Health

Bhubaneswar, Apr 24 (PTI) The Odisha government sealed its border with West Bengal where a triple mutant variant of COVID-19 has reportedly surfaced, and intensified vigil along the inter-state boundary, officials said.

The state government on Friday sealed the routes to the neighbouring state which pass through Balasore and Mayurbhanj districts, a senior official said.

New Delhi, Apr 24 (PTI) Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday pointed to the shortage of vaccines and warned the government of more protests if people were turned away at hospitals.

Chidambaram welcomed the decision to vaccinate all above the age of 18 years from May 1.

"However, we have to caution the government that this decision brings with it huge responsibilities," he tweeted.

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 24 (PTI) The 48-hour lockdown-like curbs imposed by the Kerala government following unprecedented COVID-19 suge, came into force in the state with only essential services and emergency activities being allowed and a holiday declared for government offices and PSUs.

Police carried out intense vehicle check across the state since early this morning to ensure that nobody ventured out on roads and public places unnecessarily.

New Delhi, Apr 24 (PTI) The Delhi High Court said on Saturday that if any official at the central, state or local administration was obstructing in the picking up or supply of oxygen, then it would "hang" that person.

The observation by a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli came during hearing of a plea by Maharaja Agrasen Hospital over shortage of oxygen for seriously-ill COVID patients.

Kolkata, Apr 24 (PTI) Jadavpur University authorities on Saturday announced that the institution will remain closed till May 3 due to sudden spike of COVID-19 cases in West Bengal.

JU Registrar Snehamanju Basu told PTI only basic emergency services, required for giving logistical support to online classes and running administrative work on the virtual mode for the time being, will be run from the campus with the presence of very few staff who will be given all necessary protection to avert contamination.

NEW DELHI (AP) — India put oxygen tankers on special express trains as major hospitals in New Delhi begged on social media on Friday for more supplies to save COVID-19 patients who are struggling to breathe. More than a dozen people died when an oxygen-fed fire ripped through a coronavirus ward in a populous western state.

India’s underfunded health system is tattering as the world’s worst coronavirus surge wears out the nation, which set a global record in daily infections for a second straight day with 332,730.

(AP) --- U.S. health officials lifted an 11-day pause on COVID-19 vaccinations using Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose shot on Friday, after scientific advisers decided its benefits outweigh a rare risk of blood clot.

The government uncovered 15 vaccine recipients who developed a highly unusual kind of blood clot out of nearly 8 million people given the J&J shot. All were women, most under age 50. Three died, and seven remain hospitalized.

23 Apr 2021; MEMO: Tunisian hospitals have run out of intensive care beds amid a surge in coronavirus cases, a member of the independent scientific committee that advises the government said yesterday.

Amenallah Messadi told Reuters the health system had been pushed to the point of collapse by a rise in cases driven by the more infectious coronavirus variant first detected in Britain.

(Reuters) --- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban will discuss on Friday Budapest's plans for spending its share of the EU's post-COVID-19 economic stimulus - for which Hungary has yet to give final consent.

Hungary is among 10 European Union countries that have not yet approved the plan for the EU executive to borrow an unprecedented 750 billion euros and then disburse money to the 27 member states to help them revive economic growth.

Washington, Apr 23 (PTI) The US has advised its citizens to avoid travelling to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and the Maldives due to the sudden surge in COVID-19 cases in the region.

In a series of travel advisories on Thursday, the authorities also urged Americans to reconsider travel to China and Nepal; exercise increased caution while travelling to Sri Lanka and exercise normal travel precaution to Bhutan, which has been given Level 1, the safest level for travelling overseas.