Coronavirus News LIVE Updates: The Delhi deputy CM alleged that the Centre wants states to compete and fight with each other in the international market for vaccines
Coronavirus India News and LATEST Updates: The Delhi government will float a global tender for procuring coronavirus
vaccines, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Tuesday, as the city government grapples with a shortage of doses. Addressing a press conference, he alleged that the BJP-ruled Centre was "forcing" state governments to invite global tenders for vaccine procurement.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday urged the Centre to increase the liquid medical oxygen (LMO) allocation to the state to 910 tonnes to meet the current patient load.
Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane on Tuesday said 26 COVID-19 patients died at the state- run Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) in the early hours and sought an investigation by the High Court to find out the exact cause. He said these fatalities occurred between 2 am and 6 am "which is a fact", but remained evasive about the cause.
ICMR DG Balram Bhargava said the national positivity rate is around 21 perceng and 310 districts are reporting a positivity rate more than the national average.
In a press briefing on the COVID-19 situation, Joint Secretary in the health ministry Lav Aagarwal says there is trend of decline in cases in last few days. He however highlighted that this is only an early trend and efforts to tackle COVID-19 should continue as before. The ministry also said that there was an early trend of decline in COVID-19 deaths.
Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan told states to ensure all beneficiaries who have taken the first dose are prioritised for their second doses.
The office of the Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha announced a series of welfare measures for citizens adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Government will offer special scholarships to children who have lost their parents due to the COVID. The Govt has decided to provide Rs 1000 per month to all registered construction workers, ponywalas, palkiwalas, pithuwalas for the next two months. The government has directed all concerned officers to ensure the supply of ration to all ration card holders on priority. In these challenging times, the old-age homes, 0rphanages will be extended all the support from the government including rations," said the Prasar Bharati News Services quoting the office of Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor.
Telangana government has decided to impose 10 days of lockdown from 10 am, 12 May following a cabinet meeting held on Tuesday, the Times of India reported. All activities will be allowed from 6 am to 10 am following which full lockdown will be imposed, the report said.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy has announced Rs 10 lakh ex-gratia for the families of those who died last night at Ruia Hospital in Tirupati. Eleven COVID-19 patients died at SVRR government general hospital in Tirupati on Thursday evening after a breakdown in oxygen supply, resulting in shortage. At least 13 patients who are being treated in the ICU ward currently are said to be critical.
Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren tweeted on Tuesday that starting 14 May, the state will start vaccinating citizens above 18 years of age and that the exchequer will bear the cost. He assured that the vaccine is safe and appealed to all the eligible citizens to come forward for vaccination without any hesitation.
According to an All India Radio report, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today had a telephonic conversation with his Bhutanese counterpart Prime Minister Lotay Tshering today. The Bhutanese prime minister expressed solidarity with the government and the people of India in their efforts against the recent wave of COVID-19 pandemic.
On National Technology Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said that in any challenging situation, the country's scientists and innovators have always risen to the occasion and over the last year have worked industriously to fight COVID-19 .
"On National Technology Day, we salute the hard work and tenacity of our scientists and those passionate about technology," Modi tweeted.
Speaking about the oxygen shortage in Karnataka, Chief Minister Yediyurappa said that he is in touch with the Centre to resolve the isssue.
"In the morning we've received 120 MT of medical oxygen via Oxygen Express train. If it comes like this there will be no problem. I am in touch with union leaders. I spoke with Prime Minister himself. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had assured us all sort of support," Yediyurappa told ANI.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said that the Centre should take steps to increase the number of vaccine-producing firms from the present two to speed up the vaccination drive across the country.
"Only two companies are producing vaccines. They produce only 6-7 crore vaccines a month. This way, it'll take over two years to vaccinate everyone. Many waves would've come by then. Important to increase vaccine production on war footing and frame national plan to vaccinate all. Not just two, several companies should be deployed to produce vaccines. Centre should collect the formula to produce vaccines from these two companies and give it to all those companies that can produce vaccine safely. Centre has the power to do this in these difficult times," ANI quoted Kejriwal as saying at a press conference in Delhi.
WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan today cited a Merck statement that advised against use of ivermectin for COCID-19 treatment.
In a statement, Merck "affirmed its position regarding use of ivermectin during the COVID-19 pandemic. Company scientists continue to carefully examine the findings of all available and emerging studies of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19 for evidence of efficacy and safety. It is important to note that, to-date, our analysis has identified:
~ No scientific basis for a potential therapeutic effect against COVID-19 from pre-clinical studies;
~ No meaningful evidence for clinical activity or clinical efficacy in patients with COVID-19 disease, and;
~ A concerning lack of safety data in the majority of studies.
~ We do not believe that the data available support the safety and efficacy of ivermectin beyond the doses and populations indicated in the regulatory agency-approved prescribing information."
According to a Business Line report, West Bengal reported a record high COVID-19 134 deaths while 19,445 fresh were detected in 24 hours. Fatalities are the highest in the 75 plus age group, as per government data.
According to a WHO report, Uttar Pradesh has initiated a house-to-house drive to locate active cases of COVID-19 in rural areas to contain transmission by testing people with symptoms for rapid isolation, disease management and contact tracing.
