News Analysis India

Tag: covid deaths

  • India’s Covid-19 death toll crosses 3-lakh mark; new cases dip to 2.22 lakh

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: India recorded 2,22,315 new coronavirus infections in a single day, the lowest in round 38 days, pushing the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 2,67,52,447, while the death toll crossed the 3-lakh mark, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday.

    The death toll climbed to 3,03,720 with 4,454 daily deaths, the data updated at 8 am showed.

    India registered 2,17,353 new infections in a span of 24 hours on April 16.

    The active cases have further reduced to 27,20,716 comprising 10.17 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 88.69 per cent.

    The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,37,28,011, while the case fatality rate has increased to 1.14 per cent, the data stated.

    India reported 2,22,315 new #COVID19 cases, 3,02,544 discharges and 4,454 deaths in last 24 hours, taking the country’s tally to 2,67,52,447 & the death toll to 3,03,720: Union Health Ministry.Express Photo | @shrirambn pic.twitter.com/HNld2zyYB1
    — The New Indian Express (@NewIndianXpress) May 24, 2021

    India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.

    It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

    India crossed the grim milestone of 2 crore on May 4.

    According to the ICMR, 33,05,36,064 samples have been tested up to May 23 with 19,28,127 samples being tested on Sunday.

  • Protect rights of the dead: Plea in SC raises overcharging for cremations, ambulance services 

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court raising the issue of alleged overcharging for cremations and ambulance services during the COVID-19 pandemic and seeking a direction to the Centre to consider formulating a policy to protect the rights of the dead.

    Referring to reports about several bodies found floating in the river Ganga, the plea said the Centre should be directed to advise all states and Union Territories (UTs) to frame guidelines prescribing rates for cremation or burial of those who have died due to the deadly virus and also for ambulance services along with penal actions for non-compliance at the earliest.

    “It is deeply depressing to see people putting bodies of their beloved ones in rivers like Ganga due to lack of money,” said the plea, filed by NGO Distress Management Collective through advocate Jose Abraham.

    “It is primarily due to exorbitant amounts asked for cremation and ambulance services that scores of people decided to put the bodies of their beloved in the river Ganga,” it claimed.

    It said that the National Human Rights Commission issued an advisory recently for upholding the dignity and protecting the rights of the dead.

    The plea alleged that no cogent action has been taken by the authority to tackle the issue of “undue profiteering by unscrupulous caretakers at crematoriums because of which many are unable to cremate or bury their beloved.”

    It referred to earlier verdicts of the apex court which had said that the dignity of the dead must be maintained and respected.

    “There is a dire need to enact a specific legislation that protects the rights of the dead, and there is also a need for issuance of guidelines to all states and UTs to prescribe rates for cremations and ambulance services along with penal actions for non-compliance at the earliest,” it said.

    It said the petitioner had earlier approached the Delhi High Court raising the issues of overcharging for cremations and ambulance services in the national capital.

    It said the high court had on May 6 given liberty to the petitioner to approach appropriate representation to the municipal corporations concerned and the civic bodies were asked to decide it in accordance with the law.

    The petitioner NGO alleged that it had submitted a representation to all the municipal corporations on May 11 but none of them have even acknowledged its receipt so far.

    The plea said the petitioner had also sent a representation to the Centre with a request to take urgent steps to enact a law that ensures the dignity of the dead along with guidelines to the states and UTs to control exorbitant charges for cremation and ambulance services.

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  • COVID-19 fatalities in Jharkhand plunge to lowest in May at 41 

    By PTI
    RANCHI: Amid the declining trend in COVID-19 deaths in Jharkhand that recorded 41 fatalities in the last 24 hours, Chief Minister Hemant Soren said that partial lockdown in the state and strictures have resulted in the success of the struggle against coronavirus.

    The government is not hesitating in taking tough decisions, if needed, and is focussing on protecting rural areas after breaking the chain of transmission of the virus in urban areas, Soren said.

    “In this battle of livelihood and life, we are working very carefully to save both,” the chief minister said.

    Soren held a webinar with heads of hospitals, medical colleges, doctors and paediatricians to review the state’s preparedness on tackling the potential threat of a third wave of coronavirus.

    He will hold a meeting with Cabinet ministers in this regard on Monday.

    Meanwhile the recovery rate among coronavirus patients in the state is now 91.68 per cent, better than the national average of 87.80 per cent, health department bulletin said.

