News Analysis India

Tag: COVID19

  • How celebrities, politicians are getting COVID-19 drugs?: HC asks Maharashtra government, Centre

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed the Maharashtra government and the Centre to file affidavits explaining how celebrities and politicians were procuring anti-COVID-19 drugs, medical oxygen and other relief materials for coronavirus patients.

    A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni had asked for such details last week as well from the the Maharashtra government and the Centre, who faced flak during hearing for non-compliance of previous orders.

    However, on Wednesday the state government submitted a report merely saying it had served show cause notices (on procuring COVID-19 relief materials) to Mumbai Congress MLA Zeeshan Siddique and the Sood Charity Foundation (an NGO of actor Sonu Sood), but was yet to receive their replies.

    Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh told the HC the Union government had not filed any report since procurement and distribution of Remdesivir (a key COVID-19 drug) and medical oxygen, among other items, were the prerogative of a state and the Centre merely allocated such resources to states based on the latter’s demands.

    The bench took an exception to the responses of the state government and the Centre (represented by Singh). The HC said it had expected better replies and compliance of its previous orders from both the respondents.

    “These persons (celebrities) have no licence (to procure COVID-19 drugs, medical oxygen), who will take the guarantee? There should have been a report. You (the state government)) have only issued show cause notices, we said place a report on this. We are not happy with this,” the HC said.

    The bench said its primary concern was that the needy must not miss out on getting relief since all were not in a position to make appeals on social media. “Who will guarantee that drugs being given by these personalities are of proper quality?” the HC said.

    “The allocation is by UOI (Union of India), collection is by State, then where is the window for collection or procurement by these personalities? That is our anxiety,” the bench observed. The HC directed the state and the Centre to file their detailed reply affidavits by next week.

    It also directed the Maharashtra government to submit details on the requirements for medical oxygen (needed to treat serious COVID-19 patients) and Remdesivir, among other items, across the state, the supplies it was receiving from the Centre and other entities.

    The HC was hearing a bunch of public interest litigations (PILs) on the management of issues connected to the COVID-19 pandemic. It also praised the model devised by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to tackle the infection spread, procure, produce and store oxygen, and anti-COVID-19 drugs.

    Senior Counsel Anil Sakhare, who appeared for the BMC, told the bench that the civic body was making arrangements for vaccinating citizens and improving paediatrics health infrastructure in Mumbai (in view of a possible third COVID-19 wave).

    He said the BMC had invited a global expression of interest for procuring 1 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines. “Bombay (Mumbai) corporation has had unique vision since ages,” the HC said. The court will continue hearing the PILs on May 25.

  • Impressed with Bihar’s HIT COVID App, PM Narendra Modi seeks details for countrywide use

    By PTI
    PATNA: An innovative Home Isolation Tracking (HIT) App developed by the Bihar government to keep an eye on the condition of COVID patients recuperating at their residence has drawn special praise from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

    Modi came to know about the HIT App while talking to Patna district magistrate Chandrasekhar Singh during an interaction with officials of several districts of nine states on Tuesday. Impressed with the concept, the prime minister ordered to send its details to the union health ministry for its utilisation across the country, Singh said.

    “The health department has sent one-page detail of the HIT COVID App to the union health ministry,” Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Pratyaya Amrit told PTI on Wednesday. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had launched the “HIT COVID App” on Monday to reach out to coronavirus patients undergoing treatment for the deadly disease in home isolation.

    As part of the project, health workers at the grassroot level visit patients in home isolation to record their temperature and oxygen level on a daily basis and the data is fed to the App. Based on the information, necessary action is taken by the health department for the ailing persons.

    The HIT App has been developed by the Bihar State Electronics Development Corporation (BELTRON) under the guidance of the health department. Amrit said the App was initially launched in five districts on a trial basis and seeing its success, it has been expanded across the state.

    A nodal officer has been appointed in every district, where a special team has been constituted for better upkeep of home quarantined sufferers.

    As part of the exercise, 80,000 ASHA or Auxiliary Nurse Midwife workers and 15,000 rural health workers trained by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) have been engaged for a door-to-door survey of COVID patients in home isolation, the additional chief secretary added.

