Coronavirus India June 8 Highlights: Govt caps charges for Covid vaccination in private hospitals — Covishield at Rs 780, Covaxin at Rs 1,410, Sputnik V at Rs 1,145

Two Covid-positive senior citizens with heart complications, who were administered the monoclonal antibody therapy at a leading private facility here a week ago, have “tested negative” for the coronavirus infection, a senior doctor of the hospital said on Tuesday. The therapy is said to reduce the chances of hospitalisation by 70 per cent in patients with mild to moderate symptoms, according to medical experts. Sunirmal Ghatak (70) and Suresh Kumar Trehan (65) were administered a cocktail of Casirivimab and Imdevimab at the BLK hospital as part of this single-dose infusion-based treatment on June 1. Ghatak, with a known heart problem, had undergone angioplasty with stenting in the past, the hospital had earlier said in a statement. Trehan had reported to the hospital over a week ago with severe breathlessness and was unable to lie down due to respiratory distress. He had no previous history of any ailment. His echocardiography showed a strained heart with an ejection fraction of only 25 per cent, the hospital had said. (PTI)

Tamil Nadu has registered 18,023 new COVID-19 infections, including a returnee from Andhra Pradesh, pushing the caseload to 22,74,704 while 409 deaths pushed the toll to 27,765 the Health department said on Tuesday. Recoveries went past the 20 lakh mark, with 31,045 people recovering on Tuesday, taking the cumulative number to 20,28,344, a medical bulletin said. The number of active cases stood at 2,18,595. Tamil Nadu reported its highest daily infection at 36,184 cases on May 21 and since then it has been witnessing a declining trend. On May 30, the state saw its daily cases dropping below the 30,000 mark and on June 7 below 20,000. (PTI)

The number of active coronavirus cases reached 471 in Ghaziabad and came down to 324 in Gautam Buddh Nagar on Tuesday, official data showed. No death linked to Covid was reported in Ghaziabad while one more person succumbed in Gautam Buddh Nagar, according to Uttar Pradesh’s Health Department data for a 24-hour period. The death toll in Ghaziabad stood at 453 and in Gautam Buddh Nagar at 462, it showed. Meanwhile, Gautam Buddh Nagar recorded 20 new cases that pushed its overall tally to 62,793 while 99 more patients recovered from the infection, the data showed. Ghaziabad’s overall case tally surged to 55,318 with 21 new cases, even as 55 patients recovered during the 24-hour period, it showed. (PTI)

The Agra administration on Tuesday ordered an enquiry after a video clip surfaced in which the owner of a private hospital here is purportedly heard saying that he conducted a “mock drill” in which oxygen supply was cut off for Covid patients for five minutes. In the video which went viral on social media on Monday, the owner of Shri Paras Hospital is also heard saying that bodies of some patients started turning blue after the oxygen supply was cut off. District Magistrate Prabhu N Singh told reporters that action will be taken against the owner under the Pandemic Act. He said the hospital will be sealed and patients will be shifted to other hospitals. In the April 28 video, Dr Arinjay Jain allegedly claims that there was acute oxygen shortage at the hospital during the second wave of coronavirus. “Start discharging people, there is no oxygen availability anywhere, even the chief minister cannot get you oxygen. Modi Nagar is dry,” he said. “We talked with families of the patients but no one was ready to discharge their patients. So we decided to conduct a mock drill so that we could segregate the critically ill patients. After shutting off oxygen supply for five minutes, bodies of 22 patients started turning blue,” Jain said. He said that families of the remaining 74 Covid patients were asked to arrange for oxygen cylinders. However, the district magistrate said there wasn’t scarcity of oxygen at the hospital and that no patient died due to oxygen shortage at the hospital. (PTI)

Uttar Pradesh’s COVID-19 caseload surged to 16,99,787 on Tuesday with 797 fresh infections while the death toll climbed to 21,425 as 94 more people succumbed to the disease. Lucknow reported the highest number of fresh cases at 50, followed by 33 from Pilibhit, 31 from Gorakhpur, 29 from Varanasi, 27 from Kanpur Nagar, 25 from Meerut, 24 from Siddharthnagar, 23 from Kushinagar, 22 from Allahabad, 21 from Ghaziabad and 20 each from Muzaffarnagar and Gautam Buddh Nagar, according to a health department bulletin. Of the latest deaths, 15 were reported from Kanpur Nagar; nine from Gorakhpur; seven from Bareilly; five each from Agra, Mathura and Unnao; four each from Jhansi, Hardoi and Amroha; and three each from Lucknow, Meerut, Allahabad and Shahjahanpur. (PTI)

