Covid checking in progress at the Collector's office in Pune on Thursday. (Express)Pune News Live: The 68th Sawai Gandharv Bhimsen Mahotsav, which was scheduled to take place between February 2 and 6, has been cancelled in the backdrop of rising cases of Covid-19 in the city and related restrictions, Shrinivas Joshi, executive president of Arya Sangeet Prasarak Mandal, has said.
With 2022 being celebrated as the birth centenary year of Bharat Ratna Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, music lovers from all across the globe were looking forward to the festival, organisers said. “Considering the magnitude of the festival and the time required in making logistical and infrastructure arrangements, it would not be possible to organise Sawai Gandharv Bhimsen Mahotsav in such an uncertain atmosphere,” said Joshi.
Unlike Mumbai, the daily count of coronavirus infections in Pune continues to rise, with 9,645 new cases being detected on Thursday. According to the latest data by the health department of the Pune Zila Parishad, three deaths were also reported from the district, two from Pune Municipal Corporation areas and one from Cantonment. The daily positivity rate of coronavirus infections in Pune city rose to 28.04 per cent on Thursday after 5,571 people tested positive.
Meanwhile, nearly 39 per cent teenagers in the 15-18 age group have been administered the first dose of Covaxin vaccine in Pune district in the last 10 days. Immunisation for this age group started on January 3. Till January 12, a total of 2,12,735 beneficiaries in the age group 15-18 got their first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine in Pune district, according to a state Health department report.
In other news, with only two months left in its five-year term in the civic body, the ruling BJP in Pune Municipal Corporation has started pushing for new projects and inaugurating completed ones. As part of this spree, Mayor Murlidhar Mohol laid the foundation stone for a Rs 350-crore project to lay a sewage network and build two sewage treatment plants for the 11 villages merged in civic limits a few years ago.
Booster dose being administered for frontline workers and citizens above 60 year old at Kamala Nehru hospital. (Express)
The 68th Sawai Gandharv Bhimsen Mahotsav, which was scheduled to take place between February 2 and 6, has been cancelled in the backdrop of rising cases of Covid-19 in the city and related restrictions, Shrinivas Joshi, executive president of Arya Sangeet Prasarak Mandal, has said.
With 2022 being celebrated as the birth centenary year of Bharat Ratna Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, music lovers from all across the globe were looking forward to the festival, organisers said.
“Considering the magnitude of the festival and the time required in making logistical and infrastructure arrangements, it would not be possible to organise Sawai Gandharv Bhimsen Mahotsav in such an uncertain atmosphere,” said Joshi. --ENS
A musical evening, Kahat Kabir Suno Bhai Sadho, celebrates the works of the poet-saint who bridged religious divides and drew attention to the power of love. At the helm is Satish Kumar, who comes from a lineage of Kabir Panthis and has devoted his time to Nirgun recitals based on the writings of Kabir. Apart from being a vocalist, he is a performing artist. He will be accompanied by his brother Vinay Kumar, a keyboardist and vocalist, who is undergoing training at the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya. At Gyaan Adab on January 15, online. Zoom ID: 861 0153 6077; passcode: guldasta. Read more
A 40-year-old man from Pune was allegedly duped of Rs 10.62 lakh by a cyber conman who assured him of getting him a loan from a bank. The victim, a resident of Lonikand, lodged an FIR in this case Tuesday. The police said the fraudster had got in touch with the complainant over phone in October 2021 with a loan offer. After the man agreed to avail the loan, the conman reportedly asked him to pay a sum of money to process the loan and for the insurance policies.
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Over 1,100 cops from three police jurisdictions in Pune district—Pune city, Pimpri Chinchwad and Pune rural—have received their booster shots of Covid19 vaccines as part of the immunisation drive for healthcare and frontline workers across the country. Police personnel in the district began getting their “precaution doses” on Tuesday, a day after the national immunisation drive for healthcare and frontline workers started.
