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Covid 19 control room set up by the government of Haryana to mainly monitor the supply of Oxygen

Haryana Covid

The Haryana government has set up a control room at Civil secretariat in Chandigarh to ensure equitable distribution and an adequate and uninterrupted supply of medical oxygen in the state, in wake of a rise in Covid-19 cases.

Government of Haryana also said that all efforts are being made to increase the production of medical oxygen.

An official statement said that amid a rapid rise in Covid-19 cases and while realizing the need to meet the current surge in demand for medical oxygen across the state, the Haryana government has set up the control room at the Civil Secretariat.

Also Read: Issues faced by India in dealing with Covid 19 resurge- Is it too late to contain the Second Wave

The statement also added, “Further, to ensure equitable distribution of oxygen allocated by the government of India for Haryana and ensuring adequate and uninterrupted supply of medical oxygen within the state, a state-level oxygen control room has been set up.”

The newly set up control room is also mandated to perform other vital functions, including ensuring safe movement of oxygen tankers from manufacturing plants to districts. It is also mandated to ensure that each district is informed of daily allocation issued by the health department.  The statement also added that the control room will further ensure that each district issues its own distribution plan and operates an early warning system.

Also See: New mutants of Coronavirus

On Monday, the state of Haryana recorded the biggest single-day jump in Covid19-related fatalities with 75 deaths while the state also registered yet another big jump in infections with 11,504 new cases.

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Covid care coaches deployed across nine stations in four states that are worst hit by pandemic

covid-bed-1200

As second wave of Coronavirus disease has grappled the nation, over 4000 Covid care coaches have been deployed across India by the Railways. The Covid care coaches have been deployed in nine stations across four states.  Deployment of Covid-19 care coaches is being done in nine major railway stations in the states of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra. These states are the worst-hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The decision of Covid care coaches comes in the backdrop of these states reporting a severe shortage of beds to accommodate infected patients.

Also See: New mutants of Coronavirus

The Railway Ministry has said in a statement that it is swiftly meeting the demands of Covid-19 coaches from all states under the “current raging second spell of the Covid-19 pandemic” with its fleet of 4,000 coaches which have a capacity of 64,000 beds.

The statement from the Ministry said, “As per currently available data, these facilities are seeing a steady intake registering a cumulative admission of 81 Covid-19 patients and the subsequent discharge of 22 patients. None of the facilities have registered any casualties.”

Covid-care coaches came into existence last year during the first wave of the pandemic in the country.

Also Read: Issues faced by India in dealing with Covid 19 resurge- Is it too late to contain the Second Wave

In the national Capital-Delhi, the Railway Ministry has provided 75 coaches with 1,200 beds. Out of these, Fifty coaches have been positioned at the Shakurbasti station while the remaining 25 are at the Anand Vihar station. The statement said that there are currently five patients at the Shakurbasti station of whom one was discharged, further adding that 857 patients were admitted and discharged from the facility last year.

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Covid19 crisis-A six-member empowered group has been constituted by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority

DDMA

Months of lack of preparation for the pandemic is followed by formation of empowered groups and committees in a truly Indian sarkari fashion to deal with the Covid19 crisis in the second wave which has an insidious dimension of Oxygen scarcity.

A six-member empowered group has been constituted by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) to ensure smooth supply of essential services and commodities in the national capital during the ongoing lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Also See: New mutants of Coronavirus

The DDMA said in an order, that the group will also engage with private sector and industry associations for arrangements of critical supplies related to Covid19 equipment and logistics which are required at the field level by districts or other departments.

Delhi Trade and Taxes Commissioner, Ankur Garg will head the six-member group.

On Sunday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced extension of the ongoing lockdown in Delhi for another week, saying that the severity of Covid-19 is unabated and positivity rate has been as high as 36% in the last few days.

He said that the lockdown imposed on April 19 night will now continue till 5 a.m. on May 3. Before extension, it was scheduled to end at 5 a.m. on Monday.

Also Read: Issues faced by India in dealing with Covid 19 resurge- Is it too late to contain the Second Wave

In an order, State Nodal Officer (Covid-19) Satya Gopal said that the empowered group will address the issues of export-oriented units due to restrictions imposed during curfew.

Mr. Gopal, who is also the Additional Chief Secretary (Power), said in the order that it will also address issues, if any, being faced by district administration regarding availability of Covid-19 related essential goods and services, other than medicines and hospital supplies.

