Flouting social distancing norms, several gather at the Mallikghat flower market in Kolkata on Thursday morning.Coronavirus India News Live Updates: Aiming at bringing down the coronavirus death rate to below one per cent in West Bengal, it’s health department will deploy medical specialists at a number of COVID-19 hospitals in the state, news agency PTI reported.
Teams of specialists in general medicine, chest medicine, anesthesiology, nephrology, cardiology and neurology from different medical colleges will be visiting nearby COVID-19 hospitals.
Meanwhile, India’s coronavirus mortality rate at 1.64 per cent is lowest in the world and the Centre is making efforts to reduce it down to less than 1 per cent, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. While the total cases may have crossed 50 million, active cases are less than 20 per cent, he added.
The minister’s remarks came on a day when the country registered another massive surge – 97,894 cases – in a single day. While the overall tally zoomed past 5.1 million, the death toll also increased from 82,066 to 83,198, according to the latest data released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Globally, nearly 30 million people have been infected with as many as 939,427 fatalities. The United States continued to the worst affected followed by India and Brazil. India, however, remained on top of the recoveries chart. Robert Redfield, director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States, has said face masks offered much better protection against the infection than a vaccine would.
A health worker takes swab sample at a mohalla clinic in New Delhi on Wednesday
With over 500 people testing positive for the novel coronavirus, Tripura's Covid-19 tally on Thursday reached 20,699. With six more fatalities, the death toll in the states has also risen to 228. The state's COVID fatality rate has also shot up to 1.10 per cent, one of the highest fatality rates in North-East India.
Aiming at bringing down the coronavirus death rate to below one per cent in West Bengal, it's health department will deploy medical specialists at a number of COVID-19 hospitals in the state, news agency PTI reported. Teams of specialists in general medicine, chest medicine, anesthesiology, nephrology, cardiology, and neurology from different medical colleges will be visiting nearby COVID-19 hospitals.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who recently recovered from COVID-19 and was admitted to AIIMS for a complete medical checkup, was discharged on Thursday evening, officials said.
He was admitted to the premier hospital on September 12. Earlier in the day, Shah had addressed an event in his constituency Gandhinagar in Gujarat through video conference.
On August 2, Shah, 55, had said on Twitter that he had tested positive for COVID-19. He had undergone treatment at Medanta Hospital and was discharged after he recovered from the disease.
Daily wearers of eyeglasses might be less likely to be infected with the novel coronavirus, say scientists who call for further, large-scale studies to assess the relationship between eye protection and the risk of contracting COVID-19.
The single-centre study, published in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology, assessed 276 hospitalised COVID-19 patients at Suizhou Zengdu Hospital in China, and observed that those who wore eyeglasses for an extended period of time were relatively uncommon among the study participants.
Based on this observation, the researchers, including those from The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University in China, speculated that wearing eyeglasses for more than eight hours per day may be protective against the novel coronavirus infection.
They hypothesised that this may be due to eyeglasses acting as a barrier that reduces the frequency with which people touch their eyes.
A purported video showing nursing and security staff slapping a patient after pinning him down to the ground in the Covid-19 wing of the state government-run Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay (PDU) Hospital in Rajkot went viral on Thursday. However, the hospital administration claimed that the staff was merely restraining an unruly patient.
In the 55-second video, a paramedic is seen pressing the patient to the ground with his knee even as others hold him down and security guards, one of them weilding a baton, look on. “Didn’t I tell you not to do it,” the paramedic wearing a white-coloured PPE kit is heard telling the pleading patient. Full report here.
Drugmaker Dr Reddy's Laboratories (DRL) announced on Wednesday (September 16) that it will distribute 100 million (10 crore) doses of Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine in India after conducting final-stage human trials and receiving regulatory clearances here.
Should India’s top drug regulatory body sign off on phase 3 trials in the country, Sputnik V will replace Serum Institute of India’s (SII's) ‘Covishield’ as the frontrunner in the race to produce a Covid-19 vaccine for India. Click here to read our explainer.
The key to slowing the spread of COVID-19 infection is to stay at home and stay clean at all times. Home hygiene is being focused on now more than ever. While some people may think that because they are home, they may be safe from the virus, it may not always be the case, since any kind of exposure to any potentially-infected person may risk transmission.
Dr. Manjeet Singh Arora, Sr General Physician, Fortis Hospital, Mulund says the COVID-19 virus has created the need for emergency health structures across the world; most people who have fallen sick with COVID-19 have experienced mild to moderate symptoms and have successfully recovered without special treatment.
“It is understood that the virus that causes COVID-19 is mainly transmitted through droplets generated when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or exhales. These droplets are too heavy to hang in the air, and quickly drop to the floor and other surfaces. You can be infected by breathing in the virus if you are within close proximity of someone who has COVID-19, or by touching a contaminated surface and then your eyes, nose or mouth. The goal of the self-quarantine is to prevent transmission,” he says. Read the full report here.
At least 364 Maharashtra Police personnel tested positive for coronavirus and four died of the disease in the last 24 hours across the state, news agency PTI reported citing an official on Thursday. With this, 20,367 state police personnel, including 2,218 officers, have so far contracted COVID-19, while 208 have succumbed to the viral infection, the official said. The deceased police personnel includes 21 officers. As of now, there are 3,796 active Covid-19 cases in the state police force while 16,363 personnel have recovered from the infection, the official said.
