Coronavirus (Covid-19) India News Live Updates: Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh Wednesday isolated himself after his wife tested positive for the novel coronavirus. “My wife Veena Singh’s report of Covid-19 came positive. She is admitted to a hospital on the advice of doctors. I and other family members will be examined in isolation. Whoever has come in contact with us should also remain in isolation and get themselves tested,” he said in a tweet.
With India reporting 60,963 coronavirus cases and 834 death in the last 24 hours, the total number of Covid-19 infections Wednesday rose to 23,29,639 including 46091 fatalities, 6,43,948 active cases and 16,39,600 recoveries. The country has the third-highest cases in the world after the US and Brazil.
Globally, over 20 million (20,223,306) people have been infected with the novel coronavirus, including 741,126 deaths. Amid race for an effective vaccine worldwide, Russia has approved a coronavirus vaccine for public use without the final phase of human trials. The vaccine, Sputnik V, has cleared regulatory approvals in record time, raising concerns over its safety and effectiveness. But, it is a long way from being available in India, if at all.
Coronavirus India LIVE updates: India's national case fatality ratio (CFR) fell to 1.99% on Tuesday, the lowest since the beginning of the national lockdown in March.
Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh Wednesday isolated himself after his wife tested positive for the novel coronavirus. “My wife Veena Singh’s report of Covid-19 came positive. She is admitted to a hospital on the advice of doctors. I and other family members will be examined in isolation. Whoever has come in contact with us should also remain in isolation and get themselves tested,” he said in a tweet.
US Health Secretary Alex Azar says the push to develop a Covid-19 vaccine is “not a race to be first”.
Azar’s comments during a visit to Taiwan on Wednesday follow Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement that his country was the first to approve a coronavirus vaccine, prompting doubts about the science and safety behind that purported achievement.
Azar says the US is combining the powers of its government, economy and biopharmaceutical industry to “deliver as quickly as we can for the benefit of the United States’ citizens, but also for the people of the world, safe and effective vaccines”. Read the full report here.
At a time when face coverings of different types and sizes have flooded the markets, a study by Duke University in the US has thrown light on which masks are the most effective at preventing the spread of droplets emitted by people when talking — a crucial aspect in reducing the transmission of Covid-19.
For the study, published in the journal Science Advances, the Duke University researchers (Emma Fischer, Martin Fischer, David Grass, Isaac Henrion, Warren S Warren, and Eric Westman) devised a low-cost laser sensor device and used it to compare 14 different types of masks and face coverings.
The study revealed that the best face mask for preventing the spread of droplets were N95 masks without valves while fleece coverings and bandanas were the least effective, with researchers finding them “worse than not wearing any kind of facial covering”. Click here to read our explainer.
Days after they were shifted to Shahdol jail from prison in Singrauli district in Madhya Pradesh, 14 women inmates have been found to be coronavirus positive, news agency PTI reported.
They were shifted to Shahdol Medical College on Tuesday evening, a senior official said on Wednesday.
The women inmates, including 13 undertrials and a convict, were shifted from Baidhan jail on August 9 as it was overcrowded, he said.
He said one of the infected prisoners has an 18-month-old child with her, whose samples were taken and report is awaited.
Pope Francis has denounced a culture of individuality revealed by the pandemic, which has sacrificed the care of the weakest members of society.
Francis, speaking at his Wednesday audience called on the faithful to “overcome our personal and collective individualism” as experts work to find a cure for the coronavirus, “which hit us all indiscriminately.”
The pontiff said that ‘’the pandemic has revealed how vulnerable and interconnected we all are,” while also making us “more aware of the spread within our societies of a false, individualistic way of thinking, one that rejects human dignity and relationships, views persons as consumer goods and creates a ‘throw-away’ culture.”
A 65-year-old COVID-19 patient undergoing treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) allegedly committed suicide on Wednesday by jumping off the second floor of the building in Chhattisgarh's capital Raipur.
The incident took place in the C-block of the institute located under Amanaka police station area on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday, news agency PTI reported.
The sexagenarian was admitted to AIIMS on August 7 and on finding some behavioural abnormalities, the patient was sent for psychiatric consultancy, a station house officer of Amanka police station said.
Health authorities in New Zealand were scrambling Wednesday to trace the source of a new outbreak of the coronavirus as the nation's largest city went back into lockdown.
Authorities had confirmed four cases of the virus in one Auckland household from an unknown source and were awaiting the test results of four more people they suspect have infections — two work colleagues and two relatives of those in the house.
The cases this week were the first known local transmission of the virus in New Zealand in 102 days.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said more than 200 people with connections to those in the house were contacted Wednesday. (AP)
Odisha's Covid tally Wednesday crossed the 50,000-mark with the highest single-day spike of 1,876 fresh cases, while the death toll rose to 305 as nine more patients succumbed to the disease, news agency PTI reported. The total number of coronavirus cases in the state now stands at 50,672. Of the nine new fatalities, four were reported from Ganjam, two from Rayagada and one each from Angul, Balasore and Khurda districts.
