NEW DELHI: India recorded four fresh fatalities in Covid patients on Saturday, including that of a full-term pregnant woman from Madhya Pradesh. Govt update stated that the deceased woman suffered from seizures during delivery and later it was found that she was Covid positive.Maharashtra, which has recorded 17 deaths in Covid patients over the last few weeks – the highest for any state – reported one more death taking the toll in the state to 18. Kerala also reported a Covid death in a cancer patient, taking the state’s toll to 12. The fourth death was recorded in Tamil Nadu.With this, the total number of deaths due to Covid this year has touched 59, while the active case tally has reached 5,755.In view of increase in cases and deaths, Centre is conducting mock drills to check facility-level preparedness for Covid. States have also been instructed to ensure availability of oxygen, isolation beds, ventilators and essential medicines in view of rising cases. Official sources have maintained that most cases are mild and managed under home care.To evaluate the current Covid situation and preparedness measures, a series of review meetings were held on June 2 and 3 under the chairpersonship of Dr Sunita Sharma, director general of health services, with representatives of Disaster Management Cell, Emergency Management Response Cell, National Centre for Disease Control, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), central govt hospitals in Delhi, and states and UTs.On June 4, official sources said that state and district surveillance units under IDSP are closely monitoring influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI). “Testing is recommended for all admitted SARI cases and 5% of ILI cases as per guidelines, and positive SARI samples are sent for whole genome sequencing through ICMR-VRDL network,” an official source had said.
