At a Covid-19 testing centre in New Delhi (Express Photo: Gajendra Yadav)Coronavirus India News Live Updates: On completing 200 days with Covid-19 crisis, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan took to Twitter to appreciate the ‘unflinching spirit’ of the state residents in responding to the pandemic. “We are into the 200th day of Covid-19 crisis. Looking back, we can say with pride that this has not been just a period of despair & loss. It has also been a time of courage, compassion, resilience & survival. People of Kerala responded to the crisis with an unflinching spirit,” he said.
Given the daily increase of nearly 1,000 deaths, India is edging towards the grim 50,000-mark in the total number of deaths due to the novel coronavirus so far. On Sunday, the country recorded 63,489 new cases and 944 deaths taking the tally to 25,89,682 cases including 49,980 deaths and over 18 lakh recoveries. Mizoram is currently the only state in India with less than 1,000 cases of the novel coronavirus apart from Lakshadweep, which continues to be Coronavirus-free, with no cases having been detected on the islands so far. India has been reporting over 60,000 cases daily since August 7, barring August 11 when the country registered 53,601 new instances of the infection.
Meanwhile, Russia has announced that the country has already produced the first batch of its controversial Covid-19 vaccine despite criticism over the haste in delivering the vaccine. The vaccine, dubbed Sputnik V, will be rolled out by the end of this month. Globally, nearly 21 million people have been infected with the virus and 7,60,213 have died. The United States (53,35,398) is the worst-affected country followed by Brazil (32,75,520) and India.
At a Covid-19 testing centre in Pune. (Express Photo: Arul Horizon)
Work at the Rajasthan High Court in Jaipur will remain suspended for three days, after its Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanty reportedly tested positive for the virus. In a notice, the registrar general of the court requested all the persons concerned to get themselves tested for Covid. The testing facility is available in the Rajasthan High Court, Jaipur bench, during the three-day period, the notice added.
“ln view of recent results of COVID-19 tests conducted in the Rajasthan High Court, Jaipur Bench, it is notified that court and office work in Rajasthan High Court, Jaipur Bench shall remain suspended from August 17 to 19 for COVID-19 testing,” it said. The notice, however, did not mention anything about the Rajasthan High Court chief justice contracting the virus.
On 200th day of Covid-19 crisis, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan took to Twitter appreciating the 'unflinching spirit' of the state residents in responding to the pandemic. "We are into the 200th day of Covid-19 crisis. Looking back, we can say with pride that this has not been just a period of despair & loss. It has also been a time of courage, compassion, resilience & survival. People of Kerala responded to the crisis with an unflinching spirit," he said. He cited the example of a 105-year-old patient surviving the disease and said Kerala's health workers have done a remarkable job.
Utpal Parrikar, BJP leader and the son of former Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar, said he has tested positive for Covid-19 and has got himself admitted to a hospital on doctors' advice. After his test results came positive, Uptal Parrikar told reporters on Saturday evening that he tested positive for COVID-19. "Its a mild infection, so I would be home quarantined," he had then said. However, on Sunday, he tweeted: "On advice of Doctors and to take proper line of treatment, I've got admitted to Hospital. Thank you everyone for the wishes."
In a dig at the Narendra Modi government over its push for self-reliance, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday said Russia gave the first lesson to the world on being 'Aatmanirbhar' by introducing a COVID-19 vaccine while India has just been preaching about it. Lauding Russia for the vaccine, Raut, in his weekly column 'Rokhtokh' in the Shiv Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana', said this was a sign of being a superpower, and added that Indian politicians will not follow Russia's example as a model since "they are in love with America".
"When there was a movement across the globe to prove the Russian vaccine as illegal, Putin used the vaccine as a trial on his daughter and created self-confidence in his own country," Raut said. "Russia gave the first lesson of being 'Aatmanirbhar' (self-reliant) to the world. We are just preaching about being 'Aatmanirbhar'," the executive editor of 'Saamana' said.
China’s new locally transmitted cases of the novel coronavirus fell to a one-month low as a cluster in the western region of Xinjiang receded, data released by the country’s health authority on Sunday showed. The number of locally transmitted cases in China dropped to four on Aug. 15, all of which were in Xinjiang, the National Health Commission said in a statement. That compares with eight cases nationwide a day earlier, and is the lowest since July 16.No new locally transmitted cases were recorded on August 15 in the city of Shenzhen in southern Guangdong province, after provincial authorities there reported fresh infections a day earlier.
Pakistan's coronavirus tally reached 288,717 on Sunday after 670 new cases were detected in the last 24 hours, the health ministry said. Six more fatalities were reported overnight, pushing the death toll to 6,168, it said. While 266,301 patients were recovered so far, 769 are in critical condition at various hospitals across the country. With the detection of the 670 new cases, Pakistan's coronavirus tally now stands at 288,717, the ministry said. Of the total infections, Sindh reported the maximum number of 125,904 cases, followed by Punjab at 95,391, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa at 35,153, Islamabad at 15,378, Balochistan at 12,224, Gilgit-Baltistan at 2,486 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) at 2,181. Health authorities have so far conducted a total of 2,277,153 tests to detect coronavirus infection in the country, the ministry said
Assam's tally surpassed the 75,000-mark with 1,057 fresh cases, while the death toll mounted to 182 as eight more people succumbed to the virus, Minister for Health and Family Welfare Himanta Biswa Sarma said. The state's coronavirus caseload stood at 75,558, while 53,286 people have so far recovered from the disease, he added. Assam now has 22,087 active COVID-19 cases, the minister said in a tweet late on Saturday. The fresh case count of Saturday was the lowest single-day spike in August, a month in which less than 2,000 infections were reported only on three occasions, officials said. "Our positivity rate continues to be low at 5.08 per cent, which gives us confidence," Sarma said.
