News Analysis India

Tag: COVID19

  • Huge tourist inflow caused COVID-19 cases spike in Jammu & Kashmir

    Express News Service
    SRINAGAR: While it was the campaign extravaganza that triggered a case surge in poll-bound states, in Jammu and Kashmir, a huge tourist inflow enamoured by the famed Tulip garden led to 20.34 per cent spike in Kashmir and 26 per cent rise in Srinagar between March 25 and April 25.

    On the day Asia’s biggest Tulip garden in Srinagar was thrown open to public (March 25) after a lockdown-induced hiatus, the Valley registered 131, including Srinagar’s 65 fresh cases. The active case tally in the Valley at that time was 1,209, while Srinagar had only 747. 

    During the one-month period between March 25 and April 25, the Tulip garden registered 2.30 lakh footfalls, including 80,000 outstation tourists. By April 25, when all paid parks, including Tulip garden, were closed, Kashmir’s tally had risen from 76,658 to 96,237 cases, registering an addition of 19,579 cases and accounting for 20.34 per cent of the total cases recorded in the Valley.

    Further, the positivity rate in Srinagar rose 26 per cent between March 25 and April 25, with it adding 10,447 fresh cases to its tally in a month. The city recorded its highest addition of 748 cases on April 25. The Valley recorded 82 deaths during the period, of which 41 were from Srinagar district alone.  

    The doctors and civil society members have attributed the surge in COVID cases to the opening of the gardens.

    Doctors Association Kashmir president and influenza expert, Dr Nisar-ul-Hassan, said: “The authorities kept the gardens open and thousands thronged the gardens daily and it could have been a factor for the surge in the Valley and the eventual rise in hospitalisation and death, too.”

  • May 1 COVID-19 vaccine rollout just not doable

    By Express News Service
    The proposed May 1 launch of the mass vaccination programme for all Indian adults looks doubtful with states not having enough vaccines and a Chief Minister moving the calendar as far ahead as September. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Assam, West Bengal, Punjab, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh have said the inoculation drive may get delayed by weeks or even months.

    Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are trying hard to meet the launch target but there is confusion on availability of the jabs. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday said doses for the 18-45 years age group will be available only after the current inoculation drive for those above 45 years is completed. And, that will be in September.

    According to Jagan, it will take four months to complete vaccinating the youth population, which means they will be fully vaccinated only by the end of January. The situation is no different in other states though most prefer not to give a timeline as to when vaccination for 18- to 44-year-olds can start.

    For example, Kerala, which got 3.5 lakh doses this week and expects another 1 lakh soon, is focusing on inoculating those above 45 years.

    “In government facilities, a decision has been taken to vaccinate the elderly. If we receive more vaccine doses, then arrangements can be made to vaccinate the youth as well. But for now, it is hard,” said a core team member of COVID-19 Task Force. Telangana is also not sure if it can start the programme on Saturday.

    “We do not know how many vaccine doses we will get from the manufacturer. From our end, we expected 10 lakh vaccine doses a day. We will make a proper plan only based on what the manufacturers inform us that they can supply,” said health minister Eatala Rajender.

    The state has 2.5-3 crore people in the 18-44 years age group. BJP-ruled Karnataka has not officially postponed the May 1 rollout date but the state may be able to start only in May second or third week.

    Odisha and Bengal may buck the shortage trend

    “Orders have been placed, so as and when the stocks come, they will be distributed and vaccination will be done,” said Karnataka Chief Secretary P Ravi Kumar. Tamil Nadu’s director of public health Dr TS Selvavinayakam said a high-level committee is working on formulating a plan for the vaccination drive on May 1.

    The state has issued orders to procure 1.5 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccine. Dr Selvavinayakam said the state has 5.83 lakh doses of Covishield and 1.74 lakh doses of Covaxin.

    Flagging the shortage in doses, Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said, “Vaccine for all may not start on May 1 as we are not getting adequate doses. On Wednesday, we got two lakh doses and earlier, we had received 1.5 lakh doses… If we get at least 10 lakh doses of vaccine, then we can start this programme.”

    Perhaps the only exceptions are Odisha and West Bengal. Odisha’s additional chief secretary (health) PK Mohapatra said the state expects at least one lakh doses from Bharat Biotech in the next few days. “Inoculation will remain suspended on May 1 and 2 due to weekly shutdown. We will roll out vaccination for 18 years plus at Bhubaneswar on May 3 if the expected doses arrive.”

    BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh also said it may roll out the programe on May 3 as it expects vaccine doses by then. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee said vaccination for those above 18 years will start from May 5. “We will provide vaccines to eligible recipients according to supply from the manufacturers,” said an official of the state health department.

    Meanwhile, the Centre said 2.15 crore people in the 18- 44 age group have registered on the CoWIN portal.