    With 41 fresh fatalities, the COVID-19 death toll in the state has climbed to 4,801.

    The state had recorded the highest number of 159 deaths this month on May 2.

    State capital Ranchi, which has been severely impacted by the virus, recorded nine deaths during the last 24 hours while East Singhbhum, reported seven fatalities.

    Ramgarh recorded five deaths while Bokaro recorded four deaths, three casualties were reported from Hazaribag while two deaths each were reported from Godda, Lohardaga and Simdega.

    Dhanbad, Dumka, Garhwa, Khunti, Koderma, Palamu and West Singhbhum recorded one death each.

    No deaths have been reported from nine of the 24 districts in the state during the last 24 hours.

    The nine districts are Chatra, Deoghar, Giridih, Gumla, Jamtara, Latehar, Pakur, Sahebganj and Saraikela.

    A look at the health bulletin of the state suggests that prominent cities of Jharkhand like Ranchi, East Singhbhum with headquarter at Jamshedpur, Bokaro and Hazaribag are witnessing high COVID-19 cases.

    Relatively backward districts including Dumka, Garhwa, Giridih, Gumla, Koderma, Latehar and Pakur are logging a lesser number of infections.

    The coronavirus caseload has climbed to 3,29,072 in Jharkhand with 2,037 new cases, the bulletin said.

    The mineral-rich state now has 22,566 active cases, while 3,01,705 patients have recovered from the infection, it said.

    Battling a sharp surge in COVID-19 cases during the second wave, the state government has extended the lockdown till May 27.

    Altogether, 80,59,453 samples have been tested for COVID- 19 in Jharkhand thus far, including 58,347 since Saturday, it added. The mortality rate in the state remained higher at 1.45 per cent as against the nation’s 1.10 per cent.

    In a bid to protect its citizens from the deadly disease, Jharkhand government has constituted block level task forces besides launching a free vaccination drive for people in the age group of 18 to 44 years on May 14.

    Over 1.57 crore people in the state are in the 18-44 years age bracket.

    The state government could not roll out the inoculation drive for these people from May 1 as it was facing a shortage of vaccines.

  • MP to give Rs 1 lakh to families which lost near ones to Covid

    By Express News Service
    BHOPAL:  Every family in Madhya Pradesh, which lost one or more members to Covid-19 in the second wave, will get Rs 1 lakh as ex-gratia, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced on Thursday.After a virtual meeting with BJP legislators during his visit to Indore, the CM said: “We tried our best to save the loved ones of every family, but many families lost their members, despite all our efforts.

    Words of sympathy aren’t enough, as they’ve suffered irreparable losses. Every family which lost its member during the second wave will be granted a sum of Rs 1 lakh.” Since March, Madhya Pradesh has officially lost around 3,500 lives to the virus.

    The announcement by Chouhan, makes Madhya Pradesh the second state after Delhi to offer ex-gratia to families which have lost their loved ones. Delhi Chief Minister  Arvind Kejriwal had announced that these families will receive Rs 50,000 each.

    MP has announced other beneficial schemes also. On May 14, the CM had announced a monthly sum of Rs 5,000 for children left orphans by the pandemic. There is also an announcement of free ration, education and interest-free loan to the kin of these children, who would be taking care of them.

  • Three teachers on poll-duty died due to COVID, not 1600: UP Minister’s claim mounts pressure on Yogi govt

    By Express News Service
    BHOPAL: A major controversy has erupted in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh after state’s Primary Education Minister Satish Chandra Dwivedi claimed that just three teachers and not 1600-plus teachers -who were deployed in recent Panchayat poll duties had died of coronavirus.

    On Wednesday, Dwivedi had said, “Some teachers bodies and opposition parties politicians are spreading misinformation about 1600-plus teachers of the Basic Shiksha Parishad having died during the panchayat poll duties. As per the report of the State Election Commission (SEC) only three teachers have died during the panchayat poll duties. The dependents of those teachers will be provided government jobs as well as Rs 30 lakh as compensation.”

    Not only have the UP Prathmik Shikshak Sangh and State Government Employees Association accused the Yogi Adityanath government of concealing the actual death figures of teachers who died of COVID, after being deployed in Panchayat poll duty. And all opposition parties, including SP, BSP and Congress too have slammed the government over the development.

