Risk persists even though cases starting to plateau, says WHO

Gym owners protest at a march in Delhi, demand fitness centres be allowed to reopen; Karnataka govt eases restrictions, schools to reopen in Bengaluru from Jan 31

Even though some cities or states in India may have begun to see a plateauing of Covid-19 cases, the risk persists, senior WHO official Poonam Khetrapal Singh said. Singh said that the risk of Covid-19 remains high and no country, irrespective of their current transmission scenario, is “out of the woods” yet. “We need to continue to remain vigilant. Our focus must be on reducing transmission.

Implementing situation-specific public health and social measures and increasing vaccine coverage—that’s the way forward for all countries in the ongoing pandemic,” Singh said. Asked if the pandemic is entering endemic stages, Singh said, currently “we are still in the midst of the pandemic and the focus should be to curtail the virus spread and save lives”. “Becoming endemic doesn’t mean that the virus will not be a cause for concern,” she said.

Meanwhile, hundreds of gym owners on Saturday held a protest march to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence in Delhi to oppose the decision of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) to keep fitness centres closed even as the number of Covid cases came down in the city. Demanding that gyms and spas be allowed to reopen, and raising slogans against the government, demonstrators started their march from the Chandgi Ram Akhara to Flagstaff Road in the Civil Lines. 

The Karnataka government on Saturday decided to ease Covid-19 restrictions with schools to be opened in Bengaluru from Monday in view of decreasing Coronavirus cases. India reported 2,35,532 new  cases and 871 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Railway hospitals integrated with ABDM

A total of 695 hospitals and health centres of the Indian Railways across the country have been integrated with the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission. The move will benefit around 80 lakh Railways employees in accessing healthcare facilities of other hospitals integrated with ABDM, and enable the general public to draw the benefits in a seamless digital manner.

Patient killed after fire breaks out in hospital

An elderly Covid-19 patient died after a fire broke out at the Burdwan Medical College and Hospital in West Bengal on Saturday morning, officials said. The deceased, Sandhya Mondal, 60, was admitted to a Covid ward of the hospital, where the blaze erupted around 4 am. Other patients in the ward were safe as they were moved to another wing in time. Hospital authorities doused the blaze before fire brigade personnel arrived.

4,08,58,241
Total number of cases in the country as of Saturday

4,93,198
Total no. of deaths due to the virus in India

3,83,60,710
Patients recovered and discharged in India as of Saturday

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