Covid-19 roundup: Cases in India cross 45-lakh mark; over 28 million infected across the world & more

TIMESOFINDIA.COM | Sep 11, 2020, 20:51 IST

NEW DELHI: India's Covid-19 caseload crossed the 45 lakh-mark on Friday, while the number of deaths rose to over 76,000. A new study has forecasted that the country may witness over 7 million cases by the first week of October. Meanwhile, the number of cases across the world crossed the 28-million mark.
Here are the top developments —
INDIA

India's Covid-19 caseload sprinted past 45 lakh and the death toll climbed to 76,271 with a record 96,551 infections and 1,209 fatalities being reported in a day, while the recoveries crossed 35 lakh on Friday, according to the Union health ministry data.
India may witness over seven million Covid-19 cases by the first week of October, surpassing the US and emerging as the country with the highest number of infections, a team of researchers from BITS Pilani, Hyderabad said.

India may see 7 million Covid-19 cases by October, says study by BITS Pilani

India’s death toll from the pandemic has risen from 50,000 to 75,000 in just 26 days, averaging around 1,000 fatalities per day during this period.

Highest one-day Covid-19 deaths take toll past 75,000

The much-awaited findings of the first national serosurvey conducted by the ICMR, published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research, indicated that 0.73 per cent adults in India were exposed to SARS-CoV-2, amounting to a total of 6.4 million infections by early May.

India had estimated 6.4 million Covid-19 infections by early May: National sero survey

The impact of Covid-19 pandemic is significant on India's development and the immediate priority is a coordinated policy response, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said.
Rapid antigen tests (RATs) for Covid-19 are cheaper and deliver quicker results but should be no more than an adjunct to the more reliable RT-PCR tests because of the potential for false-negative results, said scientists.
Amid a record single-day surge of over 95,000 new cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday, the Centre has again urged all states and Union territories to mandatorily retest all those found to be symptomatic negative in rapid antigen tests (RAT).

Symptomatic but negative? Must retest: Health minister to states

The Union health ministry has initiated an exercise to document data on post-Covid 19 complications as part of which the National Centre for Disease Control is likely to carry out a telephonic survey among recovered patients in the country using an existing database.

Health ministry to document data on post-Covid complications; NCDC likely to do telephonic survey of recovered patients

The Supreme Court on Friday gave its go-ahead to National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, to hold its separate entrance examination NLAT-2020 to be held on Saturday but restrained it from announcing the results and admitting any student till the pendency of the plea.

SC gives go ahead to NLAT-2020 but restrains NLSIU from declaring results

No restriction should be imposed on inter-state movement of medical oxygen, says the Union Health Ministry while strongly reinforcing that it is the responsibility of every state and Union Territory to ensure hospitalised Covid-19 patients receive oxygen.

Centre urges states, UTs to ensure no restriction is imposed on movement of medical oxygen

Sixty per cent of the daily new Covid-19 recoveries in India are from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh, which also account for 57 per cent of the new cases.
Even as there has been been an unprecedented rise in Covid-19 cases, there has been a 100 per cent surge in recovered patients in the last 29 days.

Covid-19: 100% surge in recovery rate in last 29 days, says health ministry

STATES
JAMMU & KASHMIR: Jammu and Kashmir reported 1,578 new Covid-19 cases, taking the infection tally to 50,712 on Friday, while nine more coronavirus deaths in the last 24 hours pushed the union territory's death toll to 854.
HIMACHAL PRADESH: Himachal Pradesh reported 22 new Covid-19 cases, taking the total number of coronavirus cases to 8,512. Out of the total number, 2,706 are active cases, 5,726 patients have recovered and 66 people have succumbed to the virus.
PUNJAB: Punjab records highest Covid-19 mortality rate in India. "Without a vaccine, the only prevention is taking precautions. Most COVID related deaths here are attributable to comorbidities & other lifestyle diseases," said Balbir Singh Sidhu, health minister, Punjab.
UTTARAKHAND: With Covid-19 cases rising rapidly in 13 districts in the State, including Dehradun, it is a cause of concern that many hospitals are full and unable to admit more patients, Uttarkhand Congress Vice President Suryakant Dhasmana said.
DELHI: Delhi Metro will start its operations on all sections from at 6 am on September 13 for a week, informed the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Friday.
GUJARAT: Twenty-four doctors working in hospitals run by Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) have tested coronavirus positive in the last three days. At Karai near Gandhinagar, 38 trainee policemen were also found infected.
MADHYA PRADESH: Madhya Pradesh witnessed its highest single-day increase in coronavirus cases at 2,240, pushing the case count in the state to 83,619. With thirty patients dying during the day, the death toll in the state reached 1,691.
UTTAR PRADESH: With the price of RTPCR test kits and reagents used for coronavirus testing coming down, the Uttar Pradesh government has reduced the charge for conducting Covid-19 test to Rs 1,600 from Rs 2,500 by all labs including those privately owned.

