Covid-19 Wrap-up | May turning into deadliest month in Jammu and Kashmir

"The world needs a wash and a week’s rest," WH Auden penned in The Age of Anxiety. Reflections of a painful time in history. The age of anxiety has overstayed though. The horrors unfolded by a merciless pandemic vouches that collective misery is no less in 2021. Raising kids, to be precise, in these trying times, has been a rollercoaster ride for parents — the fears of a third wave looming around, only adding to the agony.

May is turning out to be the deadliest month for Jammu and Kashmir in terms of Covid-19 deaths and cases with the healthcare infrastructure in the Union Territory overwhelmed due to the exponential increase in the infection cases.

Rajasthan also continues to be ravaged by Covid-19 with over 1.9 lakh active cases, among the highest in the country, as patients struggle to get hospital beds, ventilators, oxygen cylinders, injections and medicines. The state is facing a dearth of oxygen as cases continue to rise. Every step in a patient's journey to receive treatment is a difficult task.

India reported 2.81 lakh fresh Covid-19 cases, the lowest in 27 days, while the death toll crossed 2.74 lakh as 4,106 more people succumbed to the disease, according to Union Health Ministry data as of this morning. The nation's overall Covid-19 tally crossed 2.49 crore.

The Delhi Police sought a five-day custody of businessman Navneet Kalra from the court for interrogation in connection with alleged black-marketing and hoarding of oxygen concentrators.

Amazon is working with sellers on its marketplace in India to help them procure about 9,000 oxygen concentrators for customers in the country.

The Delhi High Court said that politicians had no business in hoarding stocks of Covid-19 medicines and drugs in view of a shortage in supply.

BJP MP Pragya Thakur claimed that she had kept Covid-19 at bay because she consumed cow urine every day. Meanwhile, the first batch of anti-Covid-19 oral drug 2-DG, developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, was released by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Health Minister Harsh Vardhan.

The extension of the Bihar lockdown saw Covid-19 guideline changes, which included further restrictions on wedding functions. The number of guests allowed was reduced from 50 to 20. However, a wedding in rural Patna saw around 500 people assembling. The local police went to the venue to enforce the law but the officers were reportedly attacked by the groom's contingent and a rifle was snatched from one of the policemen. A critically injured police officer was admitted to a government hospital where he is recuperating.

The AAP owned up to putting up posters in many parts of Delhi criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the shortage of Covid-19 vaccines and said that several of its workers were arrested and hundreds were being "harassed" by Delhi Police. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia urged the Centre to make the data on vaccines supplied by it to the states public and sought 3.82 lakh doses of the vaccines for people aged 18-44 years in the city.

The Modi government has justified the Covid-19 vaccine pricing strategy adopted for states and private hospitals with an RTI saying that it was done by the companies factoring in "scaling up and expanding" production capacity, the cost for innovation and an expensive manufacturing process.

Eminent virologist Shahid Jameel resigned from the chair of the scientific advisory group of the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics – a 10-laboratory consortium tasked to carry out genetic sequences of different variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus circulating in India. The resignation came within days of publication of an article by Jameel in The New York Times, in which the virologist wrote that his fellow scientists “are facing stubborn resistance to evidence-based policymaking” in India.

Apollo Hospitals and Dr Reddy's Laboratories said they were collaborating to initiate a Covid-19 vaccination programme with Sputnik V.

More than 80 per cent of Japanese people oppose hosting the virus-postponed Olympics this year, a new poll showed, less than 10 weeks before the Tokyo Games.