Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday took second dose of Covid-19 vaccine at AIIMS, New Delhi, and asked those eligible for the shot to take it soon to defeat the virus.
Modi has taken Covaxin, India’s homegrown vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech. He had taken his first jab on March 1 at the hospital.
The prime minister also posted a picture of his receiving the jab.
Official sources said the two nurses who administered the vaccine to the prime minister are P Niveda from Puducherry and Nisha Sharma from Punjab.
The PM also shared a link to the CoWin website, a portal to register for the vaccine. “Register on http://CoWin.gov.in,” tweeted PM Modi.
In a tweet Mr Modi said “Got my second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at AIIMS today.
Vaccination is among the few ways we have, to defeat the virus.
If you are eligible for the vaccine, get your shot soon. Register on CoWin.gov.in.”
Got my second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at AIIMS today.
Vaccination is among the few ways we have, to defeat the virus.
If you are eligible for the vaccine, get your shot soon. Register on https://t.co/hXdLpmaYSP. pic.twitter.com/XZzv6ULdan
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 8, 2021
Meanwhile, cumulative Vaccination Coverage exceeds 8.7 Crores with more than 33 Lakh doses given in the last 24 hours. India surpasses the US to become the fastest vaccinating country in the world.
Cumulatively, 8,70,77,474 vaccine doses have been administered through 13,32,130 sessions
India’s daily new cases continue to rise. 1,15,736 new cases were registered in the last 24 hours. Eight States including Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala have shown a rise in the COVID daily new cases. 80.70% of the new cases are reported from these 8 states. Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 55,469. It is followed by Chhattisgarh with 9,921 while Karnataka reported 6,150 new cases.India’s total Active Caseload has reached 8,43,473. It now comprises 6.59% of the country’s total Positive Cases.
A net incline of 55,250 cases recorded from the total active caseload in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh cumulatively account for 74.5% of India’s total active cases. Maharashtra alone accounts for 56.17% of the total active caseload of the country. India’s cumulative recoveries stand at 1,17,92,135 today. The national Recovery Rate is 92.11%. 59,856 recoveries were registered in the last 24 hours. 630 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours. Eight States account for 84.44% of the new deaths. These are Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Gujarat. The Case Fatality Rate is on a continuous decline and currently stands at 1.30%. Eleven States/UTs have not reported any COVID19 deaths in the last 24 hours. These are Odisha, Ladakh (UT), D&D & D&N, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Manipur, Lakshadweep, Mizoram, A&N Islands and Arunachal Pradesh.
Maharashtra:
In a significant development, Maharashtra government today announced that all students in Class 9 and Class 11 will be passed without taking exams. Earlier, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray-led government in Maharashtra had announced that all students from Class 1-8 will be passed without examinations. The state Government, however, announced that the exams for Class 10, Class 12 Board Exams 2021 will be held offline and the datesheet for these exams will be released soon. With vaccination drive picking up in the state, Maharashtra Government has requested the Centre to supply adequate quantity of doses to ensure that the momentum is not lost. Meanwhile, the Pune based Serum Institute of India has sought Rs 3,000 crore grant from the government to ramp up capacity of the Covishield Covid-19 vaccine beyond 100 million doses a month that it will reach by the end of May. Serum’s output is around 65-70 million doses a month right now.
Gujarat:
In view of the deteriorating Covid situation in Gujarat, the state government has decided to impose night curfew in 8 municipal corporations and 20 cities of Gujarat – Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot and Gandhi Nagar from 8 am to 6 am till 30 April. As of April 30, all major events in the state have been cancelled. Only 100 people will be allowed to attend the wedding program. These decisions were taken in a meeting held on Tuesday night under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.The number of active cases in the state is 17,348 and a total of 4,598 deaths reported so far.
Madhya Pradesh:
Madhya Pradesh Government has issued instructions that half the beds in the district hospitals will be reserved for corona patients and 30 ICU beds will have to be arranged in each district hospital. CT scan rates have now been fixed at Rs 3000 instead of Rs 6000 earlier There are reports of shortage of Remdesivir in Indore. Hospitals are finding it difficult to meet the requirement.
Rajasthan:
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot wrote to PM Narendra Modi urging him to open vaccination for people above 18 years. In view of the increasing number of Covid patients being admitted to hospitals, the state health department has issued directions to all hospitals, with 60 beds or more, to reserve 25% of it for patients infected by the virus. Earlier, the private hospitals were required to reserve 10% beds for Covid 19 patients. Active cases in the state are 16,140.