UP govt reduces cost of Covid-19 test to Rs 1,600

WEST BENGAL: Normal life came to a grinding halt in West Bengal today as a complete lockdown was enforced across the state to stem the spread of Covid-19 cases. All public transport, offices and other commercial establishments, barring those dealing with essential services, remained closed as strict restrictions were clamped.
ASSAM: Given difficulties regarding cremation of Covid positive patients, it's decided that expenditure up to Rs 5000 will be allowed in case of death of Covid patients, towards cremation expenses, if relatives don't receive a body or can't bear cremation expenses, as per the state government.
TRIPURA: At least 559 more people tested positive for Covid-19 in Tripura on Friday, pushing the tally in the state to 17,833.
ODISHA: The state once again witnessed the highest one-day spike with 3,996 new cases of coronavirus. The state has a total of 1,43,117 total cases so far.
MAHARASHTRA: At least 206 out of 341 coronavirus-affected villages in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra have managed to beat the disease and have zero patients as on Friday.
ANDHRA PRADESH: The result of a serosurvey in Andhra Pradesh has shown that 19.7 per cent of people have developed antibodies to COVID-19. It also revealed that a high percentage of people who had contracted the coronavirus were asymptomatic.
GOA: Chief minister Pramod Sawant said that state will start post covid clinics in the state to avoid post covid complications. The state government will also distribute kits containing oxymeters, medicines, disposable gloves and face masks to Covid patients opting for home isolation.
KARNATAKA: "This is very strange. In the name of Covid, they should reduce the fees, not levy more. I am going to take adequate actions against it," said Karnataka education minister S Suresh Kumar on some private schools decision to charge Covid fees.
KERALA: As many as 2,988 more coronavirus patients were reported in Kerala even as its total tally reached 1,01,781 on Friday. The first case in the country was reported at Thrissur in Kerala in January-end. The state took four months to reach 1,000 cases, 50 days to reach 10,000 cases, and just 22 days to go from 50,000 to one lakh cases.
WORLD

The worldwide number of confirmed Covid-19 cases has surpassed 28 million, Johns Hopkins University says. The exact number of the coronavirus cases stood at 28,047,828 as of 01:00 GMT on Friday.
Russia's sovereign wealth fund said on Friday that more than one billion people would receive its COVID-19 vaccine "Sputnik-V" in 2020-21, the Interfax news agency reported. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has already signed two deals to export the vaccine abroad and on the Brazilian state of Bahia on Friday agreed to conduct Phase III clinical trials of the vaccine.
A team of Indo-French scientists has found that the neurons located in the nose that help us sense smell and hypothalamus, the small region located at the base of the brain, could provide the port of entry for the SARS-CoV-2 — the virus causing Covid-19 — into the brain.

‘Neurons in nose may be entry points of SARS-CoV-2 to brain’

Pakistan recorded 548 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the overall count to 300,371. The country also recorded five fatalities over the last 24 hours, taking the nationwide death toll to 6,370.
Scientists develop a new tool to monitor coronavirus mutations. Scientists assessed the genome data of more than 1,20,000 samples of the novel coronavirus, and have developed a new tool to monitor mutations in the virus that may make it difficult to develop vaccines and drugs for Covid-19.

Scientists develop new tool to monitor coronavirus mutations

President Trump defended comments he made to author Bob Woodward on March 19 about the coronavirus, telling him 'I wanted to always play it down'.
The UN called for an immediate 'quantum leap' in funding to fight the new coronavirus as the death toll crossed 900,000 six months after the pandemic broke out.
A study of coronavirus infection in England indicates that the epidemic is doubling every seven to eight days.