The order also stated, “The six-member group will also identify problem areas and provide effective solutions thereof, delineate policies, formulate plans, strategies and take all necessary steps for effective and time-bound implementation of these plans/strategies/decisions.”

Also Read: Second Wave of Covid19-Export of Remdesivir & its APIs banned when states are facing shortage of vaccines

With the issue of shortage of beds continuing in the national capital, search for beds and then long wait at hospitals have proved to be agonizing for attendants and relatives of patients, they rued. While a steady stream of cars and ambulances kept visiting the emergency wings of hospitals, several also had to leave due to the paucity of beds.

From shortage of beds, to waiting for days outside hospital bedrooms, from not getting slots in crematoriums to not getting adequate Oxygen, Delhi citizens are seeing the malevolent dark side of the Covid19 crisis, in a season with an indifferent central government.

It must be noted that officials in the Ministry of health had suggested the government against the export of Oxygen, which was not heeded by the government.

The scenario of absence of basic facilities in hospitals is certainly the doing of an unprepared over-confident government.

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Oxygen crisis continues- 20 patients died due to low Oxygen pressure in Delhi hospital-Gurugram hospitals staring at limited O2 supply

Oxygen crisis continues

The vitriolic flak the central government received from the Delhi High Court & the Supreme Court seemed to have had no effect in shaking away the apathetic condition.

After spending a year exporting Oxygen, GOI is now clamouring for its imports and production as the Oxygen crisis is staring it right in its eyes.

A total of twenty patients who were suffering from coronavirus disease (Covid-19), most of who were admitted to the critical care unit of Jaipur Golden hospital in Rohini, Delhi, died due to low oxygen pressure as the hospital’s oxygen stock ran dry. Officials of the hospital disclosed this in a statement.

Dr Depp Baluja, medical director of the hospital, said, “We lost 20 patients almost all of whom were in critical care unit and on a high flow of oxygen. Our liquid medical oxygen was over by about 10 pm and then we switched over to the oxygen cylinders. There was a drop in pressure and the patients could not survive.”

The hospital was to receive its quota of medical oxygen at 05:30 pm but the supply did not reach it till midnight. Even then, the hospital received just 40% of its allocated quota and is again in a situation of crisis.

In this regard, Dr Baluja added, “We are again in a situation of crisis, 200 lives are on the line. Last night we were at least able to save most patients. We will not be able to do that today. We have exhausted our backup.”  The hospital has probably another 30 minutes of supply left.

To tackle the Oxygen deficit, the Centre is planning to import Oxygen tankers from Singapore, UAE & other places. This comes in a situation when it was found that January 2021 export of Oxygen was 734% higher than that in January 2020, showing a careless indifferent attitude of the government towards the impending Oxygen crisis. The centre has asked the states to revive all closed plants.

Also See: New mutants of Coronavirus

A few days back on April 21, as India reported the largest single-day spike of nearly 316, 000 Covid-19 cases, several hospitals across the country expressed their inability to treat patients in the wake of acute oxygen shortage. On that same day, Max Healthcare, which runs 14 hospitals across the national capital region, had filed an urgent plea with the Delhi high court citing an acute shortage of oxygen. Max had informed the court that it was left with only three hours of oxygen. It said that if that ran out, the lives of 400 patients, of which 262 were suffering from Covid-19, would be under threat.

Also Read: Issues faced by India in dealing with Covid 19 resurge- Is it too late to contain the Second Wave

In Gurugram, the hospitals continue to suffer from an acute shortage of oxygen on Friday despite the district administration saying that it was getting enough supply from two plants in Haryana and Rajasthan.

Dr Devlina Chakravarty, managing director of Artemis Hospital, tweeted the situation at her hospital, stating, “Artemis hospital Gurgaon is in its last leg of oxygen. Last night’s commitment of oxygen replenishment remained unfilled. Only 3 hours to go!!! Please help us urgently (sic).”

She also added, “Every morning we have to make numerous calls to get a 24-hour supply. Doctors and other health care staff are fatigued working round-the-clock. Lack of basic support such as oxygen can break their backs. It is a pity that we are not able to help hundreds of people coming to our ER, gasping for breath. We have stopped chasing the lack of Remdesivir, Tocilizumab, ventilators. We request all now to provide us the very basic uninterrupted supply of oxygen.”

