Heena Sharma Blog

  The national capital recorded a minimum temperature of 26.5 degrees Celsius, four notches above the season's average with the weather department predicting rains during the day. The relative humidity was recorded at 80 per cent. The maximum temperature will hover around 35 degrees Celsius, the India Meteorological Department said. It has predicted generally cloudy sky with very light rain or drizzle in the afternoon or evening. The air quality index was recorded in the "moderate" category at 104, real-time data of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) showed. An AQI between zero and 50 is considered "good", 51 and 100 "satisfactory", 101 and 200 "moderate", 201 and 300 "poor", 301 and 400 "very poor", and 401 and 500 "severe". Read More

  Heavy rains continued to lash several parts of the capital city and adjoining areas for the second day in a row on Thursday. The heavy rainfall led to waterlogging on several roads, including Pragati Maidan area, Minto Road, the roads near the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and ITO. The rainfall led to heavy traffic jam on Vikas Marg to ITO and further to India Gate and Dhaula Kuwan. Delhi on Wednesday recorded 112.1 mm rainfall in a span of 24 hours, the highest single-day precipitation in September in 19 years, that inundated several areas, including the Chanakyapuri diplomatic enclave, ITO, and Cannaught Place area that disrupted the road traffic. The traffic movement has been closed at Azad market underpass (both carriageways) due to waterlogging, said Delhi Traffic Police in its advisory. Delhi Police warned traffic was affected from Jahangirpuri metro station to Mukarba Chowk (both carriageways) and from Nangloi to Mundka due to waterlogging. Read ...

  Over 67,000 people were vaccinated against coronavirus in a day in the national capital, according to data shared by the government on Thursday. As per the data, 47,086 people in the 18-44 age group got vaccinated till 9.30 pm on Wednesday. A total of 5,230 people in the 45-59 age group were vaccinated, while 1,629 people, aged above 60, received the first dose of vaccine. As many as 1,571 frontline workers and 591 healthcare workers were also given the first jab on Wednesday. Over 11,200 people received the second dose of the vaccine during the same period, the data showed. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had last week said a plan has been formulated to vaccinate all adults against coronavirus within the next three months. He had said that everybody aged above 18 would be administered COVID-19 vaccines free of cost in Delhi. Read More

  Amid the shortage of medical oxygen across the country due to a massive surge in COVID-19 cases , Delhi has got its first COVID care centre with its own oxygen plant at the Commonwealth Games village Sports complex. The oxygen plant can supply oxygen to 18-20 patients simultaneously. Dr Anurag Mishra, Clinical Manager at the COVID care centre, told ANI that to overcome the shortage of medical oxygen, oxygen plant has been set up at the COVID care centre itself. "The shortage of medical oxygen in Delhi is due to the supply chain of the oxygen cylinders. Setting up our own oxygen plant is a great move," Mishra said. "The plant has been donated by the HCL foundation. We are thankful to them as we no longer depend on a supply chain," he said. He further urged the hospitals to set up their own oxygen plant as it can save many lives. Read More

  Delhi reported 24,149 new COVID-19 cases and 381 deaths on Tuesday, the highest single-day toll for the national capital since the outbreak of the pandemic. This is the sixth consecutive day the metropolis has seen daily fatalities of over 300. A Delhi Health Department bulletin said the total coronavirus cases count in the city has gone up to 10,72,065 and the death toll has gone up to 15,009. The positivity rate in Delhi is 32.72 per cent and the case fatality rate is 1.40 per cent. The city now has 98,264 active cases, which is also the highest. A total of 17,862 patients also recovered from the disease taking the total number of recoveries to 9,58,792. The bulletin said that 73,811 tests including 46,581 RTPCR and 27,230 rapid antigen tests were done in the last 24 hours. Read More

  The Delhi government has decided to provide free COVID-19 vaccines to everyone above 18 years of age, said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday, adding that approval has been given for the purchase of 1.34 crore doses. "The Delhi government has decided to provide free vaccines to everyone above 18 years of age. Today we have given the approval for the purchase of 1.34 crore vaccines. We will make an effort to ensure that it is purchased soon and administered at the earliest to people," Kejriwal said in an address. Other states who have decided to provide free vaccines include Maharashtra, Karnataka, Haryana, Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal, among several others. The Delhi Chief Minister further urged people to get vaccinated as soon as they are eligible, stating that vaccinated people are less likely to get the infection and the people who do get it have mild symptoms. He also hit out at the varying price of the vaccines, saying "One manufacturer has sai...

