Flight bans, oxygen shortages and fresh curbs: Top Covid-19 news of the day

States record highest ever daily spike of Covid-19 cases and fatalities as the second wave sweeps through the nation causing acute shortages

India, the second worst-hit country in the world by Covid-19, has been battling a resurgent virus, putting strain on the healthcare resources needed to fight it. All over the world, the Sars-CoV-2 virus has mutated and variants have been added to already unmanageable caseloads forcing countries to take tough calls on curbs, hoping to not exhaust their burdened medical infrastructure.

At 68,631, Maharashtra reported its highest number of single day cases since the beginning of the pandemic. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas(REUTERS)

Listed below are the top 10 Covid-19 news from today.

1. Hong Kong has announced that flights from India, Pakistan, and Philippines will be banned for 14 days starting from April 20. These countries will be designated as “extremely high-risk countries” reported Bloomberg. This comes on the heels of Hong Kong’s discovery of its first two mutated strains of Covid-19 within the community.
2. Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest single-day spike ever in Covid-19 cases as well as fatality count, reporting 30,596 new cases pushing its tally to 8,51,620, and 129 deaths in the span of 24 hours. Capital city of Lucknow contributed the highest number of cases to the tally.
3. At 68,631, Maharashtra reported its highest number of single day cases since the beginning of the pandemic. The state also recorded its highest single day deaths since October of last year, after reporting 503 deaths in the last 24 hours.
4. The Delhi government lodged FIRs under the Disaster Management Act against four domestic carriers for alleged failure to check for RT-PCR negative test certificates for passengers travelling from Maharashtra. These 4 airlines are: Indigo, Vistara, AirAsia, and SpiceJet.
5. Dr. Antony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, told reporters on Sunday that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine which was paused in the United States, following 6 incidents of blood clots, will be back in action by Friday. “One of those possibilities would be to bring them back, but to do it with some form of restriction or some form of warning,” said Bloomberg quoting Fauci.
6. The Indian Railways will be plying first-of-its-kind ‘Oxygen Express’ trains in the next few days to transport Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) in cryogenic tankers and oxygen cylinders in bulk to needy areas. This comes just days after Maharashtra chief minister’s appeal to PM Modi on ensuring quick oxygen supply to the worst Covid-19 affected state.
7. Bangladesh is likely to extend its week long lockdown for the second time after it was initially imposed on April 5 albeit with loose curbs, for one more week, reported ANI. This comes as the country reported 102 deaths from Covid-19 on Sunday.
8. Union minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday that there will be a 10 times jump in the production of indigenously produced Covid-19 vaccine, Covaxin, by September. Vardhan also said on Twitter that the production of anti-viral drug Remdesivir whose shortage has been plaguing states will be doubled to 74.1 lakh each month by May.
9. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted on Sunday that the national capital which has been fighting the second wave of Covid-19 has been hit with severe oxygen scarcity, and that oxygen has become an emergency there. Kejriwal also claimed that the oxygen supply meant for Delhi has been diverted to other states.

10. The Maharashtra government designated Kerala, Goa, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi and NCR and Uttarakhand as 'sensitive origins' making RT-PCR mandatory for train passengers travelling from these states, adding that unreserved passengers will not be allowed to board trains from these few states.