Vax drive: Centre places orders for 351m syringes

Chethan.Kumar@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru :  19.03.2021 

The Centre, which had floated a tender in December for 351 million syringes to administer the Covid vaccine, has now placed orders with three companies, at least one of which is expected to begin deliveries from the first week of April.

The Centre had earlier placed orders for 230 million syringes, taking the total number of syringes it will buy to more than 550 million. TOI first reported in December 2020 that the Centre was looking to issue tenders for 350 million syringes specifically to aid the vaccination drive.

Hindustan Syringes & Medical Devices Ltd (HMD), one of the largest manufacturers of disposable syringes in the world, will make 265 million auto-disable (AD) syringes which will be supplied till September this year. In its original bid to the December 2020 tender, HMD had offered to supply 220 million pieces. Iscon Surgicals, another Indian firm, will make more than 42.3 million syringes.

While HMD and Iscon were the only two firms to secure orders for the initial 230 million pieces, in this round, the Centre has also placed orders with American MNC Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD), which will manufacture nearly 44 million syringes at its India plant.

HMD managing director Rajiv Nath told TOI they will begin delivering syringes against fresh orders in April. Nath said: “This is in addition to our ongoing global commitments to support regular global vaccination projects for 0.1ml & 0.5ml AD Kojak syringes and the Covid vaccination requirements of 0.3ml for Pfizer’s vaccine or 0.5ml AD Kojak for Astra-Zeneca/ Serums or Bharat Biotech’s vaccines.”

He said the company’s priority is India, but it must also honour its global commitments. “So, for now we are allocating two thirds of our capacity to the government of India and the rest to our regular global UN clients,” he said. “We are happy to complement vaccine diplomacy with syringe diplomacy and raise the Brand India flag in more than 120 countries.”

Iscon vice-president Sandeep Bhandari said that against their original bid for 35.1 million syringes, the Centre has awarded them a contract of more than 42.3 million. “Aside from this, there is a good demand for syringes and needles from across the world and we recently got orders from the UK for 29 million syringes. We are working on some more contracts from Europe, South Korea and Brazil,” he said.

As cases rise in India, SII ‘delays’ vax supply to UK

As cases rise in India, SII ‘delays’ vax supply to UK

19.03.2021 

The vaccine rollout in the UK “has been hampered” due to the delay in delivery of a promised second batch of 5 million doses by Serum Institute of India, reports Naomi Canton. The vaccine-maker had delivered 5 million AstraZeneca doses to Britain early March; the second batch was expected imminently. But SII told the UK’s Daily Telegraph the second batch would be delivered only once it got the nod from New Delhi, which is concerned about rising Covid cases in India.

India sees sharpest 5-day rise in Covid cases in 10 months

India sees sharpest 5-day rise in Covid cases in 10 months

Maha Records All-Time Peak In Daily Cases

Amit.Bhattacharya@timesgroup.com

19.03.2021 

Over the past five days, India has seen the sharpest surge in Covid-19 infections in at least the last 10 months, with the seven-day rolling average of daily cases rising by as much as 39% during this period.

The count of daily cases almost touched 40,000 on Thursday, with 39,670 fresh infections recorded in the past 24 hours. This was the highest single-day tally of cases since November 28 last year. Maharashtra logged its highest-ever daily case count of 25,833, while 15 other states/Union territories reported their highest singleday tallies since January or earlier. In the last five days, the seven-day average of daily cases has been growing by over 5% every day. The growth rates during this period have been 5.2%, 5.8%, 6.6%, 7.4% and 8.7%. This is the sharpest rise in daily cases sustained over a period of five days in TOI's records going back to the first week of May.

1,488 +ve cases in Karnataka; 5 clusters in B’luru

Karnataka reported 1,488 fresh Covid-19 cases on Thursday, with Bengaluru alone accounting for 925 of them. At least five cluster outbreaks — three of them in Yelahanka zone — have been reported from Bengaluru.

N Manjunatha Prasad, BBMP commissioner, said irresponsible behaviour on the part of people and those with travel history are adding to the rise in cases. “Nearly 12% of fresh cases in the city are those with travel history or those who attended functions or visited malls,” Prasad said. In Belagavi, a 69-year-old gram panchayat member from Katakat village in Belagavi district died a day after his vaccination. P 2

Seven-day rolling average of daily deaths crosses 150

Previously, daily growth of over 5% was seen for a maximum of four days, from May 19 to 22. Deaths have also been rising but not at the same pace as the spurt in cases. India reported 154 fatalities from the virus on Thursday, the third successive day of 150-plus toll in the country.