The Delhi government has set up two control rooms to monitor and manage the supply of " COVID-19 management drugs" amid a massive rise in coronavirus cases in the national capital. Delhi on Sunday recorded the biggest jump in its daily COVID-19 tally with 25,462 fresh cases, while the positivity rate shot up to 29.74 per cent -- meaning almost every third sample being tested in the city is turning out to be positive. In an order, the government's Drugs Control Department said that the step has been taken to address reports of "acute shortage of COVID-19 management drugs due to a sudden rise in COVID-19 cases in Delhi". "In view to counter this situation and to facilitate the general public at large, the Drugs Control Department. Govt of NCT of Delhi has set up two control rooms," the order dated April 13 said. For East, North East, South, Central, New Delhi and North districts, the Karkardooma Head Office will serve as the control room and ope...

  Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said the Delhi government has completed all preparations for rollout of the Coronavirus vaccine from January 16, with over 8000 health workers to be vaccinated on every scheduled day in the city. The Delhi government has received 2.74 lakh doses of the vaccine so far from the Centre which would be sufficient for 1.2 lakh health workers. There are a total of 2.4 lakh health workers in Delhi and more vaccine doses are expected to arrive soon, he said. Vaccination will begin at 81 centres on Saturday and the number of centres will be increased after a few days to 175 and finally 1000, he said. The vaccine will be administered on four days of the week-Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. It will not be given in Sunday and two days of the week. Each day 100 persons will be administered the vaccine, he said and hoped people will finally get rid of the virus after facing hardships for past many months. Read More

  Security has been stepped up at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in the national capital from where the first consignment of Covishield vaccines from Pune will be transported to different parts of the city on Tuesday, police said. A SpiceJet flight carrying the vaccines landed at the Delhi airport around 10 am on Tuesday, four days ahead of the launch of a nationwide drive against the coronavirus. Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI Airport) Rajeev Ranjan said PCR vans along with local police will escort the vehicles carrying vaccines to its designated places. He said sufficient security arrangements have been put in place to facilitate the transportation of vaccines. Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Manish Agarwal said, "If any schedule and movement of vaccine is shared with us and if facilitation is asked for, we will provide it." Read More

  Delhi Police resorted to firing tear gas shells to disperse protesting farmers as they reached Singhu border (Haryana-Delhi border) on Friday. Accorrding to sources, the Delhi Police has also asked for nine stadiums from the Aam Aadmi Party government to detain the farmers in case they manage to enter the national capital. Police has tried to negotiate with a delegation of farmers. They have made it clear that the farmers won't be allowed to cross the border and enter Delhi. The protesters though appear adamant. There are 32 unions of farmers among others who are taking various routes, Singhu, Tikri and all peripheral towns of the capital are witnessing massive protests. "We are not here to fight or cause any trouble. We just want to put forward our point peacefully, the police though seems in a confrontation mood," said a protesting farmer. Read More

  Amid the sudden spike in novel coronavirus infections in Delhi, Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Monday that the Kejriwal government was doing "aggressive testing" and the aim was to ensure no case was left untraced. Jain said the government had sufficient stock of COVID-19 testing kits for 10-15 days, but it was procuring more from the market to meet the target of 40,000 tests per day. The government has already increased the duration of testing hours at hospitals and dispensaries to five hours (9 am-2 am) from the earlier three-hour duration, he told reporters. Jain flagged that many people were going out without wearing masks and asserted that teams had been deployed penalise such violators of public safety norms, adding that the police had also been authoritised to impose fines. Read More                              ...

  The second round of serosurvey conducted in Delhi during the first week of August showed 28.35 per cent population had antibodies for coronavirus , a press statement by Delhi government said. The first survey done in the June-July period by the National Centre for Disease Control had shown approximately 23 per cent of the capital’s people were exposed to the coronavirus. Two more rounds of serosurvey are scheduled in first week of September and October. A gender analysis of 12,598 subjects in the follow-up survey showed that 28.3 per cent of males and 32.2 per cent of female exhibited the covid antibodies. Age wise breakup of seroprevalence showed nearly 35 per cent of those with antibodies were less than 18 years of age. Around 29 per cent were in the age bracket 18 to 49 while 31 per cent were above 50 years of age. Serosurvey involves collection of blood samples from a group of individuals to check them for antibodies for covid. If the test is positive it shows that the...

