Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday directed the Health Department to explore possibilities of floating a global tender for the procurement of vaccines from all possible sources to ensure early inoculation in the state. The state government will also reach out directly to all vaccine manufacturers for direct purchase of various Covid vaccines, including Sputnik V, Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson, he announced.

The Chief Minister said all efforts would be made to procure vaccines and meet the acute shortage in the state, which has received fewer than 44 lakh vaccine doses from the Government of India, of which only 1 lakh is currently available for use and will be exhausted within a day. As per GoI allocation for the 18-44 age group, the state government has been able to buy only 3.6 lakh vaccine doses, including 63,000 received on Wednesday. 2.3 lakh doses have already been used, leaving only 1.3 lakh, said the Chief Minister.

Pointing out that almost 1 lakh unregistered construction workers and their family members have come forward for getting vaccinated in line with the state’s priority vaccination for the 18-44 category, the CM asked the Labour Department to ensure the registration of these workers on priority.

During the review meeting, Covid Expert Group head Dr KK Talwar also noted that the existing vaccines have been found to be effective against the new variants so far.

A day after the Punjab Government notified Mucormycosis (black fungus) as a disease under the Epidemic Diseases Act, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday directed the Health Department to ensure that the necessary medicines for treating the same are made available to all the government hospitals, including in the rural areas.

He also asked the Department to depute doctors at the Primary Health Centres (PHCs) in villages to ensure the early detection and treatment of the fungal disease.

Stressing that early detection of the disease could prevent it from being fatal, the Chief Minister asked the Covid Expert team headed by Dr K K Talwar to ensure that doctors in the L3 facilities of all government hospitals are directed on proper treatment of Covid patients to check irrational use of steroids, which has been identified as the main cause of this disease, especially among diabetic patients.

The Chief Minister also asked Dr. Talwar and his team to analyse why patients were returning to hospitals even after recovering from Covid.

GANDHINAGAR: Covid vaccination in Gujarat, which had been halted for a few days due to Cyclone Tauktae, was resumed on Thursday.

On Wednesday night, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said that the vaccination operation suspended in the wake of Tauktae would be resumed from Thursday. He stated that 50,000 doses of the Covid vaccine would be administered to people aged between 18 and 45 in the ten cities where vaccinations have begun for the age group. From Thursday onwards, those over the age of 45 who have missed the first dose will also be vaccinated, he added.

Vaccines were administered in 76 urban centres and municipal schools in Ahmedabad, even though drive-through vaccination remained suspended. According to the municipal health department, in addition to the 76 centres, four hospitals – Asarwa Civil Hospital, Trauma Center, Sola Civil Hospital, Nagari Hospital and Shardaben Hospital – were roped in for the vaccination drive.

Only citizens above 45 years of age, healthcare workers and frontline workers were vaccinated at these centres. Citizens between the ages of 18 and 44 were vaccinated on the basis of registration at other centres.

In Surat, 40,000 vaccine doses were made available on Thursday. The Surat Municipal Corporation has a stock of more than 50,000 vaccines. Vaccination is being done at 50 centres for the 18-44 group and at 45 centres for the 45+ category. People in the 18-44 age group were given 100 doses at each centre. All of them were vaccinated on basis of appointments via the Cowin website.

Since the vaccination campaign started in Surat on January 16, an estimated 10.50 lakh people have been vaccinated. 51,000 healthcare workers have taken the first dose and 33,000 have taken the second dose. Meanwhile 1.32 lakh frontliner workers have been given the first dose and 35,000 the second dose. 6 lakh senior citizens have also taken the first dose and 1.36 lakh have taken the second dose. Moreover, more than 50,000 people in the 18-44 age group have taken the first dose.

The Rajkot Municipal Corporation also restarted the vaccination drive on Thursday. Long queues were seen at various health centres throughout the day. 50 centres for people aged 18 to 45 and 25 centres for people over 45 years have been designated as vaccination spots, informed Deputy Health Officer Dr Pankaj Rathod. In the 18-44 category, 150 people will be vaccinated at each centre, while for people above 45, 100-100 individuals will be vaccinated at each centre.

MUMBAI: The death toll due to the mid-sea mishap at Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC) accommodation barge “Papaa-305” (P305) in Bombay High touched 37 on Thursday, while the search for around 38 missing people is still on. 188 survivors (including two of tugboat Varaprada) and the mortal remains of 49 crew members of P305 have been recovered so far. INS Beas at Mumbai was disembarking the mortal remains. Ships and aircraft continue to search for the remaining crew.

