NEWS

Amid a surge in Covid-19 cases, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday for 1,471 tonnes of oxygen and two lakh Remdesivir doses.

The CM made this request to PM Modi during the prime minister's video conference with chief ministers of 10 states, where coronavirus cases have exploded.

"The state needs 1,142 tonnes of oxygen from April 25 and 1,471 tonnes of oxygen after April 30. The chief minister appealed to the Prime Minister to rectify the shortage of oxygen and immediately allocate 1,471 tonnes of oxygen," the Chief Minister's office said in a statement.

The surge in Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra continues unabated at a time when several hospitals in the state are running out of beds and medical oxygen to treat Covid-19 patients. On Thursday, Maharashtra recorded 67,013 new cases of Covid-19 and 568 deaths.

With this, the active case tally has risen to 6,99,858.

The state's case fatality rate stands at 1.53 per cent. This rate refers to the percentage of patients who have died of Covid-19 out of the total number of cases that the state has recorded.

So far, the state has tested 2,48,95,986 laboratory samples out of which 40,94,840 have been tested positive (16.45 per cent) for the viral disease.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath inaugurated digital platform “Oxygen Monitoring System for UP” for all government and private hospitals amid an acute shortage in medical oxygen in the ongoing second covid-19 wave. Uttar Pradesh is the first state to introduce this system.

Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Awanish Kumar Awasthi said, “This platform has been launched in collaboration with the Food Safety and Drug Administration, Medical Education Department, Medical Health and Family Welfare Department, Transport and Home Departments and Rodic Consultants Pvt Ltd. Representatives of this company will be present in government and private hospitals to ensure smooth supply of oxygen in a timely manner.”

At least six Delhi hospitals have run out of liquid medical oxygen, as per a letter written by Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia to Union health minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday.

He said that while the six hospitals have exhausted their supply, other hospitals have only a few hours of oxygen supply left.

As per a news channel, the Delhi government had also flagged the same issue within minutes of a Delhi High Court order asking the Centre to ensure that the National Capital receives its full quota of oxygen cylinders for COVID-19 patients.