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Pimpri-Chinchwad Police have arrested a gang of con men who cheated several people, particularly elderly citizens, by posing as police personnel. Police have identified the accused as Haider Sayyad (55), Yunus Sayyad (46) and Gazi Jafari (35). The accused had pretended to be police officials and approached a 64-year-old man at Kokane chowk in Rahatani. They then made away with gold ornaments worth Rs 2.2 lakh.
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Pune will experience hazy and cloudy conditions on Friday.
The day temperature is expected to drop to 26 degrees and cold day conditions would prevail.
The minimum temperatures on the day were Shivajinagar - 13.8 degrees, Pashan - 14.2 and Lohegaon - 14.3 degrees.
Shivajinagar will experience poor air quality while the overall city's air quality index value will remain at 125.
On Thursday, 5,571 new cases were reported from PMC area, 2,277 from Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, 126 from Pune rural, 281 from Cantonment and 270 from Councils.
Unlike Mumbai, the daily count of coronavirus infections in Pune continues to rise, with 9,645 new cases being detected on Thursday. According to the latest data by the health department of the Pune Zila Parishad, three deaths were also reported from the district, two from Pune Municipal Corporation areas and one from Cantonment.
Pune district is still some distance away from its second wave peak. Last year, its daily case count had gone up as high as 12,825. Several other major cities, including Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata have already crossed their second wave peaks.
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Following repeated reminders from the office of the Agriculture Commissioner, insurance companies have settled the majority of crop loss claims in the state. To date, 44.26 lakh farmers in the state have received Rs 2,501.66 crore in way of compensation for crop loss earlier in the season.
Notwithstanding the timely onset of the monsoon, farmers in the state had to face heavy rain damaging their crop in some areas. Similarly, extremely heavy rain during the withdrawal phase of the monsoon had seen farmers reporting crop loss in many areas. Cultivators in Marathwada, Konkan, Vidarbha and North Maharashtra region suffered maximum damage. A total of 47.65 lakh farmers in the state had filed claims worth Rs 2, 512.81 crore.
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A day after the Maharashtra government asked people who have tested positive for Covid-19 using home antigen test kits to register themselves on a portal, the Pune division of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Thursday directed chemists to maintain a record of those who buy the test kits. S B Patil, Joint Commissioner, FDA, Pune division, said a surge in Covid-19 cases has led to a rise in demand for home testing of persons suspected to have contracted Covid-19.
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The Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) on Thursday announced that online exams will be held in February-March for all graduate, postgraduate and diploma courses for the first semester. The exams were earlier scheduled to be held in October-November last year. The decision has come after the announcement by Higher and Technical Education minister Uday Samant that no offline classes or exams will be held in the state till February 15.
Meanwhile, a notification issued by the examination department of SPPU informed students that the detailed timetable will soon be posted by the university on its website, http://www.unipune.ac.in. For some time now, students have been anxious to know the format of the examination.
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Nearly 39 per cent teenagers in the 15-18 age group have been administered the first dose of Covaxin vaccine in Pune district in the last 10 days. Immunisation for this age group started on January 3. Till January 12, a total of 2,12,735 beneficiaries in the age group 15-18 got their first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine in Pune district, according to a state Health department report.
Dr Sanjay Deshmukh, assistant director (medical) Pune circle, which includes Pune, Satara and Solapur districts, said that presently they had a stock of 25,000 Covaxin vaccine doses and 3.25 lakh Covishield doses. “We are expecting another one lakh doses of Covaxin vaccine,” Dr Deshmukh said.
The daily positivity rate of coronavirus infections in Pune city has gone up to 28.04 per cent on Thursday after 5,571 fresh Covid-19 cases were reported. The active case load increased to 25,737, with 45 patients on ventilator and 182 on oxygen support. Two Covid-19 patients succumbed to the infection in the city, taking the toll to 9,133.
“… There is no shortage of hospital beds as of now as 491 ventilators and 3,987 oxygen beds are vacant in city hospitals for treatment of Covid-19 patients,” said a civic health officer. He said the hospitalisation rate for Covid-19 patients in the city, at 4.34 per cent, was relatively low despite daily new cases jumping by over 700 within a day.