Coronavirus live updates: SarsCov-2 survives on skin five times longer than flu, study finds

1,436 test positive for Covid-19 in Telangana; tally in the state rises to 222,111

ITBP launches cycling expedition from its Pegong base in Sikkim to raise Covid-19 awareness

Coronavirus survives on skin five times longer than flu: Study

The coronavirus remains active on human skin for nine hours, Japanese researchers have found, in a discovery they said showed the need for frequent hand washing to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. The pathogen that causes the flu survives on human skin for about 1.8 hours by comparison, said the study published this month in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal.

Nearly 100 people fined for violating Covid norms on Delhi Metro

In the last four days, 1,903 metro trains were checked and 98 challans were issued to passengers for violating the guidelines to control the pandemic, said Jitendra Mani, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Metro). Passengers who were not wearing masks or maintaining social distancing have been challaned. Mani requested all metro passengers to wear masks, maintain social distancing and use hand sanitizers for their safety.

61,871 new coronavirus infections, 1,033 fatalities push India's caseload to 74,94,551, death toll to 114,031

India's caseload touches 7.49mn

Active cases in the country stand at 783,311, while 6,597,209 people have recovered from the disease so far: Union Health Ministry

A total of 94,224,190 samples tested for Covid-19 up to 17th Octobe; 9,70,173 samples were tested yesterday: ICMR

‘India’s response tailored to the evolving pandemic’

India is in an advantageous position for providing its population with Covid-19 vaccines with manufacturers ramping up capacities, and the highest political leadership leading the response, WHO regional director for south-east Asia Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh tells TOI in an interview.

US, EU block India's fight for IPR waiver for Covid drugs

The US, European Union, the UK and Switzerland, along with Brazil, have not supported India and South Africa's proposal at the World Trade Organisation for a temporary waiver of intellectual property rights to address drug and other issues related to Covid-19. However several developing countries, including China & Pakistan, have backed the proposal, which is still on the table but needs to be ratified by the WTO Trips Council by the end of the year.

India has exponentially scaled up its testing capacity from one in January to more than 9.32 cr at present. The very high testing has resulted in the continuous falling positivity rate. It has now fallen below 8%: Ministry of health

Global Covid-19 cases cross 39.5 million

The global coronavirus caseload now stands at 39.5 million cases, according to the latest updates provided by Johns Hopkins University. According to the University tracker, there are 39,502,909 Covid-19 cases globally and 1,106,705 patients globally have succumbed to the virus. Globally, 27,148,927 patients infected from the virus have recovered, the tracker states. The US continues to be the worst-affected country due to the virus with 8,086,780 cases and 218,980 fatalities, which are the most deaths in the world.

Daily cases have been falling in India after peaking on September 17, when over 98,000 cases were recorded. The US appears to be in the midst of a third wave of the pandemic.

It seems likely that the US will continue to log the highest number of daily cases over the next few days, with a few exceptions now and then. That’s because cases in the US have been on the rise again over the past month while the count has been steadily decreasing in India.

In cumulative caseload, the US continues to lead the world with more than 8.3 million cases so far. India holds the second spot with nearly 7.5 million cases.

It was after 71 days that the US again posted the highest daily tally in the world on Thursday. During these 71 days, India held the top position.

The numbers vary slightly in EU’s ECDC database, but it too shows more fresh cases in the US since Thursday.

The US recorded 66,131 and 71,687 fresh infections on these two days, as per worldometers.info, while the daily count in India on these days was 64,237 and 62,587.

India drops to No.2 in daily Covid cases as US surges again

After recording the highest number of daily Covid-19 cases in the world for more than two months, India may finally be passing on the baton back to the US. For two days running, Thursday and Friday, the US reported more daily cases than India, which had been logging the highest single-day counts in the world since August 6. Read more