COVID-19 update: India sends army to help hospitals hit by coronavirus as countries promise aid

Dubai: India ordered its armed forces on Monday to help tackle surging new coronavirus infections that are overwhelming hospitals, as countries including Britain, Germany and the United States pledged to send urgent medical aid.

In a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat said oxygen would be released to hospitals from armed forces reserves and retired medical military personnel would join COVID-19 health facilities.

And where possible, military medical infrastructure will be made available to civilians, a government statement said, as new coronavirus infections hit a record peak for a fifth day.

Photos: Mass funeral pyres reflect COVID-19 crisis in India

“Air, Rail, Road & Sea; Heaven & earth are being moved to overcome challenges thrown up by this wave of COVID-19,” Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Twitter.

Modi on Sunday urged all citizens to get vaccinated and to exercise caution amid what he called a “storm” of infections, while hospitals and doctors in some northern states posted urgent notices saying they were unable to cope with the influx.

In some of the worst-hit cities, bodies were being burnt in makeshift facilities offering mass cremations.

People queue up for COVID-19 vaccine in Mumbai, India, Monday, April 26, 2021. Image Credit: AP

The southern state of Karnataka, home to the tech city of Bengaluru, ordered a 14-day lockdown from Tuesday, joining the western industrial state of Maharashtra, where lockdowns run until May 1, although some states were also set to lift lockdown measures this week.

The patchy curbs, complicated by local elections and mass festival gatherings, could prompt breakouts elsewhere, as infections rose by 352,991 in the last 24 hours, with crowded hospitals running out of oxygen supplies and beds.

“Currently the hospital is in beg-and-borrow mode and it is an extreme crisis situation,” said a spokesman for the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in the capital, New Delhi.

Fire

Following a fire at a hospital in the western diamond industry hub of Surat, five COVID-19 patients died after being moved to other hospitals that lacked space in their intensive care units, a municipal official told Reuters.

Photos: Anguish and fear as COVID-19 deaths and cases surge in India

Television channel NDTV broadcast images of three health workers in the eastern state of Bihar pulling a body along the ground on its way to cremation, as stretchers ran short.

“If you’ve never been to a cremation, the smell of death never leaves you,” Vipin Narang, a political science professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States, said on Twitter.

“My heart breaks for all my friends and family in Delhi and India going through this hell.” On Sunday, President Joe Biden said the United States would send raw materials for vaccines, medical equipment and protective gear. Germany joined a growing list of countries pledging supplies.

Oxygen Concentrators loaded by Air India at JFK Airport in the US on their way to Delhi. Image Credit: ANI

In Moscow, which expects 50 million doses of its Sputnik V vaccine to be made each month in India this summer, a Kremlin spokesman expressed concern over the situation.

India, with a population of 1.3 billion, has an official tally of 17.31 million infections and 195,123 deaths, after 2,812 deaths overnight, health ministry data showed, although health experts say the figures probably run higher.

The surge in infections hit oil prices amid worries about a fall in fuel demand in the world’s third-biggest oil importer.

Rally backlash

Several cities have ordered curfews, while police enforce social distancing and mask-wearing. Politicians have faced criticism for holding rallies during state election campaigns that draw thousands into packed stadiums.

About 8.6 million voters were expected to cast ballots on Monday in the eastern state of West Bengal, in the final phases of a contest set to wrap up this week. Also voting in local elections was the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, which has been reporting an average of 30,000 infections a day.

Health workers distribute evening tea to patients in a ward at the COVID-19 Care Center set up at the Commonwealth Games (CWG) Village Sports Complex in New Delhi, India, on Sunday, April 25, 2021. Image Credit: Bloomberg

Modi’s plea on vaccinations came after inoculations peaked at 4.5 million doses on April 5, but have since averaged about 2.7 million a day, government figures show.

Virologists said more infectious variants of the virus, including an Indian one, have fuelled the resurgence.

The government told people to stay indoors and follow hygiene protocols. “Please don’t invite people into your home... It has become clearer that the transmissibility of this virus is faster,” said senior health official Vinod Kumar Paul.

Vaccine demand has outpaced supply as the inoculation campaign widened this month, while companies struggle to boost output, partly because of a shortage of raw material and a fire at a facility making the AstraZeneca dose.

However, the federal government will not import vaccines itself but expects states and companies to do so instead, in a step aimed at backing domestic manufacturers, two government officials told Reuters.

Neighbouring Bangladesh sealed its border with India for 14 days, its foreign ministry said, though trade will continue. Air travel has been suspended since Bangladesh imposed a lockdown on April 14 to combat record infections and deaths.

