Covid LIVE: Record 11,491 new cases in Delhi; 20% drop in Maharashtra

Coronavirus live updates: Delhi witnessed 11,491 cases, Mumbai just above 6900 in the last 24 hours. India's Covid tally has jumped to 13,527,717. Stay tuned for corona-related news

2:19 AM

Centre's strategy to control Covid spread 'monumental failure: Congress

The Congress on Monday alleged that the BJP-led central government's strategy to control the spread of Covid-19 was a "monumental failure" and said while people are dying across the country the saffron party's leadership is busy campaigning for elections.
 

Congress spokesperson Ajoy Kumar said people of the country will not pardon the BJP for such a dangerous situation and called for scaling up the Covid-19 vaccination drive.
 

"The country wants to know, what did the prime minister do for the past 385 days, apart from politics? Patients are suffering, patients are dying, what is the prime minister planning for the weaker sections of this country? Is there any kind of a safety net, he is going to provide," Kumar asked.
 

The country will never pardon the BJP for its "monumental failure in controlling the spread of Covid, which is taking a dangerous turn", he told reporters.
 

Kumar asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi when the health minister will stop "trolling" chief ministers of opposition-ruled states for asking for vaccine.
 

He said the government should approve more vaccines and increase the vaccine manufacturing capacity.
 

The Congress leader said India has broken fresh records in terms of Covid-19 cases and has become the second highest country with coronavirus infected patients.
 

"I hoped to see the photo of my prime minster having a war room meeting with all health experts on how to fight Covid, but I saw a big news saying he is campaigning today in three places of West Bengal. This is the BJP's model of governance,"he alleged.
 

Assembly elections in West Bengal began on March 27 and four of the eight phases of the polls have been completed.
 

Kumar said lakhs of children are to appear in the CBSE exams and their parents are also under a lot of stress due to the present situation, but there is no response from this government.

2:16 AM

Will back Maha govt if it clamps 'full lockdown': Pune traders

An umbrella organisation of traders in Pune on Monday said it will extend support to the Maharashtra government if it imposes a "full lockdown" in the state to curb the rising cases of coronavirus.
 

The Federation of Traders Association (FTA), Pune, took the decision after a detailed meeting of its representatives with senior government officials from Pune district as well as the civic administration, its president said.
 

The decision was taken after considering the prevailing Covid-19 situation in the city and rural parts of the district, one of the worst-hit in the country, federation president Fatehchand Ranka said.
 

"After our meetings with the authorities and our own members, we unanimously took a decision to extend our support if the state government takes a decision to impose a full lockdown," said Ranka.
 

He said it has been learnt that the state government is going to take a decision about the lockdown in the next two days.
 

"If the state government imposes a full lockdown, on behalf of 40,000 traders in the city (represented by the federation), I want to assure the state government that to solve this crisis, we are with you.
 

"However, if the government imposes a half lockdown we will have to take a different decision," Ranka said.
 

He said imposition of a "mini lockdown" did not lead to reduction in movement of people and crowding in the city.
 

2:15 AM

Virbhadra Singh has tests Covid-19 positive

Himachal Pradesh Congress leader Virbhadra Singh has tested Covid-19 positive, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur tweeted on Monday.  Earlier, Virbhadra Singh's son Vikramaditya Singh had tested positive for the coronavirus on Sunday.
 

The 86-year-old veteran Congress leader is currently the MLA from Arki in Solan district.  In his tweet, Thakur wished Virbhadra Singh, a former chief minister a speedy recovery.
 

He also stated that he had talked to Singh's family members.

2:15 AM

Pakistan expects to get 15 million doses through COVAX

Pakistan's foreign minister says the country will receive 15 million Covid-19 vaccine doses through the UN-backed COVAX program.
 

Shah Mahmood Qureshi made the announcement Monday after meeting with his German counterpart Heiko Maas.
 

Qureshi, who is on a two-day visit to Germany, said in a post on Twitter that the doses are expected to be delivered to Pakistan by May.
 

Pakistan is currently seeing a third wave coronavirus surge, reporting 58 single-day deaths from coronavirus in the past 24 hours.
 

The Islamic nation previously hoped to receive vaccines under the COVAX facility in April, and has largely relied on donated and imported Chinese vaccines.
 

9:27 PM

Maharashtra reports 51,751 new Covid-19 cases, 52,312 recoveries

9:26 PM

Pune district receives 6,000 injections of Remdesivir today

9:24 PM

Bengal records 4,511 new Covid cases, highest one-day spike since pandemic began

West Bengal on Monday registered 4,511 fresh Covid-19 cases, the highest single-day spike since the pandemic started last year, the state health department said.
 

Kolkata also set a record of 1,115 new cases.
 

The state also reported this year's highest Covid-19 fatalities at 14 on Monday, pushing the death toll to 10,414.
 

The coronavirus caseload rose to 6,19,407, the department said in a bulletin.
 

It said that 1,947 people recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours.
 

The number of active cases currently is 26,531.
 

In the last 24 hours, 37,116 samples have been tested for Covid-19 in the state.
 

