Coronavirus: Uttarakhand records 7,783 cases for the first time since outbreak

10.55 pm:

10.50 pm: Assam reports 4,826 new coronavirus cases, 2,916 recoveries and 55 deaths, reports ANI. The active cases are 29,915, and the toll goes up to 1,485.

10.45 pm: Chhattisgarh reports 15,157 new Covid-19 cases, 315 discharges, and 253 deaths. The toll stands at 9,738, according to ANI.

10.30 pm: Indian Railways and Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation have turned 19 coaches into isolation wards at Sabarmati Railway Station and Chandlodiya Railway Station, reports ANI.

9.21 pm: Uttarakhand records 7,783 Covid-19 cases, the highest since the pandemic began, taking the tally of infections in the state to 2,11,834, reports PTI. The toll rises by 127 to 3,142.

This is the second consecutive when the state has registered a record rise in cases. It had recorded 7,028 cases on Tuesday.

9.18 pm: The Centre says the coronavirus spreads only through human to human transmission and not from animals, reports PTI. “Also, if you have been vaccinated, it is not mandatory that everyone will experience side effects like body ache or fever,” NITI Ayog Member VK Paul adds.

9.17 pm: Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha directs senior health officials to add 1,050 oxygen-supported beds in the Kashmir division to ensure immediate treatment for people requiring hospitalisation, reports PTI. He asks officials to make the arrangements within a week.

9.13 pm: Union Health Ministry says that evidence suggests the Covid pandemic in India is “moving eastwards”, adding that a rise in infections has been observed in this part of the country. The statement was made at a high-level meeting between health ministry officials and representatives from Assam, Odisha, Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand today, reports ANI.

9.09 pm: West Bengal registers its highest single-day rise of infections since the pandemic began, logging 18,102 Covid cases today, reports PTI. With this, the state’s tally of cases rises to 9,16,635. The toll goes up to 11,847 after 103 deaths were reported in 24 hours.

9.06 pm: Farmer unions from Punjab, which have been agitating against the central farm laws, say they will protest on May 8 against the government’s decision to impose a lockdown in the state, reports PTI.

Farmer leader Balbir Singh Rajewal alleges the government has imposed a lockdown to hide its failure in handling the coronavirus situation and because it wants to weaken the ongoing farmers’ movement. He was speaking on behalf of Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of farmer unions that is spearheading the agitation against the Centre’s three laws.

9.04 pm: Mining major Vedanta announces it is setting up a 100-bed field hospital in Gurugram, Haryana for Covid patients, reports PTI.

9.02 pm: Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren says that all journalists in the state will be vaccinated on priority, reports ANI.

8.59 pm: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Khattar announces medical assistance of Rs 5,000 per patient for seven days to below the poverty line Covid patients who are admitted to private hospitals and are on oxygen support, reports ANI.

8.57 pm: Aid in the form of ventilators and oxygen concentrators arrives from Australia.

8.54 pm: Canada authorises the Pfizer Covid vaccine for use in children from 12 to 15, Reuters reports. “The department determined that this vaccine is safe and effective when used in this younger age group,” Supriya Sharma, a senior adviser at the ministry, says briefing. “We are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

8.46 pm: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray notes that the Centre’s advisor warned of a third wave of the virus, reports ANI. Thackeray says his state has been preparing for a potential new wave of Covid cases from last month.

“Several districts are seeing a decline in Covid cases while some districts are seeing an increase in cases,” he says. “We’re keeping a close tab on it.”

8.32 pm: Tamil Nadu has 23,310 new coronavirus cases, reports ANI.

8.30 pm: Mumbai has 3,879 new cases, while Maharashtra reports 57,640 fresh Covid cases.

7.35 pm: Karnataka reports 50,112 new cases and 346 deaths in the past 24 hours. Of these, 23,106 cases and 161 deaths are from Bengaluru alone, according to Bangalore Mirror.

7 pm: Union Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal says that the relief materials coming from abroad was being monitored by a group of senior officials. “Our technical wing has made guidelines to see that what hospital would the equipment be suitable for,” he claims. “The equipment is being sent to hospitals where an immediate need has been felt.”

6.56 pm: The Gujarat Congress urges the state government to supply the primary and community health centres in rural parts of the state with adequate amount of crucial medicines, medical equipment and testing kits to deal with the rising coronavirus cases, reports PTI.

6.55 pm: India has given emergency use authorisation for a coronavirus antibody drug cocktail developed by Roche and Regeneron, Reuters reports. Roche’s distribution partner for the drug in India, Cipla, says the approval was given based on data filed with the US regulators and based on the scientific opinion of a European regulatory panel.

4.30 pm: Raghavan says vaccines will need to be “updated” to deal with the new strains of the virus.

