India Coronavirus Dispatch: 30 mn in Maha at least partially vaccinated

Centre says Covid can make a person more susceptible to TB, about 2,500 Delhi jail inmates let out during Covid fail to surrender, and more-news relevant to India's fight against the pandemic

Over 41,000 fresh cases reported

India reported 41,157 fresh coronavirus infections on Sunday, taking the cumulative caseload to 31.1 million, according to central health ministry data. The country saw 518 more deaths due to the pandemic, taking the death toll to 413,609. The active caseload is at 422,660, while the total recoveries have surged to 30.2 million. As many as 404 million vaccine shots have been administered since the nationwide inoculation programme kicked off on January 16. Of these, 5.1 million were given on Saturday. Read more

Covid can make a person more susceptible to TB but no direct link yet: Govt

The health ministry said Covid could make a person more susceptible to developing tuberculosis (TB), but added that there was not enough scientific evidence to link the two, according to a report in the Scroll. Doctors are worried about a sudden spike in the number of TB cases among patients recovering from Covid, the government said. “The dual morbidity of tuberculosis and Covid-19 can be further highlighted through the facts that both the diseases are known to be infectious and primarily attack the lungs, presenting similar symptoms of cough, fever and difficulty in breathing, although TB has a longer incubation period and a slower onset of disease,” the government said. Read more

Over 30 mn in Maharashtra get at least one dose of Covid vaccine

Over 30 million people in Maharashtra are at least partially vaccinated, a report in The India Express said. Dr Pradeep Vyas, additional chief secretary (health), Maharashtra, told the paper that of these, more than 8.8 million have received the second dose also. “We lead in the number of persons fully vaccinated,” said Dr Vyas. Read more

Let out during Covid, about 2,500 Delhi jail inmates fail to surrender

As many as 2,490 inmates who were released last year to prevent Covid cases during the pandemic have failed to surrender, a report in The Indian Express said. This comes even as the Delhi Prisons department continues to release inmates to decongest jails. The department has now contacted Delhi Police to trace these inmates and ask them to surrender again. Police said the tracking of the criminal has become “stressful” as many of the inmates went on to commit crimes again or fled to other states. A total of 6,740 inmates were released on emergency parole and interim bail last year from the three jails – Tihar, Mandoli, and Rohini, the report said. Read more

Kanwar Yatra called off in Uttar Pradesh 

In light of the Covid pandemic, the organisers of the Kanwar Yatra have called off this year's annual pilgrimage, a report in IndiaToday said. The decision was taken in consultation with the Uttar Pradesh administration. The development came a day after the Supreme Court asked the Uttar Pradesh government to reconsider its move to allow "symbolic" observance of the annual pilgrimage. Earlier this month, the Apex court had taken suo motu cognisance of the Yogi Adityanath government's decision to allow the yatra despite the threat of Covid spreading further, the report said. Read more