A woman tries on a cardigan at Wellington square, famous for its temporary winter garment market, in Kolkata on November 30, 2020. (Express Photo: Partha Paul)Coronavirus India News Live Updates: With Serum Institute on the cusp of applying for emergency-use license of the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine, the Union Health Ministry on Tuesday made it clear that the government had never spoken about vaccinating the entire country. Addressing a press conference, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan also said the “adverse event” in a Serum Institute trial of the Covishield vaccine would not affect vaccine timelines in anyway.
“I just want to make this clear that the govt has never spoken about vaccinating the entire country,” Bhushan said. “Vaccination would depend on the efficacy of the vaccine and our purpose is to break the chain of transmission. If we are able to vaccinate critical mass of people and break virus transmission, then we may not have to vaccinate the entire population,” said ICMR DG Dr Balram Bhargava.
Bhushan also said the initial findings into the “adverse event” allegedly suffered by a vaccine trial participant in Chennai did not necessitate halting of the trials. It is the role of the drug regulator to ascertain or refute if there is any causal link between the event and the intervention, he said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a virtual all-party meeting on December 4 to discuss the Covid-19 situation in the country. Floor leads of parties in both Houses of Parliament have been invited to attend. This will be the second such meeting called by the government; the first was held in April, amid the nationwide lockdown.
India detected 31,118 cases of the novel coronavirus in the 24 hours ending 9 am Tuesday, taking its overall tally to 94.62 lakh. This includes 4,35,603 active cases, 88,89,585 people who have recovered and 1,37,621 deaths. The national capital saw the highest number of deaths due to the novel coronavirus in November; it reported 2,612 fatalities, higher than the toll of 2,219 in June. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Monday capped the price of RT-PCR tests at all private laboratories at Rs 800, down from the existing rate of Rs 2,400.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi being briefed during a visit to the Bharat Biotech facility to review the development of indigenous COVID-19 vaccine candidate Covaxin, on the outskirts of Hyderabad, Saturday, Nov. 28, 2020. (PTI Photo)
Vietnamese authorities are conducting intensive contact tracing after discovering the country's first confirmed local transmission of the coronavirus in 89 days. State media said Tuesday that a 32-year-old man in Ho Chi Minh City tested positive for the coronavirus on Monday after visiting a flight attendant who was undergoing self-quarantine at his home following his return from Japan two weeks ago. The flight attendant tested positive on Saturday, the Tuoi Tre newspaper said.
Health authorities ordered 137 people who had been in close contact with the man to stay in a central quarantine facility and shut down an English center where he works as a teacher, the newspaper said.
The new case ended Vietnam’s streak of 89 days without any known local transmission of the virus. Earlier, it went 99 days without local transmissions until a cluster of cases broke out at a hospital in Da Nang in central Vietnam in July. (AP)
Rajasthan recorded 19 more fatalities due to the novel coronavirus on Tuesday, taking the COVID-19 death toll in the state to 2,347, according to a health department bulletin. The state also reported 2,331 new cases on Tuesday. The total number of people infected by COVID-19 now stands at 2,70,410 in Rajasthan and out of these 27,974 are under treatment.
As per the bulletin, 2,40,105 people have been discharged after treatment till now. In Jaipur, the death toll due to the virus is 439 till now, followed by 242 in Jodhpur, 188 in Ajmer, 162 in Bikaner, 137 in Kota, 105 in Bharatpur, 96 in Udaipur and 90 in Pali.
On Tuesday, Rajasthan recorded 2,347 new cases, including 692 in Jaipur, 314 in Jodhpur, 169 in Kota, 117 in Alwar, 110 in Udaipur, 95 in Bharatpur, 93 in Nagaur and 84 in Ajmer, besides cases reported in other districts of the state. (PTI)
Maharashtra on Tuesday reported 4,930 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the count of infections to 18,28,826, the state health department said. With 95 more patients succumbing to the viral infection, the overall toll mounted to 47,246, it said. A total of 6,290 patients were discharged during the day, taking the tally of recoveries to 16,91,412, a health department official said, adding that the state is now left
with 89,098 active cases. Mumbai city reported 724 new cases, taking its caseload to 2,84,191 while the count of fatalities rose by nine to 10,893, he said. The state has so far tested 1,09,15,683 samples. (PTI)
The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday said it had issued written directions to states and Union Territories to form expert groups to study the market and determine the rates of COVID-19 tests. In response to a question posed at a press briefing, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said deciding the rates of the tests does not come under the purview of the Centre and is a state matter.
