United States Pharma giant Pfizer is in the final stages of an agreement with India to supply anti-COVID-19 vaccines, Chief Executive Officer Dr Albert Bourla said on Tuesday, observing that the domestically manufactured vaccines would be the backbone of vaccinating the Indian people.
Delhi has been seeing a steady rise in coronavirus cases with official figures being pegged at over 19,000 on Monday. Delhi remains the third worst-affected state by the coronavirus pandemic -- only Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have more confirmed COVID-19 cases. Amid this situation, here are scenes from Max Smart Super Speciality Hospital in New Delhi, where some 200 patients are being treated.
'As of this moment, we have 1,173 ventilators, 2,695 ICUs and about 10,408 plus isolation beds.' 'But this number keeps changing with every passing hour as we incorporate more private as well as government hospitals in our fight against the pandemic.'
The arrests were made shortly after the Odisha government filed two FIRs alleging negligence in conduct and safety against Sum Hospital.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the bank will start working in the next two days, adding that the Aam Aadmi Party government will encourage those who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate their plasma.
Chairing the 19th meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19 through video-conference on Friday, Vardhan said India has achieved the milestone of more than 10 lakh recoveries, a recovery rate to 64.54 per cent.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had also wished the legend a speedy recovery.
Whenever the Census operation resumes, it will capture the impact of Covid-19 to a large extent, including the extra-lethal second wave, reports Abhishek Waghmare.
The active cases have further reduced to 22,28,724 with a decline of 1,14,428 cases being recorded in the active caseload. It now comprises 8.04 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 90.80 per cent.
State BJP president Chandrakant Patil blamed "insensitive and lackadaisical" approach of the administration for the incident.
The Pakistani military may shortly give Imran Khan the boot, substituting him with another puppet, predicts Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (retd).
The GoM was told that six states -- Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal -- account for 86 per cent of the deaths caused by COVID-19 and 32 districts account for 80 per cent of such fatalities, the Union health ministry said.
Three big cities in the country -- Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru -- witnessed huge spike in daily COVID-19 cases on Wednesday even as Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain claimed hospital admissions have stabilised indicating the current coronavirus wave peaked and cases may start declining soon.
In a statement, the medical body said that the emergency services including casualty, labour rooms, emergency surgeries will function along with ICUs, CCUs, but no elective surgical case will be posted.
The 94-year-old environmentalist known for his pioneering role in the Chipko movement was under treatment for COVID-19 at the hospital for over a week.
CEO of Wockhardt Hospital Mumbai, Dr Parag Rindhani, who is a microbiologist, said: "In the past three months, we have seen several cases of COVID-19 and now, fortunately, we are seeing a decrease in numbers. With this trend, we can expect a flattening of the curve by mid-July, which BMC commissioner has also said, and the normalcy of life can be expected by the beginning of August."
The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) said it will set up an exclusive healthcare centre for the families of servitors. Ahead of the Rath Yatra, a massive sample collection exercise was conducted on Monday night and one servitor had tested positive, Chief Secretary A K Tripathy said.
The finance ministry has asked the tax department to impose hefty penalties on those hospitals found with unaccounted cash, and such entities could be booked under anti-money laundering laws and prosecuted, reports Shrimi Choudhary.
Swamy said section 43D(5) of the UAPA was violative of the accused person's fundamental right to life and liberty as guaranteed by the Constitution even as the high court on Saturday extended the stay of the 84-year-old Jesuit priest at a private hospital in Mumbai till July 6.
The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, also demonstrates that the immunity built up from previous non-SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infections does not prevent individuals from getting COVID-19.
Some relatives of those dead alleged that those on life support like ventilator and oxygen could not be continuously given such backup as the generator room was flooded.
Those who have an insurance policy need to check its clauses to determine if it covers home care treatment, advises Bindisha Sarang.
The number of active cases in the country stands at 1,33,632, while 1,35,205 people have recovered.
Nearly 20-25 per cent cases need hospitalisation and 5 per cent need ventilators or admission to ICU.
The trauma centre currently has 242 beds and 18 more are being added to it.
Mahindra & Mahindra on Thursday said it expects to come up with a sophisticated ventilator at just Rs 7,500, which otherwise costs up to Rs 10 lakh, as it seeks to assist in combating coronavirus pandemic. The company said it hopes to have a prototype of an automated version of bag valve mask ventilator, commonly known as Ambu bag, in three days for approval.
"The problem is we don't have doctors, nurses, attendants, oxygen and medicines. It is a complete failure of the state," the bench said, adding that, "its getting tougher for us".
Jammu and Kashmir and Odisha on Tuesday recorded their first cases of the Omicron variant of COVID as the count of the new strain in 14 states and union territories crossed 200 even as the Centre said there is a need to 'activate' war rooms, take 'pro-active' action and consider night curfews.
A 59-year-old man undergoing treatment for swine-flu at Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi has died, in what is believed to be the first death from H1N1 influenza in the national capital this season.
Mumbai is converting several of its iconic structures into quarantine facilities as it races to prepare for a predicted peaking of infections this month. With some projections suggesting the number of cases in Mumbai will touch 75,000 by the end of May, civic authorities are working overtime to add to the number of beds. There are around 7,500 hospital beds in the city. Another 5,000 have been identified in private hospitals. According to rough estimates, there are 750 ICU beds in Mumbai. As Mumbai races against time, here's some of the spots authorities have transformed in the fight against coronavirus.
Kumar, who had been away in New Delhi since Saturday, returned to the state capital on Monday evening and held an emergency review meeting on the AES situation with officials.
"The spike in the daily recovered COVID-19 patients continues in the country. For the second successive day, India has clocked a record recovery of more than 70,000 patients in a single day," the government said.
With several states taking steps towards unlocking and easing of restrictions amid a decline in COVID-19 cases, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday cautioned people against any laxity and asserted that COVID-appropriate protocol is the 'most effective weapon' against an unseen adversary like coronavirus that keeps changing its form.
'But to see the effects of that, it will take a week or two more.'
'We have to take all preparations because the third wave is likely to start from September-October onward'
'We have been telling the government that we need handholding.' So, we sent a series of recommendations to the government, but nothing happened.' 'And the condition of industry became worse.'
The rate of doubling of COVID-19 cases has increased to 12.6 days
"Had there been no demolition, probably the courts too would have ordered status quo," he said then. And his last wish, he said, was to live till the temple comes up.
"As of now there is no abnormality due to the injury," Dr Gandhi added.
All the affected people have been shifted to a quarantine facility in East Block of Max Hospital, Saket in south Delhi, sources said.
