Coronavirus India LIVE Updates: Covid-19 testing van in New Delhi on Friday.
Coronavirus India News Live Updates: With nearly 50,000 cases (48,916) on the second consecutive day, the total number of coronavirus infections in India crossed the 13 lakh-mark to reach 13,36,861 on Saturday. Also, 757 deaths in the last 24 hours pushed the death toll to 31,358. Currently, India has 4,56,071 active cases and 8,49,431 people have been treated and discharged. 63.54 per cent people recovered so far, the health ministry has said.
Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Cheif Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan Saturday became the first CM to test positive for the novel coronavirus. He is likely to get admitted to Chirayu hospital in capital city Bhopal. His reports came days after Cabinet Minister Arvind Bhadoria, who had attended a Cabinet meeting and had travelled with the CM to Lucknow to attend the funeral of Governor Lalji Tandon earlier this week. tested positive for the disease.
Rigorous implementation of pandemic lessons, systematic containment, and proper planning and procurement to plug the gaps in health infrastructure are key, the Centre has told nine states that are currently facing a surge in novel coronavirus infections. At a high-level review meeting that went on for three hours over a video link on Friday, the Centre emphasised six main issues to the governments of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana, Odisha, West Bengal, Assam, Karnataka, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh, top sources told The Indian Express.
Meanwhile, AIIMS Delhi on Friday administered first dose of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin to a 30-year-old male. The subject will be monitored for two weeks after which he will be given the second dose.
Globally, 15,736,499 people have been infected and 638,577 have succumbed to the virus. As many as 8,986,470 recoveries have been reported so far.
Movie-goers wearing masks to protect themselves from the coronavirus are spaced apart as they watch a movie in a newly reopened cinema in Hangzhou in eastern China. (Chinatopix via AP)
India's drug regulator has cancelled the rapid diagnostic kit import licenses of three firms and suspended that of 16 others saying the USFDA has removed the manufacturers from their list of coronavirus serology test kits with directions that they should not be distributed. The three firms are Cadila Healthcare, MDAAC International and N W Overseas while the 16 companies include Transasia Bio-Medicals, Cosmic Scientific, Inbios India, S D Biosensor, Accurex Biomedicals, Biohouse Solutions and Trivitron Healthcare among others. The companies were issued a show cause notices on July 17 asking why their import licenses shall not be cancelled since the diagnostic kits of the manufacturers have been removed by USFDA with direction that it should not be distributed from the list of product of serology test kits for COVID-19 disease, according to an official order by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI). (PTI)
Slowly but steadily, India has ramped-up its testing capacity for COVID-19 and conducted over 4.20 lakh tests in a day, the highest ever, the Union Health Ministry said Saturday, crediting the rise in number of labs for the achievement. India had only one testing lab for Covid-19 in January but it has now increased the number to 1,301, including private labs. The Health Ministry said revised guidelines by ICMR and efforts put in by the states also helped in widespread testing. Till Friday, a total of 1,58,49,068 tests for COVID-19 had been done in the country. India did 3.50 lakh tests every day over the last one week, the ministry said. With 4,20,898 samples tested in the last 24 hours, the Tests Per Million (TPM) has increased to 11,485 and continue to maintain an upward trend.
Serum Institute of India (SII), which has partnered with AstraZeneca to manufacture the Oxford vaccine candidate for COVID-19, has sought permission from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for conducting phase 2/3 human clinical trials of the potential vaccine, highly-placed sources said on Saturday. The sources told PTI that the Pune-based drug firm submitted its application to the DCGI on Friday seeking permission for conducting the trials of 'Covidshield'. "According to the application, it would conduct an observer-blind, randomised controlled study to determine the safety and immunogenicity of 'Covishield' (COVID-19) in healthy Indian adults. The firm said that an around 1,600 participants of more than 18 years would be enrolled in the study," a source said. (PTI)
As Kolkata is observing a complete lockdown today, South Kolkata DCP took to Twitter to thanks the city dwellers for making this effort successful by staying home. The West Bengal government has announced a plan of bi-weekly lockdown in the state capital to break the chain of spread of coronavirus.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday said that he is not considering the “complete lifting” of Covid-19 lockdown in the state only to address the economic concerns as he highlighted the need to strike a balance between issues related to health and economy amidst the ongoing crisis. Thackeray’s comments come after NCP chief and former Union Minister Sharad Pawar yesterday highlighted the importance of “economic revival” by resuming activities in Maharashtra’s industrial centres and said that the decision on extension of lockdown must be made after accessing the situation on ground.