  • Rural Bengal bears burden of Covid surge

    By Express News Service
    KOLKATA:  The second wave of Covid-19 has hit the rural pockets of Bengal hard, resulting in five to eight times surge in new positive cases compared to last year’s infection rate even at its peak. The biggest contributor to the spike was the electoral extravaganza by political parties, mainly the BJP and TMC, health experts say.

    While admitting that this year’s surge was bigger than last year’s, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently called for sustained efforts to ensure that the infection did not hit the villages. However, at the peak of election campaigning, Modi had addressed 20 major rallies in less than a month in rural Bengal, which now is reeling under an unprecedented surge. 

    According to the records available with the state health department, on October 1, 2020, Birbhum  recorded 94 cases in 24 hours; the relative figure as on April 26 is 704. Similarly, Hooghly’s 24-hour count on October 1 last year was 145, which shot up to 818 in 24 hours on April 26.

    Blaming massive political gatherings of jostling and mask-less people, health experts said: ‘’In the first wave, the infection scenario in rural Bengal was not as grim. In all the rallies and roadshows, Covid-19 safety protocols were grossly flouted. Instead of discouraging people from assembling, all political leaders welcomed the crowds. Political parties’ effort to woo the rural electorate is behind the surge.’’ 

    During the political rallies, aside from the local populace, large hordes of supporters were brought from outside by the parties in a show of strength, contributing to the spread. After the graph started spiraling north, CPM had decided to abstain from organising public rallies. On April 22,  the Election Commission banned roadshows and public rallies with more than 500 people but by then, the damage was done. 

  • Worst month ever: 44% of Chhattisgarh’s total Covid deaths recorded in April

    Express News Service
    RAIPUR: April is not yet over and during the 26 days of the current month, Chhattisgarh, among the worst Covid-19 affected states, has witnessed 3348 fatalities — the highest surge in the casualties amid the raging second wave. The worrying figure makes up for 44.4 percent of the Covid deaths recorded ever since the pandemic started.

    According to data from the state health department, so far 7536 coronavirus-related deaths have been reported in the state. However what emerges as alarming is a significant rise in Covid-19 casualties consistently in April despite the complete lockdown imposed across the state since the second week of the month. The positivity rate in the state is 28 percent.

    The cumulative Covid-19 figure stands at 667446 with the active cases registering a slight depreciation  –from 1.23 lakh three days ago to 1.21 lakh on Monday.

    The recovered Covid patients, including those discharged from hospitals and the home isolation, is 538558.  

    “The high casualty figures in the month of April are indeed worrisome though the new cases of coronavirus infections are witnessing a small decline recently owing to the effect of the lockdown,” Dr Subhash Mishra, spokesperson of the state health department and director (Epidemic Control) told The New Indian Express. 

    He cited the delay in reporting, lack of timely treatment, co-morbidity and changes in the virus variant as factors contributing to the recent spate of high Covid fatalities. 

    According to him, Covid-19 has now gripped the smaller districts that have more rural areas.

    “As such we don’t see much difference between the rural and the urban since the spread now is gradually moving more towards smaller districts where the strict restrictions are apparently less during the ongoing total lockdown besides the continued migration of the villagers across the rural belt,” Dr Mishra added.  

    Raipur, Durg and Bilaspur are the three worst-hit districts reeling under the second wave of coronavirus infections.

  • Former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s niece Karuna Shukla dies of COVID-19

    By Express News Service
    RAIPUR: Senior Congress leader Karuna Shukla (70), niece of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and a two-time Lok Sabha member, died of COVID-19 in Raipur during the wee hours of Tuesday. She had tested positive and was hospitalised in a private hospital in Raipur. Her condition deteriorated on Monday late night.

    Shukla, after having served the BJP for 32 years in different capacities quit the party to join Congress in October 2013 ahead of the Assembly elections after the saffron party allegedly ignored her candidature. She fought her last election on the Congress party ticket against the former CM Raman Singh from Rajnandgaon constituency during the Chhattisgarh Assembly polls 2018 but couldn’t win.

    Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and other senior political leaders of Chhattisgarh have expressed grief at the demise of the Congress veteran leader.

  • Rs 600 per dose for states, Rs 1200 to private hospitals: Bharat Biotech releases rates for Covaxin

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech on Saturday announced that its COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin will cost Rs 600 per dose to state governments and Rs 1200 per dose to private hospitals, two days after its competitor Serum Institute of India declared the rate of Covishield for non-central government channels.

    Covaxin and Covishield are currently two available vaccines for COVID-19 in India.

    SII had said that Covishield will be available to states at Rs 400 per dose and private hospitals at Rs 600 per dose which led to huge criticism as the company has hinted earlier that it was generating normal profit even at Rs 150 per dose, at which it has been supplying the vaccine to the Centre.

