News Analysis India

Tag: COVID19

  • COVID-positive prisoner escapes from hospital in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district

    By PTI
    DIPHU: A prisoner, undergoing treatment for COVID-19 at the Diphu Medical College and Hospital in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district, escaped, police said on Saturday. The prisoner was admitted to the COVID ward of the hospital on Thursday afternoon after he tested positive, they said.

    He escaped from the hospital on Friday night, they added. He was arrested on June 12 from Matipung in the Diphu police station area after huge quantities of drugs were seized from him. He was in judicial custody.

    A massive hunt was launched by the police to nab the prisoner.

  • COVID-19: With surge in Delta Plus cases, Maharashtra not to ease restrictions immediately

    Express News Service
    MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government issued fresh guidelines on Friday, warning local authorities not to ease restrictions immediately, following fears of a possible third wave and the spread of the Delta Plus variant.

    State chief secretary Sitaram Kunte, while issuing new guidelines, said the threat of the pandemic persists as deadlier variants are being reported. The state has so far reported 21 Delta Plus cases – nine in Ratnagiri and the rest from Jalgaon, Palghar and other districts.

    “We need to impose stringent restrictions to curb the spread,” he said, adding that given the mutations in the virus and its ongoing evolution, it is likely that more serious situations will arise in the near future. 

    The order said that while easing restrictions, weekly positivity index and percentage of oxygen-powered beds should be considered. “Weekly positivity rate should be determined on the basis of RT-PCR tests only,” read the order. 

    Local administrations have been told to accelerate vaccination through public awareness activities. “Every effort should be made to complete the vaccination of at least 70 per cent of the eligible people as soon as possible. Besides, test-track-treat method should be adopted as much as possible to prevent the spread of COVID,” he added.

  • Oxygen task force advocates for authorities maintaining ‘strategic reserves’ to handle COVID spike

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Proposing an equitable formula for managing oxygen supply, the Supreme Court-constituted National Task Force (NTF) stressed that authorities must maintain strategic reserves for 2-3 weeks, like it is done for fuel by petrol stations, to manage the surge in COVID-19 cases in future.

    NTF said a 100-bed hospital should be allocated about 1.5 metric tonnes of liquid medical oxygen every day. Meanwhile, a committee constituted to see oxygen supply stated that Delhi needed about 300 MT at that time, but the Delhi government raised the demand to 1200 MT.

    ALSO READ| Delhi made exaggerated claims for Oxygen using wrong formula: Sub-group to SC

    The oxygen audit report further said due to Delhi’s excessive demand, 12 other states had to face a shortage as supply was diverted to Delhi.

    The task force suggested measures to be taken to prevent a repeat of the crisis. The 12-member NTA lauded the Central government’s efforts, saying it took proactive steps last year to control the spread of the pandemic.The task force suggested oxygen monitoring committees be set up in every hospital.

    Further, monitoring teams should be available to ensure proper assessment of need as per hospital protocol. The NTF was constituted to devise a formula oxygen allocation, after Delhi disputed the Centre’s methods.

    “The formula needs to be developed for the calculation of oxygen requirement for the primary, secondary, and tertiary-level hospitals based on the number of Oxygen beds and ICU beds,” it said. For a 100-bed hospital with 25% ICU beds, the report stated that its daily requirement should be 1.5 MT.

  • Test-track-treat and vaccinate: Centre asks states to ensure ‘carefully calibrated’ lockdown opening

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: The Centre on Saturday asked the states and union territories to ensure the easing of COVID-related lockdown and opening up of activities in a “calibrated manner”, pointing out that the easing of norms has led to crowding in some markets and other places.

    The Home Ministry urged states to ensure the “extremely important” five-fold strategy of COVID-appropriate behaviour, test-track-treat and vaccination to break the chain of transmission. In a letter to the states, Union home secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla emphasised the need to continue adopting COVID-appropriate behaviour to contain the spread of the pandemic.

    Asking the state chief secretaries and administrators of UTs to step up the pace of vaccination, to cover the maximum number of people expeditiously, Bhalla said vaccination against Covid-19, in the present scenario, is critical to breaking the chain of transmission.

    The home secretary said during the second wave, a significant surge in cases was witnessed in several states and UTs, and many of them imposed restrictions to contain the spread of the infection. “With a decline in the number of active cases, many states and UTs have started relaxing restrictions. I would like to highlight that the decision to impose or ease restrictions has to be taken, based on the assessment of the situation at the ground level,” Bhalla said, in the letter to states and UTs.

    “While opening up, it would be extremely important to follow the five-fold strategy of Covid appropriate behaviour, test-track-treat and vaccination,” he said. Bhalla said regular monitoring of appropriate behaviour is required to prevent relapse.

    “A system should be in place at the microlevel to ensure that whenever cases rise in a smaller place, it gets checked there itself, through local containment measures as per the guidelines issued by the Health Ministry,” the advisory added.

  • Haryana is worst performer during COVID-19 vaccine decentralisation

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: A day before the Centre takes full control of vaccination from the states, which were allotted 25 per cent vaccines under the previous policy, The New Indian Express analysed the data available on CoWin app to check how the states have performed in inoculating beneficiaries over the past 51 days.