The detection teams are moving across 97,941 villages in 75 districts over five days for this activity, which began on 5 May in the country’s most populous state with a population of 230 million.
Each monitoring team has two members, who visit homes in villages and remote hamlets to test everyone with symptoms of COVID-19 using Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) kits. Those who test positive are quickly isolated and given a medicine kit with advice on disease management. All the contacts of those who test positive are quarantined and tested using an RT-PCR at home by a rapid response team, the WHO report said.
French health minister Olivier Veran said so far the country has recorded at least 20 cases of the Indian variant, according to an Al Jazeera report.
Pointing out the inequality in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu on Monday said that high and upper-middle countries represent 53 percent of the world’s population but have received 83 percent of the world’s vaccine.
“High and upper-middle countries represent 53 percent of the world’s population but have received 83 percent of the world’s vaccine. By contrast, low and lower-middle-income countries account for 47 percent but have received just 17 percent of the world’s vaccine,” said WHO chief during a press briefing.
According to a Deccan Herald report, Karnataka Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah said that the current lockdown ordered by the government was not complete and the state needs "a total lockdown for two weeks" with around 50,000 new cases being reported daily.
On Wednesday, in a faint glimmer of hope India recorded a dip in active cases for the first time in two months. The country reported 3.3 lakh new cases against 3.5 lakh new recoveries which is a 30K dip in new cases, as per a News18 data report.
The Arunachal Pradesh government has gone for a vaccination drive along the Line of Actual Control to control the daily surge of cases in the state. On Monday, the state reported 119 new COVID-19 cases, pushing the coronavirus tally in the state to 20,165. The death toll remained at 60 as no fresh fatality due to the infection was reported in the last 24 hours. The state has so far administered 2,92,841 vaccination doses.
According to the Union health ministry, India witnessed a single-day rise of 3,66,161 COVID-19 cases on Monday, which pushed its tally to 2,26,62,575. With 3,754 more people succumbing to it, the death count due to the pandemic also climbed to 2,46,116, as per the ministry.
India now has 37,45,237 active cases, accounting for 16.53 percent of its total caseload. The recovery rate is at 82.39 percent with 1,86,71,222 people having recovered from the disease. The case fatality rate was at 1.09 percent, according to the Union health ministry.
With the addition of 1,495 fresh coronavirus positive cases, the Thane district near Mumbai has mounted to 4,90,274, an official said today. With 55 more patients succumbing to the viral infection, the death toll in the Thane district rose to 8,108, with the case mortality rate now standing at 1.65 percent, a PTI report said.
According to LiveLaw, in a special sitting, convened to deliberate on COVID-19 tariffs charged by private hospitals, a division bench of Justice Devan Ramachandran and Dr Kauser Edappagath of the Kerala High Court was informed that the state was running out of oxygen and ICU Beds. The state counsel also urged the court to direct the Centre to consider the state's request for oxygen. The state is running short of medical oxygen after the oxygen supply has been augmented.
Meanwhile, the Times of India in a report has said that with the availability of 1.5 million doses of Sputnik V vaccine from Russia many state governments and private hospitals are in touch with Hyderabad-based Dr Reddy’s Labs which is importing the vaccines for the Indian market.
The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has gone past 17.26 crore, the Union Health Ministry said on Monday.
It said 5,18,479 beneficiaries in the 18-44 age group received their first doses on Monday, which took the cumulative number for the category to 25,52,843 across 30 states and Union Territories since the start of the phase-3 of the vaccination drive.
The 25,52,843 individuals include 5,10,347 from Maharashtra, 4,11,002 from Rajasthan, 3,66,309 from Delhi, 3,23,601 from Gujarat and 2,93,716 from Haryana, 1,77,885 from Bihar, 1,66,814 from Uttar Pradesh and 1,06,538 from Assam.
The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country stands at 17,26,33,761 as per the 8 pm provisional report, the ministry said.
This includes 95,63,406 healthcare workers (HCWs) who have taken the first dose and 65,05,072 HCWs who have taken the second dose; 1,40,49,681 frontline workers (FLWs) who have received the first dose, and 78,51,075 FLWs who have taken the second dose.
Besides, 5,54,97,658 and 71,73,939 beneficiaries over 45 to 60 years have been administered the first and second doses respectively, while 5,38,00,706 and 1,56,39,381 beneficiaries above 60 years have taken the first and second dose.
As on Day-115 of the vaccination drive (10 May 2021), a total of 24,30,017 vaccine doses were given which included 10,47,092 beneficiaries first doses 13,82,925 second doses according to the provisional report till 8 pm, the ministry said, adding the final report would be completed for the day by late night.
India witnessed a single-day rise of 3,66,161 COVID-19 cases on Monday, which pushed its tally to 2,26,62,575, according to the health ministry.
The death toll due to the viral disease climbed to 2,46,116 with 3,754 more people succumbing to it, the ministry's data updated at 8 am showed.
The number of active cases of the coronavirus infection in the country has gone up to 37,45,237, accounting for 16.53 percent of its total caseload, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 82.39 percent.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has climbed to 1,86,71,222, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.09 percent, according to the data.
With inputs from PTI