4.22 pm: K VijayRaghavan, principal scientific advisor to the Central government, warns that a third wave or “phase” of the pandemic is inevitable as he talks about the future of the pandemic. “Given the higher levels of circulating virus. But it is not clear on what time scale this phase three will occur,” he says at the press conference in Delhi. “Hopefully, incrementally, but we should prepare for new waves.”

4.18 pm: The coronavirus cases are increasing in Karnataka, Kerala, West Bengal and North Eastern states, says Centre.

4.17 pm: “Early signs of decline in coronavirus cases being observed in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Delhi,” says Health ministry Joint Secretary Luv Agarwal.

4.15 pm: At a press conference on the coronavirus situation in India, the Centre says 12 states have over 1 lakh active cases of the virus.

4.12 pm: The Centre tells the Delhi High Court that armed force assistance can be provided to transportation of oxygen, reports ANI.

4.04 pm: Delhi reports 311 deaths due to the coronavirus and 20,960 new cases with a positivity rate of 26.37% in the last 24 hours. With this, the national Capital’s toll has now risen to 18,063 since the pandemic began last year. The city has so far recorded 12,53,902 cases, of which over 11.43 lakh have recovered.

This is the fourth consecutive day that the positivity rate has remained below 30%.

3.05 pm: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announces new curbs in light of the second Covid wave. These include:

• Maximum 50 people at weddings.
• Banks to operate from 10 am to 2 pm only.
• State Assembly to work at 50% capacity.
• Local trains to stop running from tomorrow, Thursday.
• Negative RT-PCR tests from those flying into Bengal.
• Essential stores – pharmacies and grocery shops – to remain open.
• Shopping complexes, gyms, cinemas, beauty parlours closed.
• No social or political gatherings allowed. 

2.39 pm: The Supreme Court has recommended that the Centre should learn from the Mumbai municipal authority in managing oxygen supplies amid severe shortage in Delhi.

Also read: Draw experience from successful Mumbai model, SC tells Centre, Delhi government

2.28 pm: Minister of External Affairs S Jaishanker says he was alerted about his exposure to possible coronavirus cases on Tuesday evening.

“As a measure of abundant caution and also out of consideration for others, I decided to conduct my engagements in the virtual mode,” he tweets. “That will be the case with the G7 meeting today as well.”

2.10 pm: Lucknow district administration issues notice to private facility Sun Hospital in the city’s Gomti Nagar for allegedly putting up false notice of oxygen unavailability, reports The Indian Express.

2.08 pm: Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope says that the state government has had no communication with Serum Institute of India Chief Executive Officer Adar Poonwalla on vaccine procurement, reports PTI. Tope’s comment was in response to a recent interview where Poonawalla said he was under immense pressure from some of the most powerful people in the country for vaccines.

2.05 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi retweets Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s post on making use of extra dose of vaccines.

“Good to see our healthcare workers and nurses set an example in reducing vaccine wastage,” tweets Modi.

2 pm: Uttar Pradesh government extends the ongoing coronavirus curfew till 7 am on May 10, reports the Hindustan Times. The curfew was due to end at 7am on Thursday.

1.57 pm: Two members of the Indian delegation at G7 summit in London test positive for coronavirus, reports Sky News. The members who have tested positive do not include Foreign Minister S Jaishankar.

12.39 pm: Madhya Pradesh Information, Education and Communication Bureau Deputy Director Archana Mundir says that coronavirus vaccinations for residents in the 18-44 age group will begin in state from Wednesday in a phased manner as per the availability of doses, reports PTI.

12.35 pm: The Gujarat government on Tuesday extended the night curfew to seven more cities to curb the spread of the coronavirus, reports The Indian Express. Now, 36 cities are now under restrictions. The curfew, from 8 pm to 6 am, will remain in effect till May 12.

The new cities where the curfew has been imposed are Deesa, Ankleshwar, Vapi, Modasa, Radhanpur, Kadi and Visnagar.

12.31 pm: While several districts in Maharashtra had to shut down their coronavirus immunisation centres due to a shortage of vaccines, Jalna had a surplus of shots that could last for more than 10 days, reports The Indian Express. Jalna is the home district of state Health Minister Rajesh Tope.

Tope, however, said that no districts were preferred in the distribution of the vaccines. He told The Indian Express that if Jalna had more stocks, it was done to “encourage more vaccination”.

12.27 pm: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan says the coronavirus would take some more days to peak in the second wave of the infection and cases could soar further, reports PTI. He says that the state should expect an increase in the spread of the infection due to the high test positivity rate, which stood at was 26.08% on Tuesday.

