Delhi Covid lockdown news live: Govt to give Rs 5L for death due to O2 shortage

With black fungus (mucormycosis) cases on the rise in the national capital, it has been declared a notified disease under Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897. As part of a notification issued on Thursday, lieutenant governor Anil Baijal issued regulations, citing that the city is threatened by the outbreak of the dangerous epidemic disease among immune-compromised patients, especially Covid-19 patients being treated with steroids, and that ordinary provisions of law are insufficient to deal with it. Delhi Epidemic Diseases (Mucormycosis) Regulations, 2021 will remain valid for one year and all government and private healthcare facilities will have to follow the guidelines for screening, diagnosis and management of mucormycosis issued by the Centre, Indian Council of Medical Research and Delhi government. The healthcare facilities will also have to report every suspected or confirmed case to the health department.

The Delhi high court on Friday issued notice to Delhi Government and Municipal Corporations in a Public Interest Litigation seeking direction to immediately repair and rectify the non-functional electric crematoriums with the installation of more numbers of electric crematoriums in Delhi. The bench of Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh on Friday sought response from all respondents and slated the matter for July 27 for further hearing. The petitioner, Sunil Kumar Aledia (Social Activist) through Advocate Kamlesh Kumar Mishra also seeks direction to Government of NCT of Delhi as well to the civic agencies operating in the different areas of Delhi to place on their respective websites a list of all the crematoriums/burial grounds in their respective areas so as to make the same available with the general public.

The first case of white fungus in Delhi has been reported from Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. The patient is a 49-year old woman, who had suffered a Covid infection. She was admitted to the hospital for severe abdominal pain and constipation and examinations revealed intestinal perforations due to white fungus infection. The woman was operated upon and is recuperating. “The affliction caused by white fungus is milder than that by the black fungus, but correct diagnosis and timely treatment are important to optimise patient outcome,” said Professor Samiran Nundy, advisor, department of surgical gastroenterology and liver transplantation.

At least half a dozen instances have come to light so far in Gurgaon of doctors prescribing 2DG (2-deoxy-D-glucose), the drug developed by DRDO in collaboration with pharma company Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and approved for emergency use, to Covid patients and asking their family members to procure it, even though it is not yet available in the market. The prescriptions have sent family members of patients on futile hunts for the drug, running from one pharmacy to another, and also to government offices. “I have no clue how we can get this drug when it is not available in the market yet,” said Kaushal Kumar, whose father (57) is on ventilator support. “I was told by the doctor it is very important that we procure the drug. But no one is explaining how. I have reached out to the district administration but haven’t got any help so far,” he added.

Chamber of Trade & Industry (CTI), a traders’ association, has found through a survey that 80% of traders in the city are in favour of lifting of the lockdown as Covid cases are under control and rapidly declining. CTI convener Brijesh Goyal said markets and factories in Haryana and Gujarat were being reopened on certain conditions as cases were reducing. “Traders here also have requested the government to allow opening of markets and factories,” he said. There are speculations that the Delhi government will relax the lockdown and permit some economic activities from Monday. The final decision will be taken towards the end of the week. Goyal added that the Delhi government had adopted a balanced approach by reviewing the Covid situation every week. “Since the current lockdown is expected to expire on Monday, we conducted this survey covering 560 traders’ organisations”, he said.

A committee of officials was formed by Delhi government on Thursday to look into complaints of deaths due to lack of oxygen and for granting ex gratia amounts to people eligible under the state’s schemes, including Rs 50,000 to the kin of those who had died due to Covid-19. The committee will also draw up the criteria to award compensation of up to Rs 5 lakh in case of death due to lack of oxygen. The six-member panel includes Dr Naresh Kumar, director-professor (medicine) at Lok Nayak Hospital, Dr Amit Kohli, senior anaesthetist at the same hospital, Dr Sanjeev Kumar, specialist (anaesthesia) at Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital, Surender Kumar, assistant director planning at DGHS headquarters, Dr AC Shukla, medical superintendent of Mata Chanan Devi Hospital in Janakpuri and Dr JP Singh, the medical superintendent of Tirath Ram Hospital in Civil Lines.