Ninety-six more people, including 61 security personnel, have tested positive for COVID-19 in Arunachal Pradesh, taking the northeastern state’s caseload to 2,327 on Wednesday. According to data, 337 (52.9%) of the total 637 active cases in Arunachal Pradesh are from the forces, including Army, CRPF, BSF and others. In Mizoram, of the 326 active cases, 201 (61.7%) are from the forces, including Assam Rifles, BSF, CRPF and others. In Meghalaya, 255 (40.7%) of the 626 active cases are from the BSF and other forces. Nagaland has reported 3,011 total cases so far, of which 1,372 (45.6%) belong to the forces.
Prayers for the speedy recovery of former President Pranab Mukherjee continued on Wednesday in his hometown Kirnahar in West Bengal's Birbhum district. Residents of Mukherjee's hometown have started a 72-hour 'yagna' since Janmashtami on Tuesday for his recovery.
The former President's family members also offered prayers in his ancestral village Miriti, a few kilometres from Kirnahar, during the day. During his stints as the Union finance minister and the President, Mukherjee used to visit his village every year during Durga Puja.
In a fresh statement on the condition of former President Pranab Mukherjee, the Army’s Research and Referral (R&R) Hospital in New Delhi said that his health condition continues to remain critical. Mukherjee is presently haemodynamically stable and on the ventilator, the hospital added.
The former president’s daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee took to Twitter on Wednesday to pray for her father saying may God do whatever is best for him.
Rajasthan Royals’ fielding coach Dishant Yagnik has tested positive for Covid-19. The IPL franchise released a statement in this regard and stated the test was conducted keeping in mind that the team members need to assemble in Mumbai next week for their flight to the UAE, the venue of the tournament this year.
Dishant, who is currently in his hometown Udaipur, has been advised to be admitted to a hospital for a minimum period of 14 days. After which, he will undergo two more tests as per the guidelines laid by BCCI and once after being tested negative twice he will be allowed to join the team in UAE.
Goa tops in number of Covid-19 tests per million, health minister Vishwajit Rane has said.
le the recovery rate of novel Coronavirus cases in India has now crossed 70 per cent, the number of people who are recovering on a daily basis is still tailing the new infections being detected by a significant amount. It means that more people continue to fall sick everyday than are recovering.
As on Tuesday, 70.38 per cent of 23.29 lakh people who have so far been infected in India have recovered from the disease. Around 27.64 per cent of the people are still sick, while the remaining 1.98 per cent have died.
There is nothing special about the recovery rate increasing steadily. By the time the epidemic comes to an end, more than 99 per cent people would have recovered, as the death rate is expected to fall to less than one per cent. In the meanwhile, however, the daily numbers of new cases and recoveries can give us an indication of how soon that stage is likely to be reached.
Russia has delivered on its promise to develop the world’s first vaccine for novel Coronavirus. On Tuesday, it announced that it had approved a vaccine being developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute. The announcement has been met with excitement as well as skepticism due to the fact that the vaccine has been cleared without phase-3 human trials. Even the phase-1 and phase-2 trials have been rushed, all of it being completed within two months.
However, it still might be some distance away from becoming generally accessible, especially to people outside Russia. The vaccine is likely to get into production immediately. Apart from the facility at the Gamaleya Institute itself, it is supposed to be manufactured by Sistema, a big Russian business house. In a statement on Tuesday, Sistema said the first batches of the vaccine were ready, and would be shortly shipped to Russian provinces to be administered first to doctors and healthcare workers who are at high risk of infection. Read More
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New Zealand officials are investigating the possibility that its first COVID-19 cases in more than three months were imported by freight, as the country plunged back into lockdown on Wednesday.
The discovery of four infected family members in Auckland led Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to swiftly reimpose tight restrictions on movement in New Zealand’s biggest city and travel limitations across the entire country.
The source of the outbreak has baffled health officials, who said they were confident there were no local transmission of the virus in New Zealand for 102 days and that the family had not travelled overseas.
India had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7. There are 6,43,948 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country presently which comprise 27.64 per cent of the total caseload. According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 2,60,15,297 samples have been tested up to August 11 with 7,33,449 samples being tested on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi to launch the platform for “Transparent Taxation – Honoring the Honest” via video-conferencing tomorrow.
A panel of experts will meet Wednesday to discuss procurement and administration of Covid-19 vaccines. The meeting will be chaired by Dr V K Paul, a member of the Niti Aayog.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who is undergoing treatment for COVID-19 infection at a private hospital here has tested negative and will be discharged tomorrow, his office said on Wednesday.
The Leader of Opposition in the state assembly has "completely recovered", a statement said. It said, "according to doctors the throat swab and blood test conducted for the second time, have come negative."
The 71-year-old leader was admitted to Manipal Hospital hospital on August 4. Siddaramaiah had fever only during the initial two days, other than that he had no symptoms of the infection. "Doctors have said that Siddaramaiah will be discharged from the hospital tomorrow," the statement added.