Covid vaccination tops 85L
NEW DELHI: Today was the 31st day of Covid-19 vaccination in India and it crossed 85 lakh healthcare and frontline workers, including 73,557 receiving the second dose. Those vaccinated on Monday till 6 PM were 2.3 lakh. The vaccination drive has been going on in the country since January 16 while the second dose began on February 2. Fourteen states vaccinated more than 70% of the healthcare workers. These are Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Mizoram, Sikkim and Lakshadweep.
Meanwhile, active Covid-19 cases are rising in India for the last three days, with an increase of 2070 in the past 24 hours.
There were 90 fatalities in 24 hours, 40 of them in Maharashtra, 15 in Kerala and 6 in Tamil Nadu while 18 states/Union Territories had no death and 15 had 5 or less deaths. The country's total death toll has gone up to 1,55,732.
Kolkata turned into a battlefield as DYFI and SFI students clashed with police over the death of DYFI leader Maidul Islam Midda on Monday. The deceased leader, who hailed from Bankura’s Katulpur, was allegedly beaten up by the police during the Left Front march to West Bengal secretariat on February 11. He died at a private hospital in the morning. Condolence was prepared for the deceased leader at Moulali, Central Kolkata where the Left cadres were seen beating up police for allegedly bad-mouthing the dead leader.
“The police are still trying to create a ruckus by abusing our leaders including the one who died today. But we still tried to safeguard the police from being mobbed,” said West Bengal SFI general secretary Srijan Bhattacharya. The mobbed police namely AK Dutta was seen hiding at a nearby restaurant was later taken to Lalbazar, Kolkata police headquarters where he was given first aid.
Condoling the leader’s death, the opposition parties condemned the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress government. Meanwhile, the CM assured of help to the deceased’s family. “I have taken stock of the situation from CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty. Deaths are unfortunate we will take proper action. We are also ready to give a job to any member of the family and can also give financial support,” said Mamata.