NEWS

As Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra continue to see a steady drop over the last few days, the state government may begin the Unlock process for Mumbai from June 1, say sources. While the timings for relaxations are not likely to full-fledged, several shops may be allowed to stay open in a staggered manner.

Though the state government is contemplating on imposing lockdown in 18 ‘Red Zone’ districts till June 15, Mumbai will see relaxations, government sources told a news channel on Friday. “The positivity rate of Mumbai is much below 10%. That is why Mumbai is not in the red zone," a senior official said.

The Delhi High Court Thursday said every patient has a right to life and to live with dignity but it cannot give privilege to anyone over other patients for providing medicine to treat black fungus, primarily affecting those recovered or recovering from COVID-19. The court said it was sure that a patient's granddaughter, who was seeking direction to the government and Sir Ganga Ram Hospital to provide sufficient number of vials of Amphotericin B to him, was not seeking any preferential treatment over other patients.

Since the petitioner has now been included in the system set up in place for allocation of medicine for treatment of black fungus, we are hopeful that further allocation will be made while making it for other patients at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital as well, a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh said. Advocate Iqra Khalid, granddaughter of the 80-year-old patient, informed the court that as they missed one dose of the injection on May 23 when it was not available, the infection got spread to the orbit and sinus and two bones had to be removed and before this also he underwent two surgeries due to the infection.

In view of the existing pandemic situation, the Madras High Court has decided to restrict its functioning only to take up extremely urgent matters, that too for 11 days between June 1 and June 11. For this purpose, M N Senthil Kumar, the Registrar (Judicial), has made special sitting arrangements for the judges.

At the principal seat at Chennai,the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy will sit as usual on all the days, (except the intervening holidays), till June 11. The bench of Justices R Subbiah and S Kannammal will take up the writ and appellate side cases, for three days from June 1.

The Karnataka government has constituted a committee to investigate possible sources of infection leading to the steep rise in mucormycosis cases in the state, media has learnt.

The state-level committee, chaired by Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences Vice-Chancellor Dr S. Sacchidanand, will investigate oxygen supply chains, the role of medication (including steroids), and referral cases from smaller hospitals to try and ascertain the source causing cases of mucormycosis in recovering Covid patients.

The panel was formed this week following a presentation by skull surgeon Dr Sampath Chandra Prasad Rao to the government Monday, where he suggested sources of contamination and causes for the surge in mucormycosis cases.