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Coronavirus Updates

Covid-19: Why India is facing vaccine shortage

India’s commitment to the Covax program earned Prime Minister Narendra Modi much applause worldwide. From WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus to cricketing star Chris Gayle praises India for playing such a crucial part in immunizing the world, “showing benevolence, kindness, empathy’’. Prime Ministers of Brazil even compared him to Lord Hanuman who carries the lifesaver Sanjeevani for delivering vaccines to his countrymen. However in April, as the Covid-19 cases started witnessing unprecedented growth in India and the need for vaccinating the Indian population fast became more important Covax program hit hard. Now the African Union will miss its target of immunizing 30 to 35 percent of its population by 2021. Experts are now of the view that much more planning should have gone into sustaining the exports alongside catering to domestic needs. No advance purchase agreements paced with manufacturers and not allowing liquidity to increase production has further augmented the issues of shortage o

Karnataka to begin vaccination for 18-44 age group from May 10

The Karnataka government Sunday announced that Covid-19 vaccination will be provided to citizens aged 18-44 across the state on Monday (May 10). According to Health and Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar, vaccines will be provided at district hospitals, government medical colleges and taluk-level hospitals across the state to begin with. “In Bengaluru, vaccines will be provided for citizens aged between 18 to 44 years at KC General Hospital, Jayanagar General Hospital, Sir C.V.Raman General Hospital, Government Medical Colleges, ESI Hospitals and NIMHANS,” he mentioned. However, the government has stressed that registration on the CoWin portal is mandatory and that walk-ins will not be allowed. “All such vaccination centres will have an exclusive session site earmarked for people aged 18 to 44. Vaccination will be provided to only those who have registered and scheduled an appointment on CoWin portal and walk-ins will not be allowed,” Sudhakar explained. Read Also :  WhatsApp defe

Total Lockdown In Tamil Nadu For 2 Weeks From Monday Amid Covid Crisis

The Tamil Nadu government has announced a two week "total lockdown" from May 10 amid a surge in COVID-19 cases. The order was issued a day after the state recorded its biggest day spike of over 26,000 new Covid infections. Chief Minister MK Stalin, in a statement, said that the lockdown was being enforced due to "unavoidable reasons". The decision, Mr Stalin added, was taken based on inputs received at a review meeting he had with district collectors on Friday, besides consultations with medical experts. "The total lockdown will be enforced from 4 am on May 10 to 4 am on May 24," he said. Other services and tasks allowed to continue during the lockdown are banks (with 50 per cent staff) and ration shops. Restaurants will only be allowed takeaways. No cabs or autorickshaws can ply on road except for hospital or wedding/funeral work, the order said. The lockdown announcement is the first major decision taken by Mr Stalin, who took oath yesterday . The 26,465

Coronavirus India Live News: Kerala reports highest single-day surge of 42,464 cases; This Covid strain spreading fast now among youth; check details

Coronavirus (Covid-19) Cases in India, Coronavirus Statistics India Live, Coronavirus Vaccine Registration Live Updates: India records over 4 lakh new corona cases, 3,980 Covid deaths in last 24 hours; Pinarayi Vijayan announces Kerala lockdown from May 8; former Union Minister Ajit Singh dies of Covid, PM Modi condoles demise Covid-19 Cases in India Today, Coronavirus Statistics India Live Updates: India, the epicentre of the world’s worst coronavirus outbreak, will witness the third wave of Covid-19 infections, the Centre has said. This warning comes at a time when states have seen some noticeable dip in the daily caseload of fresh Covid-19 infections. So, has India has already seen the peak of the second wave of the coronavirus? Experts have still not arrived at any conclusion despite the latest drop in the daily cases. Also Read: Supplied 730 MT oxygen to Delhi on May 5, Centre tells Supreme Court While there is a debate over the official data provided by the Union Health Ministry

Supplied 730 MT oxygen to Delhi on May 5, Centre tells Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The Centre Thursday told the Supreme Court that it has complied with its order and instead of 700 MT oxygen , it ensured a supply of 730 MT to Delhi for treating Covid-19 patients. The apex court, while staying contempt proceedings initiated by Delhi high court against central government officials for non-compliance of direction to supply 700 MT of oxygen to Delhi, had sought an answer from the Centre on Thursday morning. A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah was informed by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta , appearing for the Centre, that a survey was conducted in 56 major hospitals of the national capital on May 4 and it revealed that they had significant stock of liquid medical oxygen (LMO). While granting the stay on contempt against the officials, the top court on Wednesday had made clear that it was not stopping the high court from monitoring Covid-19 management related issues. It had also directed a meeting, even virtually, between officials of the Centre

