Covid testing underway at a Delhi centre.Coronavirus India News Live Updates: India reported 73,272 coronavirus cases and 926 deaths in the last 24 hours ending 8 am on Saturday. With this, the total number of infections rose to 69,79,424 including 1,07,416 deaths, 8,83,185 active cases and 59,88,823 recoveries, according to the Union Health Ministry.
Kerala, the first state to get the novel coronavirus, took four-and-a-half months to record its first 10,000 infections. This Wednesday, it reported more than 10,000 infections in a single day. There was a time Kerala was feted globally for effectively containing the spread of the virus. Over the past few weeks, it has seen more cases every day than any other state barring Maharashtra and Karnataka.
On the vaccines front, a WHO-led initiative to make coronavirus vaccine accessible to all received a boost on Friday with China announcing its intention to join the initiative. The COVAX facility seeks to accelerate the development and production of coronavirus vaccines through pooling in resources from the member countries, and then ensure that it is equitably distributed amongst them.
Globally, more than 36.6 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 1,062,428 have died, according to a Reuters. The United States continues to remain the worst-affected followed by India and Brazil.
Coronavirus India LIVE updates: People arrive at a Covid testing centre in Delhi.
India reported 73,272 coronavirus cases and 926 deaths in the last 24 hours ending 8 am on Saturday. With this, the total number of infections rose to 69,79,424 including 1,07,416 deaths, 8,83,185 active cases and 59,88,823 recoveries, according to the Union Health Ministry.
Veteran actor Soumitra Chatterjee has been shifted to intensive care in a private hospital where he is undergoing treatment for COVID-19 after his health condition worsened, a senior doctor at the facility said on late Friday night.
The 85-year-old actor was at an “acute confusional stage” following which the neurologist advised him to be shifted to the ITU, he said.
“Mr Chatterjee has been shifted to the ITU after he has been experiencing restlessness and reached an acute confusional stage. We have shifted him to the ITU for close monitoring. He is having several co-morbidities, that’s why we need to be more careful,” the doctor told PTI.
More than 36.6 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 1,062,428 have died, according to a Reuters tally.
Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019
Kerala, the first state to get the novel coronavirus, took four-and-a-half months to record its first 10,000 infections. This Wednesday, it reported more than 10,000 infections in a single day.
There was a time Kerala was feted globally for effectively containing the spread of the virus. Over the past few weeks, it has seen more cases every day than any other state barring Maharashtra and Karnataka.
Since September, Kerala has added more than 1.93 lakh cases – over 70 per cent of its current caseload of 2.68 lakh. And because most of its cases are recent, Kerala’s active caseload of more than 90,000 is, again, next only to Maharashtra and Karnataka.
The US government on Friday signed an agreement with AstraZeneca Plc worth $486 million to develop and secure supplies of up to 100,000 doses of COVID-19 antibody treatment, a similar class of drugs that was used to treat President Donald Trump.
The US health agency will provide the funding to AstraZeneca for two Phase 3 clinical trials under operation Warp Speed, which is aimed at speeding up treatments and vaccines for COVID-19.One trial will evaluate the safety and efficacy of the experimental treatment to prevent infection for up to 12 months, in about 5,000 participants, while the second trial will evaluate post-exposure preventative and pre-emptive treatment in roughly 1,100 participants.
AstraZeneca said it plans to supply up to 100,000 doses starting towards the end of 2020 and the US Government can acquire up to an additional one million doses in 2021 under a separate agreement.
Since more than two weeks now, the UT has witnessed a steady decline in new positive cases, with the number of active cases also seeing a decrease. As many as 63 new positive cases and two deaths were reported on Friday, taking the total tally of cases to 12,985 and the total number of deaths to 188. As many as 161 people were discharged from various facilities. Read More
As part of detailed Covid-19 guidelines issued for the bypolls to eight Assembly seats in Gujarat on November 3, the state government has prohibited the use of sofas on the stage built for political gatherings and also stated that such gatherings should be limited to 200 persons. Read More
Vulnerability to Covid-19 among patients and staff at government-run mental institutions has come to the fore with the state health department recording a total of 188 cases at four such hospitals in Pune, Thane, Nagpur and Ratnagiri as of October 7. Out of them, 68 are patients and 120 are staff members. Read More
Punjab has reported less than 1,000 new cases of Covid infection each on five days in the past one week making health authorities in the state claim that a downslide has begun after the peak last month. Read More
China on Friday claimed that the coronavirus broke out in the various parts of the world last year but it was the only one to have reported and acted first, refuting the widely-held view that the deadly contagion originated in Wuhan before turning out to be a pandemic.
