Covid-19 in India: Deaths spike over 4,000 again

India saw a record rise in Covid19 deaths with 4205 fresh fatalities while 348421 new infections were reported according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on WednesdayThe active cases have reduced to 3704099 comprising 1587 per cent of the total infections while the national Covid19 recovery rate has improved to 8304 per cent the data updated at 8 am showedUP finds 7 more bodiesSeven more bodies were found floating in Ganga taking the count of total corpses retrieved from the river in Uttar Pradeshrsquos Ballia district to 52 an official said on WednesdayThe district administration is immediately performing last rites of the deceased as there is a possibility that they had contracted Covid19 According to Ballia residents at least 45 bodies were seen floating near the Ujiyar Kulhadia and Bharauli ghats in the Narahi area on Tuesday evening Late on Tuesday night seven more bodies were found an official saidBihar spreads net in GangaBiharrsquos water resources minister Sanjay Kumar tweeted on Wednesday that a ldquonet has been placedrdquo in the river on the state border with UP and patrolling increased after 71 corpses were recovered in Buxar district District administration had claimed that the bodies had floated downstream from UP The discovery of corpses has stoked fears among localsLocals suggested to AFP that relatives immersed the bodies in the river because they could not afford wood for traditional Hindu cremations or because crematoriums were overwhelmed by the number of funeralslsquoCovaxinmaker says vaccine unavailablersquoDeputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday said Covaxin maker Bharat Biotech has refused to provide ldquoadditionalrdquo vaccine doses to the Delhi government The Covaxin stock in Delhi is over and as a result around 100 vaccination centres set up in 17 schools have been closed he saidA man looks at a notice stating nonavailability of vaccines at a centre in New Delhi on Wednesday PicPTIldquoThe Covaxin manufacturer has in a letter said that it cannot provide the Delhi government vaccines due to unavailability under instruction of government officials concerned It means that the central government is controlling supply of the vaccinerdquo Sisodia saidJoint Secretary in the Union health ministry Lav Agarwal had on Tuesday denied Centrersquos role in the purchase of vaccines by the statesSisodia accused the Centre of vaccine mismanagement and reiterated that exporting 65 crore doses to foreign countries was the ldquobiggest mistakerdquo The BJP on Wednesday accused Congress and the AAP of spreading misinformation on Indiarsquos vaccination programme and said over 84 per cent of the vaccine doses sent abroad were part of the commercial and licensing liabilities of the two Indian manufacturersBJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said 107 crore vaccine doses sent abroad were Indiarsquos aid to different countries and noted that of those 785 lakh were dispatched to seven neighbouring countries Sending over 550 crore vaccine doses abroad were the compulsion of the two Indian manufacturers as it was part of their commercial and licensing liabilities Patra said62 of 82 PMCares Fund ventilators faulty hospitalA day after AAP MLA Kultar Singh Sandhwan posted a photo of ldquoventilators lying unusedrdquo at Faridkotrsquos Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital Baba Farid University of Health Sciences ViceChancellor Raj Bahadur on Wednesday said majority of them are faulty Out of 82 ventilators received from the Centre under the PMCares Fund 62 werenrsquot working since the beginning he said adding that theyrsquore lsquonot of good qualityrsquoWHO Use scientific names of variantsAfter several media reports referred to B1617 strain as lsquoIndian variantrsquo the World Health Organization on Wednesday clarified that it doesnrsquot identify viruses or variants with names of countries they are first found in It urged all to refer to the variants by their scientific names The clarification came after the Centre said the WHO has not associated the term ldquoIndianrdquo with the B1617 variant in its weekly epidemiological update on the pandemic ldquoIn fact the word lsquoIndianrsquo has not been used in its reportrdquo it said23340938Total no of coronavirus cases in India so far254197Total no of deaths due to the virus in India so far3704099Total no of active cases in IndiaThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever