Covid-19 Wrap-up: As India Covid-19 vaccine shortage rises, daily jabs plunge over 35%

Cracking the whip on private hospitals that are refusing to release bodies of Covid-19 victims citing pending treatment bills, the Karnataka government directed all district administrations and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike to cancel the registration of such hospitals.

Pushed to the brinks for decades, graveyard and crematorium workers in Bengaluru are earning Rs 10,000 per month, which is less than the minimum wage, while they also work without protective gear during the pandemic.

Newly-appointed Kerala Health Minister Veena George said that the Covid-19 situation in Kerala was under control.

The country's daily count of new Covid-19 cases fell below the 2-lakh mark after over a month with 1.96 lakh fresh infections reported, taking the total case tally over 2.69 crore, according to Union Health Ministry data. The lowest 24-hour death toll in 21 days was also reported with 3,511 deaths as of Tuesday morning.

With the Odisha government launching a massive evacuation drive to save people from the fury of Cyclone Yaas, many people in the coastal districts of Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur are reluctant to move to government shelters as they are scared of contracting Covid-19. The National Disaster Response Force directed its rescue teams to ensure that the country's major medical oxygen generation plants based in Odisha and West Bengal are "running and alive" during the cyclone. The Andhra Pradesh government is building a buffer stock of about 400 Metric Tonnes of Liquid Medical Oxygen, in anticipation of the supply disruption this week because of the storm.

Technical problems at two oxygen manufacturing plants in Karnataka's Ballari have disrupted oxygen supplies in the state, with production dropping by 220 tonnes a day. Two more Oxygen Express trains carrying 238.5 tonnes of Liquid Medical Oxygen, reached Bengaluru today.

A Delhi court adjourned to May 28 the hearing on the bail application filed by businessman Navneet Kalra in connection with the oxygen concentrator black marketing case.

The government is preparing a stimulus package for sectors worst affected by the pandemic, aiming to support an economy struggling with a slew of localised lockdowns, people familiar with the matter said.

Amid rising mucormycosis cases among Covid-19 patients and those who have recovered from it, epidemiologists advised people to not get panicked by the colour of the fungus causing it and underlined the importance of analysing the kind of infection, its causes and associated risk factors. The latest infection that has drawn attention is a deadly 'yellow fungus'. Here's everything we know so far about the infection.

Children who get sick from the rare but serious Covid-19-related inflammatory syndrome may surmount their most significant symptoms within six months, but they may still have muscle weakness and emotional difficulties at that time, a new small study suggests.

As the nation’s vaccine shortage continues, daily inoculations have come down to 980 per 10 lakh people as of May 23, down from 1,455 per 10 lakh a week earlier and against the world average of 3,564 per 10 lakh, according to a report.

Bharat Biotech Co-Founder and Joint MD Suchitra Ella said that Covaxin had reached 30 cities in 30 days despite some employees being off work due to Covid-19. Struggling to meet the shortage of vaccines in the state, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that the state's global tender for Covid-19 vaccines had not received any responses.

Moderna is expecting to launch a single-dose Covid-19 vaccine in India next year and is in talks with Cipla among other Indian firms, while another US giant Pfizer is ready to offer 5 crore shots in 2021 itself but it wants significant regulatory relaxations including indemnification. Moderna’s two-dose Covid-19 vaccine, meanwhile, was shown to be effective in adolescents aged 12-17 and showed no new or major safety problems in a clinical trial.

Hong Kong may soon have to throw away millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses because they are approaching their expiry dates and not enough people have signed up for the jabs.

New Zealand cricketer Tim Seifert's world stopped for a moment when he tested positive for Covid-19 during the now suspended IPL but the wicket-keeper said that he never felt vulnerable inside the tournament's bio-bubble. The postponed IPL will resume tentatively on Sept. 18 or 19 in the UAE with as many as 10 double-headers expected to be played during a three-week window.