Covid-19 patients undergo treatment at a Covid Care Centre at the Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib, in New Delhi, Saturday, May, 29, 2021. (Express photo by Amit Mehra)
Coronavirus India Live Updates: India recorded 1,27,510 new Covid-19 cases and 2,795 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to data from the Union Health Ministry.
The ministry said cases have been declining for the past few days, with daily new cases being the lowest in 54 days. The total number of coronavirus cases now stand at 2,81,75,044 while the death toll has reached 3,31,895. There are 18,95,520 active cases at present while as many as 2,59,47,629 people have recovered from the disease. The recovery rate continues to increase and stands at 92.09 per cent on Tuesday. The weekly positivity rate currently has been pegged at 8.64 per cent while the daily positivity rate has dropped to 6.62 per cent. A total of 21,60,46,638 vaccine doses have been administered so far, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has written to his non-BJP counterparts in 11 states and called for a united effort in demanding that the Centre procure Covid-19 vaccines required by the states and distribute them free of cost. Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has, meanwhile, shot a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to give free vacccines to the state.
On the vaccine front, the Uttar Pradesh government will today launch ‘Mission June’ campaign, a massive vaccination campaign that aims to inoculate over one crore people in the state against Covid-19 in the next 30 days.
In other news, the COVID-19 variant first found in India will henceforth be referred to as the “Delta variant”, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Monday. It also said that it will be using greek alphabets as labels for the categories of mutations.
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India records 1.27 lakh new Covid-19 cases, 2,795 deaths in last 24 hours; active cases stand at 18.9 lakh; SC flags dual vaccine pricing; Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan writes to 11 non-BJP CMs asking for Covid vaccines from Centre. Follow this space to get the latest updates.
Sanitization drive being carried out in industrial areas prior to unlocking at Anand Parbat Industrial Area, New Delhi. (Express photo by Amit Mehra)
The Supreme Court Monday wondered if the mandatory registration requirement on the CoWIN portal for people to access COVID-19 vaccines is practical given the digital divide in the country and
asked the government to “wake up and smell the coffee” and ensure that its vaccine policy is flexible enough to accommodate changes to address concerns. The Centre, in reply, said that it is not oblivious to ground realities and since this is a dynamic situation, no policy is cast in stone. It also said it hopes to vaccinate all eligible persons by the end of 2021.
Meanwhile, with the Opposition criticising the Centre for putting onus on states to procure a big part of their Covid-19 vaccination requirement, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister
Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said the Government had a “perfect policy” regarding immunisation, but had to change it under demands from various states. He appealed that all chief ministers should “come together and approach the Prime Minister to form a centralised policy for Covid vaccination”. “The Prime Minister will also consider it,” he said, adding that he was willing to talk to the CMs in this regard.
Chouhan said the Centre had found it difficult to come out with a uniform policy due to the conflicting opinions as well as demands of states, and hence it left vaccine procurement to them. “Chief Ministers should speak to the Central government… Milke faisla karna chahiye ki kendra sarkar kare (We should decide together that the Centre should do it). See, if there are differences, we speak in different voices, an atmosphere gets created that the Centre too finds it difficult to work… And if we differ, think only about political interests, it leads to these kind of visangatiyan (inconsistencies). Mein toh sabhi mukhyamantriyon se ye appeal karta hoon ki hum sab saath milen aur kendra sarkar se appeal karen… Pradhan Mantri se ye appeal karen. Pradhan Mantri bhi ye vichar karenge (I would appeal to all chief ministers that we come together and appeal to the Centre… to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister will also consider it).”
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Union Minister of State, Finance, Anurag Thakur on Monday said that he is “working to transform his constituency, Hamirpur, into an oxygen bank to strengthen Covid-19 relief efforts”. In this direction, the four-time Lok Sabha MP announced that three oxygen plants will be set up in Hamirpur soon.
The foundation stones for two oxygen plants - one each in Hamirpur and Bilaspur - have been laid and these will collectively cater to 700 beds, he said. The foundation stones were laid on Monday virtually by Thakur in the presence of BJP President JP Nadda, who also hails from the hill state, and Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jairam Thakur. On the occasion, they also flagged off vehicles with Covid-19 relief materials for 12 remotest districts of the state.
Thakur said that the government was going to build an oxygen Bank in Himachal Pradesh by combining 300 Oxygen Concentrators, three Oxygen Plants and 200 Oxygen Cylinders with an aim to secure 700 beds with an uninterrupted supply of oxygen. The oxygen bank will cater to five districts of the Hamirpur parliamentary constituency.
"In view of the usefulness of oxygen in this second wave of Corona epidemic, the Central Government is providing oxygen on a war footing across the country," Thakur said, adding, "While the country used to consume around 1,000 tons of oxygen before 1 April 2020, this figure has now increased to 9000 tones.” A few weeks ago, at the peak of the Covid-19 second wave, Thakur had sent off mobile medical units with relief material.
