Daily Briefing: Massive spread of Covid-19 in rural India; nearly 100 bodies found floating in Ganga; and more

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At The Indian Express Explained Live event, noted virologist Dr Shahid Jameel said the decline in the number of new Covid infections is likely to be much slower this time, unlike during the first wave. “…Even if we have reached the peak, and the decline starts, we will continue to report a very large number of cases for a long time,” he said.

In Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut district, all the 370 oxygen beds and 140 ICU beds in the largest government Covid facility in the area are fully occupied. The demand has been such that makeshift beds have been placed between regular beds. Also, fans here don’t work and the roof leaks at several places.

From the Front Page

Meanwhile, the Allahabad High Court has observed that “the Election Commission, the Higher Courts and the Government failed to fathom the disastrous consequences of permitting the elections in few States and the Panchayat elections in the State of Uttar Pradesh”.

Goa’s Chief Minister and its Health Minister don’t appear to be on the same page over the cause of death of 26 patients overnight at the state’s largest Covid facility. While Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said the deaths could be due to oxygen shortage, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said it is not clear if the deaths were due to it.

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And government data shows that five states which account for 54 per cent of the total active cases in the country get only 42 per cent of medical oxygen allotted by the Centre.

Nearly 100 unidentified bodies – many of them decomposed and bloated – have been found floating in the Ganga over the past couple of days, triggering fears among local residents in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh that bodies of Covid victims were being dumped in the river.

She was the first woman law graduate from the Ezhava community. A minister in the first democratically elected Communist government of 1957 led by E M S Namboodiripad. She was the force behind Kerala’s historic land reforms. K R Gouri, who passed away at the age of 102, was all of this. And yet, she was so much more.

And Finally…

In a chat with The Indian Express, Indian spinner Kuldeep Yadav spoke about where things went wrong with his bowling, how he was depressed when he wasn’t playing in the IPL, and why he does miss MS Dhoni sometimes.

In today’s podcast, we discuss the proposal for waiving the Intellectual Property rights for Covid-19 vaccinations, and how people in Delhi and Mumbai are struggling to get vaccinated.