NEWS

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Monday hit out at Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath over the coronavirus crisis, saying he should admit his “incompetence” and quit. Flaying the state BJP government, the former UP chief minister said for it only power and elections matter. “Management and administration are beyond their control.

The chief minister must admit his incompetence and get away. This will give relief to people. The BJP government, which has made the state miserable in four years of its rule, has no moral right to stay in power,”

Telangana government on Sunday has decided to rope in nearly 50,000 students who have recently completed MBBS for covid duty and reduce the burden on the limited medical frontline warriors amid the surge in infections in the state.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao decided to invite applications for medical students qualified to treat covid-19 patients at a high-level Covid-19 review meeting on Sunday at Pragathi Bhavan. In addition, Rao has instructed the medical and health officers to appoint doctors, nurses, lab technicians, pharmacists and other paramedical staff immediately and utilise their services for the next two to three months.

He instructed that the medics be paid respectable salaries as the state should suitably recognise their valuable services amid crisis. He also called for these students to be given weightage marks when they are appointed for government jobs.

Maharashtra on Sunday reported 48,401 fresh coronavirus positive cases and 572 fatalities, taking the tally to 51,01,737 and the toll to 75,849, the state health department said. At 48,401, the number of new cases in a day fell below 50,000 for the first time after April 5 this year, when the state had recorded 47,288 infections.

A total of 60,226 patients were discharged during the day, taking the count of recoveries so far in Maharashtra to 44,07,818, the department said in a release. Of the 572 fatalities, 310 had occurred in the last 48 hours, it said.

The case recovery rate in Maharashtra now stands at 86.4 per cent while the case fatality rate is1.49 per cent, as per the department. Maharashtra is now left with 6,15,783 active cases.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has sanctioned funds from the Chief Minister Relief Fund (CMRF) for a special cause. This sum of Rs 60 lakh will be utilised to feed stray animals during the ongoing Covid-19 lockdown in parts of the state.

Like several parts of the country, Odisha has also put measures in place to break the chain of transmission. Such restrictions are being enforced across five metropolitan corporations, 48 municipalities and 61 notified area councils (NACs).

"Animals such as stray dogs and cattle are facing a food shortage owing to the lockdown," said a tweet by the Odisha public information department.