India: Covid - II

[rkt.india]

1 hour ago, ravishingravi said:

 

Lockdown means nothing in Mumbai. It has already peaked when they decided to lockdown.

How it doesn't mean anything? It's almost a month now for lockdown. Cases would have stayed constant without lockdown and not reduced. 

[rkt.india]

53 minutes ago, Stan AF said:

Where are the 300 tonnes of emergency Covid-19 supplies that have landed in Delhi in last five days?

No domestic flights have taken off to carry the supplies to other parts of India, nor have states been informed about their share by the Centre.

Arunabh Saikia & Supriya Sharma

May 03, 2021 · 08:44 pm

A consignment of 1.25 lakh vials remdesivir arrives from the US. | @MEAIndia

In the past five days, 25 flights loaded with 300 tonnes of emergency Covid-19 relief supplies have landed in India’s capital from around the world. The supplies include 5,500 oxygen concentrators, 3,200 oxygen cylinders and 1,36,000 remdesivir injections, said a spokesperson of the Delhi International Airport Limited.

 

The emergency aid could save lives. But it seems not to have reached even those who are gasping for oxygen a few km away.

“As far as I know, we have not received anything so far,” said Dr Nutan Mundeja, Director General of Health Services, Delhi government.

 

Delhi, which has nearly 100,000 active Covid-19 cases and 20,000 patients in hospital, is facing a crippling shortage of oxygen. On May 1, 12 patients, including a doctor, died in Batra Hospital after it ran out of the life-saving gas.

By April 30, Delhi Airport had received 500 oxygen concentrators from the United Kingdom, 700 from Ireland. On May 2, another 1,000 oxygen cylinders arrived from the United States and 150 oxygen concentrators from Uzbekistan.

Yet, hospitals and families continue to make desperate appeals for oxygen on social media, while the status of the emergency supplies remains unclear, barring oxygen generation units sent by France which have been earmarked for eight hospitals, six of them in Delhi.

States in the dark

Not just Delhi, the emergency relief supplies seem not to have been dispatched to other states in India.

“There is no record of Covid related medical aid being sent to domestic destinations,” said the spokesperson of Delhi Airport around noon on Monday.

The Ministry of External Affairs told The Hindu that an Empowered Group of Ministers and officials was fielding requests from state governments. But officials in six states told Scroll.in on Monday that they have not heard from the Centre about whether they will be receiving any share in the emergency supplies.

 

“We really need these supplies, but we don’t even know they have arrived,” said Kumar Rahul, secretary in Punjab health department.

Tamil Nadu’s health department had not heard from the Centre either. “As of now we have got no intimation about any state allotment,” said J Radhakrishnan, principal secretary in the state health department. “We don’t know what has been received by Delhi and for whom it has been received.”

 

Bihar, which has seen a surge in the last few weeks, has also not received any of the emergency supplies. A senior health official said the state could do well with some supplies of oxygen concentrators and cylinders.

In adjoining Jharkhand, Ravi Kumar Shukla, the state’s national health mission director, said the state had “no information” of any emergency supplies being allocated to it.

 

West Bengal, which is in “drastic need of both oxygen cylinders and concentrators”, according to state officials, has not received any either. “Neither has there been any information about allocation,” said Ajoy Chakraborty, the state’s director of health services.

Odisha’s state health department said the state needed more remdesivir supplies. “We haven’t received any international aid,” said Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra, additional chief secretary, department of health and family welfare in the state. “I have been in talking to secretary, [the Union department of] pharmaceuticals almost every day about remdesivir.”

Lack of transparency

Much of the Covid-19 assistance arriving at the Delhi Airport is being handed over to the Indian government through the Indian Red Cross Society, a non-profit organisation with close links with the government.

“Consignments that come from abroad are generally handed over to Indian Red Cross Society,” said the airport spokesperson. “It is they who distribute as per GOI [Government of India] directive.” A dedicated logistic facility called the Jeevoday warehouse had been set up over 3,500 square metres at the airport for the interim storage of Covid-19 relief materials, he added.