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Curse of Lockdown restrictions return in Delhi & other places as Covid19 cases surge

migrant workers

Last year, India, its economy, and crores of migrant workers paid a huge price, when an unplanned lockdown was imposed just with a gap of four hours for the entire nation to prepare for it. Days prior to that, Modi was organizing Trump-rallies in Agra, Ahmedabad, and other places, which had drew in fans of Modi and Trump from US, that led to a gradual explosion in the Covid19 cases. More than a year has passed since then. Trump has been replaced with Biden in US, where he is doling out funds to contain the pandemic and help the needy. But, in India that dystopic situation has returned to haunt the population with pyres burning on roads in cities across UP, bodies being dumped in river in Bharuch, and relatives wailing over dead bodies in ambulances outside Delhi hospital, with no monetary help from governments.

Also Read: Dystopia 2020

As Delhi witnessed the highest number of cases since the pandemic first struck the country a year back, the Covid19 crisis in the NCR region has deepened. The health infrastructure is in total chaos in the NCR region as Covid-19 cases are growing by never seen before levels. The state governments have imposed major curbs to check the spread of Covid-19, in the wake of rising cases. Delhi is functioning under sweeping restrictions, including a night curfew and weekend lockdown. Noida and Ghaziabad are witnessing low footfall and empty roads due to the similar Covid-19 induced restrictions. The bustling road, Delhi Noida Direct Flyway (DND) is also witnessing limited vehicular movement due to the partial lockdown imposed in both Noida and Delhi. Situation in Ghaziabad was grimmer as people were seen waiting outside crematoriums along with corpses of their relatives due to the surge in Covid-19 death.

Migrant workers began leaving for their hometowns, after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a week-long lockdown in the capital. A massive crowd of migrant labourers gathered at the Anand Vihar Bus Terminal in Delhi to return to their hometowns.

This comes after the Chief Minister urged migrant laboures to not leave Delhi as the lockdown is a shorter one and also assured them that the government will take care of their needs during this period.

Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced a six-day lockdown from 10 pm on April 19 till 5 am on April 26 amid the rising Covid-19 cases in Delhi.

Hours after the announcement, a sea of people flooded the Anand Vihar Bus terminal in Delhi to leave for their native places. Covid19 protocol went for a toss as people rushed towards buses with their families. Even police could not manage the crowd.

Also Read: Some Ominous signs

The recent nationwide spike in coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases has cast its shadow on trade and business with migrant workers bearing the brunt of strict restrictions put in place by states.

On Sunday, hundreds of migrant workers were stranded in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur as the government’s Sunday lockdowns affected public transport. The workers said that the buses were put on election duty due to Uttar Pradesh’s gram panchayat polls.  A migrant worker who was among 500 others who were waiting in Kanpur for a bus headed towards Azamgarh stated, “Two buses go to Azamgarh in the morning but they are fully packed. The officials told us that all buses are on election duty.”

The Kaushambi Inter-State Bus Terminal over the past few days saw an increased footfall of migrant workers working in Noida, Ghaziabad and Delhi. Some of those men and women said that they were travelling back home to cast their votes in the rural body elections and that their return was being spurred by fears of another lockdown. Migrant workers were also seen with their families waiting for buses at Delhi Meerut Expressway, near Indirapuram.

Last week, migrant workers in Gurugram also started to leave for their homes after the Haryana government imposed a night curfew in the state. The people returning home to their families in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar said that fears of a lockdown has led them to arrive at this decision. Key transit points in Delhi like Anand Vihar ISBT and New Delhi railway station also saw large numbers of migrant labourers headed home as they feared that the rise in cases in the Capital would force the city towards another lockdown.

Lockdown like measures introduced by several state governments meant a loss of livelihood for many migrant workers working in India’s major cities. Migrant workers, who form an essential part of any city’s economy, faced difficulties when the Centre imposed its first lockdown in 2020 following the first wave of Covid-19. Most of them were unable to find transport and had to walk home in desperation and many died due to exertion, & lack of food, with some trampled under trains.

The recent surge in Covid-19 cases has adversely affected these workers in all major cities like Mumbai and Delhi. Migrant workers in Mumbai after noticing the surge in cases started leaving for their native states starting at the beginning of this month. Maharashtra continues to see migrant workers leave as the state remains worst-hit by Covid-19.