The COVID-19 positivity rate in Goa has now come down to 19 per cent as against 51 per cent a month back, according to the state government, reported PTI.
However, the Goa government has not let its guard down and is making all efforts to curb the spread of the virus by emphasising on vaccination, Dr Shivanand Bandekar, head of the state's expert committee on COVID-19, said on Monday. He also said that till last week, the coastal state reported a total of 12 cases of mucormycosis, and since then there has been no fresh case of the black fungus infection.
As per the data of Goa health department, the state reported 20 per cent COVID-19 positivity rate on Monday as compared to 51 per cent on April 30.
She might have recovered from Covid-19. But the emotional loneliness of the coronavirus ward, full with images of people on ventilators dying on adjoining beds and doctors clad in PPEs trying their best to resuscitate those slipping into unconsciousness, have added to the post-hospitalisation trauma for the septuagenarian. She is now a different person… rigid, non-cooperative, and at times violent. Back at home, she is now on psychiatric treatment as horrific hallucinations continue to haunt her.
Elsewhere, a middle-aged man is suffering from extreme anxiety after a neighbour contracted the coronavirus. Having internalised the symptoms, shortness of breath, resulting from extreme anxiety, has for him become an underlying Covid symptom. Not very far away, another man in his forties is feeling anxious. The reason for his feeling helpless is the loss of a family member to the pandemic. The well-educated man is unable to forgive himself for not doing enough to save his family member. A feeling of despair and self-blame has engulfed the family.
Maharashtra Police Tuesday registered a case against 60 people including BJP MLA Mahesh Landge for flouting Covid norms at a wedding ceremony in Pune, news agency ANI reported.
For 50-year-old D Nath (name changed), the battle with Covid-19 may be over, but the stress is not. Last month, testing positive for the virus, the Guwahati-based businessman got himself admitted to a private facility in the city. “It was not a bad case of infection, but my brother, who had tested positive too, had his oxygen level dropping,” recalled Nath, “So we thought it was better to be under supervised care.” After scouting several hospitals in the city, all of which were out of their budget, the duo finally found a small private hospital, which quoted a lump sum of Rs 1.7 lakh for treatment, till they tested negative.
While he thought it was pricey, Nath felt it was a sum he “could manage”, so they checked themselves in, sharing a room. Ten days later, on the morning of discharge, they were presented with a bill, almost double of what was quoted to them earlier. “There were these additional charges — for medicines, and whatnot. We argued with them the entire day, making several calls to the owner, managing director of the hospital — nothing worked. Till we paid, they would not let us go,” said Nath. Finally, after arranging money from friends and family, they paid the entire amount, and reached home late, only late at night.
He is not the only one. Across the country, many may have successfully beaten the virus, but their lives have been upended by the loans they have to repay courtesy of huge Covid-19 medical bills. They have dipped into years of savings, sold jewellery, mortgaged property, and borrowed from friends to clear the medical bills.
Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi Tuesday appealed to the Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan to reduce the mandated gap of 12-16 weeks between the two doses of Covishield for students travelling overseas.
"Maharashtra has initiated the vaccination for students travelling overseas for further studies, however the 12-15 week mandated gap by ICMR has led to apprehension about receiving the 2nd dose on time. My appeal to Health Secretary to reduce the mandated gap for these students," she said in a tweet.
Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had to publicly criticise yoga guru Ramdev’s remarks against allopathic medicine after the Indian Medical Assocation (IMA) with its 3.5 lakh members and 1,700 local units lodged complaints across the country.
It wasn’t the first time that the largest association of physicians in the country had pulled its weight on an issue. Earlier, it had opposed the government’s proposals to set up a National Medical Commission, as well as to allow Ayurvedic practitioners to perform surgeries.
Ramdev had called allopathy a “stupid” and “diwaliya (bankrupt)” science, claimed 10,000 doctors had died in spite of taking both doses of the vaccine, and that lakhs had been killed due to allopathic treatment for Covid-19.
Upset over Yoga guru Ramdev’s remarks on allopathy, members of the federation of resident doctors’ associations will hold a nationwide protest on June 1 and observe it as a ‘black day’.
In a statement, the federation sought an “unconditional open public apology” from Ramdev.
Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and requested him to provide free vaccine for beneficiaries of all age groups and give freedom to define priorities for vaccination coverage, news agency ANI reported.
India reported 1,27,510 new cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, the lowest since April 7. The drop could be attributed, at least partly, to low testing on Sunday. Only 16.83 lakh samples were tested on Sunday, against a weekly average of 20.28 lakh.
Active cases have dropped to 18.95 lakh, a reduction of over 1.3 lakh over yesterday.
The daily death count has fallen below 3,000 for the first time since April 26. 2,795 deaths were reported on Monday. 511 of these came from Maharashtra and 478 from Tamil Nadu.