India ‘sends Air Force aircraft to get six cryogenic oxygen containers from Dubai’

India on Monday sent an aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) to transport six empty cryogenic oxygen containers, Indian Ambassador to the UAE Pavan Kapoor told Gulf News. Read more

Madras High court hits out at poll panel

The Madras High Court on Monday lashed out against the Election Commission and said “it is the most irresponsible institution in the country” who have done nothing to prevent political parties from breaching COVID-19 protocol.

“You (EC) are the only institution responsible for the situation we are in today and You have been singularly lacking any kind of exercise of authority. You have not taken measures against political parties holding rallies despite the court saying “Maintain Covid protocol, maintain Covid protocol.” Read more

Switzerland puts India on COVID-19 quarantine list

Switzerland has added India to its list of high-risk countries from which travellers must enter quarantine. Arrivals from India must immediately go into quarantine, under the government restrictions which go into effect at 1600 GMT on Monday, the Federal Office of Public Health said on its website.

Wealthy Indians flee by private jet

India’s mounting coronavirus crisis is prompting wealthy families to flee the country by private jet.

With reports of hospital bed and drug shortages sweeping social media, Indian tycoons and others who are not so well off but fearful for their health are booking flights to bolt holes in Europe, the Middle East and the Indian Ocean, Bloomberg reported

“It’s not only the ultra rich,” said Rajan Mehra, chief executive officer at New Delhi-based private jet firm Club One Air. “Whoever can afford to take a private jet are taking private jets.”

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COVID-19: Telangana urged to extend crematorium timings as death toll rises

Hyderabad: With more and more people falling victim to COVID-19 and relatives of the deceased not finding a place to keep the dead bodies over night, Hyderabad Member of Parliament Asaduddin Owaisi has urged the Telangana government to extend the timings of crematoriums.

Presently, they work from 7am to 6pm and some till 7pm. In a SOS to the senior minister K Taraka Rama Rao, Owaisi said that in view of larger number of bodies the timings of crematoriums should be extended beyond 7pm throughout the state.

Social activists say that not only the death toll was very high but the kith and kin of the deceased were also not coming forward to perform the last rites due to the fear of infection and leaving it to the NGOs.

Confusion over figures

According to an official press release 29 people died due to COVID-19 in the state during the last 24 hours ending Friday evening. But calculations by the local media show that in two biggest hospitals of the state capital Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences and Gandhi Hospital alone 80 to 100 people died on a single day on Friday.

Clarifying the confusion over the figures, a senior doctor at the Gandhi Hospital said that not all deaths are attributed to COVID-19 because many are caused by comorbidities.

Whatever the official cause of death, the number of dead bodies coming to cremation grounds and the grave yards were unusually high and the families were founding it a big challenge to perform the last rites.

Even members of Muslim community were forced to run from one corner to the other as grave yard caretakers say there was no open space for any more burials.

With the authorities at the crematoriums refusing to accept the bodies after 6 or 7pm, and hospitals pressurizing the families to take the bodies away immediately, the grieving families were caught in the middle. It has become a heart breaking challenge as the families were not in a position to take the bodies home because of resistance from the neighborhood and in some cases family members themselves were afraid of infection.

While private hospitals were unwilling to keep the bodies because of the space constraint, even a hospital like Gandhi was also expressing its inability to preserve the bodies due to lack of space. “This is an unprecedented situation”, said K Sai Teja, of an NGO Feed the Needy.

In many cases where the near and dear ones of the deceased were abroad, NGOs were receiving requests to perform the last rites.

Costly affair

Preserving the bodies over night was also proving a costly affair. “In one case we had to hire an ambulance and preserve body of COVID-19 victim over night. It cost us Rs 32,000”, Sai Teja said.

In some heart rending cases social activists had to step in to perform the last rites as family members refused to touch the body due to stigma. The problems were more complicated in districts and rural areas.

In Jagatiya district Sarpanch of Madhapur village sought help of a Muslim NGO Immadutal Muslim Youth Association for the last rites of a Hindu woman as there was nobody to ready to do it. “We performed the rites as per Hindu religion as the victim was from the community”, said Association President Wajid Khan.

During last 15 days the Association performed 45 such funerals in different villages of the district. In Tandur near Hyderabad local youth performed two funerals in the same manner.

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US: Ohio man pleads guilty in 2016 killings of 8 in same family

Ohio: An Ohio man pleaded guilty Thursday to eight counts of aggravated murder in the fatal shootings of his child's mother and seven of her family members in 2016, a crime that spurred rampant speculation that it was tied to drug trafficking but that prosecutors said had stemmed from a bitter custody dispute.