Former President Pranab Mukherjee’s health condition is better and he is responding to treatment, son Abhijit Mukherjee said on Sunday. A statement by the Army’s Research and Referral (R&R) Hospital later reiterated that the former President’s vital and clinical parameters are stable even though he continues to be on ventilator support.
The 84-year-old Bharat Ratna recipient underwent brain surgery on August 10 to remove a blood clot. He later tested positive for Covid-19.
As many as 1,102 fresh COVID-19 cases and nine deaths were reported in Telangana, taking the tally to 91,361 and the toll to 693, the state government said on Sunday. Out of the freshcases, 234 were reported from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), followed by districts of Karimnagar 101, Ranga Reddy 81, Warangal Urban 70, Medchal 63,a state government bulletin said on Sunday, providing data as of 8 PM on August 15. It said 1,930 people were discharged on Saturday, taking the cumulative recoveries to 68,126 so far, while 22,542 are under treatment. A total of 12,120 samples were tested on Saturday and cumulatively, 7,44,555 samples have been examined.
A World Health Organisation (WHO) surge team will assist South Africa in bolstering its national COVID-19 response, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has said. The team comprises 43 members and 16 arrived in the country on Friday. Over the last three weeks, the number of new confirmed cases in South Africa has dropped from a peak of over 12,000 a day to an average over the past week of around 5,000 a day.
“We have received queries on why there would be a need for the (WHO) surge team if we are past the surge,” Mkhize said. “I would like to emphasise for our people that we are not past anything: we are still the country with the fifth-highest positive cases in the world,” the minister said.
The additional cases have taken the nation’s total to 15,318, while the number of deaths remained at 305, according to data from Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. Officials said 245 of the new infections were in the Seoul, Gyeonggi and Incheon region -- home to almost half of South Korea’s population.
The Asian country raised its social-distancing alert to level 2 in the Seoul Metropolitan area, prohibiting “high-risk” events and operations for two weeks. The resurgence is once again testing authorities in South Korea, which has maintained one of developed countries’ lowest rates of infection and deaths since the early days of the pandemic.
The United States and South Korea will begin their annual joint military exercises this week, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said Sunday. But a spreading coronavirus outbreak has apparently forced the allies to scale back an already low-key training program mainly involving computer-simulated war scenarios.
The drills from Tuesday to Aug. 28 could still irk North Korea, which portrays the allies' training as invasion rehearsals and has threatened to abandon stalled nuclear talks if Washington persists with what it perceives as “hostile policies” toward Pyongyang.
The exercises also come at a delicate time after President Donald Trump openly complained about the costs of maintaining 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea to protect against North Korean threats. The allies have so far failed to sign a new cost-sharing agreement after the last one expired at the end of 2019.
On Sunday, the country recorded 63,489 new cases and 944 deaths taking the tally to 25,89,682 cases including 49,980 deaths and over 18 lakh recoveries. Mizoram is currently the only state in India with less than 1,000 cases of the novel coronavirus apart from Lakshadweep, which continues to be Coronavirus-free, with no cases having been detected on the islands so far.
The number of new COVID-19 infections in Turkey hit its highest level in 45 days on Saturday, the country’s health minister said as he announced 1,256 new cases. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter that the number of seriously ill patients, mostly with underlying medical conditions, was also on the rise with 668 people.
The ministry said 21 people died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the confirmed death toll to 5,955. More than 248,000 people have tested positive for the virus in Turkey since March. Experts say, however, that all confirmed officials are undercounts due to limited testing, missed mild cases, possible government manipulation and other factors.
The Odisha government has approved a standardised rate for reimbursement for the treatment of coronavirus patients at COVID care facilities run by private hospitals by capping the charges by the private medical facilities. The rate for treating COVID-19 patients at private healthcare centres which the state government will reimburse, has been fixed at Rs 4,750 per day per isolation bed, Rs 17,000 per ICU bed and Rs 18,000 per ventilator use.
On August 8, the state government through an order had allowed the admission of COVID patients at private hospitals for treatment. The decision for the standardised rates of the various consumable costs was taken following a recommendation from a technical team of SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack after observing the costs incurred there for treating COVID patients.
Despite widespread criticism from scientists and health professionals from across the world, the Russian Health Ministry Saturday announced that the country has already produced the first batch of its controversial Covid-19 vaccine. The vaccine, dubbed Sputnik V, will be rolled out by the end of this month, according to a Reuters report.
This comes less than five days after Russian President Vladimir Putin first announced that the vaccine was safe to use, adding it had already been administered to his daughter. Several world leaders and health authorities accused Russia of releasing the vaccine in haste, even before it could clear a vital last-stage of human trials to establish its safety and efficiency.