  Antibodies against Covid-19 infection have been found in 29.1 per cent of people in the latest sero-prevalence survey in the national capital, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Thursday. Interacting with reporters, he said, 15,000 representative samples were taken in the August 1-7 survey from 11 districts here, and the next exercise will begin from September 1. The sero-prevalence found in North East district was 29 per cent, South district 27 per cent, South East 33 per cent and New Delhi 24 per cent, Jain said. There has been an increaseof 6 per cent to 50 per cent in prevalence of antibodies among people in various districts compared to the prevalence found in the previous survey, he said. Sero-prevalence of antibodies found in males was 28.3 per cent, and in females 32.2 per cent in the latest survey, the minister said. Read More

Unexpected rise in diesel prices despite slower demand has extended the gain for the transport fuel over petrol in Delhi. With a 12 paise hike in diesel price in New Delhi on Monday while petrol prices remaining steady, the gap between the two auto fuels has further widened in the national capital. Last month, diesel prices overtook that of petrol in Delhi, in an unprecedented development. Diesel was priced at Rs 81.64 per litre on Monday in the national capital, higher than the previous level of Rs 81.52 a litre. Petrol prices, however, remain unchanged at Rs 80.43 a litre, the same level as June 29 when its pump price rose marginally by 5 paise over previous days price. With this, diesel is now over a rupee higher than petrol, overturning the advantage of running a vehicle on the fuel. With the price trends in diesel, it may soon catch up with petrol prices in other metros as well. Read More

As Covid-19 cases spike across parts of the country, Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai collectively account for about two thirds of India’s cases. Health infrastructure has been sorely tested and has led to a clash between private healthcare providers and the state and central establishment. What are hospitals bracing for in the months to come and where have fault lines shown up? Watch this interview with Shobana Kamineni, execu-tive vice-chairperson at the Apollo Hospitals Group and former president of CII, who says India would be lucky if it finishes at 1 crore cases of Covid-19 nationwide. The recovery rate in West Bengal has gone downhill since the last two weeks, while the rate of infection has been increasing — and all these when the city is facing an acute shortage of beds in both gov-ernment and private hospitals. In the last two weeks, from 30 June to 14 July, Bengal’s discharge/recovery rate has fallen from 66.48 per cent to 60 per cent. In Kolkata, it has nosedived from 64 ...

The Delhi Fire Services has received over 750 applications for issuance of no objection certificates since the coronavirus lockdown began, but has not been able to conduct inspections amid the rising number of infections, officials said on Monday. Fire-safety no objection certificates (NOCs) are presently only being issued on an emergency basis during the lockdown for government establishments and hospitals after following the protocol, officials said. Officials said since the nationwide lockdown, they had received applications for NOCs from various establishments, including industries, restaurants, guest houses, hotels and schools. The maximum applications were received from guest houses and restaurants, a majority of which are still closed due to the restrictions imposed in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. Read More

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said that despite Delhi's COVID-19 cases having almost reached the 1-lakh mark, people must not panic as the recovery rate in the national capital now stands at 72 per cent. "The number of Covid-19 cases have almost reached the one lakh mark in Delhi. However, there is no need to be intimidated by the number one lakh as almost 72,000 people have also recovered from the virus," said the Delhi Chief Minister. He said that Delhi's Covid-19 recovery rate now stands at 72 per cent which "is pretty big because it signifies that even though people are testing positive, they are recovering as well". "Close to 20,000-24,000 samples are being tested in the national capital on a daily basis," he added. Read More

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday conducted raids at multiple locations including at the premises of suspended AAP councillor Tahir Hussain in connection with its money laundering probe in the Delhi riots case, officials said. They said at least six premises in Delhi, Noida and few other locations in the national capital region are being searched. The raids are aimed at collecting evidence in the case, they said. The ED, in March, had booked suspended Aam Aadmi Party councillor Hussain, Islamist group PFI and some others on charges of money laundering and alleged funding of the recent riots in Delhi. Read More

India's newest coronavirus hotspot, Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz has been evacuated by authorities and the asymptomatic evacuees were sent to quarantine as 24 positive cases have been detected till Tuesday late night. Sources told IANS, that a total of 2100 people have been evacuated from the Markaz till early morning on Wednesday and symptomatic patients have been shifted to hospitals. As per Delhi government source, till Tuesday a total of 24 people have tested positive from the Nizamuddin Markaz Masjid. From the Markaz, while 441 symptomatic ones were taken to hospitals, while 1,447 more have been put in quarantine. Read More

A Muslim BJP leader said his and some of his relatives' houses were burnt down by rampaging mobs during the communal violence in northeast Delhi. Akhtar Raza , the district vice president of BJP's minority cell told PTI that on February 25, a crowd had gathered in his neighbourhood in Bhagirath Vihar in the evening and within a couple of hours mayhem ensued. "The crowd raised religious slogans and began setting houses on fire. There are 19 houses belonging to Muslims in the area including mine and three of my relatives... all were burnt down," he said. Raza alleged most of the rioters were outsiders. As he along with 12 of his family members were fleeing their burning home, they were pelted with stones by the mob, he alleged. Read More