Kerala:
In the wake of increasing Covid cases, the Centre has asked the state to hike the number of RT-PCR tests conducted. Union Health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said the percentage of RT PCR tests in Kerala never rose above 53 and instructed to increase it above 70 percent. Pointing out the sharp increase in test positivity rate since mid-March, he said there has been increase in Covid deaths also in the state with an average of 13 cases on a daily basis. The State reported 3,502 new cases on Tuesday. Test positivity rate is at 5.93% and active case pool has 29,962 patients. Meanwhile, Covid-19 vaccination in private hospitals has found less takers as people prefer government facilities. To speed up the vaccination process, IMA has started free mass vaccination centres from today.
Tamil Nadu:
Active cases in Tamil Nadu crossed the 25,000 mark on Tuesday even as the state added 3,645 cases and 15 deaths to its Covid numbers. The case tally touched 9.07 lakh (9,07,124) and cumulative death toll touched 12,804. In Tamil Nadu for the first time, the Revenue Department had roped in youngsters and college students to work as volunteers at polling booths yesterday for providing mask, sanitizers and gloves to voters. Pandemic fails to dampen poll mood in Puducherry: After a first few hours of brisk voting in Puducherry, sparking expectations that the polling percentage would cross 90, the figure settled at 81.64 by the end of the day.
Andhra Pradesh:
In Andhra Pradesh, after drastic fall in February, the number of Covid-19 cases is gradually increasing since March. The government, in the backdrop of increase in Covid-19 cases, has made emphasis on online booking, thermal screening, physical distance, queue system, hand sanitisation and the need to keep theatre premises clean across the state, besides suggesting sanitising the air conditioners as well.Andhra Pradesh has reported 1941 new cases in the past 24 hours, after testing of 31,657 samples. The state also reported seven deaths in the past 24 hours taking the toll to 7251. The Covid vaccination programme which started on January 16 is continuing across the State since then. The state government is making elaborate arrangements for extending the vaccine drive to 45+ years people in the state following Centre’s instructions.
Karnataka:
As per Covid bulletin released by the state government for 06-4-2021, New Cases Reported: 61590; Total Active Cases:45107;New Covid Deaths: 39; Total Covid Deaths: 1297.As new cases rose in Karnataka to 6,150 on Tuesday, the State government reserved 50% beds in private hospitals for COVID-19 patients. The Karnataka government on Sunday relaxed norms for gym operators allowing them to function with 50% occupancy. The state government has asked gyms to follow Covid-19 safety rules such as wearing of masks, physical distancing, and provision of hand sanitiser are enforced. BBMP to double daily Covid-19 vaccination rate to 70,000 at its facilities; As the city reports nearly 5,000 cases of Covid-19 every day, the BBMP has decided to ratchet up the vaccination at its facilities.
Telangana:
A total of 1914 new daily cases and five fatalities were reported in the state yesterday. State Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar also tested positive for Covid. State Health Department asked all private and Corporate hospitals in the state to increase the number of beds for Covid patients in their hospitals from present 20 percent to 50 percent as the number of cases are on the rise. Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar reviewed the Covid situation in the state with all District Collectors and District Medical Officers through video conferencing and asked them to increase the daily vaccinations from present 50,000 to 1.25 Lakh. CM KCR in his message on the occasion of World Health Day called upon the people to follow Covid precautions.
Assam:
Two more persons died due to Covid-19 in Assam on Tuesday, taking the death toll to 1,111, the NHM Assam said in its media bulletin. A total of 92 new cases were detected, of which 26 were from Kamrup Metro, 14 from Jorhat and 12 from Nagaon, taking the number of active cases to 683. With starting of the new academic session (2021-22) — both in government and private schools — amidst the rising cases of COVID-19, the State Health department of Assam is planning to conduct random Rapid Antigen testing in educational institutions to detect the virus infections among students and parents.
Manipur:
The number of COVID-19 active cases in Manipur on Tuesday surged to 63 as seven more persons tested positive for the novel coronavirus. With it, the cumulative number of positive cases in the state reached 29,435, according to a release issued by the COVID-19 Common Control Room. As many as 923 people were administered COVID-19 vaccine in Manipur. With it, the number of people vaccinated in the state has risen to 88,642, including 31,733 healthcare workers. Chief Minister N Biren Singh has informed that instructions have been issued for taking up precautionary measures including screening people coming into the state via roads in addition to those arriving at Imphal Airport, in view of the rising number of Covid-19 cases across the country.
Sikkim:
Sikkim recorded a noticeable spike in Covid cases with the number of active cases of novel coronavirus here going up to 65 with the detection of 23 cases in the last 24 hours. All the new cases were picked up in East District and include seven
tourists from Goa and Gujarat. In the meantime, a total of 2,403 persons in different categories received COVID vaccines in different parts of Sikkim.
Tripura:
Special vaccination drive on 9th and 10th in the state, while as per data a total of 16 to 18 percent population of the state vaccinated informed state NHM MD.
Nagaland:
No new Covid case in Nagaland on Tuesday. Active cases are 134 and tally is 12,365.