Former PM Manmohan Singh admitted to AIIMS after testing COVID-positive
Veteran Congress leader and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was admitted to the All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi on Monday. Singh has tested positive for COVID-19. The development comes merely a day after Singh had written to PM Narendra Modi, listing five suggestions to combat the ongoing second wave of COVID-19 in India. Here are more details.
Singh was admitted to the AIIMS Trauma Center in Delhi after testing positive for COVID-19, the news agency ANI reported citing an AIIMS official. The 88-year-old Congress leader had received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Notably, he had been admitted to AIIMS in May last year as well after experiencing chest pains. In 2009, he was operated for a redo bypass cardiac surgery.
Doctors were quoted as saying by The Times of India, "He has mild symptoms and is stable." Sources further told the publication that Singh was hospitalized in view of his old age and his co-morbidities.
On Sunday, Singh had written to Modi suggesting publicizing firm orders placed on vaccine producers and accepted for delivery over the next six months. The government should indicate how this expected supply would be distributed across India, he said. States should be given some flexibility to decide which frontline workers should be vaccinated, even if they are under the age of 45, he added.
The government must proactively support vaccine producers to expand their manufacturing facilities through funds and other concessions, he further suggested, adding that foreign-made vaccines cleared by "credible authorities" should be imported without insisting on domestic bridging trials.
According to the Union Health Ministry, till Monday morning, India reported a total of 1,50,61,919 COVID-19 cases. The death toll has reached 1,78,769. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 1,29,53,821 patients have recovered, while 19,29,329 cases involve active infections. In the past 24 hours alone, India recorded 2,73,810 new infections and 1,619 fresh fatalities, marking the biggest single-day spike in both infections and deaths.