Delhi High Court on Thursday asked the Centre and the Delhi government to respond to a plea seeking adequate supply of Covid vaccines for the capital. A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued notice on the petition filed by a lawyer who complained that for persons in the age group of 18-44 years, registering on Co-Win portal was like “losing in the battle of fastest finger first,” since it did not permit a person to book a date for vaccination beyond 2-3 days ahead. The lawyer, Vivek Gaur, said residents of the capital should not suffer as a result of the “blame game” between the two governments. “At least we should be able to register on the portal. I don’t mind waiting for 10-20 days for vaccination. But when slots are not available beyond 3-4 days, it creates panic among citizens,” Gaur told the bench.

During the current wave of the pandemic, thousands of Covid-19 patients were left stranded without hospital beds even when they needed immediate hospitalisation. To make matters worse, they were refused insurance benefits in absence of hospitalisation. “They suffered for no fault of theirs and due to the dearth of medical infrastructure,” the Delhi high court said on Thursday and asked Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) to find a solution after consulting insurance companies. The court was also informed that even black fungus infection will not be covered in Covid-specific insurance policies such as Corona Kavach and Corona Rakshak.

A day after chief minister Arvind Kerjwal visited Delhi’s first drive-through Covid-19 vaccination facility at Vegas Mall in Dwarka, deputy CM Manish Sisodia inaugurated a similar facility at Saket’s Select Citywalk for people in the 18-44 year age bracket on Thursday even as free jabs for those in this group were halted for the fourth day for lack of vaccines. The stock of Covaxin for those aged 45 years and above is exhausted, while that of Covishield will last for 11 days, according to the government’s vaccination bulletin.

Oxygen Express trains delivered 1,195 tonnes of the life-saving gas across the country on May 26 — their highest single-day load so far, surpassing the previous high of 1,142 tonnes transported three days earlier. Amid the second wave, Railways has delivered over 18,980 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen in more than 1,141 tankers to 15 states on Oxygen Express trains. So far, 5,077 tonnes of oxygen has been offloaded in Delhi, 614 tonnes in Maharashtra, and 3,731 tonnes in Uttar Pradesh. Crisscrossing the country, Indian Railways is picking up oxygen from places like Baroda and Mundra in the west and Rourkela, Durgapur and Tata in the east and delivering it to different states in complex operational route planning scenarios.

Delhi government on Thursday constituted two committees to prepare an action plan for a likely third wave of Covid-19 cases, with specialised needs of children in mind, and another plan for augmenting the city’s health infrastructure, including management of beds, oxygen and critical drugs. Both the committees will be chaired by IAS officer Satya Gopal, nodal officer for Covid, and can co-opt additional members to implement their mandates. An eight-member state-level expert committee, constituted to devise the management strategy for mitigation and management of third wave cases, includes medical directors of Delhi government hospitals, senior paediatricians and a senior pulmonologist. It will prepare a graded response action plan based on the positivity rate indicator and devise clear guidelines on when to announce any level of lockdown.

Terming the next six weeks as crucial, the paediatrics departments of city hospitals are gearing up to deal with coronavirus infection of children. Child specialists are educating paramedics under them in treating children with Covid. As Dr Dhiren Gupta of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital said, “We can’t say whether the expected third wave of infections will affect mostly kids, but we need to boost our system right away.” While Dr Randeep Guleria, director, AIIMS, pointed out that data from across the globe, not just from India, showed most children suffered mild Covid symptoms, with only those with comorbidities falling severely ill, he felt it was better to be overprepared than underprepared. The next three months will be crucial and it will depend a lot on human behaviour, he said, and people should not ignore the fact that the coronavirus was still out there and mutating.

Delhi recorded 1,072 fresh Covid-19 cases on Thursday from 70,068 tests and saw the positivity rate dip further to 1.53%, the lowest in 64 days. The number of fatalities also declined to 117, the lowest since April 15 when 112 people had died of Covid-19. The last time Delhi recorded a lower positivity rate was on March 24, when it saw1,254 fresh cases with a positivity rate of 1.52%. Thursday is the second day in a row when the positivity rate was less than 2%. Health minister Satyendar Jain had on Wednesday ascribed the sharp dip from a high of over 28,000 cases and a positivity rate of more than 36% during the current wave to the lockdown that has been in place since April 19.