9:24 PM

NF Railway to fine passengers who violate Covid-19 guidelines

The Northeast Frontier(NF) Railway will fine passengers who violate any of the Covid-19 related safety guidelines as incidences of the disease have spiked across the country, sources in it said on Monday.
 

NF Railway has advised all passengers to download and use the Aarogya Setu application before undertaking a journey.
 

On reaching their destination, the passengers will have to adhere to the prevailing health protocol of the place, they said.
 

A release by N F Railway said it has taken measures to create awareness among passengers to restrict the spread of the virus and remain safe. It is conducting awareness campaigns regularly through platforms like print, social and electronic media to alert all passengers about the safety protocol to be observed to prevent the spread of the disease.
 

An audio-visual campaign has also been launched and announcements are being made at all railway station premises on 24x7 basis, it said.
 

Passengers have been advised to travel with minimum luggage and wear face covers and masks, besides observe social distancing both at the stations and on trains, the release said.
 

The passengers have been requested to co-operate with the Railway and respective state government officials in this regards.
 

9:23 PM

Indonesia satisfied with effectiveness of Chinese vaccine

Indonesia said Monday that it is satisfied with the effectiveness of the Sinovac coronavirus vaccine it is using, after the acknowledgement by China's top disease control official that current vaccines offer low protection against the virus.
 

Siti Nadia Tarmizi, a spokesperson for Indonesia's Covid-19 vaccine programme, said the World Health Organisation had found the Chinese vaccines had met requirements by being more than 50 per cent effective.
 

She noted that clinical trials for the Sinovac vaccine in Indonesia showed it was 65 per cent effective.
 

“It means we are talking about the ability to form antibodies in our bodies is still very good,” she said.
 

Gao Fu, the head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a conference Saturday that existing Covid-19 vaccines had low effectiveness rates and mixing vaccines is among strategies being considered to boost their effectiveness. Those comments appeared to running counter to China's official narrative that has tried to promote the country's vaccines and at times discredit its Western counterparts.
 

China has distributed hundreds of millions of doses of domestically made vaccines abroad and is relying on them for its own mass immunization campaign.

Tarmizi said Indonesia would wait to see the results of any clinical trials before considering mixing vaccines.
 

9:22 PM

Haryana records biggest daily jump of 3,818 Covid-19 cases

Haryana recorded the sharpest single-day spike of 3,818 fresh Covid-19 cases on Monday that took the state's tally to 3,20,699, while 14 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 3,282, a health department bulletin said.
 

Among the districts that reported a big spike in cases are Gurgaon with 1,132 cases, followed by 472 in Faridabad, 327 in Karnal, 228 in Sonipat, 224 in Panchkula and 180 in Hisar.
 

Of the latest deaths, two each were reported from Sonipat, Panipat, Yamunanagar and Fatehabad districts and one each from Faridabad, Rewari, Panchkula, Kurukshetra, Sirsa and Kaithal.
 

The number of active cases in Haryana stands at 22,487. So far, 2,94,930 people have recovered from the disease and the state has a recovery rate of 91.96 per cent, the bulletin said.
 

9:22 PM

MSEDCL helps firm manufacture more oxygen in record 14 hours

The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited on Monday said it released additional power supply to an oxygen manufacturing unit in a record 14 hours to enhance its capacity amid the coronavirus pandemic.
 

A statement by the state energy department said Satara MIDC based oxygen manufacturing firm Kay Nitrogen Private Ltd had requested for load enhancement by 260 KVA (kilo volt amps) in order to increase its capacity.
 

It said Superintending Engineer of Satara Circle, Gautam Gaikwad, acted swiftly and his team completed all works, including testing and laying of cable and installation of transformer, in a record 14 hours against the 10-14 days the entire procedure would have taken under normal circumstances.
 

"Kay Nitrogen had submitted its application of load enhancement by 260 KVA on April 3. The application was processed just in 8 hours and an order was placed to a Nashik based firm to provide transformers. To save the time, testing was completed at Nashik while other technical works including cable laying were in progress at Kay Nitrogen," the statement said.
 

On April 9, the transformers were transported from Nashik, and the installation work was completed in 14 hours on April 10, it added.
 

Kay Nitrogen had a sanctioned load of 575 KVA earlier and was able to manufacture 600 to 700 oxygen cylinders per day, which has increased after load enhancement.
 

9:03 PM

Coronavirus LIVE: Maharashtra reports 51,751 new cases

Maharashtra reports 51,751 new coronavirus cases, 52,312 recoveries and 258 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the state health department.

8:47 PM

Maharashtra govt making a fool-proof plan during the lockdown

8:17 PM

Coronavirus LIVE: Nagpur reports 5,661 new cases

Nagpur reports 5,661 new coronavirus cases, 3,247 recoveries and 69 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to district health officials.

8:09 PM

14 private hospitals in Delhi declared 'fully coronavirus' centres

The Delhi government on Monday declared 14 private hospitals in the city as "full Covid-19" hospitals and directed them not to admit any non-Covid patients till further orders.

 

Nineteen private hospitals have been directed to reserve at least 80 per cent of their ICU beds for coronavirus-related treatment.

 

Eighty-two private hospitals have been asked to set aside at least 60 per cent of their ICU beds for Covid-19 patients, according to the order issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). (PTI)