The man, Edward Wagner, 28, apologised for his role in the killings of eight members of the Rhoden family, five years to the date that their bodies were found in several mobile homes and a camper in a sparsely populated area of Pike County in the southern part of the state. Each victim had been shot in the head.

As part of a plea deal reached in Pike County Common Pleas Court, prosecutors agreed not to pursue the death penalty against Wagner, whom they recommended should serve eight life sentences without the possibility of parole. He had previously pleaded not guilty.

In exchange, Wagner, known as Jake, agreed that he would testify against his parents and an adult brother in the homicide case, which took more than two years of an extensive investigation before arrests were made. Wagner confessed to personally causing the deaths of five of the eight victims, according to prosecutors.

"I am deeply and very sorry," said Wagner, who will be sentenced at a later date.

Prosecutors said that Wagner had been embroiled in a bitter dispute with Hanna May Rhoden over the custody of their then-2-year-old daughter, Sophia, when he and his family members planned the murders.

At the time of the killings, Rhoden, 19, had begun seeing someone else and was pregnant with that person's child, according to prosecutors, who said that Wagner had forged court documents maintaining that he would get custody of Sophia in the event of Rhoden's death.

"Jake grew to be upset with Hanna over the fact that Hanna was exposing Sophia to people that he believed that she should not be around," Angie Canepa, a special prosecutor in the case, said Thursday.

Canepa said that Rhoden had told a friend in a Facebook message in December 2015 that she would never sign papers sharing custody of Sophia with Wagner.

"'They will have to kill me first,'" said the message, which was part of hacked material found in possession of Wagner's family, according to Canepa.

Besides Rhoden, her parents, Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40, and his ex-wife, Dana Manley Rhoden, 37, were killed. So were her siblings, Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16, and Clarence (Frankie) Rhoden, 20. The other victims included Frankie Rhoden's fiancEe, Hannah (Hazel) Gilley, 20; Christopher Rhoden's brother Kenneth Rhoden, 44; and his cousin Gary Rhoden, 38.

Brian Duncan, a lawyer for the Rhodens, said in an email Thursday that the family was overcome by emotion over Wagner's guilty plea.

"Mr. Wagner's plea provides at least some semblance of immediate justice, and a glimmer of hope that perhaps all responsible parties will ultimately be held accountable for their respective actions in the near future," Duncan said.

The cases of Wagner's parents, George (Billy) Wagner III and Angela Wagner, and his brother, George Wagner IV, all of whom have pleaded not guilty, are continuing.

Prosecutors said that Wagner had spent several months planning the murders and had purchased materials for making silencers for guns and a cellphone jammer.

Shell casings matching some of those used in the murders were found at the Wagner home, the authorities said, and the tread marks from bloody footprints found at the scene matched those on several pairs of shoes that the Wagners had recently purchased.

The case had appeared that it might involve drugs when sheriff's deputies found three marijuana-growing operations on the premises of at least one of the homes where the victims' bodies were discovered.

In addition to the eight counts of aggravated murder, Wagner pleaded guilty to 15 other criminal counts that included conspiracy, aggravated burglary and tampering with evidence.

"I am guilty, your honor," he repeated when asked if he wanted to change his previous not guilty pleas.

Greg Meyers, a public defender for Wagner, said that his client had gone "eyes wide open" into the plea agreement.

"He knows he's going to die in prison without any judicial release," Meyers said.

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COVID-19: Germany faces lockdown until June as curbs fail to push down cases

Berlin: Germany’s coronavirus infection rate rose at the weekend despite stricter restrictions and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said he did not expect moves to ease curbs before the end of May.

“We need a timetable how to get back to normal life, but it must be a plan that won’t have to be revoked after just a few days,” Scholz said.

The federal government should be able to outline “clear and courageous opening steps” for the summer by the end of May, allowing restaurants to adjust reopening plans and citizens to plan holidays, he said.

Scholz said the steps would also clarify when visits to concerts, theatres and soccer stadiums would be possible.

Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday urged Germans to stick to tougher rules imposed in areas with high infection rates, saying measures imposed at the weekend were needed to break a third wave of infections.

Germany is struggling to contain infections, complicated by the more contagious B117 variant that first emerged in Britain.

It also follows a relatively slow start to Germany’s vaccination campaign.

Tougher measures

Germany’s seven-day average of cases per 100,000 people rose to 166 at the weekend, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said on Sunday.

Parliament approved amendments to the Infection Protection Act last week to give the federal government more powers in the pandemic. Merkel drew up the changes after some of the 16 federal states refused to implement tougher measures.

