Coronavirus live updates: Total 9,72,00,379 samples tested for Covid-19 up to October 20, says ICMR

Total 9,72,00,379 samples tested for Covid-19 up to October 20, says Indian Council of Medical Research (ANI)

Of these, 10,83,608 samples were tested yesterday.

Pandemic speeds labour shift from humans to robots, WEF survey finds (Reuters)

Covid-19 cases on oxygen support (in ICUs, through ventilators & oxygen supported beds) have shown a significant decrease since the last week of Sept. This aligns with the national decline of active cases to less than 10% of the total cases: Health Ministry

Rogue demographer says Russia may top Europe in deaths

A former employee of the Kremlin’s statistics agency has said Russia’s daily virus mortality figures understate the real toll from the disease in a country where excess deaths could soon be the highest in Europe. Alexey Raksha worked as a demographic forecaster at the Federal Statistics Service for more than six years until he left in July amid a dispute over the virus data. The latest available official data show that almost 46,000 people who had Covid-19 died in Russia between April and August, more than double the total from the daily numbers.

UK to infect healthy volunteers to speed up vaccine efforts

Britain will help to fund trials using a manufactured Covid-19 virus to deliberately infect young healthy volunteers with the hope of accelerating the development of vaccines against it. The government said on Tuesday it will invest £33.6 million in the so-called “human challenge” trials in partnership with Imperial College London, lab services firm hVIVO and the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. If approved by an ethics committee, the studies will start in January with results expected by May 2021, the government said.

China has vaccinated 60,000 people: Official

China has vaccinated 60,000 people against the coronavirus and none of them have experienced any adverse reactions, a senior official said on Tuesday, acknowledging for the first time the scope of a mass vaccination campaign that has occurred even before the completion of late-stage trials.

India saw 310 cases/m in last 7 days, among lowest globally, govt says

Even as many countries are witnessing a second wave of Covid-19 with the number of infected cases rising rapidly, India recorded 310 cases a day per million people in the last seven days, which is among the lowest globally, the health ministry said on Tuesday citing WHO data.

Digital health identity will not be mandatory for vaccination against Covid-19 and multiple other identity proofs can be used by a person to receive the shots once the vaccine is available: Govt

Covid tally dips, but Bengal an outlier

The downward curve of Covid-19 cases in the country continued on Tuesday, when 54,486 fresh infections were recorded, the lowest for any day other than Monday since August 4. The day’s death toll, however, rose to 710, higher than the count in the past two days.

Top Covid-hit states see fewer infections; active cases below 7.5 lakh

Read: Govt to increase oxygen production capacity to meet rising demand

Even as number of patients needing oxygen support has increased slightly as compared to that in the beginning of September, the government said there is adequate oxygen supply available and plans are afoot to augment the oxygen generation capacity. “We are in an extremely comfortable position. At no point in the last 10 months was there a shortage of oxygen in the country nor is there paucity now,” health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said.

Assam reports 666 new Covid-19 cases today, taking the total positive cases in the state to 2,02,073, including 884 deaths and 1,74,411 discharges: Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma

1,837 fresh Covid cases take Bihar's tally to 2.06 lakh

Bihar reported eight fresh Covid casualties in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 1,011, while 1,837 new cases took the tally to 2,06,960 in the state, the health department said in a bulletin on Tuesday. The total number of recoveries in the state also went up to 1,94,889 after 1,100 people were also cured of the disease. The recovery rate among coronavirus patients in the state is currently at 94.17 per cent, the bulletin said.

Mumbai reports 1,090 new Covid cases, taking total cases to 2,44,262, reports ANI.

Actor-filmmaker Prithviraj, who was shooting for his upcoming movie Jana Gana Mana, has tested positive for coronavirus.

Read: Vardhan's comments unfortunate, aim should be to fight the pandemic unitedly, says Rahul Gandhi