India hits a global high; but Kumbh goes on. India records 1,68,912 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours, the sixth record rise in seven days, pushing the country's caseload to over 1.35 crore. The resurgence of the virus leads to 904 new deaths, taking the total death count to 1,70,179. India now is the second-highest globally, behind the United States and just ahead of Brazil's. Maharashtra remains the worst-affected state with 63,294 new cases and 349 deaths in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra is followed by Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Delhi also witnesses the highest single-day spike with 10,774 new COVID-19 cases and 48 deaths reported. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal says this is the fourth wave in the. Despite the country being in the grips of the deadly wave, lakhs of devotees from across the country gather in Uttarakhand's Haridwar for the Kumbh Mela - one of the largest religious gatherings in the world. More than one lakh devotees were seen on the banks of the Ganga river, in clear violation of the COVID-19 rules.
The traffic congestion index for major cities in some of the hardest-hit states – Mumbai (Maharashtra), Bengaluru (Karnataka), and Ahmedabad (Gujarat) – has nosedived in the past few weeks, and is winding back towards levels seen during the nationwide lockdown last April.
As per a Crisil report, all-India level retail mobility is starting to stutter. It grew by a marginal 0.7 percentage points in the last week, driven by the restrictions on movement introduced in Maharashtra, Punjab, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh. Maharashtra saw the highest fall in retail mobility among these states, by 5.2 percentage points.
Apart from mobility indicators, traffic congestion is also used as a proxy for tracking economic activity, it said.
As of April 12, daily Covid cases remained above the 1 lakh level. Increased testing could be one reason for this large figure. The number of samples tested, at 12 lakh plus per day in April 5-11, is higher than that seen around the peak of the first wave in September 2020 (11 lakh).
The other reason is a higher positivity rate, defined as the number of daily cases to number of tests, at 10.6 per cent in the second wave vs 6.4 per cent at the peak of the first wave.
The report said that Gujarat and Chhattisgarh, which are among the more affected in the second wave, have vaccinated relatively more people (per million) as of April 11. However, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh, which continue to show high growth rate in new cases, are lagging.
Six states – Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat – taken together accounted for 66 per cent of new cases in the April 5-11 week. This share was 75 per cent in the week prior – the dispersal indicating that more and more states are now beginning to experience the second wave.
Pace of vaccinations has begun to pick up in India, with vaccinations now open to the 45 plus age groups. India is now vaccinating more people per million than the world average. In the past week, 2,600 beneficiaries per million were vaccinated, higher than the world average of 2,170. Still, the massive population of the country poses a challenge, with daily vaccination lower than that in China and the US, the report said.
The Delhi government has notified 19 private hospitals where 80 per cent of ICU beds are to be reserved for Covid patients, 82 private hospitals with 60 per cent reservation and 101 private hospitals where 60 per cent ward beds are to be reserved for Covid treatment.
The 101 hospitals where 60 per cent beds will be reserved for Covid patients include leading names such as St Stephen’s Hospital, Max East/West Block, Batra Hospital, HAHC Hospital, BLK Hospital, Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute, Max SS Hospital, Patparganj; Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, Okhla, Indian Spinal Injury Centre, Vasant Kunj, Dharamshila Narayana Hospital, Shanti Mukand Hospital, Fortis SS Hospital, Vasant Kunj, Shree Agrasain International Hospital, Madhukar Rainbow Children Hospital, Primus Super Speciality Hospital, Delhi Heart and Lung Institute, among others.
This mobilisation gives an additional 5689 Covid ward beds to the Delhi government to handle the new wave of Covid cases.
It will mobilise 633 ICU beds from 82 hospitals where 60 per cent ICU beds are to be reserved for Covid patients.
Another 765 ICU beds will be mobilised from 19 private hospitals where 80 per cent of ICU beds are to be reserved for Covid treatment.
The Delhi government said in an order that the bed capacity dedicated for Covid needs to reach the November, 2020 levels.
At present, occupancy of Covid ICU beds has reached 100 per cent in almost all large private hospitals and more than 85 per cent in 57 out of 115 private hospitals. Similarly, the occupancy of Covid beds has reached 85 per cent in 32 out of 115 hospitals and 100 per cent in all large hospitals.
Designating 14 large private hospitals as fully-Covid will give the Delhi government 1135 ICU beds and 3202 ward beds.
So, in all 8891 Covid beds are being added and 2533 ICU beds are being added in the Delhi government order.
In view of exponential surge of Covid-19 cases in the national capital, the health department of the Delhi Government has declared as many as 14 big private hospitals as fully Covid-care centres on Monday.
The decision came hours after the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal chaired an emergency meeting in view of Covid-19 situation in the capital on Monday.
Those hospitals which are declared as fully Covid hospitals include Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, Sir Ganga Ram, Holy Family, Maharaja Agarsen Hospital (Punjabi Bagh), Max Hospital (Shalimar Bagh), Fortis Hospital (Shalimar Bagh), Venkateshwar Hospital, Sri Balaji Action Medical Institute, Jaipur Golden Hospital, Mata Chanan Devi Hospital, Pushpawati Singhania Research Institute, Manipal Hospital and Saroj Super Specialty Hospital.
The Delhi Government has also directed that all these hospitals declared as fully Covid hospitals will not admit any non-Covid patients till further order.
“In order to augment the bed capacity for Cvod-19 patients in view of an unprecedented surge of Covid cases in past few days, 14 private hospitals are declared as full Covid hospitals and are directed that henceforth these hospitals shall not admit any non-Covid medical/ surgical patients till further order,” an order issued by the Delhi government reads. (IANS)