The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has reached 23.88 crore, the Union health ministry said on Tuesday. It said 13,32,471 beneficiaries in the age group of 18-44 years received their first dose and 76,723 beneficiaries of the same age group received their second dose of COVID-19 vaccine during the day. Cumulatively, 3,17,37,869 people in the same age group across states and union territories have received their first dose and 3,16,134 their second dose since the start of Phase-3 of the vaccination drive. Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have administered more than 10 lakh beneficiaries of the age group 18-44 years for the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, the ministry said. The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has reached 23,88,40,635, according to the 7 pm provisional report. (PTI)

A Delhi Cabinet minister and senior AAP MLAs on Tuesday launched the ‘Jahaan Vote, Wahin Vaccine’ campaign under which they spread awareness and encouraged citizens aged above 45 to get vaccinated at local polling booths in their assembly constituencies. Delhi Food and Civil Supplies Imran Hussain launched the AAP government’s initiative to spread awareness about Covid Vaccination in Ballimaran assembly constituency. The AAP, in a statement, said he went from door-to-door, encouraging people to get vaccinated. The minister appealed to representatives of RWAs, youth groups, Women’s groups, market associations, NGOs and religious organisation to do their bit in encouraging citizens aged 45-plus to get vaccinated at local polling booths in the assembly constituency. Hussain said booth-level officers had also begun visiting the people in their wards, and different teams are encouraging citizens to get vaccinated at local polling booths. E-rickshaws have been arranged to carry citizens to polling booths to get themselves vaccinated. He said those above 45 years of age should be vaccinated in four weeks, and the Delhi government will similarly carry this out for those in the 18-44 age category as well, the party said. (PTI)

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Tuesday said the state government was contemplating to start unlock process in the districts registering decline in COVID-19 infection rate. He also asked the administration to ensure a fullproof preparation for the possible third wave of the pandemic. He was reviewing prevailing corona situation in the state. While expressing satisfaction over decline of COVID-19 cases in certain districts, he said, the state is yet to get out of the impact of the second wave. He said the lockdown is presently in force across the state. However, the government is considering to start unlock process in phases in districts which report low rate of infection, he said. (PTI)

Union Health Ministry caps charges for administration of Covishield at Rs 780, Covaxin at Rs 1,410, and Sputnik V at Rs 1,145 in private hospitals (ANI)

Mid-sized motorcycle maker Royal Enfield on Tuesday said it has presented a cheque of Rs 2 crore to the Tamil Nadu government for COVID-19 relief work. Royal Enfield CEO Vinod K Dasari handed over the cheque to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin. “Tamil Nadu is the home of Royal Enfield motorcycles and we are committed to support the State in all its efforts to combat the devastating second wave of the pandemic. “Our commitment to extend support to the state government today is being accompanied by a host of initiatives that Royal Enfield is undertaking in the region to extend relief to the community,” Dasari said in a statement. (PTI)

Telangana government extends COVID restrictions for 10 more days from June 10; night curfew (6 pm-6am) to continue (ANI)

Leader of the opposition in the Tamil Nadu assembly K Palaniswami on Tuesday urged the state government to direct authorities to be factual in certifying COVID-19 deaths and charged that ascribing incorrect causes in certificates could lead to problems during this pandemic. He pointed out that children orphaned due to the death of their parents because of the virus would forfeit the state and central government assistance if the death certificate issued mentions the cause of death to be some other reason other than COVID-19. “I request the state government to ensure the death certificates mention the exact cause of death in the case of those who lose their lives to the infection, Palaniwami said in a statement. Alleging that there were complaints that the authorities had ‘wrongly’ certified the deaths, Palaniwami said “at least 27,356 persons died yesterday due to the pandemic. And since the last few weeks, many have claimed that the exact cause of COVID deaths was not mentioned in the death certificates. (PTI)

The government said on Tuesday it had been evaluating the implementation of the decentralised model of vaccination since its launch on May 1 and that the decision to centralise it again was taken after detailed deliberations and following requests by some states, amid claims by the Opposition that the policy change was due to the Supreme Court’s intervention. On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the Centre would take over the state procurement quota and provide free jabs to state governments for inoculation of all above the age of 18 from June 21. The opposition parties claimed that the new guidelines for vaccination were issued after the Supreme Court questioned the Centre’s policy of paid vaccination for the 18-44 age group. Asked if the new vaccination guidelines were issued after the Supreme Court’s intervention, NITI Aayog Member (Health) V K Paul said, ‘We respect the Supreme Court’s guidance and concern, but the government was evaluating the implementation of the decentralised model since May 1.’ (PTI)

Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu has said that now second dose of Covishield vaccine will be administered prior to prescribe time interval after 28 days to persons who undertake international travel for specific purposes: State government (ANI)

States and union territories would aggregate the demand of private hospitals for Covid vaccines based on which the Centre will facilitate supply to these governments for timely and equitable distribution to smaller and remoter private healthcare facilities, according to the revised guidelines issued on Tuesday. Also, vaccine doses provided free of cost by the Centre will be allocated to states and union territories based on criteria such as population, disease burden and progress of vaccination. Within the population group of citizens more than 18 years, states and union territories may decide their own prioritisation factoring in the vaccine supply schedule, stated the Health Ministry’s ‘Revised Guidelines for implementation of National COVID Vaccination Program’ which will come into effect from June 21. “Wastage of vaccine will affect the allocation negatively,” the ministry said. As announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, the revised guidelines stated that the government will procure 75 per cent of the vaccines being produced by manufacturers in the country. “The vaccines procured will continue to be provided free of cost to states and UTs as has been the case from the commencement of the national vaccination programme. These doses will be administered by the states/UTs free of cost to all citizens as per priority through government vaccination centres. “Within the population group of citizens more than 18 years of age, states/UTs may decide their own prioritisation factoring in the vaccine supply schedule,” the new guidelines stated. In order to incentivise production by vaccine manufacturers and encourage new vaccines, domestic vaccine manufacturers are also given the option to provide vaccines directly to private hospitals. This would be restricted to 25 per cent of their monthly production, the revised guidelines stated. (PTI)

For the first time after March 28 this year, the COVID-19 fatalities in Mumbai fell to a single digit at seven on Tuesday. Mumbai reported 673 new coronavirus positive cases during the day, the lowest after February 23, taking the tally to 7,13,002, as per the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). With the new additions, Mumbai’s death toll mounted to 15,073. Mumbai had reported 8 fatalities on March 28. Mumbai is now left with 15,701 active cases after 751 patients were discharged from hospitals during the day, taking the count of recoveries to 6,80,009, as per the BMC data. Mumbai’s case recovery rate now stands at 95 per cent while the case growth rate for the period between June 1 to June 7 is 0.12 per cent, it said.  The case doubling rate now stands at 543 days. Mumbai now has 27 active containment zones in slums and chawls and 98 active sealed buildings. Mumbai had logged the highest 11,163 cases on April 4 this year. The city had seen 90 deaths on May 1, which were the highest in a day during the second wave of the pandemic. (PTI)

Indian Naval Ship Tarkash on Tuesday brought in critical medical supplies from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to Mumbai harbour in its third trip as part of operation Samudra Setu II, an official said. As per a release issued by the Navy, INS Tarkash had first entered Al Shuwaikh Harbour in Kuwait on May 31 and took in 785 oxygen cylinders. The ship then took in 300 oxygen cylinders from Ad Dammam Port in Saudi Arabia on June 1 and entered Mumbai harbour with the medical consignment on Tuesday morning, the release stated. (PTI)

Karnataka reports 9808 new #COVID19 cases, 23,449 recoveries and 179 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Total cases 2,71,7289
Total recoveries 24,60,165
Death toll 32,099

Active cases 2,25,004 (ANI)

Telangana reports 1897 new #COVID19 cases, 2982 recoveries and 15 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Total cases 5,95,000
Total recoveries 5,67,285
Death toll 3409

Active cases 24,306 (ANI)

The DDA on Tuesday approved modifications in the Unified Building Byelaws 2016, granting exemption from notice and building permits for the installation of liquid medical oxygen plants on the ground level of the hospitals, subject to certain conditions, officials said. This was among the several proposals cleared by the urban body at its Authority meeting, chaired by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, here. After detailed deliberations, many key proposals were approved by the Authority, including to allow the DDA to undertake the development of and sanction building plans for its in situ slum rehabilitation projects under the Pradhan Mantri was Yojana (PMAY) falling in the denotified areas, the officials said. To ensure that the medical oxygen infrastructure is facilitated in the city hospitals to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Authority has approved the amendment to the Unified Building Bye Laws 2016, the DDA said in a release. The amendment will allow oxygen-related infrastructure such as PSA plants, liquid medical oxygen etc. free from FAR and ground coverage in the setback or open area of the existing hospital premises, it added. (PTI)

Maharashtra | Hotels & restaurants restart dine-in services following COVID protocols in Mumbai; “Our business mainly takes place during evening hours. This timing (7 am-4pm) doesn’t work for us. Govt should give us some respite in taxes,” says Dhruveer Gandhi, a restaurateur (ANI)

