Chennai Hyderabad Live Updates: Liquor shops closed till May 3 in Puducherry, EC announces fresh guidelines on day of counting

Chennai, Hyderabad Coronavirus (Covid-19) Latest News Live Updates: According to a bulletin released by the Health and Family Welfare Department of Tamil Nadu, 2,22,48,205 samples from the state have been tested till date.

Chennai, Hyderabad Coronavirus News Live Updates: Tamil Nadu recorded 15,830 positive cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing the state tally to 11,13,502. Among these, Chennai reported 4640 positive cases, bringing the city’s total to 3,18,614. The state recorded 77 deaths on Tuesday, putting the state toll at 13,728. Sixty three of them had succumbed due to comorbidities. A total of 14,043 patients were discharged following treatment, taking the total number of recoveries to 9,90,919.

Meanwhile, long queues to buy Remdesivir were seen at Chennai’s Kilpauk Medical College for the second day in a row, sending social distancing for a complete toss as harried people got into arguments with each other and the stationed officials while trying to procure the Covid-19 drug for hospitalised loved ones. Even as announcements were made on a loudspeaker to not crowd the counter and maintain a queue, lack of facilities like signboards and an insufficient number of officials to guide the public led to chaos.

Catch the latest news in Chennai and Hyderabad as we bring you live updates on COVID-19 vaccination, COVID-19, lockdown 6.0 and phase 6 of the unlock across Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and more through the day. Also read Karnataka Bengaluru news

Election Commission announces fresh guidelines to be followed on the day of the counting of votes for assembly polls in five states namely Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Assam, and Puducherry. Candidates/Agents need to produce RT-PCR/vaccination reports within 48 hours of the start of counting to enter the counting hall. The Commission has also said no public gathering would be allowed outside the counting centre during the process of counting.

As part of the restrictions to curb the spread of the pandemic virus, the Union Territory of Puducherry has passed an order on Wednesday to close all kinds of liquor shops including Tourism Category Licences, Arrack, and Toddy shops till May 03. “Any deviation in this regard will be viewed seriously and appropriate action will be taken against the violators as per the Puducherry Excise Act,” a release from the office of the Deputy Commissioner (Excise) of Puducherry read.

Procurement of 1.50 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses has been ordered to vaccinate from May 1, people aged above 18, the Tamil Nadu government said on Wednesday.

In the first phase, over a crore doses would be sourced by the state-run Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation for the inoculation drive to be done free of cost to the 18 plus category of people, the government said in an official release.

“As per Chief Minister K Palaniswami’s order, all necessary steps are being taken to vaccinate people aged above 18 and upto 44 years, from May 1.”

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Petrol and diesel price today: Prices of petrol and diesel were unchanged across the country for the 13th consecutive day on Wednesday, April 28, 2021. The auto fuel prices were last revised on April 15, when petrol fell by 16 paise per litre and diesel slipped by 14 paise in the national capital.

In Chennai, petrol is priced at Rs. 92.43 per litre while diesel is priced at Rs. 85.75 per litre.

In Hyderabad, petrol is priced at Rs. 93.99 per litre and diesel is priced at Rs. 88.05 per litre.

Telangana’s coronavirus tally mounted to over 4.19 lakh as 8,061 people tested positive for the disease while the toll in the state stood at2,150 with 56 more casualties.

Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) accounted for the most number of cases with 1508, followed by Medchal Malkajgiri 673 and Rangareddy 514, a government bulletin said on Wednesday.

The total number of cumulative cases in the state stood at 4,19,966 while with 5,093 patients being cured, the total recoveries were at 3, 45,683. The state has 72,133 active cases and more than 82,000 samples were tested on Tuesday. Cumulatively, over 1.27 crore samples have been tested. The samples tested per million population was over 3.42 lakh, the bulletin said.

The case fatality rate in the state was 0.51 per cent while the recovery rate in Telangana was 82.31 per cent. The state has 278 active micro containment zones.

According to a separate release, over 38.48 lakh people in the state have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine while over 5.49 lakh got their second shot also as of April 27. (PTI)

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday inaugurated the country’s first 3D printed house at IIT, Madras, conceived by former alumni and built in just five days, and said the nation needs more such young minds, who send ‘positivity and showcase India’s abilities to the world.”

Chennai-based TVASTA Manufacturing Solutions built it on a concept by former IIT-M students. TVASTA Manufacturing was set up as part of the new incubator — ASHA Incubator — of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs at IIT Madras.

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The governments of Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Telangana have started ramping up medical infrastructure to combat the rising number of Covid-19 cases in their respective states. The move comes at a time when 9,881 new cases and 51 deaths were reported in AP while Telangana reported 10,122 new cases and 52 deaths in a single day on Tuesday.

In AP, the government has prepared a 3-pronged strategy to tackle the surge, according to officials.  District collectors have been given powers to take over private hospitals in their districts to arrange for beds for Covid-19 patients.

The total number of cases in the state stands at 10,43,441 with 94,05,74 recoveries and 7,736 deaths. East Godavari with 1,36,570 cases and Chittoor with 1,10,832 cases are the two worst affected districts in the state. Guntur, Nellore and Visakhapatnam are also emerging as new hotspots.

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A total of 13,97,195 people have been vaccinated in Chennai till date, with 34,878 people vaccinated on Tuesday alone, according to the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC).

The Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the Centre and state government to consider a plea to provide economic stimulus packages for employees of private and unorganised sectors who have lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy gave a direction to this effect while disposing of a PIL petition from advocate S Kalimuthu Mylavan.

The PIL prayed for a direction to the State and central governments to consider petitioner’s April 16 representation to constitute high-level committees at state and national levels to sanction stimulus packages to workers in the private and unorganised sectors, who have lost jobs and suffered pay cuts, as was being done in in the UK and US.

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The DMK in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday said the oxygen to be produced from Vedanta’s Sterlite unit in Tuticorin should be given to other states only after fulfilling Tamil Nadu’s requirements and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to formulate guidelines for this.

Party President M K Stalin said that DMK supported producing oxygen from the plant on temporary approval only on a humanitarian basis.

“The oxygen should be given to other states only after fulfilling Tamil Nadu’s needs. @PMOIndia should provide the guidelines for this,” he said in a tweet, tagging the official handle of Prime Minister Modi.

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Three people were arrested here for allegedly black marketing oxygen cylinders, police said on Tuesday. On information that somepeople were illegally transporting oxygen cylinders, a police team started a vehicle check under Malkajgiri police station limits  on Monday night.

The team intercepted a van and found five oxygen cylinders (each containing 150 litres oxygen), they said. The van driver and other occupants failed to produce any documents about transporting the oxygen cylinders and were taken into custody.

During investigation it was revealed that one of the arrested was running an NGO under the cover of supplying free oxygen cylinders, medical services at home and ambulance to needy coronavirus patients, Rachakonda Commissioner of Police Mahesh M Bhagwat said.

He was procuring each oxygen cylinder for Rs 16,000 and then selling it for Rs 25,000 each to patients in need of urgent oxygen, police said. He recruited the other two accused for this illegal business, police said, adding, they were illegally hoarding and transporting oxygen cylinders. (PTI)

A day after the Madras High Court came down heavily on the Election Commission (EC) for failing to stop political parties from violating Covid protocols during their campaign rallies last month, and warned it over the coming counting day, the poll body announced a ban on all victory processions following the results.

The counting of votes for the Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry will take place on May 2.

The Commission also capped the number of people permitted to accompany the winning candidate to receive the election certificate to two, saying the decisions were taken in “view of the surge in Covid-19 cases throughout the country”.

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Three people, including a staff nurse at a private hospital, were arrested here for allegedly illegally selling Remdesivir at a high price, police said on Tuesday.

Acting  on credible information regarding illegal sale of the antiviral drug at higher rates at Dilsukhnagar,a police team on Monday took the trio into custody and seized eight Remdesivir injections from their possession.

With a massive spike in COVID-19 cases, demand for Remdesivir has gone up manifold in the country.      

The nurse and two other accused indulged in selling Remdesivir to needy persons at higher rates for the past 10 days after collecting it from theirknown sources, a release from Rachakonda Police Commissionerate said. A case was registered under relevant sections of the Disaster Management Act and IPC. (PTI)

Long queues to buy Remdesivir were seen at Chennai’s Kilpauk Medical College for the second day in a row, sending social distancing for a complete toss as harried people got into arguments with each other and the stationed officials while trying to procure the Covid-19 drug for hospitalised loved ones.

Even as announcements were made on a loudspeaker to not crowd the counter and maintain a queue, lack of facilities like signboards and an insufficient number of officials to guide the public led to chaos.

To buy the medicine, people need a doctor’s prescription (original not photocopy), the hospital name, photocopy of the patient’s RT-PCR test report, photocopy of Aadhar card (of both the patient and the procurer), and photocopy of CT scan report showing the patient’s lung involvement.

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The Madras High Court has reduced the death sentence awarded by a lower court to life term in a sensational rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl in Coimbatore in 2019, which sent shock waves in Tamil Nadu. “We are satisfied that this case does not come within the category of rarest of rare cases by applying the principles laid down by the Supreme Court,” the division bench, comprising Justices P N Prakash and V Sivagnanam said and commuted the death sentence of Santosh Kumar on Monday.

The bench was disposing of a referred trial by the Thudialur police, seeking to confirm the sentence and a criminal appeal from the accused, challenging the December 27, 2019 order of the Sessions Court, Special Court for the Exclusive trial of cases under the POCSO Act in Coimbatore.

