Rapid antigen tests being conducted at NMMC medical centre in Kukshet gaon in Mumbai. Coronavirus (Covid-19) India News Live Updates: With India reporting 60,963 coronavirus cases and 834 deaths 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.
Meanwhile, 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.
Even as the country currently ranks fifth in the total number of deaths due to Covid-19, India’s health ministry on Tuesday reiterated that deaths as a proportion of known infected cases has been falling consistently. Even though greater number of deaths due to novel Coronavirus are happening these days, the deaths as a proportion of known infected cases has
Speaking to 10 states which are currently the worst affected by the pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said containment, contact tracing, and surveillance are the “most effective weapons” in the battle against Covid-19. The Prime Minister urged the chief ministers to follow the mantra of testing and tracing all those who have come in contact with an infected individual within 72 hours.
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 Covid 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.
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.
With India reporting 60,963 coronavirus cases and 834 deaths 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.
West Bengal on Tuesday became the seventh state to have recorded more than one lakh Covid-19 infections as 2,931 new cases, among them state minister Swapan Debnath, took the case count to 1,01,390.
The state recorded its first Covid-19 case on March 17, taking 21 weeks to reach the one-lakh mark. While the first 50,000 cases were added in 128 days, the remaining were recorded in just 20 days.
More than 70 per cent of the cases, and 90 per cent of the 2,149 fatalities have occurred in the South Bengal epicentre comprising Kolkata; its adjoining districts North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Howrah; and Hooghly.
The bodies of 12 Covid patients were crammed togetherin a hearse van, piled up on top of each other, and taken for last rites to a crematorium in Ahmednagar on Sunday. After protests from political parties and local residents, the Ahmednagar Municipal Corporation said it will investigate the matter and take action against the guilty.
“We have issued a notice to one of our Class IV employees who was monitoring the job of carrying Covid bodies to the crematorium and disposing them off,” Municipal Commissioner Shrikant Michaelwar told The Indian Express on Tuesday.
Russia has kept its promise, and approved a novel coronavirus vaccine for public use without the final phase of human trials. It is the first coronavirus vaccine to be approved, though a Chinese vaccine has been cleared for ‘limited use’ much earlier, to be administered only on soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army.
The Russian vaccine, developed by Moscow-based Gamaleya Institute, has cleared regulatory approvals in record time, less than two months after it got into human trials, raising concerns over its safety and effectiveness. The other vaccine candidates in human trials are not expected to be ready before early next year.
Production & availability
Apart from Gamaleya Institute’s own facility, the vaccine is supposed to be produced at a plant owned by Sistema, one of Russia’s biggest business groups. Sistema said its facility had the capacity to produce 1.5 million doses per year, and this capacity was being ramped up. Read More
West Bengal on Tuesday became the seventh state to have recorded more than one lakh Covid-19 infections as 2,931 new cases, among them state minister Swapan Debnath, took the case count to 1,01,390. Read More
More than 1,100 Covid-19 cases were reported on Tuesday across Gujarat, taking the tally now to over 73,000. In the past four months, over 10 lakh tests were done in Gujarat and over 41,000 samples were tested in the last 24-hour span, according to the state health department. Data on the bifurcation of the testing in terms of RT-PCR vis-a-vis antigen tests continue to remain absent. Read More
In view of the rising coronavirus cases, the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) authorities are working on contact tracing of Covid-19 positive patients and quarantining them.
SMC officials are in touch with CT scan centres in the city to gather information about people coming in for chest scans who may be put through Covid-19 tests. Six diamond factories in the city have been sealed for not following standard operating procedures (SOPs) laid down by the civic body. Read More
The Maharashtra government has decided to continue with its order of reserving 80 per cent beds in private hospitals and nursing homes across the state. The order was to lapse by the end of the month. The government now plans to extend the rule for a further three months. However, private hospitals in Mumbai are unhappy with the move and plan to approach the government seeking relaxation. Read More
Religious places in Gurgaon have been permitted to reopen from Wednesday – almost five months after they were shut amid the coronavirus pandemic – with a set of SOPs in place. Visitors will not be permitted to touch statues, holy books or idols, physical offerings such as prasad and sprinkling of holy water will not be permitted, and shoes will have to “preferably” be removed inside the visitors’ own vehicles.
Issuing the order on Tuesday evening, District Magistrate Amit Khatri stated that “worship in religious places in District Gurugram shall be permitted from 12th August 2020 onwards” subject to religious places complying with certain “terms and conditions” “meticulously in its letter and spirit”.
Apart from arrangements such as thermal scanning, use of face cover or masks, separate entry and exits for visitors, and maintenance of social distancing, the order also directs staggering of visitors be done “if possible” and “proper crowd management” be undertaken in parking lots and outside the premises.
Further, the order directs that worshippers remove their footwear “preferably” inside their own vehicles. If this is not possible, the footwear of each individual or family should be kept in separate slots by the persons themselves.
(Inputs from Sakshi Dayal, Gurgaon)
The death toll in Haryana due to Covid-19 reached 500, Monday evening as 11 patients died in the last 24 hours. The state continues to witness a spike in new cases and added another 798 cases taking the total number of Covid-positive patients to 43,227 till date. Read More
Nagpur district is fast emerging as a major coronavirus hotspot in the state, crossing 10,000 in the total number of reported cases on Tuesday.
With the most number deaths at 38 on Tuesday, the district’s death toll has gone up to 372. Of these, 64 are from rural areas, 256 from within the city municipal limits, and 52 are from outside the district. Read More
Pune will likely have a total of 62,268 active Covid-19 cases by the end of August, as per projections made by health experts in the municipal corporations of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, said Divisional Commissioner Saurabh Rao. He was, however, hopeful that the slightly declining positivity rate at 22 per cent would bring relief to overburdened hospitals. Read More