India Coronavirus Dispatch: 330,000 fresh cases in yet another grim record

Oxygen shortage was flagged twice last year, 6-7 million shots a day likely from May 1, and more-news relevant to India's fight against Covid-19

Over 330,000 fresh cases reported

India reported 332,730 fresh coronavirus infections on Friday, taking the cumulative caseload to 16.2 million, according to central health ministry data. This is also the biggest ever one-day jump in cases reported by any country so far. The country saw 2,263 deaths due to the pandemic, taking the death toll to 186,920. The active caseload is at 2.4 million infections, while the total recoveries have surged to 13.6 million. As many as 135 million shots have been administered since the nationwide inoculation programme kicked off on January 16. Of these, 3.1 million were given on Thursday. Read more here

Pfizer to offer vaccine to govt at ‘not-for-profit’ rate

US pharma giant Pfizer plans to provide its Covid-19 shots to India at a “not-for-profit” price, a report in The Indian Express said citing a statement from the firm. This comes amid speculations that the firm may sell its vaccines in the open market as the Centre has allowed vaccine makers to set their own prices for states and private hospitals. “For India, Pfizer has offered a not-for-profit price for its vaccine for the Government immunization program. We continue to be in discussions with the Government and remain committed to make our vaccine available for deployment in India’s immunization program,” a Pfizer spokesperson said. Read more here

Oxygen shortage was flagged twice last year

Warning signs for a severe shortage of medical oxygen came early—in April last year and again in November, a report in The Indian Express said. The first was just a week after the national lockdown began by one of the 11 Empowered Groups of Officers, set up by the Centre for handling the Covid crisis. The Empowered Group red-flagged oxygen shortage on April 1. The minutes of the meeting said: “In the coming days India could face a shortage of oxygen supplies. To address this, CII will coordinate with Indian Gas Association and mitigate the lack of oxygen supply.” Read more here

Double mutant variant driving surge in cases: Experts theorise

As India grapples with an explosion in Covid cases, experts have theorised that the second wave of infections is being driven by the 'double mutant' variant discovered in the country, a report in ThePrint said. The ‘double mutant’ is likely to become the dominant form of the virus in India and some countries abroad, the experts said. However, the evidence is still inconclusive owing to a lack of sequencing infrastructure and power. Read more here

Expect 6-7 million Covid shots a day from May 1: CoWin panel head

The Centre is expecting to administer six to seven million shots a day once the vaccination programme opens up to all Indian adults from May 1, a report in ThePrint said. “In the last two phases, we have seen a daily traffic of up to 4.5 million on some days. This time we are expecting a traffic of 6-7 million and we have augmented backend capacities suitably to handle as much traffic as comes in," Dr R S Sharma, CEO, National Health Authority and head of the empowered group on the Co-Win platform told ThePrint. "Now that the age limit has expanded, we would naturally have a lot more to handle and we have prepared ourselves accordingly,” Read more here