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Daily Covid hospitalisations in Mumbai have increased by 15% in the past four days amid a sharp rise in cases. The civic-run jumbo centres are racing against time to add beds, while private hospitals have started reconverting many of their non-Covid wards to Covid sections.

On Monday, 574 people were admitted to various city hospitals, up from 503 on Sunday, 389 on Saturday and 497 on Friday. A few hospitals have started recording a rise in ICU admissions, including many directly coming with low oxygen saturation levels. The BMC’s Monday figures showed that 12.2% (3,735) of the 30,565 Covid-19 beds in Mumbai are occupied. Of the 2,720 ICU beds, 14% are filled up. The city has been witnessing a surge in cases for the past two weeks and a rise in critical cases is typically seen from the second or the third week onwards.

A government committee report in the Supreme Court has said that “income” is a “feasible criterion” for defining the “Economical Weaker Sections” (EWS) in society and the annual family income of ₹8 lakh is a “reasonable” threshold to determine EWS in order to extend reservation in admissions and jobs.

“A feasible criterion for defining EWS can be based on income [family income]. A threshold of ₹8 lakh of annual family income, in the current situation, seems reasonable for determining EWS,” the committee report submitted as part of a government affidavit concluded.

The committee did not agree with the notion that the Centre had “mechanically adopted” ₹ 8 lakh as a number because it was also used for the OBC creamy layer cut-off. It said the income criterion for EWS was “more stringent” than the one for the OBC creamy layer.

In what now looks like the third wave of Covid-19 in the country, cases of the virus nearly tripled in the week ending Sunday as compared with the previous seven days, registering an unprecedented rise of 181% during the period.

India recorded nearly 1.3 lakh fresh cases during the week (December 27-January 2) — a 12-week high — as compared with the previous week's tally of 46,073, which ironically was the lowest since the middle of May 2020.

This was by far the sharpest weekly surge in infections since the beginning of the pandemic in the country. The previous highest increase was 71% recorded during the second wave in April 5-11, 2021.

Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief Navjot Singh Sidhu Sunday said that BJP was arm-twisting rivals to make them join its fold. He also said that it did not deserve any credit for repealing farm laws as that victory belonged purely to farmers. Sidhu gunned for SAD, Capt Amarinder and BJP for being the ones that brought or helped sustain mafia raj in Punjab.

He once again claimed that AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal was misleading the people with false promises which he could not deliver in Delhi.

Addressing a rally in Phagwara, which is represented by the Congress MLA B S Dhaliwal, he said that BJP was arm-twisting people, telling them either to join them or face ED cases. The rally saw a large number of female supporters.

New Delhi:  There was a major jump in the number of fresh Covid-19 cases detected on Friday compared to the number recorded on Thursday. As many as 1,796 coronavirus-infected persons were identified on Saturday against 1,313 reported Friday following 73,590 tests conducted across the national capital. According to the Delhi government’s latest health bulletin, issued late in the night, the positivity rate surged to 2.44 per cent from 1.73 per cent the day before. There was, however, no death due to the virus infection. Four hundred sixty-seven patients got cured and were discharged by various hospitals.