As India battles second wave of Covid and shortage of hospital beds, several states impose lockdown, curfews

National

In the last 24 hours, India has reported 4,03,738 new Covid cases and 4,092 deaths, bringing the total number of cases to 2.22 Cr. For the fifth day in a row, the country saw more than 4 lakh daily cases and over 4,092 deaths. There were 56,578 cases in Maharashtra, and 47,563 in Karnataka. The other top contributors were Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh. Amid a surge in Covid-19 cases across the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with the chief ministers of Punjab, Karnataka, Bihar, and Uttarakhand on Sunday to assess the pandemic situation in their respective states. 

The healthcare system across the nation is being overburdened by the rising number of cases of Covid-19. The health system is on the brink of collapsing due to a lack of hospital beds, oxygen, and medications. Several health-care facilities around the country have stated that they are unable to treat patients, resulting in an increase in deaths due to a shortage of accommodation. Several top medical practitioners have given helpful advice about how to cope with Covid at home after seeing the bed crisis in the hospitals. Dr Naresh Chawla – VP Delhi Medical Council spoke to NewsX and said “Even if Delhi‘s number of cases may have come a little down, this is nothing to rejoice. Lot have suffered and the matter of fact is testing is being done a little less.”

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On Monday, Tamil Nadu announced that it would move from a partial to complete lockdown, shutting down public transportation and state-run alcohol stores. Late Friday, Karnataka also declared a complete shutdown. Jammu and Kashmir’s curfew was extended till 7 a.m. on May 17th. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday prolonged the Delhi’s lockdown for another week, citing Delhi’s high positivity rate. The lockdown will now last till 5 a.m. on May 17^th. Metro services will also be discontinued for this period. The neighboring state Uttar Pradesh has also extended the corona curfew until May 17.

'Corona Curfew' imposed in Jammu & Kashmir extended till 7am on 17th May

Essential services allowed, gathering permissible for marriages is reduced to 25 only

— ANI (@ANI) May 9, 2021

Lockdown in Delhi extended till May 17 with strict restrictions; Metro rail services to remain temporarily suspended, marriage ceremonies at public places/ banquet halls/hotels prohibited, marriage ceremonies allowed to be organized at home or in Court pic.twitter.com/wmGE0KYGh8

— ANI (@ANI) May 9, 2021

Padma Shree Dr Sanjeev Bagai – Chairman and MD Nephron told NewsX that our only emphasis now has to be to ramp up the vaccine supply and the vaccination program. India is yet to enact a nationwide lockdown, as it did in the first wave last year, but almost half of the states have done so and several states are under partial shutdown.