 

Four shipments sent by the United States have landed at Delhi airport between Friday morning and Sunday night. “As each US shipment arrives, USAID is transferring ownership of provided materials upon their arrival to the Government of India through the Indian Red Cross organisation,” said a spokesperson of the US embassy in New Delhi. “We refer you to the Government of India for information about the deployment and use of these materials subsequent to their transfer.”

 

RK Jain, the secretary general of the Indian Red Cross, said its role was confined to getting the consignments cleared through customs and handing them over to HLL Lifecare Limited, a central government company which he said was handling storage and logistics. “The allocation is done by the [health] ministry,” he said.

 

Jain did not respond to specific queries about the status of shipments that had arrived.

Another official of the Indian Red Cross, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the relief material was being stored in HLL Lifecare Limited’s warehouses in the airport’s cargo section. The official said some of the materials were “under transit”, but refused to give out more details. “You should contact the HLL and the ministry,” the official said.

 

HLL Lifecare Limited’s chairperson Beji George also refused to field queries. Asked if any materials have been dispatched at all, George said: “It is coming and going. You may check with the ministry of health.”

Questions emailed to Mandeep Bhandari, the joint secretary in the health ministry who oversees the HLL Lifecare Limited’s operations, went unanswered. He did not respond to phone calls.

 

A person who works in the humanitarian aid sector, who did not want to be identified, said the Indian Red Cross Society did not have adequate personnel to handle relief operations on this scale. Another problem, he said, was that the customs clearance process was taking long, since the authorities were insisting on a declaration of the value of each shipment, even though the government had waived duties. “This is aid sent by other governments,” he said. “It should be cleared in one go.”

 

Even oxygen concentrators purchased by a private hospital in Delhi were lying stacked up at the Delhi Airport, its lawyer told the Delhi High Court around 1.30 pm on Monday. The court asked the Centre to furnish details about the number of concentrators pending customs clearance at the airport. In a statement released several hours later, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs said “no such consignment is pending with custom authorities”.

 

An update: Centre claims Covid-19 foreign aid promptly distributed, but states say process began only on May 3

Support our journalism by subscribing to Scroll+. We welcome your comments at letters@scroll.in.

 

https://scroll.in/article/993973/where-are-the-300-tonnes-of-emergency-covid-19-supplies-that-have-landed-in-delhi-in-last-five-days

That's article is misinformation. Uttarakhand has received those aids already.

[Ankit_sharma03]

2 hours ago, rkt.india said:

Mumbai has lockdown. Other parts don't.

 

1 minute ago, rkt.india said:

How it doesn't mean anything? It's almost a month now for lockdown. Cases would have stayed constant without lockdown and not reduced. 

 

1 hour ago, ravishingravi said:

 

Lockdown means nothing in Mumbai. It has already peaked when they decided to lockdown.

 

Mumbai has a similar lockdown to every other state...never went into full lockdown . Night curfews, weekend lockdown , restrictions in day are everywhere 

 

• things got spoiled post local trains started for everyone- stopping it was important
• Dharavi always is the Key
• BMC have done really good work 

 

[Ankit_sharma03]

1 hour ago, Mariyam said:

Also, can we look at Mumbai in isolation? Given that most who stay around Mumbai: Thane, Virar, New Bombay etc also may travel to Mumbai for work. If their respective districts are still showing a high positivity rate, Mumbai is not really out of the woods yet. 

 

No one is out of the woods until cases goes less then 100 infact 50 . After that need to seal the borders as suggestions are floating around but dnt see it happening

[Ankit_sharma03]

 

[Ankit_sharma03]

 

[WC2011INDIA]

 

 

"India's entire delegation to G7 meeting self-isolates after two members test positive" https://twitter.com/i/events/1389151162717270018?s=09

 

Some here will say that they are doing this to show India in negative light. It very well could be, but we as a nation have failed, so we deserve some brickbats whether fabricated or true. 

Edited May 5, 2021 by WC2011INDIA

[rkt.india]

18 minutes ago, Ankit_sharma03 said:

 

Problem is Delhi doesn't have oxygen plants, so, they can't replicate mumbai model. Mumbai also had less cases.