Manipur reports 748 new #COVID19 cases, 579 recoveries and 12 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Total cases 56,576
Total recoveries 46,527
Death toll 908

Active cases 9141 (ANI)

Struggling to book slots for COVID-19 vaccination in their cities, many people in the 18-44 age group from Delhi-NCR are travelling long distances to Agra and Meerut in Uttar Pradesh to get their second dose of vaccine. The shortest distance between Agra and Delhi is 224 km while Meerut is 232 km from Agra. Moolchand Medcity, Agra started vaccinating people in the 18-44 age group four days ago. Of the 450 people inoculated so far, 40 per cent of the beneficiaries came from places like Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Meerut, Etawah and Mathura. “After a ferocious second wave of COVID-19, people have realised the importance of getting vaccinated. They are even travelling 250 km to get the jabs,” Vibhu Talwar, medical director, Moolchand Medcity, Agra told PTI. “People have been coming from Mainpuri, Aligarh, Etawah, Mathura, Delhi, Meerut, Gurgaon, Noida, among other places, to get vaccinated. It is a good sign that people are travelling 250 km to get inoculated against COVID-19… that they are taking it seriously,” he said. Talwar said around 40 to 50 per cent of those who have been vaccinated at the hospital so far were from outside Agra. Preeti Dungriyal, 35, and her husband travelled from Noida to Agra on Monday to get their second dose of Covaxin. “We took our first dose of Covaxin on May 8. We were trying to book a slot for the second dose for the last three-four days but in vain,” she said. “Later, we found that slots were available in Agra, so we drove there. It was pretty convenient… What is more important is that we could get the jab in time,” Dungriyal said. (PTI)

Nagaland’s #COVID19 tally breaches 23,000 mark with detection of 133 new cases. Total confirmed cases now stand at 23,051.(AIR News)

West Bengal reports 5,427 new #COVID19 cases, 12,290 discharges and 98 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Total cases 14,37,446
Total recoveries 14,01,061
Death toll 16,460

Active cases 19,925 (ANI)

Himachal Pradesh reports 596 new #COVID19 cases, 1155 recoveries and 13 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Total cases 1,96,351
Total recoveries 1,86,033
Death toll 3312

Active cases 6983 (ANI)

Scientists at Pune’s National Institute of Virology have isolated and characterised a coronavirus variant from two travellers — one who returned from the UK and the other from Brail — that exhibits increased disease severity in hamsters but doesn’t pose a public health problem at the moment. The two samples of the B.1.1.28.2 variant are the only ones of its kind isolated by Indian labs so far. The variant was isolated from nasal/throat swabs from a traveller who returned to India from the UK in December 2020, and another who came back from Brazil in January 2021. The samples of the variant, first identified in Brazil last year, were collected as part of the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance. “The finding is significant since the variant is classified as a variant of interest by the World Health Organization,” said study lead author Pragya Yadav from ICMR-NIV Pune. “We also observed an increased disease severity and neutralisation reduction in the study which point towards the need for screening the current vaccines for efficacy,” Yadav said. (PTI)

The UK government is said to be weighing up a delay of around a fortnight beyond the June 21 timeline set for the final stage of a roadmap to end all legal lockdown restrictions, amid a continuing rise in the cases of the Delta variant of COVID-19 in parts of the country. The delay being considered is to enable all over-50s to be fully vaccinated with both doses of a vaccine, found to be most effective against the highly transmissible variant of concern (VOC) first identified in India, and also to leave sufficient time for the jabs to take effect. ‘The Times’ newspaper quoted a Cabinet source as saying that a delay of “between two weeks and a month” is to be expected and another said that a delay made more sense than a partial lifting of lockdown restrictions to avoid any “confusion” in messaging. It follows a so-called “downbeat” briefing from the government’s Chief Medical Officer for England Chris Whitty and Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance to the Cabinet. When asked about the reports, UK Environment Secretary George Eustice would only say that “nothing is being ruled out” by the government, as it is scheduled to make an announcement on Step 4, or last stage, of the lockdown roadmap on Monday. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson reportedly told his Cabinet that while the relationship between cases and hospitalisations has changed, there is a need to continue to look at the data carefully ahead of making a decision on Step 4. (PTI)

Goa reports 473 new #COVID19 cases, 957 recoveries and 14 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Total cases 1,60,284
Total recoveries 1,51,526
Death toll 2859

Active cases 5899 (ANI)

Madhya Pradesh reports 535 new #COVID19 cases, 1376 recoveries and 36 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Total cases 7,86,302
Total recoveries 7,69,914
Death toll 8405