The Covid19 pandemic has proved the apathetic behaviour of governments towards the people working in the informal sector like the migrant workers, who have lost their trust in the system & are heading home with no minimal help to retain their livelihoods in the cities.

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Covid situation in Haridwar-next to nil precaution to contain spread of the virus

Kumbh or Superspreader?

Situation of the Covid19 is getting worsened at the Kumbh Mela. It has been twelve days into the Kumbh mela at Haridwar amid a Covid resurge when the Uttarakhand government is struggling to put in place practices like wearing masks and carrying out of the thermal screening. By Monday evening, over 28 lakh devotees had turned up for the second shahi snan in the Ganges. As per officials from the medical department, over 18,169 were tested between 11:30 pm on Sunday & 5 pm on Monday, in which 102 cases were found positive.

Also See: New mutants of Coronavirus

On Tuesday, NCP leader and Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik said that the central government should be concerned and that it should take things seriously as the Kumbh Mela and the elections can worsen the Covid19 situation in India. On the steps taken by Maharashtra, he added, “Strict restrictions are imposed in Maharashtra. Malls, religious places, shops, cinema halls, and social, political, and religious functions are banned. There is a mini-lockdown situation in the state. Arrangements are being made so that there should be no lack of beds and oxygen cylinders in hospitals. The situation is being monitored. We held discussions with other parties for further course of action.”

It was reported that from the Haridwar station to Har ki Pauri and other places like Ghats, there were no arrangements for thermal screening anywhere. Although there was a barrier of the entry norm of Covid negative RT-PCR report, which is witnessing huge rush, many people are arriving without the reports, but are being let through. Even the challans for not wearing masks were being avoided at many places. Many people arriving from outside the state mentioned that no thermal screening or mandatory asking for the submission of the negative RT-PCR reports was being carried out anywhere, visibly to avoid the issue of crowd and possible stampede. An official at the site, in fact, confirmed that the main focus was crowd management and not containment of the pandemic.

Also Read: Issues faced by India in dealing with Covid 19 resurge- Is it too late to contain the Second Wave

Let us consider three statements which were doing rounds of various platforms of the media last year. “This is not a negligence. It’s a serious criminal act.”

“Spreading Covid-19 is also like terrorism, and all those who are spreading the virus are traitors.”

“The government should not sit quiet. It should gun down a few to ensure they follow lockdown norms.”

The above three are just a few of the comments by ministers and other members of  Bharatiya Janata Party members from 2020. These statements were referring to a gathering by the Tablighi Jamaat group in Delhi that turned out to be an early Covid-19 hotspot. The Jammat had begun their congregation before the Coronavirus was declared a health emergency and many believed that the acts of the Jamaat can be considered condemnable.

In this perspective of looking at a public gathering in the context of a health emergency, a question arises for those who condemned Jamaat. The question is: Is not the act of gathering at Kumbh Mela equally condemnable especially during the second wave, or does one religion have more leverage than the others?

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Issues faced by India in dealing with Covid 19 resurge- Is it too late to contain the Second Wave

In the last 24 hours (as on Thursday morning) India detected 1,26, 789 cases of Coronavirus infections, which is the highest so far. A day before that India had detected 1,15,736 cases of infections. As per the data of April 08, Maharashtra has recorded a new high of 59,907 cases & the infection count in Chattisgarh crossed the 10,000 mark for the first time. UP & Karnataka have reported more than 6000 cases. India recorded 685 related deaths, which pushed the toll to 1,66,862. The total caseload of India now stands at 1,29,28,574. The count of active cases has gone upto 9,10,319, which is 7.04% of the total infections, after the country registered a steady rise for the 29th day in a row. The recovery rate in the country has gone down to 91.67%.

At this pace of growth in the number of the infections recorded each day over almost a month, the country as per some estimates will witness on an average 100,000 cases per day and 5000-10,000 beds would be required each day for critical care & a corresponding quantum of Oxygen supply. It needs to be stated that this is a very conservative estimate and assuming that around 5-10% would need hospitalization. Even at this rate, at some point the health system in the country may face a situation of collapse.

In a parallel development, the division bench of the Delhi High Court on Thursday declined to entertain a case which seeks directions for measures to control the rising number of cases of the infections of Covid-19 in the National capital region. The division bench of the Delhi high court comprised of Justices Rekha Palli & Vipin Sanghi stated that steps like vaccination, awareness campaign on the use of masks & crucial safety steps like Social distancing are being taken by the state to control & contain the pandemic.