12.25 pm: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath says journalists and their families would receive special consideration and priority in the coronavirus vaccination and separate inoculation centres would be set up for them, reports The Indian Express.

12.23 pm: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa says his government has decided to consider journalists as frontline workers and accord them priority in vaccination against the coronavirus.

12.19 pm: Five Covid-19 patients, including a woman, die at a private hospital in Roorkee in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar district allegedly due to disruption in oxygen supply to the facility for around 30 minutes, reports PTI. A doctor at the hospital says that the oxygen supply to the hospital was disrupted between 1.30 and 2 am. Haridwar District Magistrate C Ravishankar has ordered a magisterial-level inquiry into the incident.

12.02 pm: The Centre moves the Supreme Court against a Delhi High Court show cause notice asking why contempt action should not be initiated against it for not complying with its orders on oxygen supply to the Capital, reports Bar and Bench. The court will take up the hearing at 12.30 pm.

On May 1, the Delhi High Court had directed the Centre to provide 490 metric tonnes of oxygen, the quota allocated for the city, “by whatever means”.

10.34 am: RBI extends loan tenor for individual borrowers and businesses with exposure up to Rs 25 crore for a further two years. Entities who availed the loan moratorium last year can also avail this facility.

10.33 am: RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das says the central bank will inject liquidity worth Rs 50,000 crore in the economy for banks to offer loans to build health infrastructure.

9.55 am: India has recorded more than 3 lakh cases a day for nearly 15 days in a row, since April 22. On May 1, it touched an all-time high of 4,01,993 Covid cases, though the figures have stayed below the 4-lah mark since then.

9.50 am: India registers 3,82,315 new coronavirus cases, taking the tally in the country to 2,06,65,148 since the pandemic broke out in January 2020. The toll climbs by 3,780 to 2,26,188. The number of active cases in the country stands at 34,87,229.

9.43 am: Madhya Pradesh is expected to begin vaccinations for people in 18-44 age group today, PTI reports. They will depend on the availability of doses and be conducted in a phased manner, State IEC Bureau deputy director Archana Mundir says.

The process will be based on pre-registration and will take place between 9 am and 5 pm on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, according to PTI.

9.40 am: The ICMR says it has so far tested 29,48,52,078 samples for the coronavirus. Of these, 15,41,299 were tested on Tuesday alone.

9.35 am: On Tuesday, Delhi reported 19,953 new cases and 338 deaths, according to ANI. The national capital’s total cases since the pandemic broke out in March 2020 has now risen to 12.32 lakh, while the toll is 17,752.

9.25 am: As many as 14 crew members of a cargo ship from India have tested positive in Durban, South Africa, the country’s port authority has said, PTI reports.

“The vessel is currently on quarantine,” an official says. “No one is allowed to leave or enter the vessel, and the company responsible for anyone who worked on board is to track and trace all employees who interacted with the subject vessel.” At least 200 port employees have reportedly come into contact with the ship, according to an unidentified official.

9.20 am: The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday held that death of coronavirus patients due to shortages of oxygen at hospitals was a “criminal act” and “not less than a genocide”.

Read more here:

Oxygen shortage deaths are criminal, no less than genocide, says Allahabad HC

9.15 am: United States President Joe Biden says the country is helping India “significantly” in its fight against the second wave of Covid-19, reports PTI. He says the US is sending India oxygen, material and machine parts, among other things.

“We’re sending them oxygen, we are sending them a lot of precursors,” he says, while speaking to reporters at the White House. “So we’re doing a lot for India.”

Biden adds that the US will send 10% of its vaccines to other countries by July 4.

9.09 am: Mumbai civic body Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation says it has received a fresh stock of 1 lakh vaccine doses on Tuesday night and will resume vaccination for those above 45 at municipal and government centres.

9.04 am: “Oxygen Express” train carrying tankers of liquid medical oxygen reaches Delhi, reports ANI.

8.56 am: Here are the top updates from Tuesday:

• India registered 3,57,229 new coronavirus cases, taking the tally in the country to 2,02,82,833 since the pandemic broke out in January 2020. The toll climbed by 3,449 to 2,22,408.
• The Delhi High Court issued a show-cause notice to the central government asking why contempt action should not be initiated against it for not complying with its orders on oxygen supply to the Capital.
• A day after Scroll.in reported that several states were yet to hear about their share of Covid-19 relief supplies sent by other countries, the Central government said on Tuesday that the material had been dispatched to 31 states and Union territories. However, interviews with state officials revealed that the distribution process itself began as late as Monday evening, May 3, more than a week after the first batch of emergency Covid-19 assistance arrived in India.
• The United Arab Emirates extended a ban on entry from travellers coming from India amid the surge in coronavirus cases.