    On May 1, the Centre had modified the vaccine procurement policy when it had asked states to procure the doses from the open market to vaccinate the 18-44 year age group. The worst performer in this respect turned out to be Haryana where only 50,336 people had received their second dose, out of a total of 25,351,462 population, as per the latest data available on June 19.

    It means only 0.19 per cent of Haryana’s population had been fully vaccinated. The second-worst performer was Himachal Pradesh where of a population of 68.64 lakh people, only 18,303 people had been given their second dose, which is only 0.26 per cent of its population.

    Third from the bottom of the list was Tripura, where only 1.45 per cent of people had received their second dose. The best performing states or UTs were Ladakh, with a total population of nearly 2.74 lakh, where 13.66 per cent people had been fully vaccinated followed by Lakshwadeep whose 11.07 per cent population, of 64,473, had received its second dose.

    Among all the states and UTs, Kerala was at the top of the list, with nearly 14 per cent of its population fully vaccinated. Of the state’s 1.74 crore people, 24.22 lakh had been given their second dose of vaccines.

    Delhi, given its population being similar to Kerala’s, also was among the top performers. Of its population of nearly 1.67 crore, over 15.69 lakh people had been administered their second dose. In other words, 9.35 per cent of its total population had been vaccinated fully.

    Among the states with substantial populations, over 5 crore, Gujarat seems to have done better than the others. Nearly 47.69 lakh doses had been administered to its population of nearly 6.03 crore people, resulting in 7.89 per cent of its population being fully vaccinated.

    It was followed by Karnataka, 5.22 per cent of whose population had received both doses. In none of the remaining states were even 5 per cent of people found to be fully vaccinated. On June 7, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a centralised vaccine drive saying that the Centre will procure 25 per cent vaccines that were to be done by states.

    “The Centre has decided to buy 75 per cent of jabs from vaccine makers, including 25 per cent of the state quota, and give it for free t o state governments,’ PM Modi said in an address to the nation.

  • Active cases of COVID-19 dip below 100 in 22 districts of Rajasthan

    Express News Service
    JAIPUR: In a big respite for Rajasthan, 22 out of 33 districts are now on the threshold of becoming coronavirus-free as the number of active cases has slipped below 100-mark. In 29 districts, the number of positive cases was recorded below 10.

    On May 2, the maximum number of 18,298 COVID cases were reported, but on June 19, only 150 new infections were recorded. There has been a major decline in the number of active cases (3,783) in the state as well.

    The data shows that in 47 days, cases have come down by 122 times. The number of deaths has also dropped, indicating that the second wave is ebbing. On May 11, the maximum number of 169 deaths were recorded in the state, whereas on Friday, only nine deaths were reported in four districts – a decrease by 19 times in 38 days.

    The data of Covid situation for May and June indicate that on May 11, the state saw the peak of the second wave and there was a decline in the number of fresh cases, active cases and deaths. There is a major drop in cases in Jaipur, Jodhpur, Alwar, Hanumangarah and Udaipur which had become COVID hotspots. On Friday, only 25 new cases were recorded in the state capital, while it did not report any deaths. Four fatalities were recorded in Udaipur followed by Hanumangrah where three died.

    The 10 districts that have over 100 active cases are Ajmer, Alwar, Barmer, Bikaner, Sri Ganganagar, Hanumangarh, Jaipur, Jhunjhunu, Jodhpur, and Sikar. State Medical and Health Minister Dr Raghu Sharma said to reduce the impact of the second wave in rural areas, a door-to-door survey was conducted by the Health Department and kits were also distribut edt opatients with Influenza-like illnesses.

  • Over 5500 ventilators lying unused in different states; Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka biggest defaulters

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: 

    An 85-year-old senior doctor, JK Mishra, at Swarup Rani Nehru Hospital in Prayagraj (UP) lost his life on April 26 after he was unable to find a ventilator bed at the hospital where he had served for 50 years.

    In Palanpur town of Banaskantha district of Gujarat, Dr Naresh Shah, 79, died on April 22 as his family members could not find a ventilator bed.

    Renowned Hindustani classical vocalist Pt Rajan Mishra died of COVID-19 complications at a hospital in Delhi on April 26. His son claimed that the family had been desperately hunting for a ventilator “but nobody supported us” and by the time the PMO reached out, “he had left us”.

    Short supply of ventilators during the peak of the second wave of COVID-19 cost numerous lives. But even as patients suffered due to lack of critical life-saving medical equipment, hundreds of machines delivered to various states were lying unused.

    Till the end of May, over 5,500 ventilators were gathering dust in storerooms in various states, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has informed in its reply to a query filed by The New Indian Express under the Right of Information (RTI) Act. The reply revealed a substantial gap between the number of ventilators ordered, delivered and installed in hospitals across the country.

    As per the reply, the ministry ordered 60,559 ventilators from different manufacturers, of which 46,511 were allocated to states. Rest were for Central government hospitals. According to the ministry, 45,191 ventilators were delivered, of which 39,640 were installed by states till May 25, leaving 5,551 unused.