Government Not 24 Hours Old, But...': Mamata Banerjee On Central Team

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today took a swipe at the centre over sending a team to look into violence in the state after the results of the assembly election were announced last week. The Trinamool Congress, which won the election for a third term, and the BJP have accused each other as behind clashes reported from across the state. Ms Banerjee, in an allusion to frequent confrontations it often had with the centre in the last few years, asked the BJP-led centre to refrain from sending central teams over matters that may not exist. "It's not yet been 24 hours since the government took over and they are sending teams and ministers here," said Ms Banerjee, who took charge as Chief Minister for a third time. "Anyone who comes from outside, even by special flights, we want RT-PCR tests and there will be no discrimination with anyone. The Home Ministry has sent a four-member team to assess the ground situation in Bengal. Reports from across the state and p

Centre moves SC against Karnataka HC order asking enhancement of oxygen for state

The Centre Thursday moved the Supreme Court against the Karnataka High Court order asking it to increase the daily liquid medical oxygen (LMO) allocation for the state to 1,200 MT from the present 965 MT. The Centre has also sought a stay on the high court order. A bench headed by Justice D Y Chandrachud was told by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the state is being supplied 965 MT LMO presently and the order needed to be stayed urgently. The bench also comprising Justice M R Shah, in its hearing, said it will have to look at the paper book before issuing any order regarding the issue. Meanwhile, the opposition Congress was quick to respond as it expressed “shock” over the Centre moving the apex court against the order of the Karnataka High Court. Stating that he was “shocked” over the development, President of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee D K Shivakumar claimed that the projected demand in Karnataka is 1,471 MT when the Central allocation is only 865 MT. “Will CM @BSYBJP

Lockdown in Kerala from May 8 to 16

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A total lockdown has been declared in Kerala from May 8 to May 16 in view of the rapid surge in Covid-19 cases in the state. The state is on lockdown-like restrictions since May 4. However, the health department has asked the state government to go for a total lockdown since the daily tally of coronavirus cases had crossed 30,000. On Wednesday, above 40,000 Covid-19 cases were reported in the state. Most of the districts in the state are having test positivity rate (TPR) above 20% for the past two weeks. The government has made it clear that there is no other alternative. The entire State of Kerala will be under lockdown from 6am on 8 May to 16 May. This is in the background of a strong 2nd wave of #COVID19 . — Pinarayi Vijayan (@vijayanpinarayi) May 6, 2021

How tech may be ‘limiting’ vaccine outreach in India

Indian tech experts have written software code and designed websites to help people book scarce Covid-19 vaccinations online, raising concern about an unfair advantage for the tech savvy and jeopardising chances of an equitable vaccine rollout. India has faced criticism for a slow vaccine campaign as it battles a second wave of coronavirus infections that is seeing about 350,000 new cases recorded every day. Only 2% of its 1.3 billion population have been fully immunized. The government further opened up vaccination for adults from May 1 but registration on its CoWIN website is mandatory for those between the ages of 18 and 44. Slots are hard to get as demand far outstrips supply. In a bid to streamline the process, computer experts have used the publicly available coding of the CoWIN platform to create websites that post results every few minutes after running automated searches on the government website. Alerts are sent over email and routed to several Telegram app chat groups wh

COVID-19 Third Wave inevitable.......................Says Gov't Scientists

K Vijay Raghavan, the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India, said on May 5 that a phase three of the coronavirus pandemic is inevitable. As per Raghavan, a third wave is almost inevitable given the higher levels of circulating virus in the country. However, it is not clear on what time scale this phase three will occur, he was quoted as saying by ANI. "We should prepare for new waves," he added. A phase three is inevitable, given the higher levels of circulating virus but it is not clear on what time scale this phase three will occur. We should prepare for new waves: K VijayRaghavan, Principal Scientific Advisor to Centre pic.twitter.com/c6lRzYaV2q — ANI (@ANI) May 5, 2021

