Disinfecting of COVID-19 testing kiosk at Civil hospital in Panchkula (Express photo by Jaipal Singh)Coronavirus India News Live Updates: After adding more than 90,000 infections for two consecutive days, India reported 75,809 cases in the last 24 hours which took the total number of Covid-19 cases to 42,80,423 on Tuesday. Also, as many as 1,133 new deaths in the same period pushed the death toll to 72,775. At present, India has 8,83,697 active cases while 33,23,951 people have been treated and discharged. Only the United States, where more than 61 lakh people have so far been found to be infected, is ahead of India.
The Centre has received detailed feedback from officers at the district level, identifying loopholes in the implementation of containment, surveillance, and clinical management strategies for Covid-19 in several states. These lapses, sources said, were among the key reasons for the massive spike in cases in recent weeks.
Following the detection of nearly in the week beginning August 31, the Centre has over the last few days made a significant change in targeting its messaging on tackling the novel coronavirus.
Meanwhile, as the Centre and non-BJP ruled states continue to face off over the mechanism to meet the compensation deficit under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, the Union Finance Ministry is unlikely to cede to the states’ demand that the borrowing should be done by the Central government.
After five months of suspension, metro rail services resumed in selected parts of the country. With facemasks and social distancing protocols being mandatory, only asymptomatic people are allowed to board the trains. Tokens or cash transactions are discouraged and only smartcards are allowed in many cities. Based on central guidelines, the metro authorities of Delhi, Noida, Chennai, Kochi, Bengaluru, Mumbai Line-1, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Maha Metro (Nagpur), Kolkata, Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh have prepared their standard operating procedures. Maharashtra will not be resuming the metro operation this month.
Globally, as many as 27,256,723 people have been infected with the virus and 891,308 have lost their lives. Also, 18,251,538 people have recovered.
Coronavirus India LIVE updates: At a testing center in New Delhi. (Express photo/Amit Mehra)
Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has reported four cases of Covid-19 reinfection between August 18 and September 6, nearly four months after they tested positive for the first time.
The four who tested positive again are two male resident doctors aged 33 years from the Gujarat Cancer and Research Institute (GCRI) and LG Hospital, a 26-year-old woman resident doctor from LG Hospital and a 60-year-old homemaker from Behrampura. They had first tested positive between April 13 and April 21. All had subsequently recovered and were discharged after testing negative through RTPCR tests at the time.
The resident doctor and the homemaker were also part of the recent seroprevalence survey conducted in AMC jurisdiction that found an absence of antibodies in 40 per cent cases of the 1,816 known confirmed cases’ samples which were studied. The 60-year-old was among the 60 per cent in whom antibodies were found and the resident doctor was in the 40 per cent in whom no antibodies were found.
After adding more than 90,000 infections for two consecutive days, India reported 75,809 cases in the last 24 hours which took the total number of Covid-19 cases to 42,80,423 on Tuesday. Also, as many as 1,133 new deaths in the same period pushed the death toll to 75,775. At present, India has 8,83,697 active cases while 33,23,951 people have been treated and discharged.
The increase in new Covid cases in the city can be attributed to the “lackadaisical attitude” of people, head of the Delhi government’s expert committee on Covid-19, Dr Mahesh Verma has told The Indian Express.
“A virus has a pattern and right now, Delhi is going through that phase where cases have gone up once again. This can also be attributed to the lackadaisical attitude of the public. The fear of catching Covid-19 has weaned off and, therefore, a rise in the cases is bound to happen. But we all must remember that the economy has to be back on the track. We will have to maintain a balance and ensure that all precautions are being followed well,” said Dr Verma.
New cases have increased over the past week as the number of tests being done were scaled up from around 18,000 a day to around 37,000 a day.
On Monday, the number of confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection in Pune reached the two-lakh mark. The infection count in Pune (2.03 lakh) is not just more than any other city, including Delhi (1.93 lakh) or Mumbai (1.57 lakh), but is even more than every state except the five with the highest caseload.