    NIOS is an autonomous body which functions under the guidance of the union ministry of education. It provides a number of vocational, life enrichment and community oriented courses besides general and academic courses at secondary and senior secondary level.

    Amrit said the scheme helped in identifying two critically ill COVID patients in Supaul district, who were provided timely medicare against the virus. “The App is a big help in fighting the COVID spread in rural areas of Bihar for more effective day-to-day monitoring of COVID patients,” Amrit said.

    About the rural health workers roped in as foot soldiers in the fight against the pandemic, NIOS Director Sanjay Kumar Sinha told PTI over phone from Delhi that they have been given a crash course for one year by MBBS doctors.

    He said that those enrolled in the one-year course were imparted classes in the treatment of basic health problems in Primary Health Centres. Sinha said the project was launched in Bihar in 2015 when he was posted as Regional Director of NIOS at Patna.

    Over 15,000 in Bihar have cleared the examination conducted by the NIOS and they have been given a certificate of community health worker, he said. Sinha, however, said that these community health workers are strictly directed to provide basic medical assistance to the needy only and help them reach a hospital if the problem is serious.

  • Maligning image of Kumbh, Hinduism with toolkit’s help a ‘political conspiracy, says Ramdev

    By ANI
    HARIDWAR: Yoga Guru Ramdev on Wednesday alleged that there is an attempt to maligning the Kumbh and Hinduism with the help of a toolkit and termed it as a “political conspiracy”. This comes a day after BJP accused Congress of designing a toolkit to malign Kumbh as a “super spreader” COVID-19 event.

    Ramdev, in a video message, urged the people to boycott “such power” who are against the country. “Maligning the image of Kumbh and Hinduism with the help of a toolkit is a political conspiracy. I request people, who are politicising the matter, do whatever you want to do but do not disrespect 100 crore Hindus. This is disgusting. I urge people to boycott such power who are against the country,” the Yoga Guru said.

    Earlier in the day, Acharya Mahamandaleshwar of Juna Akhara Swami Avdheshanand Giri Maharaj urged people not to politicise the Kumbh. He alleged that the culture, rituals, faith and traditions of the nation are being tarnished in a “well-planned manner”.

    The BJP had on Tuesday alleged that the toolkit has instructions for social media volunteers of Congress to call the new COVID-19 mutant as “Indian strain” or “Modi strain” against the World Health Organization (WHO)’s instructions.

    The first Shahi Snan of Kumbh was held on March 11 on the occasion of Mahashivratri, while the second and third were held on April 12 and 14. The last snan took place on April 27. The duration of the Kumbh has been shortened to 30 days this year due to the ongoing COVID pandemic.

  • 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.

  • Expedite COVID vaccination drive: Indian Medical Association president Dr JA Jayalal

    By ANI

    KANNYAKUMARI: The Indian Medical Association (IMA) President Dr JA Jayalal on Wednesday called for speeding up the COVID vaccination drive and warned about the threat of a third wave as the majority of the country’s population is not vaccinated.

    Dr Jayalal said, “COVID-19 is ransacking the country, the number of cases is rising in the southern states with many people struggling to get oxygen support, hospital beds and drugs. The death toll is also on the rise. The only way forward is vaccination. If we’re not pushing for mass vaccination, it’s not safe to face the third wave that is bound to occur. Mass vaccination has to be done. Centre must procure a maximum number of vaccines, decentralise even to an extent of the door to door vaccination.”

    “We should expedite the process and within a few months we should complete our target of 60-70 per cent vaccination,” he said reminding that only 18.5 crores of people have been vaccinated and that India should get 70 to 80 crores of people vaccinated to achieve herd immunity.

    “There is conflict as to when should people recovering from COVID get vaccinated. Making them wait for 6 months is a threat for them, exposing them to the virus,” the IMA president said adding that, “Government should reconsider it with scientific evidence and come out with the objective that everyone in this country should get vaccinated at the earliest. So that we will be able to have a COVID-free India in near future.”

    India recorded the highest single-day COVID-19 fatalities with 4,529 new deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry’s data on Wednesday. Meanwhile, India’s daily coronavirus cases remained below the 3 lakh mark for the third consecutive day as only 2,67,334 fresh infections were recorded during a 24-hour period.