On Wednesday, in Delhi 5,506 new positive cases of Coronavirus infections were recorded with a positivity rate of 6.10% among the 90,201 tests conducted over a period of 24 hours. In the national capital, there are a total of 19,455 active cases (as on Thursday morning). In this context, a question arises: why is the judiciary uncomfortable in answering questions over legitimate demands on measures to control the spread of the virus?

Moving onto the international scale, the country is pursuing vaccine diplomacy, when on domestic front, the states are reporting shortage of vaccines against Covid19. In addition to the vaccine-shortage in various states, the existing capacity has not been ramped up to meet the growing demands of vaccines in India.

On the world platform, as part of vaccine diplomacy, India has supplied around 60 million doses of vaccines to around 70 countries. The two vaccines which have been supplied to other countries are the Covaxin & the Covishield (ChAdOx1-S), with respective efficacies at 81% & ~70%. The Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech is a two-dose whole virion inactivated vaccine, which needs to be given in two doses separated by a duration of 28 days. Covishield, manufactured by SII is a recombinant vaccine against Covid19. It is perplexing that India is carrying out vaccine diplomacy at such a large scale when it is facing shortage of supplies in many of its own states.

In this regard, some questions arise naturally. The first question is; for what purpose such a large-scale of vaccine diplomacy is being implemented in such a time of national public health crisis in the middle of a second wave? The second question is; Is the vaccine diplomacy being carried out to skirt away the questions over the efficacies of the two indigenously manufactured vaccines? And the third question is; whether the vaccines are being distributed just for the purpose of image building of Modi whose government is on a backfoot in multiple issues which have come under international attention; farmers’ protests and suppression of dissent being some examples.

Also Read: DBT Secretary stated that all Indian vaccines are being developed for storage at 2-8 degree Celsius

GOI has been dealing with questions on its vaccination strategy & the supply of doses and methodologies like Cowin App, inspite of two vaccines being in mass production & when a nationally ambitious immunization is under way. Related to Cowin app, there has been an issue of fraudulent apps, posing as the Cowin app but were actually developed by unscrupulous elements. These fraudulent apps are asking for details from the unsuspecting people, which has been a headache for the Ministry of Health & the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The country has been building and developing manufacturing capabilities to manufacture large quantities of vaccines over the last year. The vaccines for which the capabilities are being developed include Covovax, Sputnik V& Janssen vaccines. The Covovax is the SII’s version of NVX-CoV2373, which is a protein-based Covid19 vaccine. This vaccine targets the spike proteins on the surface envelope of the SAR-CoV-2 Coronavirus, which allows the virus to interact with the host body and infect the cells. Janssen is the Covid19 vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson. It is a viral vector vaccine, and the vector in this case is mRNA.

Also Read: Concerns over the mutant strains of the Coronavirus in India-experts call for genome sequencing on a war footing

While the country is tackling with the issue of shortage & building capacities, the politics between the centre and the states has spilled into the distribution of vaccines. Various states pushed the Union Health Ministry to supply more vaccine doses and clear the path for vaccination for everyone above the age of 18 yrs. In response, the centre has asserted its view that the states having the second-wave of the spread of Covid19 are politicizing the public health issue and concurrently spreading lies. The centre also accused the states of not carrying out enough tests, contact tracing & ramping up the health infrastructure.

In this power-play between centre and states and that too in an election season, the population of the country is losing out on time in the face of a spreading virus which is in its second wave of transmission. Even with all the giddying optimism, it can be safely said that the best time to contain & fight Covid19 is gone as the country has ignored three important factors when the cases were declining: containment efforts to limit the spread, continued genetic sequencing and coverage of vaccines. The country had an opportunity to fight the spread with genomic sequencing on a war-footing which would have helped in understanding the epidemiology of the disease with respect to India.

Also See: New mutants of Coronavirus

That did not happen, and the spread could not be stopped & on top of it, the new mutants of the virus arrived. In this scenario, the allotment of hospital beds, coordination with the states, opening all age groups to vaccination, transparent fast-tracking the development of other vaccine candidates for the medical trials & augmentation of the healthcare facilities by the central government (which seems far-fetched since BJP is busy with only the polls) are needed urgently.

In this scenario, lockdown should be considered as a measure of the last resort to be used when no other steps work, to contain the spread of the virus, keeping in consideration the abysmal state of the economy.

