Ramp up vaccination to deal with 3rd wave: SC tells Centre

The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the central government to beef up vaccination against Covid19 create buffer stock of medical oxygen and make all other necessary measures to deal with the third wave which experts have warned is inevitableConstruction work for the Central Vista project which includes a new home for PM underway at Rajpath in New Delhi on Thursday PicPTIA bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah told the Centre to make preparations in a scientific way ldquoWe may enter stage three and if we prepare today we may be able to handle it Whatever stocks procured needs to be sent to the hospitals Itrsquos not about allocating it to the state but also the logistics to see that it is distributed to hospitalsrdquo Bar and Bench quoted Justice Chandrachud as sayingHe also suggested the Centre to consider involving MBBS graduates who are waiting to enrol for post graduation ldquoToday we have 15 lakh doctors who have finished medical course but waiting for NEET exam How do you tap them 15 lakh doctors and 25 lakh nurses are sitting at home They will be crucial for third waverdquoThe SC was hearing the Centrersquos plea against Delhi High Courtrsquos showcause notice for contempt for not supplying 700 MT of oxygen to Delhi as instructed by the apex court earlier On the Centrersquos formula of allocating oxygen according to the number of ICU beds and hospital admissions the SC said there are patients in home isolation who also need oxygen or other medical care ldquoYour formula needs a relook When you prepared the formula not everybody who went to ICU needed oxygen But now many home isolation patients need oxygen Your formula does not take into account ambulances etcrdquo it saidIn another hearing the SC refused to stop the media from reporting the Madras High Courtrsquos observations holding the Election Commission responsible for the Covid19 surge ldquoIt will be retrograde to restrain HCs from making observations or gagging media from reporting observationsrdquo it saidMeanwhile former RBI governor C Rangarajan said the Centre needs to take the responsibility of vaccinating the entire nation as part of the measures to control the pandemic ldquoVaccination is important It has to be universal Therefore it is the responsibility of the government and I would say the central government to take on itself the expenditure which are to be incurred in terms of vaccinating the peoplerdquo he said India has reportedly fully vaccinated only 2 per cent of the population India hit a record daily high with 412262 new cases and 3980 deaths registered on WednesdayRLD chief Ajit Singh dies of COVID Kerala police book 480 priests for violationgtgt Former Union minister and Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh passed away at a Gurgaon hospital on Thursday morning battling Covid19 his family said The 82yearold had tested positive on April 20gtgt As many as 480 priests belonging to the Church of South India in Kerala a prominent denomination have been booked for violating Covid19 norms by organising and participating in a retreat at Munnar last month police said on Thursday Over 100 priests had been infected and two vicars had succumbed to itgtgt The very infectious strains of Coronavirus B1617 and B1 are currently found in the Covid19 positive patients in Andhra Pradesh Karnataka and Telangana and spreading fast in younger age groups too the Andhra Pradesh Health Department saidgtgt An oxygen plant has been installed at the Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital whose director Dr Rana AK Singh said ldquoThis plant will produce 960 liters of oxygenminuterdquo Meanwhile a medical oxygen generation plant sent by Italy to tackle the Covid19 health emergency in India and can support 100 patients at one time was operationalised at a CAPF hospital located in Greater Noida on Thursday Delhi saw a staggering 1349 per cent jump in the number of its Covid19 containment zones in the past one month21077410Total no of coronavirus cases in India so far230168Total no of deaths due to the virus in India so far17280844Total no of patients recovered and discharged in India so far162513339Total no of people vaccinated so farThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever