Vaccine over in Mumbai

Mumbai/New Delhi/Lucknow: Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar on Thursday said that the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive in city will come to a halt from Friday as the stock of vaccine doses in the city is about to end.

She said that the vaccination drive could continue only if the city receives enough doses.

"The vaccination drive in the city will definitely come to a halt from Friday...Only if the city gets the supply (of vaccines), the drive will continue," Pednekar said.

"The existing stock of vaccine doses could last only till today(Thursday) evening.

Twenty-six vaccination centres have been shut in Mumbai. Of the centres that shut, 23 centres are located in Navi Mumbai. Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar has spoken to Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on the issue.

Later, Pawar said the Centre has assured to help Maharashtra where the Covid-19 situation is currently 'grim'. Six states have complained of vaccine shortage, which they fear, will lead to rising in cases. Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Odisha and Telangana – are staring at a coronavirus vaccine shortage.

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar alleged that five lakh doses of the vaccines were wasted in Maharashtra due to a lack of planning by the State government.

A family of a patient on ventilator in a Nashik hospital was asked to transfer her to another hospital because the oxygen supply was only sufficient for a few more hours.

Lucknow's electric crematorium has been witnessing an unusual rush of ambulances these past many days as Covid-19-related casualties pile-up.

Munna (identified only by his first name) is the city municipal corporation employee, along with three others, handling cremations, and his hands are evidently full. On Wednesday alone, they put in a 19-hour shift together, cremating 23 bodies.

Two of them, in PPE suits, carry the departed from the ambulances to the incinerator; the other two, including Munna, bleach the first duo.

Private hospitals in Nagpur were left without a ventilator bed and just 27 ICU beds as critical patients rise in the city on Wednesday morning. In the evening too there were just three ventilator beds available at (Government Medical College and Hospital) GMCH.

The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought response of the Centre and the Election Commission on a plea seeking to ensure that masks are worn mandatorily by everyone involved in poll campaigns during the ongoing elections in various states and union territories.