Covid-19 Wrap-up: India records highest single-day toll of 4,529 deaths

Three days after their father died of Covid-19, six-year-old twins Tripti and Pari were found sleeping next to their mother, unaware that she had also become a victim. Thousands of children have lost one or both parents in the new pandemic wave ravaging a country where there are already lakhs of orphans. The prospect of a surge of abandoned minors worries many.

Substandard oxygen concentrators are flooding the market, complicating matters for the government which had relaxed import restrictions on the devices in order to help Covid-19 patients in home isolation and reduce the strain on oxygen cylinder supplies. The 'OxyBus' vehicles launched by the Karnataka chief minister over a week ago will hit the roads only in the next two days. And it will be a long time before the promised 20 buses are up and running. Constraints in procuring oxygen cylinders and other materials have been cited for the delay. BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta demanded more oxygen and vaccines for Bengaluru during a video conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

All 86 of the Railways' Covid-19 hospitals would soon have oxygen plants of their own, the national transporter said.

India reported a record 4,529 Covid-19 deaths in a single day even as the number of new cases fell in the second wave, according to Union Health Ministry data. The new infections reported in a single day was over 2.67 lakh cases and the active caseload stood at 32.26 lakh. The death toll has been rising in recent days as cases spread into rural districts with poor health facilities. With the latest deaths, the official toll has crossed 2.83 lakh and is behind the US and Brazil.

Mucormycosis (black fungus), which is primarily affecting people recovering from Covid-19, has been declared an epidemic in Rajasthan.

The AAP and the BJP locked horns over the admission of patients in Covid-19 care centres in the national capital.

Singapore dismissed media reports quoting Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal saying that a "very dangerous" Covid-19 strain was prevalent in the city state and said that there was "no truth whatsoever" in such assertions. Then, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government conveyed to Singapore that Kejriwal did not speak for India and had no competence on the variants of the SARS-Cov-2 virus or the civil aviation policy of the nation.

The use of Remdesivir for treatment of Covid-19 patients in India may be stopped due to a lack of evidence regarding its effectiveness, said Dr DS Rana, chairperson, Ganga Ram Hospital.

The first Indian trial of a homegrown Covid-19 vaccine on children is set to start in the next 10-12 days amidst global concern that the next wave of the pandemic might hit them in a big way. Meanwhile, a PIL to set aside the permission granted by the Drugs Controller General of India to Bharat Biotech to conduct the phase II/III trial of Covaxin on the 2-18 age group was heard by the Delhi High Court, which sought the Centre's stand.

The Centre said it would provide 5.86 crore doses of vaccines to the states till June 15 and asked them to prepare district-wise plans to administer the jabs.

India's Biological E. will produce the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine alongside its own candidate, its managing director said, which could boost the country's overall supplies amid a shortage.

Amid a shortage of vaccine to fight Covid-19, the Kerala government announced a global tender to procure three crore vaccine doses and Telangana invited global tenders to procure one crore vaccine doses. They have joined a number of other states that are taking similar steps.

Two decades ago, Soumya Swaminathan watched her HIV-infected patients suffer often horrific and unnecessary deaths. There was a treatment for their disease, but they simply could not afford it. The World Health Organization's chief scientist said the inequalities in accessing Covid-19 vaccines today hark back to the late 1990s, when she helplessly watched HIV patients in India wither away when drugs were saving lives in the West.

Most athletes and team members staying at Tokyo's Olympic Village will be vaccinated by the time the Games begin, said IOC chief Thomas Bach, as organisers try to calm fears about staging the event as Covid-19 cases surge in Japan.

Researchers in Australia want to transform single-use Covid-19 masks into road material. In the US, the protective gear is recycled into benches. And in France, they are reborn as floor carpets for cars. Used to curb the spread of the disease, masks are exacerbating another pandemic: Plastic pollution.