BSP president Mayawati on Saturday asked the Yogi Adityanath-led government to pay proper attention on testing and cleanliness in hospitals as the number of coronavirus cases continue to surge.
Taking to Twitter, she said: “In view of the daily rise of corona epidemic in country’s largest state Uttar Pradesh, the government should immediately give proper attention to corona testing, facilities in hospitals and cleanliness in COVID centres. This is the demand of the BSP.”
The state recorded 50 deaths and 2,667 new infections on Friday, taking the toll to 1,348 and tally to 60,771.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday said he was not in favour of lifting the lockdown entirely only to address economic concerns.
“I will never say that the lockdown will be lifted completely. But I have started reopening a few things gradually. Once reopened, it shouldn’t be shut again. Hence, I prefer taking steps in phases. You can’t just think about economy or health. There needs to be a balance between the two,” he said in an interview to Shiv Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’.
“This pandemic is a global war. It has affected the entire world. Those countries which had lifted the lockdown in haste thinking that it was over, were again forced to impose it to curb the spread. In Australia, they had to rope in the Army,” he added.
The state is observing a lockdown till July 31. From June onward, the government began lifting the restrictions in phase-wise manner under its ‘Mission Begin Again’ initiative.
There cannot be a uniform peak in COVID-19 cases in a large country like India and each state has its own trajectory based on when people there were exposed to the infection, a public health expert said. The peak could be witnessed in states like Delhi by this month end or early August while it may be around September in others such as Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Karnataka, Director of the Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH) here Prof. G V S Murthy said. IIPH was set up under the aegis of the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI).
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said people of the city, his government and the Centre together have attained victory over COVID-19 but the fight is not yet over.
Speaking at the inauguration of a 450-bed Delhi government hospital in Burari via videoconferencing, he said in the last one month, coronavirus-related parameters have improved in the national capital. "Two crore people of Delhi, Delhi government and the Centre together have attained victory over coronavirus but it would not be correct to say that the fight is over," Kejriwal said.
He said in the past one month, the number of COVID-19 cases in Delhi has gone down, deaths have reduced, recovery rate has improved and positivity ratio has lowered.
Scientists, including those of Indian-origin, have identified 21 existing drugs that stop the replication of the novel coronavirus which causes COVID-19 in lab studies, an advance that may lead to the development of new therapeutic combinations against the disease. The researchers, including those from the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in the US, analysed one of the world's largest collections of known drugs for their ability to block the replication of the novel coronavirus, and found 100 molecules with confirmed antiviral activity in laboratory tests.
According to the study, published in the journal Nature, 21 of these drugs are effective in blocking the reproduction of the virus at concentrations that could be safely achieved in patients.
In the last one week, Andhra Pradesh has contributed more number of novel Coronavirus cases than any other state in India, except Maharashtra. The state has added more than 40,000 new patients during this time, which is half of its entire caseload of about 81,000.
The explosion of infections in Andhra Pradesh is rather curious. The state was always one of the front-runners in testing, and that means it would have been possible to identify and isolate the infected patients quite early on. In fact, till the end of last month, the state seemed to have a reasonable control over the epidemic. It had tested as many as 8.9 lakh samples by that time, more than every state except Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, and found 14,595 positive cases. That meant a positivity rate of just 1.6 per cent, one of the lowest in the country at the time.
Shuttering businesses, grounding airlines and ordering people to stay home was hard enough the first time. The thought of having to do it all over again is something world leaders don’t want to even contemplate.
From Italy to New Zealand, irrespective of how well the virus was contained, governments acknowledge that fresh waves of the deadly coronavirus are likely and that the policy tools to mitigate the damage are limited. The hope is that localizing quarantines to towns, cities and regions will be enough to snuff out bouts of infections as they come. Read More
This Independence Day, while celebrations are likely to be muted, states have been advised by the Centre to invite those people who have recovered from Covid-19 as their guests, along with health and sanitation workers, even as local authorities have been asked to have “Atmanirbhar Bharat” as the theme in their functions.
