Category:

Non-Life

India’s daily COVID-19 cases rise by record 414,188

India’s healthcare system is crumbling under the weight of COVID-19 patients, with hospitals running out of beds and medical oxygen. Morgues and crematoriums can not handle the number of dead and makeshift funeral pyres burn in parks and carparks. Although northern and western India bear the brunt of the disease, the share of the five southern states in the country’s daily surge in infections rose from 28% to 33% in the first seven days of May, data shows.

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‘Turning the Corner’: U.S. COVID outlook reaches most hopeful point yet

Americans have entered a new, hopeful phase of the pandemic. Buoyed by a sense that the coronavirus is waning, in part because of vaccinations, more people are shrugging off masks, venturing into restaurants and returning to their pre-pandemic routines. Mayors, governors and other local officials — once the bearers of grim news about the virus’s toll and strict rules for businesses — have joined in the newfound optimism, rapidly loosening restrictions.

Public health experts remain cautious, but said that while they still expect significant local and regional surges in the coming weeks, they do not think they will be as widespread or reach past peaks.

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Over 11.8 lakh beneficiaries of age group 18-44 vaccinated so far in Phase-3: Health Ministry

The ministry said 16,49,73,058 vaccine doses have been administered through 24,11,300 sessions, as per the provisional report till 7 am today and more than 23 lakh vaccination doses were administered in the last 24 hours. As on Day-111 of the vaccination drive (May 6, 2021), 23,70,298 vaccine doses were given. Across 18,938 sessions, 10,60,064 beneficiaries were vaccinated for 1st dose and 13,10,234 beneficiaries received their 2nd dose of vaccine.

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Surging India virus cases may derail recovery but ratings outlook stable-S&P

“Our downside scenarios suggest a less robust recovery in government revenues, and the severe downside scenario may entail additional fiscal spending,” they added.

The agency, however, said it still expects the economy to expand for the year as a whole, even though it said there are downside risks to its current baseline projection of 11% growth.

It expects growth to fall to 9.8% under its moderate scenario and to 8.2% under the severe scenario based on when the current infection wave peaks.

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RBI’s Rs 50K cr liquidity facility can augment hospital bed capacity by 20%: Crisil

”Increased availability of funds at low cost will incentivise hospitals to augment beds, oxygen storage, ICUs and critical medical equipment,” its chief ratings officer Subodh Rai said.

If half of the Rs 50,000 crore window is utilised by augmenting hospital beds, the number of beds will go up by 15-20 per cent of the current capacity, he added.

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