Patient fatalities may go up as more and more doctors catch covid and leave |

With the Omicron-Covid combo breaking through the vaccine barrier with ease,
the doctors and other medical staff working in a virus-filled environment across
the world 24x7 are dropping like flies without defence, even as a highly
contagious new wave is packing hospitals and their premises with patients.
The situation in the US is an example, where ambulances and patients are
turned back from hospitals overflowing with patients not getting the care. The
new wave fatalities are few ( See: Why the new wave is less fatal) but the
clinical complications arising out of the new situation is going to be alarming,
leading to massive fatalities. It is already happening in the West. Canada
presents a sad situation where infected and sick doctors are called back to the
hospital to attend to the overflowing patients! India Travel Times wrote on
December 3, Omicron covid, the double
whammy is here! |
NEW DELHI, Jan 8: Several hundreds of doctors and other medical staff, especially
in Government hospitals and medical colleges, caught in the sudden, massive
surge in covid-19 infections across the country in the past few days, have gone
into isolation. The resulting shortage of staff is putting great pressure on
the hospital services with the result that the working medicos are on a 24x7
duty schedule.
With more and more doctors and other medical staff falling sick, patient care
at the hospitals in the country is going to suffer badly.
While over 60 doctors at the AIIMS, Delhi, have tested covid positive, nearly
30 have been diagnosed with the covid at the Safdarjung Hospital in the city.
In Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, 38 doctors and 45 healthcare workers are sick.
The Hindu Rao Hospital has reported 20 doctors getting infected with covid.
At Lok Nayak Hospital, the largest covid hospital in the Capital, 10 doctors
and three nurses tested positive, according to reports. Fifteen doctors tested
positive at the Lady Harding Medical College hospital. Departments at hospitals
not linked to covid management too are affected without exception.
About 25 doctors at the Government Kilpauk Medical College hospital in Chennai have tested positive for covid. At the Government Stanley Medical College
Hospital 30 final year MBBS students tested positive. There is 10 pm to 5 am
night curfew in force in Tamil Nadu. The State will go under complete lockdown
on January 9. Physical classes have been barred in all schools from Standards
1 to 9. Tamil Nadu on Thursday reported 6,983 covid cases, while it was 1,489
on January 1. The TPR has climbed to 5.4% against 1.4% on January 1 in the State
while the Capital city registered 9.6%. Chennai accounts for half of the State’s
22,828 active cases. The city had 3,759 new cases, more than half of the State
figure.
Dr Binod Kumar Singh, Medical Superintendent of Nalanda Medical College Hospital,
Patna, said about 160 doctors of the hospital have been infected with covid.
In Kolkata, around 200 doctors and healthcare workers of both Government and
private hospitals have infected with covid in the past week. Most of the cases
are from the Calcutta National Medical College, NRS hospital and Ahmed Dental
College. A senior doctor reportedly said, "Even if we take off the N95 mask
for 10 seconds, it is not safe now.”
Maharashtra, Delhi, Bengal worst affected
Maharashtra registered a total of 40,925 new covid cases on Friday, and continues
to be the worst affected. Mumbai logged 20,971 cases. Maharashtra had registered
36,265 fresh cases on Thursday, more than half of it from Mumbai alone. Delhi
recorded over 17,000 cases in the past 24 hours. Bengal is emerging as the top
infected State. The cases are surging in Bengal like in Delhi and Mumbai. Karnataka
reported 8,449 fresh cases of covid in 24 hours against 5,031 cases on
Thursday. Bengaluru alone accounted for 6,812 of the cases. On Wednesday, the
State's cases had doubled to 4,246 infections.
The Test Positivity Rate (TPR) is above 10% in 17 States. Kolkata is the worst
affected with a TPR of 53.10%. Himachal Pradesh’s Lahaul Spiti district, a tourist
destination, is the second worst affectd with a TPR of 52.38%, it is reported.