The government has also advised against large gatherings, and has asked states and local bodies to use technology to reach out to people. As reported by The Indian Express on Friday, not more than 250 people are expected to attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address at the Red Fort.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), in its advisory sent to all states, said, “Every year, Independence Day is celebrated with grandeur, gaiety, fervour and enthusiasm. This year also, Independence Day will be celebrated in a manner befitting the occasion. However, in view of spread of Covid-19 pandemic, while organising various programmes or activities for Independence Day celebrations, it is imperative to follow certain preventive measures such as maintaining social distancing, wearing of masks, proper sanitisation, avoiding large congregations, protecting vulnerable persons, etc.; and follow all guidelines related to Covid-19 issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.”
On Friday, Assam announced that the home quarantine period post-discharge of Covid-19 patients from hospitals would reduce from 14 to 7 days. “With the evolving situation, Govt of Assam has decided to reduce the home quarantine period after discharge from hospital to 7 days,” tweeted Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday night. A notification from the Health & Family Welfare Department on Friday announced the same. Additionally, the state has also made a change in its policy for providing essential items to quarantined families. “Essential items worth Rs 2,000 for quarantined families will henceforth provided only to families of the Below Poverty Line category” said the order. However, Deputy Commissioners are allowed to extend the benefit to elderly, ailing, divvying etc, if necessary. On Friday, 1130 new cases were reported in Assam, while 1,062 patients were discharged, taking the active cases status to 8,081. Assam has reported 29,921 cases so far. 76 people have succumbed to the virus.
The Meghalaya government has decided to impose lockdown in the Shillong agglomeration from midnight of July 26 to midnight of July 29, following a rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in the Capital. The decision was informed by Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma Friday evening. “Government may decide to continue the lockdown based on the situation, notifications will be updated by the Deputy Commissioner, East Khasi Hills District,” said CM Sangma on Twitter, urging people to stay indoors during the period. “We are using this lockdown to complete the contact tracing of positive cases reported on Thursday from some of the localities within Shillong,” said Meghalaya Health Secretary Sampath Kumar. Meghalaya currently has 496 active cases.
The major chunk of the total caseload and deaths from two lakh strong Maharashtra police has been from the local police personnel in Mumbai, its surrounding areas and the personnel of the Maharashtra SRPF deployed in these high-risk areas and who later repatriated to their home units. Other than Mumbai and the SRPF, a significant number of cases have been found among cops in Nashik Rural, Thane City, Pune City, Navi Mumbai, Mumbai Railway and Solapur police jurisdictions.
From the lockdown in March, there have been 317 cases of assaults on the on-duty policemen who were part of the enforcement deployments across the state. 86 cops have been injured in these attacks. Since the beginning of the lockdown, offences have been registered under the Indian Penal Code Section 188 against violators of prohibitory orders issued at the local level. Till now over 2.05 lakh offences have been registered across the state.
Maharashtra police force saw a rise of over 800 COVID positive cases among its officers and personnel over the last five days, taking the total number of affected cops in the state to 8,232 as on Saturday morning. 93 cops including seven officers and 86 constabulary staffs have till now succumbed to COVID infection.
Of the 8,232, 6314 have recovered and 1,825 remain active cases. In the last three weeks, lockdown was imposed in many jurisdictions across the state after a few weeks of the Unlock phase. These lockdowns saw a major chunk of the police force being deployed on the ground for its enforcement.
Multiple police units like police stations and various branches have been facing the problem of severe staff crunch after the detection of cases among their staff and subsequent hospitalisation of COVID positive cops and isolation of their immediate contacts.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan tweeted: "I am following all COVID-19 guidelines and have quarantined myself as per the advice of the doctors...I will be participating in the daily COVID-19 review meeting via video conferencing."
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan tests positive for COVID-19.
Pakistan reported 1,487 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 271,886 on Saturday, the health ministry said. A total of 236,596 people have recovered from the disease, the Ministry of National Health Services said. Out of the total infections, 116,800 were in detected in Sindh, 91,691 in Punjab, 33,071 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 14,821 in Islamabad, 11,550 in Balochistan, 2,012 in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and 1,942 in Gilgit-Baltistan. The total number of COVID-19 cases in the country reached 271,886 after 1,487 new patients were identified in the last 24 hours, while 5,787 people died due to the virus, including 24 patients during the period.