    Here is @BharatBiotech ‘s justification for the steep price of Covaxin at Rs 600 per dose to states, Rs 1200 per dose to private hospitals #COVID19 #COVIDEmergency2021 pic.twitter.com/zBbe5dnGlR
    — Sumi Dutta (@SumiSukanya) April 24, 2021

    In a statement, Bharat Biotech, which has developed Covaxin in collaboration with ICMR’s National Institute of Virology said that the company is “honoured to develop, manufacture and supply the vaccine for India’s vaccine rollout at Rs 150 per dose”, which is distributed for free by the Centre.

    “We would like to state that more than 50 per cent of our capacities have been reserved for Central government supplies,” it said adding that the vaccine has a distinct feature of having a 28 day open vial policy. Once opened, the vaccine can be stored at 2-8 degree Celsius for 28 days thereby reducing the wastage.

    A thread on Bharat Biotech’s (BB) pricing of Covaxin at Rs 600/dose for State governments and Rs 1200/dose for private hospitals. The pricing of Covaxin at prices higher than Covishield puts the so-called Indian vaccine even more out of bounds for the poorer Indian citizens. 1/n
    — R. Ramakumar (@ramakumarr) April 25, 2021

    The announcement comes days after the company, along with ICMR, issued a press release saying that the second interim analysis of the phase-3 clinical trial of the vaccine had shown it to be 78 per cent effective against infection and 100 per cent effective against severe disease.

    The company also justified the price, viewed as steep by many, by saying that Covaxin is an inactivated and highly purified vaccine, making manufacturing expensive due to very low process yield. “All costs towards product development, manufacturing facilities and clinical trials were deployed primarily using internal funding and resources of Bharat Biotech,” said the company.

    It also said that “recovering costs is essential in the journey of innovation towards other vaccine such as intranasal COVID-19, Zika, Chikungunya, Cholera and others”.

  • Rajnath Singh reviews COVID-19 situation, Ministry of Defence increases its efforts to handle crisis

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Keeping the accentuated state of the COVID-19 pandemic, defence minister Rajnath Singh reviewed the efforts of Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the three Services to fight the COVID-19 crisis through video conferencing today.

    The Armed Forces and the other departments of the MoD have augmented their support to deal with the soaring COVID cases which is leading to scarcity of beds and oxygen. The defence minister directed the Armed Forces and various other establishments of MoD to extend all possible assistance to the civilian administration to tide over the present situation.

    He also reviewed and expressed satisfaction on the assistance being provided by the Indian Air Force (IAF) in moving oxygen tankers and plants from abroad as well as within the country. During the review, the Air Force informed of placing heavy lift aircraft at various locations to pick and transfer the required material.

    “One C-17 IAF transport plane left for Singapore in the morning of April 24 and returned in the evening with four containers of cryogenic oxygen tanks. One C-17 transported two empty container trucks for liquid oxygen from Pune to Jamnagar and another transported two empty oxygen containers from Jodhpur to Jamnagar,” MoD spokesperson Bharat Bhushan Babu said.

    “One Chinook airlifted medical equipment for testing COVID from Jammu to Leh. Indian Navy ships have also been put on standby for any assistance in moving oxygen tankers and the Raksha Mantri was informed of the same, ” he added.

    In addition, the Indian Air Force has positioned one empty cryogenic oxygen container from Indore to Jamnagar and another from Bhopal to Ranchi. Positioning of another empty container from Bhopal to Ranchi and two empty containers from Hindan to Ranchi was in progress late evening.

    DRDO chairman Dr G Sathish Reddy briefed that another 250 beds would become functional at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel COVID hospital in New Delhi by the evening of April 24, taking the total number of beds to 500. In Gujarat, DRDO has completed setting up of a 1,000-bed hospital.

    Dr Reddy added that work was in full swing to establish a COVID facility in Lucknow that would become operational in the next 5-6 days. These hospitals would be run by the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) in coordination and with assistance of respective state governments.

    Senior officials of the Ministry are in constant touch with the officials of state governments for necessary coordination in this regard.

    As AFMS has its resources stretched to the limit, services of local doctors and health professionals might be enlisted for the 750-bed hospital that is coming up at Varanasi. To augment the work force of health professionals, Rajnath approved a suggestion to deploy those who have recently retired from AFMS.

    He was briefed that all health facilities of Defence PSUs and Ordnance Factory Board have been allowed to provide health services to local COVID-19 affected civilian population.

    This was the second meeting chaired by Raksha Mantri to review the preparedness of MoD and the Armed Forces to deal with the current surge in COVID-19 cases. The first meeting was held through video conferencing on Tuesday.

    Apart from Reddy, the meeting was attended by Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, three Service Chiefs, defence secretary Ajay Kumar,  AFMS DG Surgeon Vice-Admiral Rajat Datta and other senior officials.

