NEWS

The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday granted conditional exemption to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for conducting feasibility study of Covid-19 vaccine delivery using drones. The ICMR has partnered with IIT-Kanpur for the project.

The Centre said in a release that the exemption will be valid for a period of one year or until further orders.

The ICMR had filed an application in February seeking permission to conduct a feasibility study to deliver Covid-19 vaccines using drones. The government said that the medical research body will have to get clearance on its standard operating procedures (SOPs) from the DGCA.

Devotees offer prayer on the occasion of Maha Navmi at Ram Temple, as it closed during lockdown to curb the coronavirus cases, across the country on Wednesday

In Varanasi, Muslim Mahila foundation activists offer aarti to Lord Rama on the occasion of the Ram Navami festival on Wednesday.

Devotees were also seen immersing Saakh (outspring) on the occasion of Ram Navmi.

Faced with shortage of medical oxygen supply for Covid-19 patients, Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday urged the Centre to ensure uninterrupted oxygen supplies, with at least 120 MT daily allocation for the state. He also reiterated his request for urgent steps to set up two pending PSA plants approved by it two months ago.

In a letter to Union health and family welfare minister Harsh Vardhan, the chief minister sought immediate consideration to his request for uninterrupted oxygen supplies from the Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) suppliers as per commitment on daily basis. He also requested that allocation to Punjab be kept at least at 120 MT daily excluding (22 MT) of Punjab quota in supply to PGIMER, Chandigarh.

Even as many states claimed a shortage of COVID-19 vaccine, it has been learnt that many states have wasted huge quantities of it. Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Punjab are the three top states that reported the highest wastage of coronavirus vaccines. While Kerala, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh were the states which reported zero wastage of vaccine.

As data shared by the union government in an RTI reply, till April 11, Tamil Nadu reported the highest vaccine wastage at 12.10 per cent, followed by Haryana (9.74 per cent), Punjab (8.12 per cent), Manipur (7.80 per cent) and Telangana (7.55 per cent).

Assam has reported 7.69 per cent wastage, Bihar (6.99 per cent), Chandigarh (6.93 per cent), Delhi (6.15 per cent) and Rajasthan (six per cent).