"Coming festivals (Chhat, Puja, Dussehra, Deepavali, Id, Xmas, New year) pose a huge challenge in the pandemic control. It has been seen that Onam in Kerala and Ganesh Chaturthi in Maharashtra escalated the pandemic seriously. This must not be allowed to happen in Delhi," the report stated.
The oxygen shortage was inevitable to an extent given the tsunami of Covid cases, but the problem is the lack of even basic preparation by both the Centre and states, notes Shyamal Majumdar.
'There are only two bottlenecks for universal vaccination.' 'One, is availability of the vaccine.' 'Two, is the logistics for administering the vaccine.'
A total of 40,845 cases of black fungus or mucormycosis have been reported in the country so far, of which 31,344 are rhinocerebral in nature, and the death toll from the infections stands at 3,129, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said.
'Kerala is probably the only state, where (with regard to) the clinical management and the overall protocols, we have an infectious disease team heading the whole containment plan.'
The ministry said 151 out of the 578 people who contracted the infection have recovered or migrated.
A 22-year-old man, who recently returned to Kerala from the UAE, allegedly died due to monkeypox on Saturday.
The states and UTs having a recovery rate higher than the national average include Ladakh (85.45 per cent), Delhi (79.98 per cent), Uttarakhand (78.77 per cent), Chhattisgarh (77.68 per cent), Himachal Pradesh (76.59 per cent), Haryana (75.25 per cent), Chandigarh (74.6 per cent), Rajasthan (74.22 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (73.03 per cent) and Gujarat (69.73 per cent).
'A hundred days later, it is a moot point whether the lockdown has been partially or totally effective, or, as sceptics indicate, plain ineffective.' 'Did it actually deflect infections and the loss of lives, or was it merely a hasty decision rammed down the populace's throats that choked the economy and caused the searing tragedy of dispossessed migrant workers?' ask Radha Roy Biswas and Manoj Mohanka.
India has flattened its Covid-19 graph and 146 districts have reported no new case of the viral disease in the last seven days, 18 in 14 days, six in 21 days and 21 districts in the last 28 days, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Thursday.
The Centre said bird flu has been confirmed only in Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh so far, but all states should be prepared for any eventuality. States have been told to ensure sufficient stock of PPE kits and accessories required for culling operations.
The government will also evacuate Indians on Friday from China's Wuhan city, the epicentre of the deadly Coronavirus, which has spread to at least 17 countries already.
The doubling time of coronavirus cases has slowed down to 13.9 days in the last three days.
'The BJP can kill two birds with one stone by wresting back control of the message; and the steps are fairly obvious. Once the media is neutral, there is a level playing field,' argues Rajeev Srinivasan.
While some researchers are developing prototypes for ventilators to overcome their shortage, others have teamed up to develop testing kits.
I suggest we build a Vigyan Mandir (Temple of Science) with the ambience of a place of worship, so that it becomes a destination for pilgrims. We should embed on its walls bronze plaques describing each scientist mentioned here along with about a dozen of our ancient mathematicians, recommends Professor Kalyan Singhal, historian of science and technology.
As 32 states and Union Territories imposed complete lockdown till March 31, the Centre asked them to clamp curfew wherever necessary in the wake of people defying lockdown orders.
As people crisscross the country, eager to return to their homes, the cases have raced past 80,000 with at least 2,649 deaths, according to the Union health ministry on Friday. While there is no exact count, this includes a large number of those who have returned to their states.
The disease could go down several paths. One possibility, the least likely, is that it will just disappear. The most likely is that it will have seasonal impact, says Devangshu Datta.
Himachal Pradesh on Monday became the fourth state to report cases of bird flu after Rajasthan, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh, with officials confirming that migratory birds found dead at Pong Dam Lake in Kangra district have tested positive for the dreaded avian influenza.
A day after two new cases of novel coronavirus that included one from Delhi were reported, the health ministry on Tuesday said six cases with "high-viral load" were detected during sample testing in Agra and these people have been kept in isolation. The six have been kept in isolation at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi and their samples are being sent to NIV, Pune for confirmation.
Emerging from a meeting with Banerjee at the state secretariat, Yadav said that the first priority of his party was to stop the Bharatiya Janata Party's progress in West Bengal.
Delhi, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra on Monday confirmed bird flu cases, adding to the list of seven states -- Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh -- which had already reported avian deaths due to the disease.
The dry-run was being conducted in state capitals in at least three session sites. Some states also included districts that are situated in difficult terrain or have poor logistical support, according to officials.
A total of 37 deaths were reported since Thursday evening of which 14 fatalities were reported from Maharashtra, nine from Gujarat, three from Uttar Pradesh, two each from Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh,Tamil Nadu and Telengana and one from Karnataka, ministry data stated.
To build one's political and ideological arguments on the dead bodies piling up outside our crematoriums is despicable and breaches the basic tenet of human civility, argues Vivek Gumaste.
Whether the third wave will ravage us depends on the pace of vaccinations, careful and calibrated opening up of establishments, and a strategy to contain the spread in specific states or pockets.
This was the fourth consecutive day that COVID-19 cases in the country have increased by more than 26,000.
While Karnataka reported five new cases, Delhi and Telangana reported four each, and Gujarat reported one fresh case of the Omicron variant.
India has so far succeeded in staving off the deadly virus that has claimed over 4,500 lives abroad.
The health system is trying to ensure that it isn't caught by surprise -- the way it was last time. So, hectic preparations are on.
The rate of doubling of COVID-19 cases has increased to 12.6 days
India is in the midst of its biggest crisis since Independence. It is a national emergency and begs to be dealt with. Politics can wait. Lives need to be saved. We need to vaccinate India at a pace faster than any country in the world, asserts Ramesh Menon.
Cases with the Omicron variant have already been detected in Karnataka and Gujarat.
As the death toll in the country from coronavirus jumped by a record 445 to 13,699, the Centre maintained that the number of infections per lakh population was among the lowest in the world. The new cases surged by over 10,000 for the 11th day in a row and rose by 14,821 to take the total to 4,25,282, according to health ministry data.
'Even with 3 lakh cases a day, we have saturated our resources.' 'It is scary to even think what will happen when the number doubles.'
It is necessary to have a dramatic increase in the number of rapid tests for COVID-19 conducted on a large number of people and that should become the basis for estimating the morbidity and mortality due to COVID-19, not relying only on hospital reports, says Professor K Srinivasan.
"Also, 35 per cent deaths were recorded in the age group of 45-60 years, 10 per cent in the age group of 26-44 years and one per cent each in the age group of 18-25 years and below 17 years," the health secy said.
Patients from any part of the country will soon need to travel no more than three hours for treatment of the kind available in large metros.
'The government allowed private hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients, so it should pay.'
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