    The AFMS has deployed additional doctors, including specialists, super specialists and paramedics, at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (SVP) COVID hospital in Delhi to cater to the current surge in COVID-19 cases.

    As against 294 doctors and health workers in 2020, 378 have been mobilised in 2021. These include 164 doctors in 2021 as against 132 doctors in 2020. Last year, only 18 specialists were mobilised, as against 43 specialists and 17 super specialists this year.

    Keeping the requirements Indian Navy has moved one ship to Lakashwadeep and Minicoy islands with Oxygen cylinders, medical supply and medical support team. Also, one ship sent to Visakhapatnam as a standby with Oxygen onboard. Indian Navy Medical Teams have also been deployed as part of the AFMS staff and Naval Commands told to identify the spare capacity to assist civil administration.

  • DRDO’s facility for COVID patients in Ahmedabad expected to start on 24 April

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Amidst the rising number of COVID-19 cases, the Ministry of Defence has pushed Defence Research and Development Organsiation and defence PSUs along with the Armed Forces to spruce up facilities in different parts of the country. One of the largest facilities, which will be coming up in Ahmedabad, will start functioning by Saturday.

    Sharing the details a source said, “The Dhanvantri COVID Hospital coming up at Gujarat University Convention and Exhibition Centre – Ahmedabad will have 900 beds out of which 150 will be ICU beds with ventilators. Remaining 750 beds also will be provided with oxygen supply.” He said that while construction work started on 14 April, operations are expected to begin on 24 April said the source and “hospital is being jointly raised by DRDO and Govt of Gujrat in collaboration”.

    Defence Minister Rajnath Singh virtually reviewed the preparedness of Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces on Tuesday to deal with the recent spike in COVID-19 cases across the country.

    The Defence minister was informed by DRDO chairman Dr G Satheesh Reddy that a COVID-19 facility, developed by DRDO, has again been made functional in New Delhi and efforts are being made to soon increase the number of beds from 250 to 500.

    He said that ESIC Hospital, which was converted to COVID hospital in Patna, has started functioning with 500 beds. He added that work on a 900 bed hospital in Ahmedabad was on war footing in addition to a 450-bed hospital in Lucknow and 750-bed hospital in Varanasi. Rajnath had called upon the Armed Forces to be in close contact with the state governments and be ready to provide any required assistance. He also delegated the emergency powers of procurement so that critical needs are procured. The defence minister suggested to utilise the services of vaccinated retired Armed Forces personnel to assist the civil administration/state governments to deal with the current situation.

  • Centre should announce free vaccination against COVID for all citizens: Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot

    The veteran Congress leader said the second wave of the pandemic, in which both the infection and mortality rates are very high, is extremely dangerous.

  • Centre should give one week’s COVID vaccines at a time: Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government needs to have one week’s stock of COVID-19 vaccines at one go so that it can vaccinate up to eight lakh people on a daily basis, state Health Minister Rajesh Tope said.

    Speaking to reporters, he said, “The Maharashtra government has several times urged the Centre to provide one week’s stock (of vaccines) at a time to the state which would enable us to inoculate up to eight lakh people daily.”

    He said that it is a huge state geographically and it takes at least two days for us to carry the vaccine stock from one corner to another. “Several letters have been sent to the Centre over it, but our demand has never been listened to. The central government’s supply of vaccines is much less than our requirement, hence our pace (of vaccination) is slow,” said the minister.

    Tope also complained that the Centre allowed only 60 metric tonnes of liquid medical oxygen from the Bhilai plant to Maharashtra. “Earlier, the proposal of liquid medical oxygen was of 110 metric tonnes (MT), but it was changed to 60 MT. But it would not be sufficient for the state for meeting the demand of oxygen in Vidarbha region,” he said.

    The state is expected to receive 200 MT each from Jamnagar refinery plant in Gujarat and a plant in Telangana. “Now we have moved our request to Jamnagar refinery to allot additional 50 MT of oxygen,” he said.

    The state government has also decided to utilise the thermal power plants in Maharashtra, where oxygen is generated in huge quantity, for medical purposes. “However, there are no bottling plants near these thermal units Khaparkheda in Nagpur, Paras in Akola and Parli in Beed. We will set up a 500-bed oxygen Covid Centre near every thermal plant, so that COVID-19 patients will get oxygen at the local level and we will be able to save many lives,” the minister said.

    ALSO READ| Maharashtra govt issues lockdown order; inter-city and inter-district travel banned except for emergency

    “The state is also planning to request various industries, where oxygen is generated at local level. We will use it for local consumption,” he said.

    Commenting on Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s meeting with Remdesivir producers, he said, “The Maharashtra government has sought a supply of 60,000 vials of Remdesivir on a daily basis. It will be distributed to hospitals via government. No individual or organisation will have any role in it.”

    “We have also told them that the state may require one lakh vials on a daily basis from May 1 onwards to treat the patients,” he said.