry. CID is doing it on the directions of Mamata Banerjee and TMC.”

Earlier in the day, Adhikari, who defeated Mamata Banerjee in an electoral battle in Nandigram, was elected as the Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal Assembly.

Violence has been reported in several parts of West Bengal after the results of the assembly elections were declared on May 2. BJP alleged that nine of its party workers have been killed in the post-poll violence. However, the (TMC is denying the allegations.

On 7 May, a four-member team deputed by the Ministry of Home Affairs had visited the Diamond Harbour area of West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district to assess the ground situation.

A five-member Constitution Bench of the Calcutta High Court had also ordered West Bengal Home Secretary to file a report mentioning the places where the violence occurred and the steps are taken. 

Amidst the difficult and challenging times of Covid-19, Mumbai police are on their toes in making sure that all Mumbaikars are safe by following Covid-19 guidelines and norms as decided by the Maharashtra Government. Be it their witty humour via tweets or several other ways through which the Mumbai police officials are working round the clock to ensure that minimum people get affected in the maximum city. Now there will be a team of Mumbai police personnel named “Super Savers” who will help Mumbaikars with the changing scenario of Covid-19.

National Institute of Public Health Training and Research (NIPHTR), (MoHFW, GoI) will train some 200 and more cops. This will be in view of the Covid-19 upsurge across the city, wherein lakhs of people have been affected, thousands are dying. These trained cops will provide necessary care, support, and referral services for Covid-19 to the community. They will aid hospitals, medical centres, several health services and health workers including doctors, nurses and other medical staff. 

This crucial training will be done via online classes with five vital topics: 1) Covid-19: Changing scenario 2021; 2) Covid Appropriate Behaviour: Strategic need; 3) Management of Persons with Covid-19 (home isolation, home quarantine, referral investigations); 4) Covid-19 Vaccination: Process, challenges, and barriers; 5) Role of Super Savers in community response to mitigate Covid-19.           

The Mumbai Police is looking forward to this program. “Currently the selection of names of personnel is going on. We have asked two personnel names from each police station in Mumbai who include one officer and one constable. Five police personnel including an officer and four constables including two women from each region will also take part in the training. With them, a police officer and four constables from every five armed wings including that of Naigaon, Tardeo, Worli, Marol, and Kalina. Five personnel from its special branches and ten personnel including two of ficers and eight constables including four women from the traffic department will undergo the training of ‘Super Savers’. This wide range of training will play a crucial role in our fight against Covid-19,” said Mumbai Police spokesperson DCP S Chaitanya.

On Monday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced that work is underway to set up 300 oxygen plants in the state and said that it is a step towards making the state self-reliant amid times of crisis.

Yogi Adityanath said that as many as 1000 metric tonnes (MT) medical oxygen was supplied to the state on 9 May and thanked the Central government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for running special trains to overcome the medical oxygen shortage.

Yogi Adityanath while addressing media personnel in Ayodhya said, “The second wave of Covid-19 posed a new challenge before us and the oxygen demand went up suddenly. We have to supply oxygen to Ayodhya too, from where it is being supplied to nearby districts. We are thankful to the Government of India and PM Modi who are running special trains for this.”

“Oxygen Express is being run, tankers being sent on large aircraft of Air Force. Yesterday, 1000 MT of oxygen was supplied to the state. But we should not remain restricted to supply, oxygen plants should be established too. Work is underway to set up 300 Oxygen Plants in the state,” the Chief Minister said.

“We have also provided Oxygen concentrators to all districts. In the first phase, all districts have been provided with the same. More concentrators will also be provided,” he said.

Adityanath also said that active case in the state has been reduced to 2,25,000 compared to 3,10,000 active cases on 30 April, which was the highest recorded active cases in Uttar Pradesh.

The partial ‘Corona curfew’ in the state was earlier extended till 7 am on May 17, given the increase in the Covid-19 cases.

According to official data, the cumulative cases of Covid-19 in the state stand at 12,54,045. WITH ANI INPUTS

The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP), an insurance scheme for the healthcare workers fighting Covid-19, was implemented with effect from 30 March 2020, initially for 90 days to provide an insurance cover of Rs 50 lakh to the healthcare workers. Later, the duration of the scheme was extended up to 24 March 2021 and was again extended on 20 April 2021 for one year.

As per the figures received from the Maharashtra government, 210 applications were sent to the Central government, and only in 58 cases, the insurance amount has been paid. Pune had sent 47 applications, and BMC had sent only 38 applications even though Mumbai has seen the highest number of casualties. Nevertheless, only three cases from Pune have been approved whereas 22 cases of BMC have been approved.

When we analyse the figures as per profession, applications of only 10 doctors out of 19 doctors have been approved. Surprisingly only one application for a doctor was sent from BMC that did not get approved. IMA has stated that 74 doctors from Maharashtra have lost their lives due to Covid-19. In Maharashtra, only three out of nine nurses have received the compensation, and only three out of six Asha workers have received the same.

Activist Jeetendra Ghadge of The Young Whistleblowers NGO said, «The healthcare staff is taking serious risk while taking care of us.. But unfortunately, because of the delay in the process of getting this claim approved we are letting them down. Besides, only the Central government’s scheme covers the health workers while the state government›s scheme covers other Covid warriors. It›s important to boost the morale of our healthcare workers by giving them financial security, I hope the government takes notice of these figures”

The B.1.617 variant first identified in India last October is being classified as a variant of global concern, said the World Health Organziation on Monday. “We classify it as a variant of concern at a global level,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead on Covid-19, said during a briefing. She added, “There is some available information to suggest increased transmissibility of the B.1.617.” Van Kerkhove said more information about the variant and its three lineages would be made available on Tuesday.

The UN health agency said this variant of Covid-19 seems to be transmitting more easily than the original version of the virus, and might possibly have some increased resistance to vaccine protections. 

India, suffering from one of the worst outbreaks in the world, reported nearly 370,000 fresh infections and more than 3,700 new deaths on Monday. The devastating wave has overwhelmed the country’s healthcare system, and some experts have claimed that official figures for cases and fatalities are lower than the actual numbers. 

It has for some time been feared that B.1.617—which counts several sub-lineages with slightly different mutations and characteristics—might be contributing to the alarming spread. But till now, WHO had listed it merely as a “variant of interest”. Now it will be added to the list containing three other variants of Covid-19—those first detected in Britain, Brazil and South Africa—which the WHO has classified as being “of concern”. They are seen as more dangerous than the original version of the virus by being more transmissible, deadly or able to get past vaccine protections.

When it comes to the B.1.617 variant, Van Kerkove stressed that for the time being “we don’t have anything to suggest that our diagnostics or therapeutics and our vaccines don’t work.”

The WHO’s chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said, “What we know now is that the vaccines work, the diagnostics work, the same treatments that are used for the regular virus work. So there’s no need to change any of those, and people should go ahead and get whatever vaccine is available to them and that they are eligible for.”  WITH AGENCY INPUTS