As India’s coronavirus numbers continue to grow, some promising signals over the last few days offer a glimmer of hope, even if temporarily.Coronavirus India News Live Updates: With over 86,000 cases in 24 hours, the Covid-19 tally in India zoomed past 5.8 million on Friday. The death till also increased to 92,290 with more than 1,000 deaths during the same period, data released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare indicated.
As India’s coronavirus numbers continue to grow, some promising signals over the last few days offer a glimmer of hope, even if temporarily. Wednesday was the sixth consecutive day when the number of people recovering from the disease, as reported in government data, exceeded the detection of new infections. Never before has this happened for more than a day — and those occasions were more in the nature of anomalies in the reporting of data, rather than the representation of a trend. The result has been that the number of active cases has started to show a declining trend for the first time.
Apart from bringing some of the leading contenders of a coronavirus vaccine to India, the Serum Institute is developing its own vaccine as well. It is partnering with SpyBiotech, a spin-off of Oxford University, for this purpose. Their vaccine candidate has entered into combined phase-I/phase-II clinical trials, which are being done in Australia. The trials began in the first week of September.
Globally, over 32 million have been infected with as many as 981,808 fatalities so far. India continued to remain the second worst-hit country after the United States, but topped the global chart in terms of virus recoveries.
Active cases require medical attention, so a reduction in active cases reduces the burden on the health apparatus.
A huge crowd outside MGM health care in Chennai, where Veteran playback singer S P Balasubrahmanyam is currently admitted.
The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday refused to accede to a plea by a sitting Congress corporator of Rajkot seeking public disclosure of names of all Covid-19 positive patients. The public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Atul Rajani of Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) was similar to an earlier litigation filed in August by two Bhavnagar residents on the ground that while names of Covid-19 positive persons were revealed until July 2020 in the Bhavnagar district, it was subsequently stopped. A division bench of Justices R M Chhaya and Ilesh Vora in an order on Wednesday recommended that Rajani might furnish a request to this effect to the municipal commissioner of Rajkot city but reiterated that such decisions are a “matter of policy decision of the state government and therefore, no further direction to that effect need to be given by this court”.
After a sudden surge during Ganesh festival, Covid-19 cases in Pimpri-Chinchwad have seen a drop, with the positivity rate falling from from 25-27 per cent earlier this month to 17 per cent by Wednesday. While positive cases started rising at the beginning of August, by the end of the month, the twin city was reporting over 1,000 cases every day. Since the start of September, Pimpri-Chinchwad has registered between 1,000 to 1,300 cases every day. However, from last Friday (September 18), the number of new cases every day has slipped below 1,000, with 843 cases reported that day. On September 19, 981 cases were reported, 749 cases on September 20, 655 cases on September 21, 798 cases on September 22, and 800 cases on September 23.
West Bengal Transport Minister Suvendu Adhikari has tested positive for novel coronavirus and is under home isolation, PTI reported. The minister's mother has also contracted the disease, an official said. The 49-year-old legislator from Nandigram in Purba Medinipur district has isolated himself at a guest house in his constituency, while his mother has been admitted to a Kolkata-based hospital, the official added. "The minister has mild symptoms and is under home isolation," he said.
A 33-year-old woman, who was admitted to the jumbo Covid facility in Pune in the last week of August, has “gone missing” from the facility. While authorities have claimed that she was discharged days ago, her family members say that they found out she was missing only on September 13, when they were asked to come pick her up from the centre. Police are currently probing a missing complaint registered by the family on September 14.
The Bara Imambara in Lucknow opened its doors for the public on Thursday. (Express photo/Vishal Srivastava)
Veteran playback singer S P Balasubrahmanyam, battling Covid-19 since last month, is in an “extremely critical” condition, the hospital treating him said on Thursday. A bulletin from MGM Healthcare in Chennai said his condition has deteriorated, warranting maximal life support. Known fondly as SPB, the renowned singer was admitted to the hospital with mild symptoms in early August. Back then, he had posted a video on social media saying he was “perfectly all right”. Click here to read more.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who is undergoing treatment for Covid-19 at Lok Nayak hospital, has also been diagnosed with dengue, his office said in a statement on Thursday. Sisodia (48) tested positive for Covid-19 on September 14. "He is being shifted to Max Hospital,” the statement said. Sisodia was admitted to Lok Nayak hospital Wednesday. “His condition was stable in the afternoon and we had shifted him out of the ICU,” said a senior doctor from Lok Nayak hospital on Thursday evening. Click here to read more.
Three-time former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, 85, has been moved to the ICU of the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) after he suffered a drop in oxygen levels on Thursday morning, days after testing negative for Covid-19. Gogoi’s oxygen level had dropped to 82 in the morning. However, authorities and family members say the level has recovered now to 92-93 with support and he is “stable”. “He is medically stable. For precaution, he has been moved to the ICU,” Gogoi’s son and MP Gaurav Gogoi told The Indian Express. Click here to read more.
To cushion the effects of the pandemic, the Tamil Nadu government approved a relief of Rs 96 crore to 4.8 lakh members through the Tamil Nadu Fishermen Welfare Board, which gave away Rs 2,000 per head for two months for the lockdown period for fishermen, fisherwomen, allied workers and crew members, PTI reported. An additional breeding season allowance of Rs 5,000 was given to each family for the ban (on fishing) period. This sum was disbursed to about 1.6 lakh families, a senior official told the news agency.
Apart from bringing some of the leading contenders of a coronavirus vaccine to India, the Serum Institute is developing its own vaccine as well. It is partnering with SpyBiotech, a spin-off of Oxford University, for this purpose. Their vaccine candidate has entered into combined phase-I/phase-II clinical trials, which are being done in Australia. The trials began in the first week of September. Serum also has the license to produce and market two of the leading vaccine candidates, one being developed by AstraZeneca and the Oxford University, and the other one by US company Novavax. The Oxford University vaccine is currently undergoing phase-II and phase-II trials in India.
While the country as a whole, and the five states with maximum caseloads, have been reporting a decline in the number of active cases of novel coronavirus infection in the last few days, Kerala, once feted for its effective containment measures, has been amongst the big trouble spots in the last few weeks. With a daily growth rate of 3.38 per cent, Kerala has currently been adding numbers at a rate faster than every other state, except Chhattisgarh, which is growing marginally faster. The national growth rate happens to be just 1.63 per cent per day right now, which means Kerala is growing at more than twice the national rate.
As India’s coronavirus numbers continue to grow, some promising signals over the last few days offer a glimmer of hope, even if temporarily. Wednesday was the sixth consecutive day when the number of people recovering from the disease, as reported in government data, exceeded the detection of new infections. Never before has this happened for more than a day — and those occasions were more in the nature of anomalies in the reporting of data, rather than the representation of a trend. The result has been that the number of active cases has started to show a declining trend for the first time. Active cases have come down from a high of 10.17 lakh on September 17, to 9.66 lakh now. Click here to read more.
With over 86,000 cases in 24 hours, the Covid-19 tally in India zoomed past 5.8 million on Friday. The death till also increased to 92,290 with more than 1,000 deaths during the same period, data released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare indicated. Follow this space for all the latest updates.