- The West Bengal government has moved the Supreme Court seeking a uniform vaccination policy by removing the differential pricing mechanism in the current phase of the coronavirus inoculation drive.
- India on Friday logged 4,14,188 new coronavirus cases, registering another highest single-day infection count. The overall case count climbed to 2,14,91,598 since the pandemic broke out in January 2020. This is the third time since May 1 when more than four lakh cases were recorded in a day in the country. The toll climbed by 3,915 deaths to 2,34,083. The number of active cases stood at 36,45,164.
- Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa announced a complete lockdown from 6 am on Monday, May 10, to 6 am on May 24. The chief minister said that the earlier Janata Curfew has not been successful as coronavirus cases are surging in the state.
- The Delhi Police seized over 450 oxygen concentrators during raids at multiple locations across the Capital. The crackdown on illegal hoarding came amid an acute shortage of the medical equipment, which is crucial for the treatment of Covid-19 patients.
- The Supreme Court warned that it will be compelled to take action against the Centre if authorities do not provide 700 metric tonnes of medical oxygen to Delhi every day, to help the city meet its demands to treat Covid-19 patients. The Supreme Court also refused to intervene with the Karnataka High Court judgement directing the Centre to increase the daily medical oxygen allocation for the state from 965 metric tonnes to 1,200.
- The Union government’s Principal Scientific Advisor Professor K Vijay Raghavan said the third wave of Covid-19 may not happen if “we take strong measures”, reported News 18. This came two days after he cautioned that a third wave of the pandemic was inevitable.
- The Congress appealed to the Centre to listen to suggestions from the states to curb India’s Covid-19 crisis. In a meeting of all Congres MPs, party’s interim President Sonia Gandhi also accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre of leading the country in a way that everyone was bearing the weight of the Centre’s “indifference and incompetence”. Meanwhile, party MP Rahul Gandhi wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi cautioning him against the possibility of more mutated strains of the coronavirus originating in India.
- The Ministry of Finance said that though the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic has posed a downside risk to economic activity in the first quarter of the financial year 2021-’22, the devastating surge in infections will have a “mutated economic impact” as compared to the first wave.
- A petition was submitted in the Delhi High Court seeking directions to the central and Aam Aadmi Party governments to vaccinate all Class 10 and 12 students appearing for board exams in the 2020-’21 session. The plea said there were reports of the new Covid-19 strains adversely affecting the younger population.
- Globally, the coronavirus has now infected more than 15.56 crore people and killed over 32.51 lakh since the pandemic broke out in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University. Over 9.19 crore people have recovered from the infection.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!