Bengal had a TPR of 15.93% on Thursday. Howrah (39.51 per cent), Pashchim Bardhaman
(25.17 per cent), 24 Paraganas North (25.17 per cent), 24 Paraganas South (19.98
per cent) , Birbhum (19.51 per cent), Darjeeling (12.93 per cent), Maldah (12.26
per cent), Hooghly (11.61 per cent) and Purba Bardhaman (10.57 per cent) districts
are among Bengal’s worst affected districts.
The TPR climbing fast in seven Maharashtra’s districts. Mumbai suburban district’s
TPR is 26.53 per cent, Mumbai and Thane districts have 23.56 and 20.64 per cent,
Raigad (17.93 per cent), Palghar (17.22 per cent), Pune (13.02 per cent) and
Nashik (11.11 per cent).
In Delhi, North West district's TPR is 17.53 per cent, East (15.31 per cent),
South (14.62 per cent), West (13.12 per cent), New Delhi (12.19 per cent) and
Central (10.90 per cent), according to the Ministry of Health.
The TPR in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Goa also is above 10%.
Omicron covid cases reached the 3,000 in the country on Friday. India had reported
2,630 cases of Omicron variant till Thursday, according to the Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare. On Thursday, Maharashtra had reported the maximum number
of Omicron cases (797) followed by Delhi (465). The other States that have reported
the Omicron variant cases in the country include Rajasthan (236), Kerala (234),
Karnataka (226), Gujarat (204), Tamil Nadu (121), Telangana (94), Haryana (71),
Odisha (60), Uttar Pradesh (31), Andhra Pradesh (28), West Bengal (20), Madhya
Pradesh (9), Uttarakhand (8), Goa (5), Meghalaya (4), Chandigarh (3).
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SELECTIONS FROM OUR ARCHIVES |
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Top Govt officer thrashed, kicked inside Bhubaneswar office: Incident sparks a debate
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The incident has triggered a debate on social media whether the officer refused to take orders from a party leader or he was accused of any corruption, some netizens justifying the handling in either case, that Ratnakar was blocking public welfare work! It is true the Govt machinery has been the enemy Number One of the people of this country, existing for itself and for these politicians, for well over seven decades. India will never make an inch of progress - real progress, not make-believe-progress - unless and until this machinery is eliminated.
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UK's House of Commons votes to legalise assisted dying: What it means | |
ANALYSIS: There have been cases of Britons going to Switzerland to get rid of a miserable life. Now once the House of Lords also passes the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, terminally ill Britons can call it quits with the help of a medical practitioner here itself. But the measure when comes into practice, will have very serious social consequences, it is feared. There won't be comparisons, even as tropes in Latin American folklores. The worst case scenario is of those who are not terminally ill also trying to misuse the provision to leave this world early when life with dignity is not available. But that is, in fact, a political question and not a moral imbroglio!
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What caused Air India Boeing 787 crash? Some questions, some answers | |
The CCTV footage and the video circulating on social media do not indicate any serious abnormalities in takeoff or descent, it has been confirmed. The disaster is becoming curiouser and curiouser. The flight path was not curvy. And the aircraft maintained a steady, gliding descent with its nose straight and the wings perfectly level. The pilot's distress call does not specify what prevented lift and climb-out. Here are some expert opinions. The sole purpose is to raise travellers' awareness about air travel.
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Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla line brings Kashmir Valley on India's rail map |
- The Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla line provides Kashmir with all-weather connectivity and integrates the Valley with the rest of India.
- The saying 'Kashmir to Kanyakumari' is now a dream come true.
- The Chenab bridge on the line, an engineering marvel, is the world's highest
railway bridge, taller than the Eiffel Tower. (Video: File)
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Work done, Elon Musk steps down from DOGE, leaves White House | |
Musk wrote: "My scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end... The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government." Now on it will be on auto-pilot.
PROGNOSIS: DOGE was prematurely born to protect the country by aborting an impending socio-economic disaster which very few people could see coming.
Although its immediate job was to save American taxpayers billions by slashing waste, eliminating fraud, cutting Government bloat and ensuring utmost efficiency in administration for the good of the people.
