6 Georgia health systems seeing 100 to 200% increase in Covid-19 hospitalizations

Resident doctors in Delhi, India’s capital territory, continued to strike for a 14th consecutive day over the government’s delay in allocating hospitals to an incoming batch of doctors. 

Resident doctors, who are currently employed, have boycotted their hospital duties and held protests, the secretary of the Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association in India, Anuj Aggarwal, said.

The delay has been caused by a Supreme Court hearing on quotas for doctors with lower incomes in medical colleges, which the government says they have to wait for in order to allocate hospitals to incoming resident doctors. India’s health minister has said there is nothing they can do until the Supreme Court makes its ruling.

On Thursday, doctors gathered again outside hospitals in Delhi in a socially distanced protest, after police allegedly issued citations on Covid compliance against the group, Aggarwal told CNN. Resident doctors’ associations across the country have expressed their support for the movement.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday held another political gathering, with thousands in attendance, in Uttarakhand ahead of the state’s elections. While some were wearing masks, many were not, as seen in a live telecast of the event by the government’s press bureau.

India’s election commission said at a press conference Thursday that decisions on limiting rallies would be taken once election dates were announced.

On Thursday, 13,154 new Covid-19 cases were recorded in India, a 43% rise on the previous day, according to figures from the health ministry. While nearly a third of India’s states have issued some restrictions limiting movement, no national restrictions have been issued on large gatherings. 

Earlier, the Indian Medical Association expressed concern about the delay in allocations of resident doctors ahead of a potential third wave of Covid-19 in the country. They said in a statement on December 23 it had resulted in a “shortage of 45,000 doctors on the frontline.”