The new law enables the government to impose curfews between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. in districts where cases exceed 100 per 100,000 residents on three consecutive days. The rules also include stricter limits to private gatherings and shopping.

Schools will have to close and return to online lessons if cases reach 165 per 100,000 residents on three consecutive days.

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551 oxygen generation plants to be setup across India through PM Cares Fund: PMO

New Delhi: As many as 551 dedicated pressure swing Adsorption (PSA) medical oxygen generation plants will be set up inside public health facilities across the country to boost availability of the life-saving gas amid its shortage in several states battling the COVID-19 surge.

The PMO said on Sunday that the PM Cares Fund has given in-principle approval for allocation of funds for their installation, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi directing these plants should be made functional as soon as possible.

He said these plants will serve as a major boost to oxygen availability at the district level.

These dedicated plants will be established in identified government hospitals in district headquarters in various states and union territories, and their procurement will be done through the Health and Family Welfare ministry.

The PM Cares Fund had earlier this year allocated Rs 201.58 crores for installation of additional 162 dedicated PSA medical oxygen generation plants inside public health facilities in the country, the PMO noted.

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• Record deaths as India's affluent in cities hit by deadly COVID-19 ‘tsunami’
• India: Lockdown in Delhi extended by a week amid COVID-19 spike

It said the basic aim behind establishing PSA oxygen plants at government hospitals in the district headquarters is to further strengthen the public health system and ensure that each of these hospitals has a captive oxygen generation facility.

Such an in-house captive oxygen generation facility would address the day-to-day medical oxygen needs of these hospitals and the district.

In addition, the liquid medical oxygen (LMO) would serve as a top up to the captive oxygen generation, it said.

Such a system will go a long way in ensuring that government hospitals in districts do not face sudden disruption of oxygen supplies and have uninterrupted access to it to manage COVID-19 patients and other sick persons needing such support.

India is struggling with a second wave of the pandemic with more than 3,00,000 daily new coronavirus cases being reported in the past few days, and hospitals in several states are reeling under a shortage of medical oxygen and beds.

Several hospitals in the national capital are grappling with severe shortage of medical oxygen.While some hospitals have managed to make short-term arrangements, there is no immediate end to the crisis in sight.

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COVID-19: UAE clarifies travel-to-India rules

Abu Dhabi: The National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Emergency Management Authority (NCEMA) and the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) clarified rules about travel to and from India on Friday.

They said travel for passengers from India will be suspended for all incoming flights on national and foreign carriers.

Flights carrying transit passengers will also be barred from coming to the UAE with the exception of transit flights coming to the UAE and heading onward to India.

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This decision includes the entry of travellers who were in India in the last 14 days prior to coming to the UAE.

In the latest travel updates, the two entities stressed that flights between the 2 countries will continue to operate allowing the transportation of passengers from the UAE to India. It will also allow the transfer of exempted groups from India to the UAE with the application of the aforementioned precautionary measures.

These groups include Emirati citizens, diplomatic missions appointed by the two countries, official delegations, those on business men chartered flights, and those holding golden residency provided that they undertake preventive measures that include quarantine for 10 days and a PCR test at the airport, as well as on the fourth and eighth days following entry into the country.

Moreover, the required PCR test period has been reduced from 72 hours to 48 hours prior to travel from accredited laboratories that issue test results carrying a QR code.

The authority also confirmed that it is required for those coming from India through other countries to stay in those countries for at least 14 days before being allowed to enter the country, starting from 23:59 on Saturday April 24, 2021.

These regulations will apply for a period of 10 days, which can be extended, while cargo flights continue to operate between the two countries.

The authority called upon all travelers affected by the decision to follow up with the relevant airlines to change or reschedule their flights and to ensure their safe return to their final destinations without delay.

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COVID-19: Philippines extends virus lockdown to mid-May

Manila, Philippines: The Philippines is extending an already monthlong lockdown by two weeks as the country's worst coronavirus infection spike starts to ease but remains alarming.

President Rodrigo Duterte said in televised remarks Thursday night that the second-most restrictive lockdown level will now run through May 14 in metropolitan Manila and four nearby provinces, a region of more than 25 million people. Mayors, however, cut a nine-hour night curfew in metropolitan Manila to six hours to help battered businesses.

Duarte is warning mayors and village chiefs that they face jail if they don't prevent gatherings and other events that violate the pandemic restrictions.

Confirmed coronavirus infections in the Philippines soared past 1 million Monday, with deaths now at more than 17,000, the second highest in Southeast Asia.

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