    Sensing the growing pressure by the employees and teachers associations in the matter following threats by them to strike over the government observation, the UP CM Yogi Adityanath directed the state’s chief secretary and the additional chief secretary (ACS-Panchayati Raj) to discuss the matter with the SEC and find ways to compensate teachers and other state government employees, who died of COVID-19, after duties in the panchayat polls.

    “Every death is sad for us and the government is sensitive and committed to the kin of all those employees who lost their lives due to COVID. The government is with the families of all those employees, including teachers, cops and other employees, who either lost lives during the poll duty or else died after being infected with COVID during the poll duties,” the CM said in a official statement issued on Thursday.

    Reacting sharply to the minister’s statements, the Uttar Pradesh Prathmik Shikshak Sangh head, Dinesh Chandra Sharma said that 1,621 teachers and workers of the Basic Education Department have died since the first week of April following the outbreak of the second wave of COVID-19. Of these 1,621 deaths, more than 90 per cent of the teachers were on panchayat election duty. He also demanded Rs 1 crore as compensation to the kin of each of the deceased teachers and state government employees, who died of COVID infection contracted during the poll duty.

    The state basic school teachers’ body head found support from the State Employees Union leader Hari Kishore Tewari, who accused the government of concealing the actual casualty figures. “In the list of Jhansi district only which has been released by DM-Jhansi on May 8, ten deaths were shown in Jhansi alone due to Covid, which proves that the government is lying.”

  • Madhya Pradesh announces Rs one lakh ex-gratia for kin of COVID-19 victims during second wave

    By Express News Service
    BHOPAL: Every family in Madhya Pradesh, which lost its member due to COVID-19 in the pandemic’s second wave, will get Rs one Lakh as ex-gratia sum, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced on Thursday.

    Holding a virtual meeting with BJP legislators during his visit to Indore, the CM announced that kin of all COVID victims in pandemic’s second wave in the state will be rendered Anugraha Rashi (ex-gratia) sum of Rs one lakh.

    “We tried our best to save the loved ones of every family, but many families lost their members, despite all our efforts. Words of sympathy aren’t enough for such families, as they’ve suffered irreparable loss. So every family which lost its member due to the deadly viral infection during the pandemic’s second wave will be granted Rs one lakh ex-gratia sum,” Chouhan announced.

    Since March this year, when the second wave of the pandemic hit MP, the state has officially lost around 3500 lives due to the killer viral infection.

    This announcement by Chouhan makes MP second only to Delhi to announce ex-gratia to families who lost their loved ones to the current wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Two days back, the Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had announced that every family that has had a death due to COVID-19 second wave will get Rs Rs 50,000 as ex-gratia.

    On May 14, he had announced Rs 5,000 monthly sum for all COVID-19 orphaned kids, besides announcing free ration and free education and interest free loan to their kin for bringing their life back on track.

    Three days later, Chouhan had announced twin schemes for families of government employees killed by COVID pandemic’s second wave. He had announced government jobs for one family member of each government employee who died due to COVID and also announced Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia sum to be payable to every such deceased government employee.

    Meanwhile, the state officially reported 4952 fresh COVID cases (lowest single day spike in last 41 days), 88 deaths and 9746 recoveries during the last 24 hours. The day’s positivity rate too declined on Thursday to 6.3%, which was the lowest single day positivity rate in the last 65 days.

  • COVID-19: 238 deaths take Uttar Pradesh’s toll to 18,590; case tally at 16,51,532

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday said the number of active COVID-19 cases in the state has come down by over 62 per cent since its peak on April 30.

    The state in the past 24 hours has recorded 238 fresh deaths, which took the toll to 18,590, while 6,725 new cases pushed the tally to 16,51,532, Aditional Chief Secretary, Health, Amit Mohan Prasad, told reporters.

    In the same time period, 13,590 people recovered from the disease, the official said.

    “The recovery rate of the state is improving. It is now 91.8 per cent. The active cases in the state in past 20 days have come down by 62.5 per cent,” he said.

    On April 30, there were 3,10,783 active cases which have now come down to 1,16,434, Prasad said.

    “Currently, there are 1,16,434 active cases in the state and 15,16,508 people have recovered from COVID-19. Among the active cases, 82,801 are in home isolation,” he said.

