Maintaining the continuous declining trend, India’s daily new Covid-19 cases further declined on Sunday to 1.52 lakh cases, marking the lowest tally in the last 50 days. Even the daily positivity rate continued its streak of less than 10% for seven continuous days at around 9%, data shared by the Union Health Ministry showed.

The active caseload further dipped to 20,26,902, easing pressure on the country’s health infrastructure and states like Delhi and Uttar Pradesh which have entered the unlock phase.

“As part of continued decline in the daily new cases, 152,734 daily new cases were registered in the last 24 hours, while the death count increased to 3,29,100 with 3128 daily new fatalities,” the statement from the Health Ministry read.

The top five states that have contributed the maximum number of Covid cases to the daily infections are Tamil Nadu with 28,864 cases, followed by Karnataka with 20,378 cases, Kerala with 19,894 cases, Maharashtra with 18,600 cases and Andhra Pradesh with 13,400 cases.

Around 21.3 crore vaccine doses have been administered, as per the provisional report till 8 am on Monday. In a bid to give impetus to the inoculation drive, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan held a meeting with states and UTs on Monday and emphasised on community-based outreach approach where sessions can be conducted in non-health facility based settings and are nearer to home (e.g. in a community centre, RWA centre/office, panchayat ghar, school buildings, old age homes etc.) for elderly and differently-abled population, an advisory for Near to Home Covid Vaccination Centres (NHCVCs) for elderly and differently-abled citizens.

States/UTs were also urged to increase the number of near-to-home vaccination centres, and create awareness among the masses for use of these CVCs. Amid reports of wastage of vaccines from several states like Rajasthan, the Union Health Secretary also suggested to states/UTs to retrain and reorient vaccinators to ensure judicious usage of the vaccines.

Earlier, the Health Ministry informed states that nearly 12 crore doses will be available to them in June, enabling them to ramp up the vaccination numbers. India vaccinated over 5.3 crore doses in May.

Meanwhile, India may soon start in a few weeks testing the feasibility of a regimen that mixes two different doses of Covid vaccines to see if it helps boost immune response to virus, said Dr N.K. Arora, chairman of Covid-19 working group under National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI). Apart from this, government sources also shared that tests on the effectiveness of a single dose of Covishield will also likely begin soon as part of the government’s new strategy.

The move comes in the backdrop of the shortage of vaccine shots and disparity between availability of Covaxin and Covishield, which has slowed down the vaccination drive in the country.

India’s annual economic growth rate picked up in the January-March quarter compared with the previous three months, but with the second wave of Covid-19 wreaking havoc across the country, economists aren’t too optimistic this quarter. Corona-induced curbs and lockdowns have hit economic activities like retail, transport and construction, putting millions out of work.

According to the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Monday, the country’s GDP grew by 1.6 per cent in the January to March quarter (Q4 FY21) but contracted by 7.3 per cent in the entire financial year. The economy took a recovery path from the third quarter of FY21 (December quarter) as restrictions were eased; the festive sales also contributed to the 0.4 per cent growth in the third quarter after contracting 23.9 per cent in the first quarter and 7.5 per cent in the second quarter. The economy further improved during the January-March quarter with key indicators bouncing back, including GST collections, employment and demand.

In the fourth quarter, the manufacturing sector, which had risen by 1.7 per cent in Q3, registered a growth of 6.9 per cent. Apart from this, the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector grew 3.1 per cent in Q4. Agriculture has been the only sector to register a growth in all the four quarters.

Consumer spending—the mainstay of the economy—rose 2.7% year-on-year in the January-March quarter, following a revised 2.8% fall the previous quarter, data showed. The construction sector saw the growth of 14.5% during the three months to March. Investments rose 10.9% compared with growth of 2.6% the previous quarter, while state spending jumped 28.3% after almost no growth in the October-December period, data revealed.

But the advent of the second wave seems to derailed the recovery process and the March quarter GDP numbers will have little implication on the current economic growth trajectory. Economists believe that with Covid-19 reaching India’s villages, rural demand and sectors dependent on the rural economy might come under severe stress, affecting the overall consumer spending in a big way.

While ratings agencies had earlier projected India’s economy to register double-digit growth in FY22, the second Covid wave and subsequent local lockdowns seem to have hit the economy hard. No wonder, rating agency Moody’s has lowered its original FY22 growth forecast for India to 9.3 per cent, while Barclays has cut its growth estimate for the country to 9.2 per cent.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday took a potshot at Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he said that the country cannot fight the Covid-19 pandemic with “meaningless talks” once a month. He was indirectly referring to the PM’s ‘Mann ki Baat’. Taking to Twitter, the Congress leader said, to fight against Covid-19, one needs “right intention, policy, determination”.