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Vaccine diplomacy-Paraguay receives 100000 doses of Covaxin from India

Covaxin vaccine from India

A shipment of 100000 doses of India’s indigenous vaccine- Covaxin was received by Paraguay on Monday.

Citing Paraguay health ministry, Sputnik reported, “Paraguay receives 100000 doses of Covaxin vaccine from India. We guarantee the continued immunization against Covid19. Thanks to India for its support.”

EAM S Jaishankar stated about the arrival of Indian vaccines in the South American country. He stressed on the ‘Made in India’ nature of the vaccines and added, “Never too far for friendship. Made in India vaccines arrive in Paraguay.”

Over 2,09000 cases of Covid19 have been reported in Paraguay, and over 4063 have died of the infection.

Under the Vaccine-Maitri initiative, India has been supplying vaccines to countries across the world. And in this regard, India has provided vaccines to over 75 countries.

As per data available with MEA, over 638.81 lakh doses of vaccines have been provided by India to other countries.

Also See: The New mutants of the Covid19 virus

The provision of vaccines for Paraguay can be counted as a major win in vaccine-diplomacy of India. It is because the South American country has been facing an uphill task of procuring vaccines. And Paraguay was caught between fraught relations with China on one hand and US and Taiwan on another. China was offering Paraguay to sell its vaccine, but on the condition that it sever it’s ties with Taiwan.  US secretary of State, Antony Blinken, on a March 14 call, had discussed with Paraguay leadership and had tried to persuade the country to strengthen ties with partners like Taiwan, while Taipei has been trying to develop a Vaccine of its own, which is expected to be ready by June.

The Vaccines from India came as a breather for Paraguay caught between US and China.

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Sachin Tendulkar COVID-19 positive; friends and fans wish ‘speedy recovery’

Sachin Tendulakar

Sachin Tendulkar took to Twitter on Saturday to reveal that he had tested positive for coronavirus. The cricket legend tweeted that he has quarantined himself at home and all others at his house had tested negative.

“I have been testing myself and taking all the recommended precautions to ensure Covid is kept at bay. However, I’ve tested positive today following mild symptoms. All others at home have tested negative,” Tendulkar tweeted.

He further thanked the medical caregivers. “I want to thank all the healthcare professionals who are supporting me and many others across the country,” Sachin added.

Sachin’s fans and friends wished him speedy recovery.

“Get well soon paaji,” former cricket Imran Khan posted on Twitter.

A similar message, ‘get well soon paji’ was shared by Harbhajan Singh.

Vedant Birla said, “Concerned to know about #SachinTendulkar being tested positive for #COVID19. Wishing him a speedy recovery and praying for a long life. Recovery ki Straight Drive maro…”

“Get well soon, Sachin. Wishing you a speedy recovery 😇,” wrote Mumbai Indians team.

“On behalf of the Royal Challengers family, we wish you a very speedy recovery, Sachin! 🙏”, tweeted Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Sachin Tendulkar recently led India Legends at the Road Safety World Series in Raipur, where the team defeated Sri Lanka Legends in the final to take the inaugural title.

Sachin continues the hold the record for scoring most runs in Test and ODIs. The legendary cricketer has amassed 15921 runs in 200 Tests at an average of 53.79. In 463 ODIs, Sachin has scored 18426 runs at an average of 44.83.

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COVID-19: Maharashtra’s this district announces lockdown; details inside

lockdown

As Maharashtra continues to worst hit state with second wave of coronavirus,the Maharashtra government on Wednesday announced a lockdown in the Beed district from 26 March till 4 April.

The order to impose a lockdown was issued by the Beed District Collector to prevent further spread of the virus, as per reports. During the lockdown, all schools, colleges, marriage halls, hotels and restaurants will remain shut in the Maharashtra district.

However, shops selling essential commodities including groceries, milk and medicines, will be exempted during this period.

Maharashtra recorded over 28,000 new cases on Tuesday as the state grapples with the “second wave”.

Registering 132 deaths, the state`s new infections rose from 24,645 on Monday to 28,699.

Meanwhile, the Covid surge in Maharashtra and Punjab is cause of grave concern, the Union Health Ministry said today. The last two states and Union Territories that are a cause of concern due to the sudden surge in COVID-19 are Chhattisgarh and Chandigarh, the government said.

The Centre also admitted that a new “double mutant variant” of the virus has been detected in 18 states.