    Of the fresh deaths, the highest 21 was reported from Lucknow, 16 from Varanasi , 15 from Ghazipur, 12 from Agra, 11 each from Kanpur and Meerut, and nine from Gorakhpur, a health bulletin issued here said.

    As far as fresh cases are concerned, the highest 442 was reported from Meerut, 381 from Varanasi, 364 from Ghaziabad, 331 from Gorakhpur, 353 from Lucknow, it said.

    Prasad said 2.91 lakh COVID-19 tests were conducted on Wednesday and so far, over 4.58 crore tests have been conducted in the state. He said under the anti-coronavirus vaccination drive, over 1.56 crore doses have been administered. More than 1.23 crore people have got their first dose and over 33 lakh their second dose, he added.

    Prasad said that due to the trace, test and treat policy, surveillance and enforcement of COVID-19 appropriate behaviour cases are coming down in the state.

    In 32 per cent of the villages in the state the COVID infection has spread.

    The state government is actively involved in distributing medical kits in both rural and urban areas, he said.

  • Covid-19 death rates similar globally, lowest in India: Study

    Express News Service
    BENGALURU: Despite the mayhem caused by the second wave of the pandemic and India’s unpreparedness to respond to the unprecedented surge, the death rate from Covid-19 is “very similar across countries, with India still among the lowest,” according to Dr Shiv Narayan Nishad from CSIR-National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies, New Delhi, and Prof Prashant Goswami, Institute of Frontier Science and Applications (IFSA), Bengaluru. Their findings have been published in a scientific paper they have co-authored and is available as a preprint in ‘The Lancet’, the prestigious international science journal.

    The paper – ‘A Comparative and Evidence-Based Assessment of COVID-19 Response in India’ is an “evidence-based analysis using public domain data from global platforms like WHO, as well as a couple of other international sources on high degrees of similarities in regional structures. Also, the death rates were found to be very similar (about 2 per cent of the confirmed cases), in spite of a wide range of health care practices across the world,” Goswami told The New Indian Express. The two scientists and co-authors have re-examined this issue in view of the second Covid-19 wave.

    Recently, there have been a lot of discussions in India as well as in international media regarding the severity of the second wave of Covid in India, and India’s presumed failure to respond to it. “While better foresight, stricter preventive measures and higher efficiency in vaccination are undoubtedly required, it is worthwhile to compare India’s performance in a global context to learn valuable lessons as well as to avoid loss of morale due to thoughtless analysis,” said Goswami.

    To begin with, Covid-19 is considered to spread through agent-based (through people-to-people contact) transmissions. Thus, a logical analysis should consider the cases per capita (like per million) of population. Actual numbers hide the fact that a country may be dealing with 10 times more population (and hence contacts) than a country, but is still lower on Covid cases or deaths, the study says.

    The epochal behavior of Covid, in terms of daily new cases, with two, somewhat separate, major peaks (with a much higher second peak) is very characteristic for the US and the UK. India has followed a similar pattern, but with a lag of about 90 days, and with much smaller per million cases till now. It was also pointed out that the initial growth of the pandemic, (normalised 15-day epochal linear trend), was very similar across the world. However, with the availability of data on the second wave, and post March, 2020, a number of interesting features have emerged, which can aid preventive preparedness and planning

    Perhaps the most significant feature is that in spite of wide variations in types of response and the efficiency of health care set-up across different countries, the death rate from Covid-19 is very similar across countries, with India still among the lowest! While the issue of underreporting of cases/deaths may remain, an analysis of cases and deaths as percentage of tests carried out also show a similar scenario, although there is an increase in death rate as percentage of tests in India in the past weeks (becoming comparable to that of the US), the study points out.

    It would be logical to expect that countries with supposedly better healthcare and distribution facilities would have smaller per million cases as well as deaths. However, international data shows that the performance in India, both in terms of number of cases (prevention) and deaths (cure) remain among the best in the world. While this cannot be any reason for complacence, it does put the issue in a more logical perspective. After all, Covid-19 being a novel pandemic, its patterns of growth and spread are still emerging. Thus, the emergence or the severity of the second Covid-19 wave was not predicted or anticipated by the agencies concerned, nationally or internationally, the analysis says.

