New Delhi, Apr 24,2021: Twenty-five “sickest patients” have died in the last 24 hours at Sir Ganga Ram hospital in Delhi, the hospital said.
“25 sickest patients have died in last 24 hours at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. Oxygen will last another 2 hrs. Ventilators and Bipap not working effectively. Resorting to manual ventilation in ICUs and ED. Major crisis likely. Lives of another 60 sickest patients in peril. Stop catastrophe. Need Oxygen to be airlifted urgently. Governments please help. We have warned,’ Ganga Ram’s Director, Medical said in a statement on Friday morning.
Currently, they have received 2 tons of oxygen from INOX at 0930 am today which lasts for 5 to 6 hrs, the hospital authorities said.
‘The deaths cannot be ascribed to oxygen shortage; a large number of patients are in serious condition. But we are facing a severe oxygen shortage,’ Dr DS Rana, chairman, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, said in a statement.
“We are doing manual ventilation to ensure patients survive,’ Dr Rana said.
New Delhi, Apr 21,2021: India on Tuesday reported 2,59,170 new Covid cases and 1,761 deaths in the last 24 hours, Ministry of Health and Family welfare data said.
With this surge, the Covid tally at present in the country is at 1,53,21,089 and the total death toll is at 1,80,530.
As many as1,54,761 discharges were made in the last 24 hours, pushing the total recoveries to 1,31,08,582, as per Union Health Ministry.
The country has 20,31,977 active cases.
Maharashtra, the country’s worst-impacted state, reported 58,924 fresh coronavirus cases, taking the tally to over 38.98 lakh, while 351 new fatalities pushed the death count to 60,824. In terms of the total caseload, Maharashtra is followed by the southern states of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
With 32,76,555 people being administered the COVID-19 vaccine in the past 24 hrs, the overall tally has mounted to 12,71,29,113.
Meanwhile, on Monday, the Centre announced a ‘liberalised and accelerated Phase 3 strategy of Covid-19 vaccination from May 1’, stating that the pricing, procurement, eligibility and administration of coronavirus vaccines being will be made flexible in Phase 3 of the world’s largest vaccination drive.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called a meeting with vaccine manufacturers at 1800 hrs on Tuesday. During the meeting, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) will make a presentation and also coordinate with all the participants, sources said.
Those expected to be present include representatives of top drugmakers from India and abroad, including the companies whose vaccines have already been approved by the Government of India.
The overall global Covid-19 caseload has topped 141.8 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 3.02 million, according to Johns Hopkins University.
In its latest update on Tuesday morning, the University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 141,813,257 and 3,027,353, respectively. The US is the worst-hit country with the world’s highest number of cases and deaths at 31,737,347 and 567,690, respectively, according to the CSSE. In terms of infections, India follows in the second place with 15,061,919 cases.
New Delhi, Apr 20,2021: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced a six-day lockdown in Delhi, starting from 2200 hrs tonight till 0500 hrs of April 26 in the wake of an unstoppable surge in the coronavirus cases.
Delhi has been recording nearly 25,000 cases of Covid-19 for the past three to four days, leading to a drastic increase in active cases, scarcity of beds, medical oxygen, and anti-viral drugs in hospitals and other places.
“It is felt that in order to contain the fast spread of the virus, curfew needs to be imposed in the territory of NCT of Delhi, except for essential services, as an emergency measure, in order to break the chain of COVID-19 transmission,” an order released by the government read.
As per the order, during the six-day-long lockdown period, people working in emergency and essential services will be allowed to move on the production of a valid I-card, pregnant women, patients, and attendants can visit hospitals, vaccination centers will remain open and people will be allowed to board flights, trains and buses.
Moreover, media persons are exempted and so are fruits, vegetables vendors, grocery stores, banks, ATMs, petrol pumps, chemist shops, manufacturing units of essentials, cold storages and restaurants offering takeaways or home delivery.
Only 50 people will be allowed to attend a marriage while 20 in the funeral, read the order. Also, all other gatherings are prohibited while all religious places will remain closed.
Addressing a digital press conference, Mr Kejriwal said, “The number of beds in the Delhi hospitals is falling short…..If strict measures are not taken now, the health system in Delhi can collapse.”
As per the Delhi government website, only 57 ICU Covid beds and 3,347 non-ICU beds were available across hospitals at 1830 hrs.
The Chief Minister said in this period of lockdown, the Delhi government would arrange for a large number of beds and utilise this time to arrange for oxygen and medicines.
Recalling last year’s havoc when hundreds of migrants left the city for hinterland via foot, bicycle or any possible means during the lockdown fearing poverty and hunger, Mr Kejriwal urged the migrants, labourers and others to remain calm as it is only a six-day lockdown and full arrangements are in place for their needs.
New Delhi , April 1,2021: India is expected to have normal monsoon rainfall this year, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Friday.
“Southwest monsoon seasonal (June to September) rainfall over the country as a whole is likely to be normal (96-104%),” the IMD said in its first stage Long Range Forecast (LRF) for monsoons.
Addressing a press conference through video link, Secretary of Ministry of Earth Sciences M Rajeevan released the IMD’s Long Range Forecast for the 2021 Southwest Monsoon Season Rainfall.
Director General of IMD M Mohapatra was also present.
Rajeevan said that quantitatively the monsoon seasonal (June to September) rainfall is likely to be 98 of the Long Period Average (LPA) with a model error of 5 per cent.