22 ADR has been filed in Yellow Gate police station as the police received 22 dead bodies by the naval team. 11 bodies have been identified whereas 11 are still unidentified. The post-mortem of these bodies are being done in J. J. Hospital, Mumbai. Deceased Vishal Katdhare’s (35) dead body has been handed over to his family. The body of Rakesh Kumar Thakur (28) from Darbhanga, Bihar is still missing. His sister and brother-in-law have reached Mumbai to find his body.

“Most of the bodies were identified by the rescued people… In addition to the 22 dead bodies we are expecting 24 more bodies by Thursday night. Statements of more than 120 people have been recorded. Afcons Infrastructure authorities were called by the police to provide more details as they are not cooperating with the police for providing details of their personnel,” said Suhas Hemade, senior police officer.

Afcons in their statement denied taking the responsibility of people. “Afcon had hired this vessel from M/S Durmast Enterprises Ltd. We had given some kind of subcontract as a contract, in such a situation, the responsibility of the barge security also lies on the owner of the barge that the safety and safety of those on the barge is to be taken care of. There was also a workman and supervisor of Afcons who was involved in construction work on the barge.”

Meanwhile, according to a source at ONGC, the cyclone had changed its path, in addition to unprecedented wind speed due to unexpected low pressure, despite ONGC taking all the safety measures.

On Thursday, The India Meteorological Department (IMD) rejected claims that the cyclone had changed its path.

According to rescue workers, hopes are running out with each passing hour as it will be difficult for someone to sustain without food or water mid-sea in such extreme weather conditions.

“My husband works as the Chief Officer on Glory Ship Management item Varapradha. I spoke to him two days ago and now his phone is off. The company is not giving any response nor telling the crew who were on top of the ship. I am not aware of my husband’s whereabouts. I ask for help from Coast Guard and Navy to find my husband soon,” said Rajni Singh, wife of Hitendra Vikram Singh, the missing Chief Officer of the Varapradha tugboat.

A total of 13 people were missing from Varapradha, of whom only two have been rescued.

In the early hours of May 17, Cyclone Tauktae hit the Arabian Sea off the coast of Mumbai, where ONGC’s major production installations and drilling rigs are located. Leading to one of the largest mid-sea rescue operations by the Indian Navy and Coast Guard, ONGC’s barge P305 sank in the sea nearly 35 nautical miles off the Mumbai coast after water gushed into it.

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Thursday called Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with chief ministers as “casual and superflop” as, she said, none of the CMs, including herself, were given a chance to speak.

Banerjee, after attending the meeting with the PM on Covid-19, said all CMs were made to sit like “puppets”, and claimed a “dictatorship” is prevailing in the country.

“The Prime Minister called a meeting and invited the chief ministers. And all the chief ministers were sitting like puppets. Nobody was allowed to speak. Then how do we speak about the public demands? We are not bonded labourers. We feel insulted and humiliated. A dictatorship is going on. The Prime Minister is feeling so insecure that he did not even listen to the chief ministers. What is this fear about?” Banerjee asked. “If states were not allowed to speak why were they called? All the Chief Ministers must protest for not being allowed to speak,” Banerjee said.

NEW DELHI: After weather conditions in the city changed under the impact of Cyclone Tauktae, Delhi recorded the highest ever rainfall of 119.3 mm in the last 24 hours since 1951 for the month of May, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Thursday.

“Delhi has received highest ever Rainfall of 119.3 mm since 1951 for the month of May,” the IMD said in a tweet. The meteorological department informed, “Delhi has received highest ever 24 hours rainfall of 119.3 mm at Safdarjung Airport on 19-20 May 2021 (8:30 hours of May 19 till 8:30 hours of May 20) in last 71 years, since 1951 for the month of May.”

According to the IMD’s data, the earlier highest was 60 mm that was observed on May 24, 1976. “Delhi rainfall in past 24 hours till 8:30 hours of today: Safdarjung Airport -119.3 mm, Palam – 63.8 mm, Lodhi Raod – 124.4 mm, Ayanagar – 97.9 mm, Najafgarh – 92.5 mm,” the IMD said.ANI