China withheld data from probe team, says WHO chief WARANGAL  WEDNESDAY  MARCH 31, 2021  `7.00  PAGES 12  CITY EDITION GRIM WARNING BY CENTRE Centre asks districts with high caseloads to ensure 100% vaccination of all above 45 in 2 weeks S U M I S U K A N YA D U T TA @ New Delhi THE Centre on Tuesday warned that the Covid-19 situation in India is getting from bad to worse and asked districts with high caseloads to ensure 100% vaccination of all above 45 within the next two weeks. The warning came as the country recorded over 4 lakh new cases over the past one week, registering nearly 58,000 daily cases on an average and a growth rate of nearly 7% active cases. On Sunday, over 68,000 new cases were reported — the most in a day since October and about half of them were from Maharashtra. “We are facing an increasingly severe and intensive situation in some districts but the whole country is potentially at risk. All efforts to contain the virus and save lives should be taken,” said V K Paul, member, health at Niti Aayog and chairman of the national Covid-19 task force. “Trends show the vi- TOP 10 DISTRICTS WITH ACTIVE CASES Pune 59,475 Mumbai 46,248 Nagpur 45,322 Thane 35,264 Nashik 26,553 Aurangabad 21,282 Bengaluru Urban 16,259 Nanded 15,171 Delhi 8,032 Ahmednagar 7,952 rus is still very active and enter our defences, just when we think we can control it, it sparks back,” he added. With the Covid vaccination window for all above 45 years of age opening from Thursday the Union health min, istry said those without pre-registrations (walk-ins or onsite registration) can get vaccines only after 3 pm and not in the forenoon session. CONTINUED ON P8 Pvt hosps spearheading vaccine drive in TS Telangana has been laggard among all States when it comes to the vaccination drive, but has emerged at the top in terms of the proportion of all vaccinations administered by private healthcare facilities. According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s data, 48.39% of all Covid vaccine doses in the State were administered at private healthcare facilities. Earlier this month, the Ministry had ranked TS 24th for vaccinating 11,578 doses/mn. The Sri Sri Holistic Hospital administered the highest number of doses (9,005), followed by Apollo Hospitals (7,889) and Yashoda Hospitals Secunderabad (7,832). Among the government facilities, Government Medical College, Nizamabad, has vaccinated the highest number of individuals (7,374) What an irony! Covaxin stock runs dry at home Covaxin, of which about 2.25 lakh were used so far to adminisTELANGANA does not have ter the first dose of the vaccine. enough doses of Covaxin to con- “The remaining stock has been tinue administering the first dose kept on hold to administer the despite the vaccine’s maker being second dose to those who have based out of the State. Also, Cov- taken the first dose of the vacaxin is the country’s first homeg- cine. This is due to the lack of rown antidote to Covid-19. confirmation as to when the It is learnt from several pri- fresh stock would arrive,” an ofvate hospitals in Hyderabad ficial said. that they have not been reSources in the departceiving Covaxin doses ment also said that deand are relying on the spite the demand for CovPune-based Serum Instiaxin, there is no means tute of India’s Covto request the Centre for ishield. “In the initial a particular brand of vacphases of the vaccinacine. Express has learnt tion drive, 40 per cent of that Telangana has the vaccine stock, which been ironically left with we used to receive, was only 10 lakh doses of of Covaxin Covaxin. But over the Covishield. If the stocks received by TS, last one week, the arrivare not replenished of which 2.25L als of Covaxin has been soon, it could cause a were used for dwindling to 10-20 per shortfall as vaccinathe first dose. cent,” a representative tions are expected to inof a corporate hospital The remaining is crease from April 1, being saved for in the city said. In fact, when everyone over 45 the second some hospitals have years of age will be elidose been told by the State gible to receive the shot. Health Department that As on Monday 11,85,771 , no fresh doses of the vaccine doses of Covid vaccines were adwould be supplied over the next ministered in TS. few weeks. Meanwhile, the State recorded Speaking to Express, the de- 463 new cases of the disease of partment’s officials attributed the 42,461 tests conducted. The this shortage to the lack of deliv- active cases have risen to 4,678, eries of new Covaxin doses from of which 2,955 individuals are the Centre for a while now. A sen- hospitalised. A majority of the ior official said Telangana had cases (145) were from the GHMC received around 4.5 lakh doses of limits. D O N I TA J O S E @ Hyderabad 4.5L doses A day after the WHO-China final report on the origin of Covid rejected the Wuhan lab leak theory, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tore into it, aying the international probe team did not get access to raw data in China BIG CHANGE IN AUTOMATIC PAYMENTS FROM APRIL 1 Tedros did not want to smoke out the lab leak angle, as he called for further investigation on all hypotheses, with additional missions back to China “I do not believe that this assessment was extensive enough,” Tedros said. “Further data and studies will be needed to reach more robust conclusions.” He also spoke about the withholding data. “In my discussions with the team, they expressed the difficulties they encountered in accessing raw data.” CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOGGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ WARANGAL ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI ■ ■ 3 1 New RBI rules require banks to send a notification to the customer 24 hours before the transaction is slated. The amount will be debited only after the customer gives his nod 2 Auto-debit payments for utility bills and subscription-based services will come to a halt 3 Standing instructions on credit or debit cards will get deactivated WHAT WILL BE AFFECTED Mobile and utility bill payments, subscription for online streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar etc WHAT WILL NOT BE AFFECTED Standing instructions on bank accounts for recurring payments such as EMIs, payments or mutual funds etc will continue as usual WHY THE NEW RULES To safeguard customers from data leaks, hacking of confidential data and payment frauds For `5,000banksauto-debit a payments above this amount, must send one-time password to customer to authenticate 24 DISTS FACE HEATWAVE E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Hyderabad AS the mercury levels rise in TS, a heatwave warning has been sounded in 24 districts for the next three days. The highest temperature recorded on Tuesday was 42.8 oC in Rebbena of Kumaram Bheem Asifabad district. IMD-Hyderabad in-charge director Dr K Nagaratna attributed the heatwave to the northerly winds. The maximum temperatures are expected to be three-four notches above normal in the northern, northeastern and eastern districts and two-three degrees above normal in the others. The conditions are likely at isolated pockets in Adilabad, Asifabad, Mancherial, Nirmal and Nizamabad, among others. Hafeezpet land private property, rules HC EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Hyderabad IN a setback to the Telangana government and the State Waqf Board, the High Court on Tuesday held that 140 acres of prime land — situated in Survey no. 80 at Hafeezpet in Serilingampally of Rangareddy district — is pri- vate property and neither belongs to the government nor the board. While holding that the land belongs to private persons, a division bench set aside the resolution passed by the Waqf Board and the gazette notifying the land as its property It also set aside . entries made in the revenue records, which were in favour of the government. Aggrieved with the order, it is learnt that the State government has decided to file an appeal before the Supreme Court for relief. The bench imposed costs of `50,000 on the government and Waqf Board payable to each of the petitioners. P4