Delhi, Maha see a fall in new cases; under testing suspected

PRIME MINISTER reviews the availability of medicines and was briefed about the rapid augmenting of production of medicines, including Remdesivir.

Delhi and Maharashtra are finally witnessing some respite with fresh

Covid-19 cases showing decline but it may be too early to rejoice as there are also complaints of under testing. In Delhi, the positivity rate is below

25 per cent and on Thursday it recorded about 1,900 cases less than Wednesday. India on Thursday had over 4 lakh fresh cases and close to

4,000 deaths in the last 24 hours, the highest so far ever since the pandemic began last year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday reviewed the

Covid-19 situation in the country during which the need to ensure quick and holistic containment measures were discussed. “Prime Minister noted that an advisory was sent to the states to identify districts of concern where case positivity is 10 per cent or more and bed occupancy is more than 60 per cent on either oxygen supported or ICU beds,” a statement from PMO said. Modi also spoke with the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand and Telangana about the Covid-19 situation

● in their respective states, as well as with lieutenant governors of Jammu & Kashmir and Puducherry, sources said.

Several oxygen plants and machines donated by different countries have been made functional even though the Central government is yet to give a complete list of their deployment locations.

The Prime Minister also reviewed the availability of medicines and was briefed about the rapid augmenting of production of medicines, including Remdesivir, officials said. There was also a discussion on vaccination which is in short supply.

In Delhi, people complained of not finding any slots to get vaccinated, and in Mumbai people complained that they were turned away from vaccination centres despite having taken prior online appointments.

Meanwhile, the Union government on Thursday approached the Supreme Court against a Karnataka high court direction asking the Union government to allocate 1,200 metric tonnes of liquid oxygen to the state. Karnataka is facing an acute shortage of medical grade oxygen and 38 patients have already died due to lack of oxygen supply at various hospitals.

Meanwhile, there was an interesting tweet from Indian Commercial Pilot’s Association demanding vaccines given their risk level. “We want vaccines, not your attitude. We’re sick of your stupid platitudes. So from longitude to latitude, we can serve the nation with gratitude,” the tweet said. Ministry of civil aviation (MoCA) responded by saying it has issued guidelines to facilitate the vaccination program in a fast and efficient manner to ensure timely vaccination of the aviation community.

“As per the guidelines, all players in the Civil Aviation Sector would be advised to cover their personnel under the ongoing vaccination program. Guidelines further state that the organisations which have already made arrangements with government/private service providers for the vaccination to their employees may continue to do so,” MoCA said.