The seven-day rolling average of daily deaths crossed 150 on Thursday for the first time since January 23. Not just Maharashtra, the case count in Mumbai too smashed its previous single-day tally. Mumbai posted 2,877 new infections, more than its previous high of 2,848 cases recorded on October 10, 2020. The silver lining was that Thursday’s Covid-19 deaths in the state were eight times lower than on September 11.

Infections were surging in most states outside the northeast, and places such as Odisha and Bihar. Punjab reported 2,387 fresh cases, the highest tally in the state since September 19. The UT of Chandigarh also reported its highest tally of cases (211) since September 25.

IndiGo hands over 2 more flyers to police

IndiGo hands over 2 more flyers to police

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:19.03.2021 

The number of Covid norm violators facing action while flying is fast rising now. On Wednesday, IndiGo handed over a passenger each from its Delhi-Hyderabad and Nagpur-Goa flights on arrival to security agencies for not wearing their face masks despite repeated announcements from the crew. The airline has also filed a police complaint against these passengers.

This is the fifth action by three airlines so far this week against nine violators — Alliance Air (four from one flight), IndiGo (three from as many flights) and AirAsia India (two from one flight). While AirAsia offloaded passengers from a Goa-Mumbai flight on Monday as they refused to wear PPE gowns, the other seven were handed over to security agencies on arrival for not wearing masks during the flight.

As Maharashtra sees increase in cases, MP stops bus movement

As Maharashtra sees increase in cases, MP stops bus movement

Bhopal:  19.03.2021 

The Madhya Pradesh government on Thursday announced a ban on movement of passenger buses to and from Mahrarashtra from March 20 in view of the alarming rise in coronavirus cases in the neighboring state.

The decision was taken by chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan during a meeting to review the Covid-19 situation with municipal commissioners and district collectors, an official said.

The government has already advised officials in border districts to place the passengers arriving from Maharashtra in week- long quarantine.

Markets and business establishments in the districts which are affected most due to the pandemic, including Gwalior, Jabalpur, Ujjain, Sagar, Betul, Burhanpur, Khargone, Ratlam and Chhindwara, will remain closed from 10pm to 6am, it was decided during the meeting.

In Indore and Bhopal cities, night curfew from 10pm to 6am is already in force from Wednesday. The vaccination target will be raised to 5 lakh doses per day by setting targets for each district. PTI

 MBBS book links Covid-19 spike to TJ, withdrawn

Mumbai:19.03.2021 

The publishers of the third edition of Essentials of Medical Microbiology, a reference book for 2nd year MBBS students, have withdrawn it after objections to the negative description of Tablighi Jamaat. The authors, Dr Apurba Sastry and Dr Sandhya Bhat, have apologised “if they inadvertently hurt the sentiments of a group of people”, reports Mohammed Wajihuddin.

Talking about Covid situation (as of Aug 2020), the book said: “Subsequent to the Tablighi Jamaat, a religious congregation that took place in Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markaz Mosque in March, there was an explosive outbreak of Covid-19 with 4,000 cases.”

‘No study said TJ meet led to Covid spread’

Once it was brought to our notice, we apologised and the publishers have withdrawn the book. Changes will be made in the new edition,” said Dr Sastry. “The matter is closed.”

The “misrepresentation of facts”, said a spokesperson for the Students Islamic Organisation (SIO), the student wing of Jamaat-i-Islami (Hind), was flagged when some SIO members saw it.

“There is no epidemiological study that corroborates the claim that Covid-19 spread because of the TJ congregation. It was a vilification by media and the authors of this book too bought it without crosschecking facts. We are glad they have accepted their mistake and withdrawn the book,” said an SIO (Maharashtra) spokesperson.

Nursing colleges under govt scanner

Nursing colleges under govt scanner

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru:19.03.2021 

The state government on Thursday said it would conduct an inquiry and take stringent action against nursing colleges operating without basic training facilities and faculty.

Medical education minister K Sudhakar told the legislative council that the government would cancel errant colleges’ licences after the probe. “I will table the inquiry report within 90 days in this house,” he added.

On Thursday, BJP MLC N Ravi Kumar claimed most of the 650 nursing colleges in Karnataka lacked basic amenities and teaching staff. “There are 30 to 40 colleges in Bidar district where people from Kerala write their exams and get a degree. There is no teaching faculty at many colleges,” he said.

JD(S) legislators alleged that running nursing colleges was a huge business that was churning out untrained professionals and putting people at risk. Marithibbe Gowda said that in Manyda, two licences were issued to a single facility.

The proceedings were adjourned after JD(S) members, not satisfied with the government’s response, staged a protest and demanded a probe by a house committee.