+

As India reports 2.59L new cases, PM pushes for more vaccine production

Bharat Biotech to increase Covaxin production to 700 million doses a year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday interacted with vaccine manufacturers in the country via video conferencing and urged them to scale up the production capacity to vaccinate people in the shortest possible time. He also applauded them for their achievements and professionalism and said that the biggest strength of the country’s vaccine industry is its “samarthya, sansadhan and seva bhaav”, which makes India a vaccine leader in the world.

Noting that vaccines manufactured in India are the cheapest, PM Modi said the world’s largest vaccine programme is underway in the country. He also informed that the government will open the vaccination programme for every adult starting 1 May, believing in the ability of the vaccine manufacturers.

On Tuesday, Bharat Biotech also announced that it would scale up Covaxin production capacity to 700 million doses a year. To increase its capacities, the pharma company has partnered with Indian Immunologicals (IIL) to manufacture the drug substance for Covaxin. The technology transfer process is underway and IIL has the capabilities and expertise to manufacture inactivated viral vaccines at commercial scale and under biosafety containment. The manufacturing scale-up has been carried out in a stepwise manner across multiple facilities at Hyderabad and Bangalore.

India, meanwhile, reported 259,170 new Covid-19 infections and 1,761 deaths in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday. This has taken the total number of positive cases in the country to 153,21,089. There are currently 20,31,977 active cases in the country as of Tuesday.

As many as 1,54,761 people recovered from the virus. With this, the total number of recoveries reached 1,31,08,582 in India. The death toll has reached 1,80,530 with additional 1,761 fatalities.

Delhi registered its biggest daily spike with 28,395 Covid-19 cases and 277 deaths being recorded in 24 hours, according to data released by the Delhi Government’s health department on Tuesday. With the addition of fresh cases, Delhi’s Covid tally reached over 9 lakhs, while the death toll mounted to 12,638. The positivity rate in Delhi reached 32.82 percent. There are still 85,575 active cases in Delhi.

Amid the surge, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday informed that only 8 to 12 hours of oxygen was available in most hospitals in the national capital. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also tweeted for the second time about the oxygen crisis, reminding the Central Government that the city needs immediate help.

Maharashtra, one of the worst-hit states in the country, recorded 62,097 new Covid-19 cases, besides 519 deaths and 54,224 recoveries. The case tally in the state reached 39,60,359 while the death toll hit 61,343. 

Gujarat reported 12,206 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, the highest single-day count in the state so far, while 121 patients succumbed to the infection, also the most in a day, said the state health department. This was the first time the one-day case tally crossed the 12,000-mark in Gujarat.

In Odisha, as many as 4,761 new Covid-19 cases and five deaths were reported in 24 hours, the state health department informed on Tuesday. With this, the total case tally went to 3,77,464, including 27,821 active cases, 3,47,637 recoveries and 1,954 deaths. Amid the rising cases, a weekend shutdown was declared for Saturday and Sunday in all urban areas of the state with effect from April 24. Additionally, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik informed that the Biju Janata Dal would not be holding public rallies or campaign meetings in the Pipili by-poll.

The Uttar Pradesh government has also decided to impose a weekend lockdown in the state from 8 pm on Friday, while night curfew was imposed in Telangana from Tuesday.

Madhya Pradesh reported 12,897 new cases and 79 deaths in 24 hours. The number of active cases in the state is now 74,558.

In Punjab, the coronavirus fatality count rose to 8,045 with 61 more deaths reported on Tuesday as 4,673 fresh cases took the state’s infection tally to 3,09,316, according to a medical bulletin. A total of 3,198 coronavirus patients were also discharged after recovering from the infection, taking the number of cured people to 2,64,562, the bulletin stated.

The neighbouring Haryana reported 7,811 new cases, 3,367 recoveries and 35 deaths, taking the case tally to 3,71,624 and the death toll to 3,483. 

Bihar also saw no respite as 51 more fatalities took the Covid death toll to 1841 on Tuesday, with capital city Patna being the worst-hit, said the state health department bulletin. The state also reported 10,455 new cases, taking Bihar’s tally to 3,42,059, the bulletin informed.

Nagaland on Tuesday reported 82 new cases, pushing the Covid tally to 12,650, said Health Minister S Pangnyu Phom. The state currently has 257 active Covid-19 cases, while 12,110 patients have recovered from the disease, state Nodal Officer for Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme Dr Nyanthung Kikon said.

Nationwide, the total number of positive cases have reached 1,53,21,089. There are currently 20,31,977 active cases in the country as of Tuesday. 

Tags:

Featured