  • Rajasthan BJP MLA Gautam Lal Meena dies of COVID, CM Ashok Gehlot expresses condolences

    By ANI
    DHARIAWAD: BJP MLA from Dhariawad constituency, Gautam Lal Meena passed away at a hospital where he was undergoing treatment for COVID-19 on Wednesday. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot condoled Meena’s demise.

    धरियावद (प्रतापगढ़) से भाजपा विधायक श्री गौतमलाल मीणा के कोरोना संक्रमण से असामयिक निधन की जानकारी बेहद दुखद है। ईश्वर से प्रार्थना है कि शोकाकुल परिजनों, स्व. श्री मीणा के समर्थकों तथा मित्रों को यह आघात सहने की शक्ति दें एवं दिवंगत आत्मा को शांति प्रदान करें। #Rajasthan
    — Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) May 19, 2021

    “The news of untimely demise of MLA Gautam Lal Meena from Dhariawad (Pratapgarh) due to corona infection is very saddening. I pray to god to give the grieving family members, the supportes and friends of Shri Meena the power to bear the brunt and to give the peace to the departed soul. #Rajasthan”, Gehlot tweeted.

    According to the Union Health Ministry, there are 1,59,455 active coronavirus cases in Rajasthan while 7,080 people succumbed to the infection.

  • PIL in SC seeks NIA probe into toolkit on COVID, suspension of political party status for Congress

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed on Tuesday seeking an investigation into toolkit on COVID-19 pandemic by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and suspension of membership of Congress party if the allegations against them are found to be true.

    Lawyer Shashank Shekhar Jha made the Indian National Congress (INC) Party, Union of India (UOI), and Election Commission of India (ECI) as respondents in his PIL before the Apex Court. The petition sought direction to the Central government to register a preliminary inquiry pertaining to the alleged toolkit.

    Jha said that the toolkit matter must be probed to disclose any offence under section 120-B (Criminal Conspiracy) and various other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), and to secure the custody of the said toolkit.

    The PIL also sought a direction to the Election Commission of India to suspend the registration of the Congress, if they are found to be allegedly doing anti-national acts and playing with the lives of the common people and a direction to the Union Government to issue necessary guidelines to each and every political party, group, and individual to stop all kinds of hoardings portraying an anti-national stance.

    Jha, in his PIL further sought necessary direction to the Central government against the usage of photos of funerals, dead bodies, naming of mutant COVID-19 variant after India and its Prime Minister, calling out a single religion for COVID-19.

  • Pune hospital allegedly refuses to release COVID victim’s body due to non-payment of bills, probe on

    By PTI
    PUNE: The Pune district health department on Monday ordered an inquiry against a medical college-cum-hospital in Talegaon Dahbhade over a complaint that it had allegedly held back a COVID-19 victim’s body due to non-payment of bills.

    The district administration has set up an eight-member committee of officials from the district health department, a doctor from BJ Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital, an official from Food and Drug Administration, the District Health Officer and the district surgeon for the probe against the medical college-cum-hospital.

    “A complaint was received from Srirang Barne, Shiv Sena Lok Sabha MP from Maval, that the hospital management had allegedly held back a COVID-19 victim’s body for three days due to bills not being paid. The eight member committee will visit the hospital on Tuesday to probe the complaint,” Ashok Nandapurkar, District Civil Surgeon, who is part of the probe team, said.

    Speaking to PTI, Barne said a poor patient from Maval had succumbed to the infection recently, and despite the medical bill being paid through the Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Jan Arogya Yojana, the hospital’s management demanded more money from the dead man’s kin.

    He said the hospital should have alerted health authorities about the death rather than hold back the body for three days.

  • PM Modi nowhere in sight when needed: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on COVID crisis

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged on Monday that the government has failed to manage the COVID-19 crisis and the prime minister is nowhere to be seen. He also lauded individuals who are helping out people in this crisis and expressed gratitude to them.

    While GOI has failed not just in managing Covid crisis but also in standing with the people, there are numerous individual stories of strength & altruism everyday.Immense gratitude to these heroes dedicated to serving others and showing the world what India truly stands for.
    — Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 17, 2021

    “While GOI has failed not just in managing Covid crisis but also in standing with the people, there are numerous individual stories of strength and altruism every day,” he said on Twitter. “Immense gratitude to these heroes dedicated to serving others and showing the world what India truly stands for,” he also said.