He pointed out that neutral El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) conditions are prevailing over the Pacific Ocean and neutral Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) conditions are prevailing over the Indian Ocean.
Some climate model forecasts indicate these conditions are likely to persist during the ensuing monsoon season.
He said that as sea surface temperature (SST) conditions over the Pacific and Indian Oceans are known to have strong influence on Indian monsoon, IMD is carefully monitoring the evolution of sea surface conditions over the Pacific and the Indian oceans.
Rajeevan said that La Nina conditions are likely to prevail only till May. “We will transition to ENSO (El Nino and Southern Oscillation) neutral conditions during monsoon. There is very little chance of El Nino conditions developing during monsoon months. There is a very small probability of Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) negative condition developing during monsoon. So these conditions are likely to lead to a normal monsoon this year,” he said.
Kolkata, Apr 17,2021: Voting for the fifth phase of the eight-phase assembly election in West Bengal began onSaturday morning in 45 of the state’s 294 constituencies amid elaborate security arrangements.
Polling for the fifth phase will be held across six districts and 45 assembly seats. The districts include North Pargana Part I, Darjeeling, Nadia Part I, Kalimpong, East Bardhaman Part I and Jalpaiguri.
In all, 319 candidates including 39 women will be vying for the 45 Assembly seats spread over six districts during the fifth phase. Over 1.12 crore voters including 55.80 lakh women and 234 Third Gender persons will decide the fate of these candidates.
The EC has made elaborate security arrangements with the deployment of central and state forces to ensure a free, fair and peaceful poll.
As the movement of polling personnel began early Friday for their respective voting centers, the deployment of a record 1,071 companies of central armed forces was also in place for the 5th phase polling
The ECI, however, would use 853 companies of central armed forces for the 5th phase and rest would be kept in reserve.
69 companies have been deployed at Barasat, 61 in Barrackpore, 107 for Basirhat, 46 for Bidhannagar, 68 for Darjeeling, 21 for Kalimpong, 122 for Jalpaiguri,11 for Krishnagar, 155 for East Bardhaman, 140 for Ranaghat and 53 for Siliguri.
Altogether 15,789 polling booths have been set up and each booth will be manned by an ASI and four armed constables.
Vijayawada, Apr 8,2021: The elections for the Zilla Parishad and Mandal Parishad began on a dull note in Andhra Pradesh on Thursday as voter turnout was thin till 10:30 am.
The polling to elect Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency (ZPTC) and Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency (MPTC) members began on a peaceful note across the state at 0700 hours this morning and it will conclude at 5 PM.
The principal opposition Telugu Desam Party boycotted the election alleging large scale irregularities.
The agents of TDP were found missing at the polling stations in many places.
The voter turnout was thin at many polling stations.
Only a few voters were seen at many polling stations at various places across the state.
According to election officials, about 10 per cent polling had been registered till 10:30 am.
The officials said that 9 per cent voting have been recorded in Vizainagaram district, 9.01 per cent in Visakhapatnam district, 8.83 per cent in East Godavari district, 4.59 per cent in West Godavari district, 9.26 per cent in Krishna district, 9.22 per cent in Guntur district, 7.52 per cent in Prakasam district, 6.53 per cent in Nellore district, 6.36 per cent in Kurnool district, 9.58 per cent in Anantapur district, 7.76 per cent in Kadapa District and 4.81 per cent in Chittoor district till 10:30 am.
Except for sporadic incidents, the polling was going on peacefully.
No major incident has taken place so far, police said.
The polling was to elect 515 ZPTC members and 7,220 MPTC members.
As many as 2,058 candidates are in the fray for the ZPTC elections and 18,782 candidates for MPTC elections.
About 2,46,71,002 voters would cast their vote to elect the MPTC and ZPTC members. 27,751 polling stations were set up across the state for the elections and of which 6,492 were identified as sensitive and 6,314 are very sensitive.
As many as 247 polling stations are in the Maoist infested areas.
Washington, Apr 8,2021: The United States is ready to lift sanctions imposed on Iran so as to resume mutual compliance with the 2015 nuclear agreement, said State Department spokesman Ned Price.
In a press briefing on Wednesday Price said
“We are prepared to lift sanctions that are inconsistent with the JCPOA [the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action],”
Price made it clear that there will be no unilateral gestures from the US side as it favors a “compliance for compliance” formula.
Currently a US delegation is attending an in-person meeting by the JCPOA members in Austria to discuss steps needed to fully restore the nuclear agreement.
The US representatives had meetings with counterparts from France, Germany, Russia, China and the United Kingdom, but are not expected to engage in direct talks with Iran’s team.
In 2015, Iran signed the JCPOA with the P5+1 group of countries. The agreement required Iran to scale back its nuclear program and downgrade its uranium reserves in exchange for sanctions relief. In 2018, the US withdrew from the JCPOA and started imposing sanctions on Iran.
Itanagar, Apr 8,2021: As many as eight people, including two security personnel, have tested positive for Covid-19 in Arunachal Pradesh in the last 24 hours, taking the state’s caseload to 16,861.
According to the bulletin issued by the state Directorate of Health Services, of the new cases, two each were reported from Itanagar Capital Complex, Namsai, Lower Dibang Valley (LDV), and one each from West Kameng and Lohit. Six patients are asymptomatic and two symptomatic.
On the other hand, two patients were discharged from LDV, taking the total recoveries to 16,788. The recovery rate is over 90 per cent.
Active cases stood at 17. Death toll at 56.