    Unused ventilators pile up: Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat among biggest defaulters

    Amid reports of dire paucity of ventilators even as positive cases were recording massive daily spikes during April-May, there were sharp exchanges between the Centre and some Congress-ruled states over shortage as well as faulty machines being delivered.

    On April 11, the Union health secretary had written a letter to some states, including Punjab, to act on the ventilators lying idle in their possession. “Noncommissioning of the ventilators defeats the purpose” of fighting the pandemic, he said in his letter to Punjab chief secretary Viny Mahajan.

    According to the RTI reply, however, it was BJP-ruled UP, Karnataka and Gujarat where the maximum number of ventilators were lying unutilised. Of the total 5,116 machines delivered to Uttar Pradesh, 4,010 were up and running till May-end while 1,106 were still to be installed.

    Gujarat and Karnataka recorded delivery of 5,600 and 2,913 ventilators, of which they installed 4,991 and 2,004, respectively. That means, over 900 ventilators in Karnataka and over 600 in Gujarat were lying idle.

    On the contrary, Congress-ruled Punjab and Rajasthan had only 56 and 29 idle ventilators, respectively. Among opposition-ruled states, Jharkhand was the biggest defaulter with only 461 of the total 1,210 ventilators installed.

    In Madhya Pradesh, even as patients were in desperate need of ventilator beds, the state government told the high court earlier this month that 204 ventilators were kept in storeroom as “backup”. During the peak of the second wave in May, Punjab and Rajasthan governments had alleged that the ventilators supplied to them under PM-CARES were found to be “defective and sub-standard” by hospitals that used them.

    There were dozens of reports from other states, including Maharashtra, too, about hundreds of machines lying defunct as they were faulty. In many cases, the devices were unpacked because the hospital lacked trained healthcare professionals to operate them.

    Regarding a query on non-functional ventilators or ventilators returned to manufacturers, the health ministry in its RTI said “the information is not available centrally”. It disclosed that it had ordered a performance audit after receiving complaints.

    “After some reports of ventilators lying unutilised in some States, the ministry ordered to carry out a performance audit of installation/commissioning and operation of ventilators provided by the Centre to States/UTs,” said the RTI reply. There was also a huge difference in the prices of ventilators purchased by the government from different companies.

    While 30,000 machines were ordered from Bharat Electronics at Rs 5,04,640 per unit, 9,500 units were ordered from AMTZ (Basic) at the rate of Rs 1,66,376 per piece. Allied Medical supplied 350 equipment at Rs 8,62,400 per unit.

    About 1,000 ventilators were procured from Sinopharm at Rs 10,89,500 per unit and 771 units were ordered from Hamilton at Rs 10,32,400 per piece while 15 nits purchased from Draeger cost Rs 17 lakh each.

  • DPIIT Secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra dies of COVID-related complications

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Secretary in the Department of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Guruprasad Mohapatra died of COVID-19 related complications on Saturday. “Extremely saddened to hear about the loss of Dr. Guruprasad Mohapatra, Secretary DPIIT. His long-standing service and dedication to the Nation have left a lasting impact. I convey my deepest sympathies to his family and friends,” Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said in a tweet.

    Extremely saddened to hear about the loss of Dr. Guruprasad Mohapatra, Secretary DPIIT.His long-standing service and dedication to the Nation have left a lasting impact. I convey my deepest sympathies to his family and friends.ॐ शांति pic.twitter.com/JFwZJFDE1b
    — Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) June 19, 2021

    Mohapatra was admitted to AIIMS in mid-April. Prior to taking over as DPIIT secretary in August 2019, Mohapatra served as chairman of the Airports Authority of India (AAI). He was a Gujarat cadre 1986-batch IAS officer.

    He had earlier served as joint secretary in the Department of Commerce. At the state level, he held the portfolio of Municipal Commissioner in Surat, Gujarat.

  • Sonia Gandhi has taken second dose of COVID vaccine, government should inoculate all: Congress

    Several BJP leaders have raised questions over the Gandhis #39; vaccinations and accused them and the party of creating #39;vaccine hesitancy #39; in the country.

  • India adds 67,208 fresh cases of COVID-19 in 24 hours, active cases decline to lowest after 71 days

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: A single day rise of 67,208 new coronavirus infections were recorded taking India’s total tally of COVID-19 cases to 2,97,00,313, while the active cases declined to 8,26,740, the lowest after 71 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.

    The COVID-19 death toll climbed to 3,81,903 with 2,330 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed The active cases declined to 8,26,740 comprising 2.78 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 95.93 per cent.

    A net decline of 38,692 cases has been recorded in the COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. As many as 19,31,249 tests were conducted on Wednesday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 38,52,38,220.

    The daily positivity rate was recorded 3.48 per cent. It has been less than 5 per cent for 10 consecutive days, the ministry said, adding the weekly positivity rate has declined to 3.99 per cent. Recoveries continue to outnumber daily new cases for the 35th consecutive day.

    The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,84,91,670, while the case fatality rate has increased to 1.29 per cent, the data stated. Cumulatively, 26,55,19,251 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far under the Nationwide Vaccination Drive.

    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.