    Going by the global patterns, the second wave  should subside by May-end if the preventive measures are carefully followed. However, the possibility of a third wave cannot be ruled out; an important and urgent preparatory measure would be to complete the vaccination of the population in the next three months, it stressed.(More details: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3618307..and also at WHO website https://pesquisa.bvsalud.org/global-literature-on-novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov/resource/en/ppcovidwho-1748)

  • Health experts warn India’s COVID-19 death toll may continue to rise for another week

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: India on Wednesday reported the highest number of COVID-19 deaths, with the official figure spiking to 4,529, although the number of fresh positive cases has dropped in the last few days.

    Health experts that ANI spoke with stated that the trend may continue to rise for another week at least before the numbers start settling down in proportion to the number of daily cases.Experts highlighted that the severity of the infection that is directly affecting the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in a very short span, especially the oxygen parameters, is responsible for deaths in the second wave.

    While in the first wave of COVID-19 that forced the country to rethink its health infrastructure, its functioning was still limited to the urban population majorly.

    However, since the second wave hit, variants of COVID-19 spread in rural India have upscaled the death toll massively. The reason, as per health experts, isthe severity of the infection followed by inadequate health infrastructure.

    Although cases pan-India are showing a downward trend with 2,67,334 positive cases as per the official data of the Union Health Ministry, the number of deaths remains a concern.

    While speaking on the death toll, Dr VK Monga, public health expert said, “It is true that the total number of cases of Covid-19 and positivity rate have declined in the last 10 days or so but the number of deaths are still very high. It is because a large number of patients are still admitted in ICU in various hospitals and because of medical interventions (many may be on rigorous life support) they may survive for many days. However, because of the complications of Covid-19 and prolonged stay in hospitals, they may lose the battle, thus resulting in increased figures of death.”

    Dr Monga also specifically stressed that the trend may continue for another week or so before settling down in proportion to the number of daily cases.

    Dr Suresh Kumar, Director of Delhi Government’s Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital said, “This is a matter of concern because we have seen this for the first time. In Delhi, the death toll is coming down but if we see in other states death tolls are escalating. There are overall 4,000 deaths in India, which is a matter of concern and in this wave that we are seeing more severe cases.”

    “If we compare with last year, the oxygen level of patients is dropping to 60 per cent to 70 per cent on an average. We have also seen patients dying while on their way to the hospital. We have seen severe patients who were brought to the hospital when his/her oxygen level is dipping down and are in need of ICU beds immediately and all these are directly responsible for the higher death toll,” Dr Kumar added.

    Maharashtra tops the chart of registering the maximum number of deaths with a total of 83,777, followed by Karnataka which has recorded as many as 22,838 COVID-19 deaths since the onset of the pandemic last year. Delhi and Tamil Nadu are next on the list with 22,111 and 18,369 deaths reported due to the pandemic.

    Meanwhile, Dr Rajiv Parakh, Chairman Vascular Surgery, Medanta said, “There are more than 4,000 reported deaths taking place and of course there are many more who have not even tested and passed away. The death rate in the second wave is high because this time it has struck a large number of population.”

    Dr Parakh also stressed that “the intensity and the mutation capacity have properly been responsible for the severity. Last time the virus was not as severe and virulent compare to the second wave”.

    Doctors alerted that patients or families should never start any treatment on their own and once the oxygen level drops below 92 per cent, one should immediately get admitted to the hospital or consult an expert.

    The death toll is on a continuous rise with each day breaking the last day’s record. On May 18, the death toll reached 4,329, marking it as highest till the death toll reached 4,529 on Wednesday. On May 15, 16 and 17 reported deaths figures were 4,077, 4,098, and 4,334 respectively.

    According to the official data released by the Union Health Ministry, India’s cumulative death toll is 2,83,248 with 32,26,719 active COVID-19 cases.

  • COVID-19: Record 4,529 fatalities in single day in country, 2.67 lakh fresh cases reported

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: India saw record 4,529 fatalities due to coronavirus in a single day pushing the COVID-19 death toll to 2,83,248, while 2,67,334 fresh infections were recorded taking the total tally of cases to 2,54,96,330, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday.

    The active cases have further reduced to 32,26,719 comprising 12.66 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 86.23 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.

    The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,19,86,363 while the case fatality rate has increased to 1.11 per cent, the data stated.

    India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.

    It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

    India crossed the grim milestone of 2 crore on May 4.

    According to the ICMR, 32,03,01,177 samples have been tested up to May 18 with 20,08,296 samples being tested on Tuesday.