[mishra]

4 minutes ago, rkt.india said:

Problem is Delhi doesn't have oxygen plants, so, they can't replicate mumbai model. Mumbai also had less cases.

Passing order like deliver oxygen and this or that, when they should be taking govmnt to task for not using funds. Central Government  should get oxygen from where? Why would a place like Assam has to prioritise and send oxygen to Delhi when every North Eastern state  needs it or even Bordering west bengal needs it more than what Assam can give.

IMO, Just like every other department of GoI, Judiciary too has its own share of Chewtiyas

[WC2011INDIA]

One thing is for sure that Kejriwal is getting booted in the next election.

[Stan AF]

39 minutes ago, rkt.india said:

That's article is misinformation. Uttarakhand has received those aids already.

The supplies were sitting there for days. It's known to everyone. Stop defending man.

[rkt.india]

7 minutes ago, Stan AF said:

The supplies were sitting there for days. It's known to everyone. Stop defending man.

Scroll is a known fake story peddler.

[mishra]

36 minutes ago, rkt.india said:

Scroll is a known fake story peddler.

Since govmnt hasn’t reported everything to scroll, there is no transparency and hence Modi drank all oxygen.

[coffee_rules]

2 minutes ago, mishra said:

Since govmnt hasn’t reported everything to scroll, there is no transparency and hence Modi drank all oxygen.

Every state is declaring journalists frontline workers for priority on vaccination, so they can go and spread panic and falsehood, at least most of them in some known publications 

[Stan AF]

50 minutes ago, rkt.india said:

Scroll is a known fake story peddler.

Sure

[coffee_rules]

Bhai, ab second wave se hi log  pel rahein hain, teesra jo aanewala hain, usse kyon dara rahein ho! I think stung by criticism of not planning for a second wave, Govt showing that they are aware of an oncoming third wave.

 

 

 

[ravishingravi]

4 hours ago, Mariyam said:

I am still skeptical.

 

The tests are lower than they were even a weak ago.

https://www.ndtv.com/mumbai-news/coronavirus-cases-mumbai-logs-2-554-new-covid-cases-in-24-hours-lowest-since-march-17-2428015

 

[quote] However, only 29,076 coronavirus tests were conducted over 24 hours, leading to some concern that the number of new cases reported every day may, in fact, be higher. [/quote]

 

Also, can we look at Mumbai in isolation? Given that most who stay around Mumbai: Thane, Virar, New Bombay etc also may travel to Mumbai for work. If their respective districts are still showing a high positivity rate, Mumbai is not really out of the woods yet. 

The positivity rates are also low. That’s usually what I am looking for. I am not saying we are ready for garba. But I do think this will end quicker than people think. 
 

thing is this has spread absolutely. Yes Mumbai might look better than Thane but pandemic goes in cycles and waves. And it can only come back and grow if there are bodies left to invade. If it’s in the air, majority has anti bodies. 

[kepler37b]

18 hours ago, rising said:

I had colleague who's relatives had completed their vaccination (Covidshield) and then caught Covid and expired and there people who are testing negative even though they CovID and then get hospitalized and find they COVID due to scan 

 

One of my friends doctor who  cough virus and recovered, doctor suggested to take care all preventive action like before as he not sure if  he is immune other variant or what variant 

 

So its full of confusion nobody sure what variant is causing what symptoms and  are vaccines still effective with new variants if anybody would shed light on that it would be great 

He must have got infected while vaccination from other vaccine takers.

Edited May 5, 2021 by kepler37b

[rkt.india]

2 hours ago, coffee_rules said:

Bhai, ab second wave se hi log  pel rahein hain, teesra jo aanewala hain, usse kyon dara rahein ho! I think stung by criticism of not planning for a second wave, Govt showing that they are aware of an oncoming third wave.

 

 

 

Dusri wave jhelna hi bhari ho raha hai. Life ki waat lagi padi hai

[Ankit_sharma03]

 

 

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