The bench said “it has not been demonstrated to us that the appellant (Santhosh Kumar) was addicted to crime and that he is a menace to society, thereby ruling out any possibility of reformation. In the facts of this case, we are unable to persuade ourselves to hold that a sentence lesser than the death penalty is completely foreclosed. As life imprisonment is the rule and death sentence is the exception, the sentence of death awarded by the trial Court is commuted to imprisonment for life with the rider that the appellant will not be entitled to any statutory remission or commutation until he has completed 25 years of actual imprisonment,” the bench ruled.

“We are entitled to say so in law in the light of the judgment of the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court…”, the judges said. The bench confirmed the conviction of the appellant under Section 302 IPC, but, modified the same to one of imprisonment for life with the rider. The appellant is also liable to pay the fine of Rs one lakh, in default thereof, to undergo simple imprisonment for one more year, the judges added.

The judges also upheld a direction of the trial court to the Coimbatore SP to appoint a female Investigating Officer to conduct further investigation in the case as the DNA report had suggested the role of another male in the crime. The bench also affirmed the compensation of Rs 10 lakh awarded by the trial Court to be paid to Vanitha, the mother of the victim girl. The amount shall be paid within three months, the judges added. (PTI)

A total of 172 flights willbe operated between Chennai and major cities today, with 85 arrivals and 87 departures scheduled at the Chennai International Airport.

All those above 18 years of age can register for vaccination against Covid-19 using the CoWIN platform or Aarogya Setu app, starting at 4 PM today. All Indian adults will be eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine starting May 1 so you can start registering in the afternoon.

There are currently two Covid vaccines being administered in India which include the Covaxin that has been developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, and Covishield that has been developed by the Oxford-AstraZeneca and is being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India. Sputnik V which was developed in Russia and is imported and sold in India by Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories – has also been approved by the Indian drug regulator.

Read here on how to register through CoWIN and Aarogya Setu

Tangedco has announced a powercut in parts of Chennai from 9 am to 5 pm today to carry out maintenance work.

Here are the affected areas:

  • Avadi Koilpathagai: Thirumalaivasan Nagar, Ashok Nagar, Poompozhil Nagar, Bible College, St. Peter’s Nagar, Christ Colony, Kannadapalayam and Ramakrishna Nagar.

Tamil Nadu recorded 15,830 positive cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing the state tally to 11,13,502. Among these, Chennai reported 4640 positive cases, bringing the city’s total to 3,18,614. The state recorded 77 deaths on Tuesday, putting the state toll at 13,728. Sixty three of them had succumbed due to comorbidities. A total of 14,043 patients were discharged following treatment, taking the total number of recoveries to 9,90,919.

As of Tuesday, the number of active COVID-19 cases in Tamil Nadu is 1,08,855. Till date, 6,72,280 males, 4,41,184 females and 38 transgenders have tested positive for the virus in the state.

According to a bulletin released by the Health and Family Welfare Department of Tamil Nadu, 2,22,48,205 samples from the state have been tested till date, with 1,21,549 samples having been sent yesterday. There are 264 COVID-19 testing facilities in the state, out of which 69 are government and 195 are private facilities.

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Welcome to the live blog from Chennai and Hyderabad where we bring to you the latest updates on COVID-19 vaccination, COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, politics, civic issues and more across Chennai and Hyderabad throughout the day. Follow the blog to stay up to date with the states in real time.

Fish markets, chicken and other meat stalls will be shut on Saturdays in Tamil Nadu, according to a government order issued on Monday. The state has been witnessing a heavy rush at meat stalls and markets on Saturdays on account of the weekly Sunday lockdown. “Considering the increasing trend of positive cases and in order to control the spread, Fish Markets, Fish Stalls, Chicken Stalls and other meat Stalls shall remain closed on Saturdays and action would be initiated against the violators,” a government order read.

READ | Fish markets and meat stalls to be shut on Saturdays in Tamil Nadu

A day after the Madras High Court came down heavily on the Election Commission (EC) for failing to stop political parties from violating Covid protocols during their campaign rallies last month, and warned it over the coming counting day, the poll body announced a ban on all victory processions following the results. The Commission also capped the number of people permitted to accompany the winning candidate to receive the election certificate to two, saying the decisions were taken in “view of the surge in Covid-19 cases throughout the country”.

READ | After Madras HC rap, Election Commission bans victory rallies on May 2

For assistance on COVID-19-related queries and mental health support in Chennai, citizens can contact the Greater Chennai Corporation’s (GCC) COVID-19 helpline 044 46122300 | Citizens can find the nearest GCC-facilitated COVID-19 fever clinic here | For lodging rain-related complaints and assistance during the monsoon, citizens can contact the GCC’s monsoon helplines 044 25384530 or 044 25384540 or the control room 1913 (available 24×7)

Chennai Hyderabad April 26, 27 Highlights

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