COVID-19 Information: Want to get vaccinated? Find nearest vaccine centre on WhatsApp by following these steps

     In the second wave of the pandemic, India has been witnessing a major surge in coronavirus cases. Meanwhile, the government is ramping up the vaccination process and in May, the Centre started the third phase of the world's largest inoculation drive. In the third phase of the vaccination drive, people above the age of 18 will get vaccinated. However, people are finding it difficult to find the available slot for vaccination in their nearby vaccination centres. Well, to help people several tech giants came forward and they launched apps and websites in which the people will be able to see the available slot in their nearby vaccination centre. The popular messaging app, WhatsApp too came forward to help people to help citizens find the nearby vaccination centre through the MyGov WhatsApp chatbot. The MyGov WhatsApp chatbot is an automated chat space that helps people to find accurate information about coronavirus and now with the third phase of the vaccination drive, it has also

COVID-19 Relief: These Websites and Apps Will Help You Find Availability of Vaccine Slots

India witnessed a fall in COVID-19 positive cases over the last few days, but celebrations are still not in order. The country continues to see at least three lakh cases daily, and all medical experts are recommending one crucial bit – MASK ON. Similarly, the Indian government is ramping up its efforts to tackle the pandemic by expanding its vaccination programme to everyone above 18 years. Sadly, citizens in the country (and especially in big cities like Mumbai and Delhi) are struggling to book slots due to multiple factors including a shortage of vaccines. Luckily, tech giants and independent researchers are now coming up with solutions that will essentially let Indians know their availability to get the jab at the earliest. Here are some tools you might want to check that will help find COVID-19 vaccine centres with availability of slots, around your location. CoWIN: No matter what app or website users use, the CoWIN website and app for Android users remain the sole platform to bo

Karnataka gets new oxygen concentrators - none from Union gov

Karnataka, one of the worst affected states by the second wave of coronavirus infections, faces a lack of liquid oxygen supply, even leading to deaths in hospitals in the state. In an interview to TNM, Karnataka Chief Secretary P Ravi Kumar told TNM that the state government has purchased 400 oxygen concentrators to help during the crisis, and is expecting another 600 that they have purchased. Chief Secretary P Ravi Kumar told TNM that Karnataka urgently requires more liquid oxygen urgently, and the government even wrote to the Union government last week to communicate this. “The medical oxygen allotted earlier to us was 300 tonnes per day, it was increased to 865 tonnes. But we will need 1792 tonnes per day, and we have informed the Union government,” the chief secretary told TNM. Ravi Kumar said 400 concentrators have been donated, and the Confederation of Indian Industry has committed to donating 600 oxygen concentrators to Karnataka. Similarly, Xiaomi has announced that it will be

Poonawallas turned down $1 billion offer from private equity firms

     Serum Institute of India (SII) was on the verge of signing a billion-dollar agreement with a clutch of marquee global investors last year, but withdrew at the last minute even as it struggled to scale up production of Covid-19 vaccines due to an apparent lack of funds, said two people directly aware of the matter. The Poonawalla family-owned firm turned down the offer by a consortium of private equity firm TPG Capital, Abu Dhabi’s ADQ and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund ( PIF) following differences over valuation, few days ahead of the deadline sometime in October last year. According to the people cited above, the decision to not raise funds was also aided by an inflow of funds into the company from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which provided the vaccine maker $300 million to fund vaccine doses for low- and middle-income countries. “The Poonawalla family was seeking a valuation of $10 billion for a newly created subsidiary under which the commercial interests of all of

Fake COVID-19 vaccine registration SMSes are circulating malware in Ind

     The government of India recently initiated the liberalised and accelerated Phase 3 strategy of COVID-19 vaccination inoculation in India. Under the third phase, people between the age of 18 to 44 years can get vaccinated by registering themselves on the CoWIN platform and then setting up an inoculation appointment. Trying to take advantage of this scammers are now circulating a fake SMS message that falsely claims to offer an app to let users register for the COVID-19 vaccine in India. Also Read - Unable to find COVID-19 vaccine slot? These trackers alert when vaccine slot is available near you . The SMS instead of providing a legitimate way to register for the vaccination aims to download a malware on to the receivers smartphones. The malicious app was initially named COVID-19 and since then has been renamed to Vaccine Register. The attackers are having a lot of success convincing users as a large number of users have been facing issues while registering for the COVID-19 vaccine