(Today's headlines )
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Ailing Asiatic lion Pataudi too dies of bird flu at Kanpur zoo
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Originally from Junagadh, Gujarat, Pataudi was relocated to Etawah Lion Safari in September 2019 before being transferred to Gorakhpur Zoo in 2021. Recently it was receiving treatment for pancreatic and liver infections. After tigress Shakti died in the zoo on May 7 due to bird flu, Pataudi was shifted to Kanpur. Some birds are also reported to have died mysteriously around Gorakhpur. All zoos in UP are closed for fear of a bird flu outbreak.
Three other animals too had died - a tiger, a leopardess and a female wolf. Wolf Bhairavi died last Saturday, leopardess Mona died the Thursday before that and tiger Kesari died on March 30. Some of them had Shakti's symptoms but the cause of death has not been confirmed yet.
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48 tourist destinations closed in Kashmir following Pahalgam terror attack
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As tourist inflow is an indicator of normalcy returning to an erstwhile terrorist infested Valley, the Government has been trying hard to make everything travel-friendly, launching lot many projects and bringing Kashmir on the national rail map that physically completes the process of Kashmir's integration with the rest of India. And that defeats the designs of Pakistan eyeing Kashmir and simply explains a recrudescence of terrorism in J&K.
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Trump slaps ‘kind’, ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on trading partners; a 'lenient' 26% on India!
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ANALYSIS: There is a lot of hue and cry around the world over Trump's tariffs. But tariff, simply put, is a tax. But unlike tax, it affects the exporting country too. Domestic prices will go up for some time. Nothing more will happen, good or bad!
What motivated Trump's newfound policy, apart from being a stunt to justify his existence in the White House, is a false realisation that increased tariff will make foreign goods prohibitive, thereby boosting local production, and create more jobs, and more prosperity will ring in! If that is true, India would have been shining by now: Producing own Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail and Scotch Whiskies! And what about coconut and palm oil by America!
(Today's headlines )
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Trump signs order to shut Education Dept - And the contrast with India
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PROGNOSIS: It looks a Real New Trump is emerging - courageous, balanced, powerful and disinterested. Determined to save his country from the cliff, he has done quite a few draconian things that will reduce the burden of debts of the Federal entity, like the golden handshake, stopping senseless funding, pulling out of a worthless WHO. Shutting the Education Department is another. On the other hand, running it is also not the Centre's job either (We will convincingly elaborate it in the next chapter).
In India the scene is just the opposite. Centralisation is the core agenda and identity of the ruling dispensation without which it has no existence, or in other words, it exists for that set of schemes only. A realisation of this never dawned upon any Opposition party in 2014 or any time thereafter, what to talk of being able to see it coming 70 years ago! The consequence of all this violation of basic natural law of the universe we cannot predict.
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Sunita, Wilmore's Dragon splashes down in Gulf: What delayed their return? |
THE AMERICAN CONUNDRUM: Political venom has migrated to top echelons in the US. It was reported last year NASA has become politicised, vitiated. But NASA refuted the charge. How Boeing developed a glitch but its unmanned return was smooth. When Suni-Wilmore were stranded last June, why the return was set for February? Because that comes only after January 20! SpaceX called the shots, for itself and for Trump. Then the mission was manipulated for March for a better bargain! In between, what made Elon Musk 'predict' during campaign if Kamala Harris wins he would be in jail. In politics, it is said, "the only rule is there are no rules." Difficult times for Americans too.
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All 80k health workers in US offered $25,000 voluntary buyout: Administering wrong prescriptions!
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The terminations are part of a large-scale exercise going on all across Fed departments and organisations to reduce wasteful Government expenditure as decided by a Trump in a mess gone berserk, and improve administrative efficiency following the whims of billionaire and his associate Elon MusK and his DOGE. It has not been shared how terminations are going to raise the efficiency bar! It looks like Trump has stolen some of the prescriptions meant for India. But the American problems are quite different.
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