Active cases 7983 (ANI)

CISF to take over security of vaccine manufacturer Bharat Biotech’s campus in Hyderabad from next week; Total 64 force personnel, headed by an inspector-level officer, will provide security starting June 14: CISF Officials (ANI)

Andhra Pradesh reported 7,796 fresh cases of coronavirus, 14,641 recoveries and 77 deaths in 24 hours ending 9 am on Tuesday. The cumulative COVID-19 positives increased to 17,71,007, recoveries to 16,51,790 and toll to 11,629, a health department bulletin said. The number of active cases decreased further to 1,07,588, it said. East Godavari added 1,302 new cases to its count and Chittoor 1,210 in a day. Anantapuramu reported 918, West Godavari 755, Visakhapatnam 672 and Guntur 518 fresh cases, while the remaining seven districts added less than 500 each. Kurnool registered the lowest number of 147 cases. Chittoor continued to see higher number of COVID-19 fatalities, with 12 on Tuesday. West Godavari had 10 more deaths, Anantapuramu and SPS Nellore eight each, Srikakulam seven, East Godavari and Visakhapatnam six each,Vizianagaram five, Guntur and Prakasam four each, Kurnool three,Kadapa and Krishna two each in a day. (PTI)

Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa released Rs 2,000 each subsidy for registered street vendors under Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission. Scheme comes under relief package announced for street vendors whose livelihoods have been hit by #COVID19 2nd wave: Karnataka CMO

Bihar Cabinet decides to provide an ex gratia of Rs 4 lakhs each to the next of kin of those who succumbed to COVID-19 in the state (ANI)

Maharashtra reports 10,891 new #COVID19 cases, 16,577 recoveries and 295 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Total cases 58,52,891
Total recoveries 55,80,925
Death toll 1,01,172

Active cases 1,67,927 (ANI)
  

The state-run Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital (MYH) in Indore in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday said it had discontinued use of Amphotericin-B manufactured at a plant in Himachal Pradesh as a precautionary measure after 40 per cent black fungus patients admitted in the facility complained of shivering on being administered the injections. Some 220 black fungus patients admitted in MYH, which is associated to Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College, were given one dose each of Lyophilized Amphotericin-B injection on Saturday and about 80 of these patients developed severe cold, the college’s dean Dr Sanjay Dixit told reporters. “After this side effect of Amphotericin-B injections manufactured at a pharmaceutical plant in Himachal Pradesh, we have stopped administering it to patients as a precaution. We have received 3,000 vials of Amphotericin-B injection prepared at this plant,” he said. (PTI)

The husband and wife team who helped make the first COVID-19 vaccine are contributing to a book about their efforts. BioNTech founders Ugur Sahin and  Özlem Türeci are collaborating with Joe Miller of the Financial Times on ‘The Vaccine,’ St. Martin’s Publishing Group announced Tuesday. Publication is scheduled for November 2. That’s one week before a book by the head of Pfizer, which teamed up with the Germany-based BioNTech to develop the vaccine, is scheduled to come out. ‘The Vaccine’ will reveal how they were able to develop a panel of vaccine candidates within a matter of weeks, how they convinced major pharmaceutical companies to support their work, how they navigated negotiations with the US administration and the European Union, and how in partnership with Pfizer they managed to produce more than two billion doses for countries around the world,” according to St. Martin’s.  Drs Sahin and Türeci will explain the 30 years of scientific research that laid the foundations for the first Covid-19 vaccine, at a time when public confidence in its safety and efficacy is crucial to offering humanity a route out of this pandemic.  (AP)

Jammu and Kashmir reports 1184 new COVID-19 cases, 2880 recoveries and 11 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Total cases 3,02,651
Total recoveries 2,76,733
Death toll 4101

Active cases 21,817 (ANI)

Kerala on Tuesday reported 15,567 new COVID-19 cases and 124 deaths, taking the tally to to 26.27 lakh and the toll to 10,281. Recoveries continued to outnumber fresh infections with 20,019 people testing negative, taking the total to 25,04,011, the state government said. Active cases stood at 1,43,254 and the Test Positivity Rate (TPR) was 14.15 per cent. Malappuram district topped with 2,121 new cases followed by Ernakulam (1,868) and Thiruvananthapuram (1,760). Out of those infected today, 85 arrived in the state from outside, while 14,695 contracted the disease from their contact. The source of infection of 712 people was yet to be traced, the health department said in a release. Among those infected today were 75 health workers. Currently,6,12,155 people are under observation, of whom 32,992 are in hospitals. (PTI)