Coronavirus live updates: More than 27 lakh vaccinated on day 1 of Tika Utsav

The vaccine shortage meant Mumbai could vaccinate only 33,551 on Friday, down from its daily average of 53,000 vaccinations since April 1. The city had started Friday’s drive with less than enough doses, and the crisis began to unfold by noon as some of the major public vaccination facilities started running out.

The human suffering over the present stockouts of Covid-19 vaccines and remdesivir — the antiviral given to serious patients — and shortage of hospital beds is a reflection of the state machinery’s failure to anticipate and prepare for the second Covid wave, said experts. When Covid cases in Maharashtra and the rest of India started dropping in November 2020, the second wave was lashing parts of Europe and the US. “We could see other nations suffering, but we did nothing in the lull of three-and-half months to prepare. This has been our only failure,” admitted a senior doctor from the state health department.

“How is it that for political leaders the policy is different,” the Bombay high court asked on Friday when informed of news reports that a leader in Maharashtra was given Covid vaccine at home. The HC was hearing a public interest litigation filed for its intervention to allow door-to-door jabs for the very elderly, bed-ridden and physically challenged.

Covid vaccination in the city dropped by 40% on Friday as 86 of the 120 inoculation centres closed due to unavailability of doses. Thousands had to be turned away and centres that operated saw winding queues. BMC chief I S Chahal said all 71 private centres will be shut on April 10, 11 and 12. Public centres will run—normally on Sunday, but reduced hours on Saturday. “Citizens can travel to vaccination centres during the lockdown,” he clarified.

He is stable and under observation, they added.

To prevent the surge in Covid-19 cases, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has imposed night curfew in nine cities of Rajasthan with effect from Saturday till April 30. As per an order by the Rajasthan government, it said, "Night curfew imposed in 9 cities-Ajmer, Alwar, Bhilwara, Chittorgarh, Dungarpur, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota and Abu Road starting from 8 pm to 6 am, till April 30." "In Udaipur, the night curfew will start from 6 pm to 6 am", the order informed. Faced with a surge in Covid-19 cases, Jodhpur Police Commissioner, J Mohan on April 7 said that challans will be sent to the homes of those who flout Covid-19 norms.

Ambulances filled with breathless patients lined up in Brazil as nations around the world set new records Thursday for Covid-19 deaths and new coronavirus infections. The disease surged even in some countries that have kept the virus in check. In the United States, Detroit leaders began making a plan to knock on every door to persuade people to get vaccine shots. Brazil this week became just the second country, after the US, to report a 24-hour tally of Covid-19 deaths that exceeded 4,000. India hit a peak of almost 127,000 new cases in 24 hours, and Iran set a new coronavirus infection record for the third straight day, reporting nearly 22,600 new cases.