What explains Pune’s high Covid-19 count?
Pune has a substantially lower population than either Delhi or Mumbai, the two cities with the second and third highest number of confirmed cases, and it is less densely packed as well. Both Mumbai and Delhi have a higher number of migrants, a far higher number of international travellers coming in, and much more economic activity.(Follow Covid-19 LIVE UPDATES here)
The emergence of Pune as the city with the highest number of cases is somewhat intriguing, although not entirely a surprise since it was always among the five worst affected cities.
As the Centre and non-BJP ruled states continue to face off over the mechanism to meet the compensation deficitunder the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, the Union Finance Ministry is unlikely to cede to the states’ demand that the borrowing should be done by the Central government. In fact, government officials pointed out that states had parked about Rs 1.8 lakh crore in T-Bills, suggesting that they were not short of funds.
“While it is true that states too are keeping the powder dry, just like the Centre, for the coming quarters, they cannot complain that they do not have money to spend,” said a government official who did not want to be named. The official said states have, on an average, borrowed about 2.75 per cent of their GSDP so far, against 3 per cent of their GSDP.
States, however, said not all of them had huge funds invested in T-Bills. “There is also a variance in the expenditure needs of states. For some, the committed expenditure (salaries, pensions and interest payments) as a percentage of total expenditure is high. On top of this, their revenues have taken a bad hit,” said a state government official.
The Centre has received detailed feedback from officers at the district level, identifying loopholes in the implementation of containment, surveillance, and clinical management strategies for Covid-19 in several states. These lapses, sources said, were among the key reasons for the massive spike in cases in recent weeks.
Following the detection of nearly 6 lakh new infections in the week beginning August 31, the Centre has over the last few days made a significant change in targeting its messaging on tackling the novel coronavirus.
It has moved away from addressing states at the level of their health secretaries, and has instead begun to communicate directly with administrative officials and chief medical officers (CMOs) who are fighting the pandemic at the level of the district.
In wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) has become the first Indian airport to be accredited under the Airport Council International (ACI) Health Accreditation programme. This accreditation comes after the airport authorities took numerous health and safety initiatives to safeguard passengers in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Election Commission to postpone assembly elections scheduled in October and November in Bihar due to COVID-19 pandemic and worsening flood situation.
The top court on August 28 had junked a similar PIL seeking postponement of the assembly polls in the state till it is free from the novel coronavirus, saying that it cannot be a ground and moreover, the Election Commission will consider everything before taking any decision
The fresh plea has been filed by one Rastravadi Janta Party, a registered political party through its President Anil Bharati and has sought a direction to the poll panel “to postpone the Bihar Legislative Assembly Election which is scheduled to be held in the month of October- November”. Read the full report here.
While Russia and China may have stolen a march in the race to develop a Covid-19 shot, granting regulatory approval to vaccine candidates even before Phase III human trials, all eyes are on the other leading vaccine candidates by Pfizer, Oxford University-AstraZeneca, and Moderna. All three are currently undergoing late-stage trials and it has become evident that a vaccine would be made available this year itself.
The presence of antibodies indicates previous exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus but may not always translate into protection against the disease, say scientists, citing imponderables such as what kind of antibodies, how many, and how long they last.
Antibody presence in itself tells us nothing about disease progression in individuals, said the scientist from New Delhi’s National Institute of Immunology (NII).
There are neutralising antibodies (nAbs) and also ‘simple’ antibodies. While nAbs produced against the novel coronavirus can block its entry into the host cell, other antibodies are also generated against many parts of the virus, added Vineeta Bal from Pune’s Indian Institute of Science, Education, and Research (IISER). The ‘simple’ antibodies are an indication of the host response to viral presence but are not that useful to stop further spread of the virus, Bal told PTI.
The COVID-19 caseload in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands rose to 3,332, with 40 new coronavirus cases detected in the union territory, an official said on Monday.
