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AHMEDABAD: Major airports across Gujarat suspended all operations on Tuesday, due to the heavy rainfall caused by the cyclonic storm that battered the state. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International (SVPI) airport in Ahmedabad had suspended operations for nine and a half hours from 7.30pm on Monday till 5am on Tuesday.
Flight operations continued as scheduled at the international airport, however, as heavy rains lashed Ahmedabad, airport authorities once again suspended all operations from 3pm on Tuesday.
According to an update from the SVPI authorities, where operations, maintenance and development is handled by Adani Airports, “All operations at SVPI airport would remain suspended till 10pm on Tuesday.” Similarly, Surat airport which announced its closure till 6pm on Tuesday also revised its decision later and extended the suspension till 10pm on Tuesday. Rajkot airport had suspended operations from 4pm on Monday.
“The positivity rate has shot up to 50% in our lab. The pressure to test samples is tremendous. But it is good that people are going for the test. How fast we detect and isolate has an impact both on treatment and mortality,” said nuclear cardiologist Alok Roy, chairman of Medica Group of Hospitals.
“In our lab, the positivity currently is about 55%,” said a NICED Kolkata official.
Every major lab in the city started seeing a sharp rise in positive samples in April with the rate going past 20% by the second week, and there has been no stopping after that. “Even during the post-Durga Puja surge last year we would find about 30% samples positive. This time it has crossed the previous year’s record,” said Chaudhuri.
CM Mamata Banerjee during a video conference with PM Modi on Monday
KOLKATA: The entire consignment of 9.5 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccine will arrive in the city on Tuesday. A freighter will take off from Pune airport at 10.40am with 80 boxes of vaccines, each containing 12,000 doses in 1,200 vial. The flight is scheduled to touch down at Kolkata airport around 1.30pm, following which the consignment will be shuttled to two depots in the city.
The decision to charter a freighter to Kolkata was taken late on Monday evening to resolve the transportation issue in the absence of any passenger flight from Pune on Tuesday due to restrictions that limit operations between cities in Maharashtra and Bengal to three days a week. Flights operate from Pune, Mumbai and Nagpur on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.