21 patients died of ‘respiratory failure’ and not due to lack of medical oxygen, Delhi govt tells HC

The Delhi government Monday submitted a report before the Delhi High Court stating that the death of 21 patients at north Delhi’s Jaipur Golden Hospital on April 23-24 was not due to lack of medical oxygen. The government had on April 28 constituted a four-member committee to ascertain the number of deaths due to shortage of oxygen in hospitals across the national capital following a direction by the high court on April 27. Submitting its inquiry report before a bench of justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli, the committee stated that almost all the patients were already very sick to critical either from the time of submission or during the course of hospital stay even prior to the evening of April 23. “In view of the above observations, the committee was of the opinion that all 21 recorded patients were sick/critical and suffering from Covid-19 infection. As per the case records made available to the committee, all the reported patients were getting oxygen therapy/ventilation throug

India says infections 'slowing down' as it passes 20 million cases

The number of new Covid infections in India has officially passed 20 million cases, even as the government says that infection rates are coming down. India says infections have consistently dropped since 30 April, when it recorded more than 400,000 cases. It reported 355,832 cases on Tuesday. Experts say the number of deaths and infections are being underreported. In the capital Delhi, an oxygen crunch has shown no signs of abating and people are struggling for treatment. The city reported that 448 people died on Monday - another record toll A struggle for oxygen Delhi's government has said it wants the army to run Covid care facilities and intensive care units. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has repeatedly said that the city is not getting enough oxygen from the federal government, which allocates oxygen quotas to states. But federal officials deny there are shortages, saying the challenge has come from transportation. India produces thousands of tonnes of oxygen a day, but

Modi government chokes dissent on India's COVID apocalypse with social media blocks

Even seemingly straightforward accounts on the unfolding COVID-19 catastrophe in India -- never mind ones that contain direct, scathing criticism -- are the sort of things that Modi and his government want expunged from social media. Politicians  and  others  are dubbing it a "Modi Made Disaster" on Twitter, Facebook, and other forms of social media, but you may never read these posts. This is because the Indian government has been busy ordering the platforms to  take down  the large number of posts flagged by them that are critical of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist government's handling of the latest devastating wave of the pandemic. "Not a surprise. But terrifying nonetheless,"  tweeted  author and activist Naomi Klein, as  reported  by the publication  Truthout,  who has previously  written  about the authoritarian ways in which Modi's government has throttled basic free speech in India. Over the last six days, I

Music jingle create awareness about wearing face masks

“The usage of face masks by people in Chennai and Tamil Nadu is just 65 to 70 per cent. We wanted more people to wear masks. Even those who use masks are not wearing them properly — we have seen people wearing the mask on their chin or covering eyes. When we were discussing how to create awareness on this, Kishore Manohar came up with the idea of a campaign,” says Siddarth Ganeriwala of Chennai Tri-colour Initiative.   The video was created by a Chennai-based creative agency called Crazy Pencilz in just a few hours because the team wanted to influence people who would come out to celebrate after election results. The music was done by Aravind-Shankar. “Everyone has their opinion when it comes to wearing masks and it is a delicate topic when you ask someone to wear their mask properly. We don’t know how the other person is going to react and we don’t want to get into a tricky situation. This is a light-hearted way of reminding the public to wear masks,” Kishore Manohar tells DT Next

Oxygen Concentrators Lying With Customs, High Court Demands Details

     The Delhi High Court has asked the Centre to provide details of oxygen concentrators that are lying with the customs department pending clearance, by 3 pm today. Amid the terrible oxygen crisis in Delhi, triggered by the savage second wave of coronavirus, oxygen concentrators are hugely sought after medical equipment by hospitals running short of oxygen and patients on home isolation. Nearly 40 deaths across several hospitals of the city have been put down to the shortage. Twelve people died at the Batra hospital on Saturday when oxygen ground to a halt for 80 minutes. One of the patients was a doctor. Twenty-five people had died last week. With the demand for oxygen concentrators shooting up, it has been part of the medical aid sent by several nations, including the US and the UK. The Centre has also allowed the import of oxygen concentrators -- a device that filters out other gases from ambient air and channels pure oxygen -- for personal use. On a rare sitting on Saturday, the