India is developing a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, and will begin testing it in October, according to the Principal Scientific Adviser to the government. He said that pre-clinical studies are likely to be completed by that period, following which it is likely to move on to human trials.
The COVID-19 situation in the country continues to be grave, with the national capital registering over 1,000 cases in a 24-hour period for the first time. As many as 1,024 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Delhi in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 16,281.
Here is a list of State Helpline numbers. You can track coronavirus cases, deaths and testing rates at the national and State levels here.
Here are the latest updates:
CIAL steps up safety measures for employees
With the increase in the number of passengers following the resumption of domestic flights, the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) has tightened the COVID-19 safety protocol for the airport staff.
The entire process of passenger services, beginning with thermal scanning of passengers as they arrive, was technologically-backed.
Safely gadgets had been issued to the staff of support agencies working at the airport.
Personal protection equipment had been issued to employees coming into close contact with passengers. The airport will also introduce a monitoring mechanism to ensure that employees complied with the safety protocol.
Haryana seals border with Delhi after rise in cases
Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij has asked the State Home Secretary to completely seal the border with Delhi and restrict unregulated movement of people.
The Minister issued the order in the wake of the sudden spike in COVID-19 cases in the bordering districts (National Capital Region), including Gurugram, Faridabad, Sonipat and Jhajjar, which reported 111, 98, 27 and six COVID-19 cases respectively in the past week.
Nagaland govt sends 169 returnees home without following mandatory quarantine; one among them test positive
Civil society organisations and political parties on Thursday slammed the Neiphiu Rio government in Nagaland for violating its own COVID-19 protocols by allegedly sending a positive patient along with 168 others from a quarantine centre in State capital Kohima without waiting for the test results.
They were allegedly made to vacate the centre three days after being lodged.
It was alleged that the Kohima authorities sent the 169 away without quarantining them for the mandatory 14 days and waiting for their swab test results to come.
They had reached their destination when results showed one of them had tested positive.
DD News video journalist tests positive posthumously
Nearly 50 personnel of the camera division of Doordarshan News will be tested for coronavirus infection after 53-year-old video journalist who died of ‘heart attack’ on Wednesday tested positive posthumously.
The DD News has temporarily shut down the studio. It would be re-opened after sanitisation.
“We have made contingency plans so that news operations are unaffected, by leveraging our pool of studios in Delhi,” a top official at DD News said.
Odisha reports two non-COVID deaths
63 more COVID-19 cases were detected in Odisha taking the total to 1,723 on Friday.
The number of active cases stood at 827, while 887 had recovered and seven had died of COVID-19. Two non-COVID-19 related deaths were also reported, said State Health Department. - Prafulla Das
Bengal minister tests positive for COVID-19
West Bengal's Fire and Emergency Services Minister Sujit Bose has tested positive for COVID-19. His wife and domestic help have also tested positive. All the three of them are currently under home quarantine. - Shiv Sahay Singh
Trump feeling ‘absolutely great’ after taking hydroxychloroquine
U.S. President Donald Trump is feeling “absolutely great” after taking a two-week dose of antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine and will take it again if he thinks he is exposed to the coronavirus, a top White House official has said.
The drug is not FDA-approved for the treatment of COVID-19 but it has been identified as a possible treatment for the infection.
Results for 144 samples delayed by month in Indore declared negative
The Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College, Indore, has declared COVID-19 test results for at least 144 persons as negative, almost a month after their samples were collected. An overwhelmed testing capacity caused the delay, college officials said.
Anita Mutha, Head of the Microbiology Department, explained that around mid-May the workload overwhelmed the capacity. “We catered to 14 districts and Indore, using just one laboratory. The lockdown affected logistics, making it difficult to ramp up testing,” she said.
But now, she added, there was no pendency. “We have four laboratories now, and will get another two soon...”
Gulf returnees stranded on Kannur-Kasaragod border
A group of 18 expatriates who returned from Kuwait were stranded in the KSRTC bus in which they were travelling for more than four hours on the Kannur-Kasaragod border on their way from the Nedumbassery airport on Thursday, when they were informed that they would be allowed entry only after a medical examination and necessary arrangements were made to quarantine them at their respective places.
The Additional District Magistrate (ADM) N. Devidas said they had received no information about their arrival. As the authorities had to bring medical staff and arrange facilities to quarantine the returnees, they were advised to wait, he said.
India ninth-worst hit country
India now has 165799 COVID-19 cases, making it the ninth worst affected country in the world.
India reported one of the highest rise in the number of cases overnight, 7466. As many as 175 deaths were also reported taking the cumulative number of COVID-19 victims to 4706.
71105 patients have recovered so far, according to the Ministry of Health.
According to Worldometer, India has now overtaken Turkey as the ninth-worst hit nation in terms of number of COVID-19 cases reported.
Brazil registers record 26,417 coronavirus cases in a day
Brazil reported a daily record of 26,417 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, according to the Health Ministry, bringing its total tally to 4,38,238, second only to the United States in confirmed cases.
Brazil's death toll rose 1,156 from a day earlier to 26,754 confirmed fatalities from the COVID-19 respiratory disease, just shy of a record 1,188 deaths registered on May 21. - Reuters
U.S. records 1,297 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours: Johns Hopkins
The United States recorded 1,297 coronavirus deaths on Thursday, bringing its total to 1,01,573 since the global pandemic began, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.
The country has also officially logged 17,20,613 cases of the virus, far more than any other nation, the tracker kept by the Baltimore-based university showed at 8:30 p.m. - AFP
One more COVID-19 death in Kerala
Kerala recorded its eighth COVID-19 death on Friday morning when a 65-year-old man, who was in critical condition at the Government Medical College (GMC) in Kottayam, died.
The deceased has been identified as a native of Perumthuruthy in Thiruvalla. He returned from Abu Dhabi on May 11, and was admitted to the Pathanamthitta District Hospital on May 18 after being tested positive for COVID-19.
According to health officials, he was shifted to the GMC in Kottayam on May 26 after his condition deteriorated. The person had comorbidities including acute diabetes.
The funeral service will be held later in the day in accordance with the WHO protocol under the directions of trained personnel of the Health Department.
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No more COVID-19 test for asymptomatic travellers
Two days after issuing a circular permitting home quarantine of international and inter-State travellers after seven days of institutional quarantine, Karnataka has now also done away with the previously mandatory COVID-19 test for asymptomatic individuals.
Stating that the new guidelines were based on recommendations from the State’s COVID expert committee, Mr. Akhtar said, “There is not enough space in hotels and as more and more travellers are coming in, it may lead to overcrowding.”