431 CMAAO CORONA FACTS and MYTH 27th Status in India
Dr K K Aggarwal
431 CMAAO CORONA FACTS and MYTH 27th Status in India
Dr K Aggarwal President CMAAO, HCFI
With input from Dr Monica Vasudev
1572: Reuters Excerpts
1. India reported the world's highest daily tally of coronavirus infections for a second day on Friday, surpassing 330,000 new cases
2. Deaths in the past 24 hours also jumped to a record 2,263, the health ministry said, while officials across northern and western India, including the capital, New Delhi, warned most hospitals were full and running out of oxygen.
3. The surge in cases came as a fire in a hospital in a suburb of Mumbai treating COVID-19 patients killed 13 people, the latest accident to hit a facility crowded with virus sufferers.
4. On Wednesday, 22 patients died at a public hospital in the western state of Maharashtra when their oxygen supply ran out due to a leaking tank, after at least nine had died in a hospital fire last month in the state's capital of Mumbai.
5. Daily infections hit 332,730, up from 314,835 the previous day, when India set a record that surpassed a U.S. figure of 297,430 new cases set in January. The U.S. tally has since fallen.
6. Delhi reported more than 26,000 new cases and 306 deaths, or about one fatality every five minutes, the fastest since the pandemic began.
7. Medical oxygen and beds have become scarce, with major hospitals putting up notices saying they have no room for any more patients and police fanning out to secure oxygen supplies.
8. "We regret to inform that we are suspending any new patient admissions in all our hospitals in Delhi ... till oxygen supplies stabilise," Max Healthcare, which runs a network of hospitals, said on Twitter as it appealed for oxygen.
9. New Delhi, people losing loved ones are turning to makeshift facilities for mass burials and cremations as funeral services get swamped.
10. Health experts say India got complacent in the winter, when new cases were running at about 10,000 a day and seemed to be under control, and lifted restrictions to allow big gatherings.
11. A more infectious variant of the virus that originated in India may have helped accelerate the surge, experts said.
12. Britain, Canada, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates have banned flights from India.