China, besides denying the US allegations that Covid-19 has emerged from a bio-lab in Wuhan, also rejected that it emanated from a wet market in the central Chinese city from bats or pangolins before infecting humans. Click here to know more.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, may linger on human skin for nine hours, much longer than the flu viruses can, news agency PTI reported, citing a study.
The influenza A virus (IAV), in contrast, remained viable on human skin for nearly two hours, said the researchers including those from Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine in Japan.
The study, published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, found that both the viruses were rapidly inactivated on skin with a hand sanitiser.
The finding underscores the importance of hand washing or using a sanitiser to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Russia has reported more than 12,000 new coronavirus infections, its highest daily increase since the start of the pandemic.The government task force dealing with the outbreak said the 12,126 infections reported Friday took the country's total close to 1.3 million. Russia currently has the world's fourth-largest number of confirmed cases and has reported over 22,000 deaths.
Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Friday said that starting next week the state government will rope in AYUSH doctors in providing treatment to COVID-19 patients with mild to moderate symptoms, news agency PTI reported.
"From next week, the government will involve AYUSH doctors in treating COVID-19 patients with mild to moderate symptoms, along with other government doctors," Sawant said.
"They would also be involved in post-COVID management of patients in the state," he added.
AYUSH is an acronym for five traditional systems of medicine- Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy.
The Maharashtra government today told the Bombay High Court that it does not have any objection now to increase the frequency of local trains in Mumbai and said the services may be used by the general public provided they wear masks and follow social distancing norms. Presently only persons working in essential services are permitted to use the local trains that are running in limited numbers amid the virus pandemic.
The Gujarat government on Friday issued standard operating procedures (SOPs) for upcoming festivals like Navratri, Dussehra, Sharad Purnima, Diwali and New Year and announced that garba dance will not be allowed anywhere in the state this year amid the coronavirus pandemic. No public events such as like Ramleela, Ravan Dahan, processions and fairs will be permitted to take place. While idols can be installed, strict social distancing must be maintained, the guidelines, which were released through a statement, read. “However, neither touching the feet of the idol or photo or distribution of prasad will be allowed,” it added. Click here to read more.
A resident of Bhayander has been booked after a WhatsApp message in which he alleged mismanagement by the local municipal corporation in handling the pandemic, was widely shared. Inspector Sampatrao Patil of Navghar police station said that the accused, Sanjay Thakur, was bereaved after his son died by suicide in September. “For the purpose of conducting a post-mortem, the body of the deceased was taken to Pandit Bhimsen Joshi Hospital in Bhayander. The hospital authorities had informed the family that the deceased had tested positive for Covid-19,” Patil said. Click here to read more.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday inaugurated a state-of-the-art cryogenic oxygen plant, which he termed as the “biggest” in the state, that will help with supplies in hospitals. The ultra-high purity air separation plant with a capacity of 150 tonnes per day (TPD) in Ghaziabad’s Modinagar will produce liquid oxygen, liquid nitrogen and liquid argon, according to INOX Air Products (INOX AP), which has commissioned the plant. Adityanath, who inaugurated the plant virtually from his office in Lucknow, said the facility would help the state in the fight against coronavirus. Read more here.
Padmanabhaswamy temple in Kerala was closed for devotees after 12 priests, including the chief priest, tested positive for Covid-19.
In a first, differently-abled and cancer patients will now be allowed to board suburban train services on Central Railway (CR) without a QR code. As of now, all those who had been allowed access on the suburban train service — involved in the essential services sector — have to procure a special QR code from the state government. The CR, in a release, said that “differently-abled persons and cancer patients are allowed” to travel by special suburban services with valid identity cards or certificates. The Western Railway (WR) has not made any such announcement so far. Click here to read more.
In Delhi, doctors at Hindu Rao hospital have threatened to withdraw from Covid services if the salary for three months, which are due to them, are not paid in the next 48 hours. They, along with nurses, have been protesting since the past five days outside the hospital against the administration.