Seven more people died from the novel coronavirus in Rajasthan, taking the toll to 1,286 on Thursday, while the number of infections rose to 1.08 lakh with 814 new cases, the Heath Department announced. There are 17,838 active cases of the coronavirus disease and 87,849 people have recovered, according to a health bulletin. Out of the 814 new coronavirus cases, 134 were Jaipur, 119 in Jodhpur, 73 in Kota, 48 in Alwar and 49 in Ajmer districts, among others. The total number of people infected with the virus rose to 1,08,494, it said.
The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) sealed 32 tea stalls for violating Covid-19 guidelines, while 1,124 units voluntarily shut down during an inspection drive conducted by the solid waste management department on Wednesday. Taking action against tea stalls and vendors over violations of social distancing and face masks across 48 wards of seven zones of the AMC, 32 tea stalls were sealed while 1,124 closed down on their own. Declining any order being issued by the AMC of closing down all tea vendors across the city, Additional Chief Secretary (Forests and Environment) Rajeev Kumar Gupta said, “There is no directive for (all) tea stalls to remain closed from Thursday. Only those violating social distancing and face masks are being closed down.”
The Covid-19 tally of Andaman and Nicobar Islands rose to 3,593 on Thursday as 19 more people tested positive for the infection, a health official told PTI on Thursday. Seven new patients have travel history, while 12 infections were detected during contact tracing, the official added. Twenty-seven more people have been cured of the disease, the official said. The Union territory now has 196 active cases, while 3,345 people have recovered from the disease and 52 patients have succumbed to the infection so far, he said.
The Gujarat High Court has directed the state government to put all districts on “high alert” and start taking appropriate steps to curb the spread of Covid-19, making a note of the worsening situation in Rajkot and Jamnagar. The order dated September 9, when the court heard a bunch of public interest litigations concerning Covid-related grievances in the state, was made public on Wednesday. A division bench of Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice JB Pardiwala also told the state government to “stop playing on the back foot” and follow the “Ahmedabad model” in other districts. The order noted that the court is “constrained to observe that despite putting best of its efforts, the government has been getting caught unaware and gets into action only after the situation worsens”.
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday said India's coronavirus mortality rate at 1.64 per cent is lowest in the world and the government is targeting to bring it down to less than 1 per cent. Replying to a debate, he said India's recovery rate of 78-79 per cent is one of the highest in the world. He said though total cases may have crossed 50 million, active cases are less than 20 per cent. Deaths in India due to coronavirus pandemic are less than many nations in Europe, he said, adding the government was determined to cross the US in testing rate as well.
Union minister Prahlad Singh Patel on Thursday said he has tested positive for coronavirus The BJP MP from Damoh Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh said his test report was received on Wednesday night. "I have tested positive. Those who met me on Tuesday should take adequate precautions," the minister announced on Twitter. Patel's ministerial colleagues Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Shripad Naik, Dharmendra Pradhan, Kailash Choudhary, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Gajendra Shekhawat and Suresh Angadi were also diagnosed with Covid-19 recently.
On the second day of discussion in Rajya Sabha on the Covid pandemic and steps taken by the Centre, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut took exception to the criticism by some BJP leaders, including Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, of the measures taken by the Maharashtra government to control the pandemic. “More than 30,000 people have recovered from Covid in Maharashtra. How did it happen?,” he said. In an apparent dig at Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, Raut said did those people recover by eating “Bhabhi Ji Ke Papad”. Meghwal had earlier claimed that the ingredients of a papad brand ‘Bhabhi Ji Papad’ helps in formation of antibodies needed to fight Covid-19.
The number of active cases of novel coronavirus in the country crossed the one million (ten lakh) mark on Wednesday. These are the people who are yet to recover from the disease, and thus require medical attention, and are also the ones who can spread the infection. Active cases now comprise less than 20 per cent of all confirmed infections in the country, but this figure varies widely in the states. That is because only the infections detected in the last two weeks are active, and the states which have been seeing high growth rates during these times, would have a higher proportion of active cases. Click here to read more.
Speaking in Rajya Sabha, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said: "From January 8, the Prime Minister, the Ministers and State health ministers have been addressing the situation. All Chief Ministers have fought this battle with the PM. All types of advisories and details were given before the first case of Covid-19 in the country on January 30. Extensive contact-tracing was undertaken for that case. For the first case, 162 contacts were traced. That is how we started our history of contact tracing." He added: "History will remember Prime Minister Narendra Modi for meticulously monitoring the entire situation himself." Speaking on the vaccine, he said: "India is making efforts just like other countries. Under PM's guidance, an expert group is looking at it and we have advanced planning in place. We are hopeful that by the start of next year, vaccine will be available in India." He also said that the lockdown had prevented 14-29 lakh cases in the country.
Observing that the right to lead a dignified life extended to death too, the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday allowed families of Covid-19 victims to perform the last rites after taking precautions against the infection. A Division Bench of Chief Justice T B Radhakrishnan and Justice Arijit Banerjee was hearing a writ petition on the alleged poor handling of Covid victims’ bodies by the administration. As of now, the last rites of Covid-19 victims are being performed by municipal bodies. Since June, the state government has allowed families to see the body and pay their last respects.
Four trial sites in Pune are waiting for a go-ahead from the Serum Institute of India (SII) to resume enrolment of volunteers for phase II and II clinical trials of the Oxford University Covid-19 vaccine candidate, or Covishield, in India. On Tuesday, the Drugs Controller General of India gave the go-ahead to the Serum Institute of India to restart clinical trials of the vaccine candidate. When contacted, DCGI Dr V G Somani said they have given the nod to SII to resume trials.