“To fight against corona, you need the right intention, policy, determination. And not meaningless talks once a month,” tweeted the Congress MP in Hindi.

‘Mann ki Baat’ is the Prime Minister’s monthly radio address to the nation, which is broadcast on the last Sunday of every month. Prime Minister Modi addressed the 77th episode of his monthly radio programme ‘Mann Ki Baat” at 11 am on Sunday.

On Friday, the Congress leader had taken a swipe at the Narendra Modi-led Central government alleging that the Prime Minister, with his poor vaccine strategy, was responsible for the second wave of Covid-19 in the country.

The former Congress President had said that the Covid-19 death rate put out by the Central government was inaccurate and underreported and if the Centre did not act immediately it will be left grappling with several successive waves of the pandemic, as the virus goes on mutating. He had also claimed that India has no vaccination strategy.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan PM Imran Khan said on Sunday that Pakistan would hold talks with India if Delhi restores the pre-5 August 2019 status of J&K. India abrogated the special status of J&K under Article 370 on 5 August 2019 and bifurcated it into two Union Territories.

“If Pakistan revives its relations with India (without the latter restoring the status of Kashmir), it will be similar to turning our back on the Kashmiris,” he said.

RSS Sahapracharpramukh (joint publicity chief) Narendra Kumar created a controversy on Sunday when he said that media reports of corpses flowing through the Ganga river and buried on its banks was part of an “agenda”.

In a virtual speech on the occasion of Maharshi Narad Jayanti, the RSS leader said: “Dead bodies in Ganga were also seen in 2015 and 2017. There was no Covid-19 pandemic then. So to connect them to Covid-19 now is clearly part of an agenda.”

Kumar said, “Media has generally done its job well during the current pandemic and it is fine to point out problems in the system, but it must be done at proper time and with care. It should create awareness not panic…”

The statement came in the wake of Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut appealing to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to take a firm stand on dead bodies that washed up on the banks of river Ganga without last rites. Raut said that the issue is related to Hindutva and is as important as Ram Mandir.

“We expect him (Bhagwat) to express strong views on various issues. However, for the last few months, everyone has been silent, especially, when thousands of dead bodies have been found floating in the river of Ganga, without last rites being performed, as per the rituals. The issue is related to Hindutva and as important as Ram Mandir,” Raut said.

“People in the country expect that pro-Hindu leaders across the country should clarify their stand on the issue and I appeal to Mohan Bhagwat ji that he should express his views on it,” the Shiv Sena leader added.

Post-mortem reports of bodies of 25 people who died after consuming spurious liquor in Aligarh indicate deaths due to alcohol poisoning, Aligarh district chief medical officer said on Sunday.

“We have conducted postmortem of 51 bodies. The findings in 25 of them are more suggestive of alcohol poisoning. Viscera of 26 have been kept and samples have been sent to Agra for testing. The reports are awaited,” ANI quoted Aligarh district CMO Dr B.P.S. Kalayani as saying.

Six people have been arrested in the case so far. Three cases have been files in which charges ranging from culpable homicide to assault. The Yogi Adityanath government has announced financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh to the families of the deceased.

On Saturday, District Magistrate Chandra Bhushan Singh said that a probe into the matter was initiated and will likely invoke the National Security Act (NSA) against those found guilty in the inquiry.

Three officials of the excise department, including District Excise Officer Dhiraj Sharma, have been suspended in connection with the deaths of people after allegedly consuming liquor sold by licensed vendors in Aligarh. Also, Aligarh ADG Rajeev Krishna on Friday said that one main accused Anil Chaudhary was arrested and a further probe in the matter was underway.

Meanwhile, Excise Minister Ram Naresh Agnihotri promised that the culprits will not go unpunished. “A reward has also been announced on the culprit. The Chief Minister has given instructions to deal with the liquor mafias in all the districts,” he said.

But Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee President Ajay Kumar Lallu blamed the Yogi government for the deaths, accusing it of providing protection to the liquor mafia in the state. In order to save big liquor mafia, action has been taken on junior excise officials, he said.

These liquor consumption-related deaths are not new to Uttar Pradesh. On 28 April, five persons died after allegedly consuming country-made liquor in Nagla Singhi village of Hathras. A month earlier, on 22 March, four persons died allegedly after consuming spurious liquor at a village in the Rajapur area of Chitrakoot in the state, the police said.

WITH ANI INPUTS