    In another tweet, he took a jibe at the prime minister, drawing a comparison between him and the ventilators provided through PMCARES Fund. “There’s a lot common between PMCares ventilator and the PM himself: – too much false PR, don’t do their respective jobs, nowhere in sight when needed,” he tweeted.

    Some states like Punjab, Rajasthan and Maharashtra have complained that the ventilators provided from PMCARES Fund have not been functioning properly. Gandhi has been critical of the government’s handling of the COVID situation in the country and the shortage of essential medicines and oxygen.

  • Miniscule bleeding, clotting events post COVID-19 vaccination in India: Government panel

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: India has reported 26 potential cases of bleeding and clotting after administration of Covishield vaccine, a government panel investigating adverse events following COVID-19 immunisation has found.

    The Union Health Ministry said in a statement on Monday that over 23,000 adverse events have been reported since the vaccination drive involving Covishield and Covaxin vaccines started in the country and of these 700 cases were reported to be serious.

    The National Adverse Event Following Immunisation committee (AEFI) has completed an in-depth case review of 498 serious and severe events, of which 26 cases have been reported to be potential thromboembolic (formation of a clot in a blood vessel that might also break loose and carried by the blood stream to plug another vessel) events – following administration of Covishield vaccine – “with a reporting rate of 0.61 cases/ million doses”.

    “There were no potential thromboembolic events reported following administration of Covaxin vaccine,” the ministry said.

    As alerts were raised in some countries on post-vaccination “embolic and thrombotic events” on March 11 particularly with AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine (Covishield), a decision was taken to conduct an urgent in-depth analysis of the adverse events (AE) in India in the light of global concerns, the ministry said.

    The National AEFI committee noted that as of April 3, 75,435,381 vaccine doses had been administered (Covishield – 68,650,819; Covaxin – 6,784,562). “Of these, 65,944,106 were first doses and 9,491,275 second dose,” it said in a statement.

    Since the COVID-19 vaccination drive was initiated – more than 23,000 adverse events were reported through the CO-WIN platform reported from 684 of the 753 districts of the country. “Of these, only 700 cases (@ 9.3 cases /million doses administered) were reported to be serious and severe in nature,” the statement said.

    “The AEFI data in India showed that there is a very miniscule but definitive risk of thromboembolic events. The reporting rate of these events in India is around 0.61/million doses, which is much lower than the 4 cases/million reported by UK’s regulator Medical and Health Regulatory Authority (MHRA). Germany has reported 10 events per million doses,” the statement stated.

    Thromboembolic events keep occurring in general population as background and scientific literature suggests that this risk is almost 70 per cent less in persons of South and South East Asian descent in comparison to those from European descent.

    The ministry is separately issuing advisories to healthcare workers and vaccine beneficiaries to encourage people to be aware of suspected thromboembolic symptoms occurring within 20 days after receiving any COVID-19 vaccine (particularly Covishield) and report preferably to the health facility where vaccine was administered.

    The symptoms listed are breathlessness, pain in chest, pain in limbs/pain on pressing limbs or swelling in limbs (arm or calf), multiple, pinhead size red spots or bruising of skin in an area beyond the injection site, persistent abdominal pain with or without vomiting, seizures in the absence of previous history of seizures with or without vomiting, severe and persistent headache with or without vomiting (in the absence of previous history of migraine or chronic headache).

    The symptoms also include weakness or paralysis of limbs or any particular side or part of the body (including face), persistent vomiting without any obvious reason, blurred vision or pain in eyes or having double vision, change in mental status or having confusion or depressed level of consciousness or any other symptom or health condition which is of concern to the recipient or the family.

    The ministry said that Covishield continues to have a definite positive benefit risk profile with tremendous potential to prevent infections and reduce deaths due to COVID-19 across the world and in India.

    Over 13.4 crore doses of Covishield vaccine have been administered as on 27 April in India. The ministry is continuously monitoring the safety of all COVID-19 vaccines and is promoting reporting of suspected adverse events.