Over 3.14 crore doses left with states, pvt hospitals: Centre

India records 41,649 fresh cases and 593 more fatalities; 150 participate in religious procession in Surendranagar district of Gujarat flouting social distancing norms

More than 3.14 crore balance and unutilised Covid-19 vaccine doses are still available with the states, Union Territories and private hospitals to be administered, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday. Over 48.78 crore doses have been provided to states and UTs so far through all sources and a further 68,57,590 doses are in the pipeline.

India records over 41k cases

With a single-day rise of 41,649 new cases, India’s Covid-19 tally climbed to 3,16,13,993 on Saturday, while the death toll due to the viral disease shot up to 4,23,810 with 593 more people succumbing to it, the Union Health Ministry said. The number of active Coronavirus cases in the country registered an increase for the fourth consecutive day, according to the Ministry’s data updated at 8 am. The number of active cases has gone up to 40,8920, accounting for 1.29 per cent of the total number of cases, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.37 per cent, the data showed.

Goa minister takes U-turn

Over two months after saying that several Covid-19 patients died due to oxygen shortage at the state-run Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Health Minister Vishwajit Rane has now told the Legislative Assembly that the facility did not face any paucity of the life-saving gas during the pandemic and hence, there was no question of any fatality occurring due to it.

In his statement in the House, Rane said, “Not a single Covid-19 patient died due to oxygen shortage at the GMCH.” He was replying to a question tabled on the floor of the House by Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat. The minister said, “At no point in time, the oxygen supplies at GMCH ran out of stock and thus, no death has been reported to have [been] caused due to non-supply of oxygen.”

His statement was contrary to his own remarks made on May 11, in which he said that 26 persons died within 24 hours at the GMCH due to oxygen shortage.

Procession in Gujarat

Around 150 people participated in a religious procession in Surendranagar district of Gujarat in violation of the Coronavirus norms, following which police have registered an offence against two organisers of the event and a disc jockey (DJ) operator, an official said on Saturday. The procession was taken out in Patdi town of the district on Friday afternoon.

“A religious programme was organised in the town, where around 150 devotees gathered. Later, they also took part in a procession, during which they danced to the music being played by the DJ. The participants flouted social distancing norms and only a few were seen wearing face masks,” the Patdi police station official said.

Lokmanya Tilak National Award to Cyrus Poonawalla

Dr Cyrus Poonawalla, chairman of the Serum Institute of India (SII), will be honoured with the prestigious Lokmanya Tilak National Award for 2021. “Poonawalla will be felicitated for his work during the Covid-19 pandemic, wherein he helped in saving many lives by manufacturing Covishield vaccine. Under his leadership, crores of doses of Covishield vaccine were made available to the world in record time,” Deepak Tilak, president of the Lokmanya Tilak Trust, said.

3,16,13,993
Total No. of cases in the country as of Saturday

4,23,810
Total no. of deaths due to the virus in India

3,07,81,263
Patients recovered and discharged in India as of Saturday

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