Of the 40 new cases, 38 were detected during local contact tracing and two were airport arrivals, news agency PTI reported.
All passengers coming from the mainland have to mandatorily undergo a rapid antigen test for COVID-19 at the airport in Port Blair on arrival.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday inaugurated a 300-bed COVID-19 hospital at BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur.
The state government-run medical college already has 200 beds at the super-specialty block dedicated to COVID-19 patients, news agency PTI reported.
Adityanath told reporters that there was "no dearth of beds for coronavirus patients" and said that the state government was determined to defeat the virus.
Uttarakhand Cabinet Minister Madan Kaushik tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, news agency PTI reported. Kaushik was admitted to AIIMS, Rishikesh on Sunday night after his antigen report came positive.
The minister, who is also the state government's official spokesman, has appealed to everyone who came in contact with him to get themselves tested. Kaushik had attended a cabinet meeting in Dehradun last week chaired by Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.
Sporting events are back on track as the world continues to fight against the novel coronavirus. While most of them are being conducted behind closed doors under proper Covid-19 guidelines, wearing face masks and maintaining social distancing is the new norm.
However, during the UEFA Nations League match played between Portugal and Croatia, star footballer Cristiano Ronaldo was pictured seated in the stands but without a mask.
Ronaldo, who was not included in Portugal’s squad because of a bee sting, was intervened and told by a member of staff inside the stadium to wear a face mask, keeping the safety of the players in mind. Read the full story here.
The COVID Care Centre at the Bengaluru International Exhibition Centre, that was touted to be the biggest such facility for the treatment of asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic patients in the country, will be shut from September 15, as it is not getting patients. In an order dated September 4, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the city civic body has said the decision to close the facility with a potential capacity of over 10,000 beds was taken at a meeting chaired by the Chief Minister on the advise of the head of the Covid Care Care Task Force. It has been decided to give the furniture brought for the said centre like- beds, mattress, pedestal fans, dustbins, water dispensers among others to government-run hostels and hospitals at free of cost.
Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi pulled out of the first event of her election campaign on Monday, citing a worsening outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the country. The Southeast Asian nation reported 100 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, the biggest daily increase since detecting its first infection in March, followed by 45 more on Monday.
Suu Kyi, who rules as state counselor, was set to tour the constituency where she is seeking re-election in the commercial capital of Yangon on Tuesday, the first official day of campaigning ahead of polls set for Nov. 8. But she said in a live broadcast on Facebook that the health minister had advised her to cancel the trip. “At the moment the ministry of health is the most powerful. We must follow the instructions of the ministry,” she said.
With education across schools, colleges and coaching classes moving to virtual platforms amid the coronavirus pandemic, homegrown mobile apps, many created by young tech entrepreneurs in Maharashtra, have found an opportunity in adversity. When the Covid-19 pandemic struck in March, founders of Pune-based NGO Vowels of the People Association decided to create a free website (ssc.vopa.in) for Class X students, especially those studying in Marathi and semi-English medium schools. Read more
Malaika Arora on Monday revealed she has tested positive for COVID-19. The actor added that she is asymptomatic and quarantined at home.
Malaika took to Instagram to share the news. Her note read, “Today I have tested positive for coronavirus but I want to inform you all that I am feeling fine. I am asymptomatic and following all the required protocols and will be quarantined at home as instructed by my doctor and authorities. I request all of you to stay calm and safe. Thank you for all your support. Much love, Malaika Arora.”
The Supreme Court was informed on Monday that Attorney General for India KK Venugopal is under self-quarantine after his colleague tested positive for COVID-19.
More than 200 UN staff members have been infected by COVID-19 in Syria as the global body steps up its contingency plans to combat the fast spread of the pandemic in the country, medical workers, and UN officials said. UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria, Imran Riza, last Tuesday told UN heads of agencies that the U.N. was in the final stages of securing a medical facility for treatment of cases.