"However, the Centre gives recommendations to the state and Union Territories from time to time on deciding the rate of tests in a rational and transparent manner.
"Last week, the Union health ministry wrote to all states to set up an expert group to study the market and determine the testing rates. The states have adopted different ways to fix the rates," he said.
Delhi recorded 4,006 fresh COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, taking the infection tally in the national capital to over 5.74 lakh, while 86 new fatalities pushed the toll from the disease to 9,260, authorities said. These fresh cases came out of the 58,456 COVID-19 tests conducted the previous day, including 30,297 RT-PCR tests, while the positivity rate stood at 6.85 per cent, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi Health Department. The active COVID-19 case count stood at 31,769 in Delhi on Tuesday, it said. The bulletin said the total number of novel coronavirus cases has climbed to 5,74,380 in the national capital (PTI)
The Union government on Tuesday said that it has never spoken about vaccinating the entire country to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. At a press briefing, officials said that there might not even be a need to vaccinate the entire population. On allegations of the 'adverse event' in a Serum institute trial, the government said it will not affect vaccine timelines in anyway. The initial findings into the 'adverse event' allegedly suffered by an Oxford COVID-19 vaccine trial participant in Chennai did not necessitate halting of the trials, the Centre said. It is the role of the drug regulator to ascertain or refute if there is any causal link between the event and the intervention, it said.
The initial findings into the 'adverse event' allegedly suffered by an Oxford COVID-19 vaccine trial participant in Chennai did not necessitate halting of the trials, the Centre said on Tuesday. It is the role of drug regulator to ascertain or refute if there is any causal link between the event and the intervention, it said. On allegation of the 'adverse event' in a Serum institute trial, the government said it will not affect vaccine timelines in anyway. (PTI)
"Vaccination would depend on the efficacy of the vaccine and our purpose is to break the chain of COVID19 transmission. If we're able to vaccinate critical mass of people & break virus transmission, then we may not have to vaccinate the entire population," said ICMR's Dr Balram Bhargava
The top 5 states showing a rise in active COVID cases from Nov 1-Dec 1 are Punjab, HP, MP, Haryana and Rajasthan, said Health Ministry in its briefing on Tuesday.
On being asked about the recent adverse event in the Serum Institute of India's vaccine trial, Health Ministry's Rajesh Bhushan said that adverse event will not affect the timeline in any manner whatsoever.
'Adverse events do occur with drugs or vaccines or any other health intervention. It is the role of the regulator after collating all data to ascertain or refute whether there is a causal link between the event and intervention,' said ICMR's Dr Balram Bhargava.
On being asked about the recent adverse event in the Serum Institute of India's vaccine trial, Health Ministry's Rajesh Bhushan said that adverse event will not affect the timeline in any manner whatsoever. He also added that the cumulative positivity rate has decreased in India from 7.15% to 6.69% during Nov 11-Dec 1 period. 'In November 2020, the number of recoveries has been more than the number of new #COVID19 cases,' he said.
Singapore and Hong Kong have deferred the launch of their planned air travel bubble till next year, amid a spike in COVID-19 cases in the Special Administrative Region of China. In a statement on Tuesday, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said the travel bubble will be deferred beyond December and the exact start date will be reviewed late this month.
The CASS has called on passengers on planned flights to contact their airlines regarding changes to travel plans. Under the original deal which was announced in mid-October, the bubble flights would be suspended for two weeks if the seven-day moving average of the daily number of unlinked local COVID-19 cases was more than five for either Singapore or Hong Kong.
"Average daily positivity rate last week was 3.72%. Among all the big nations in world, cases per million in India (at 211 cases/mn ) are the lowest. Last 7 days trends shows that European nations are witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases," said Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary, Health Ministry
Active cases of COVID-19 in India have remained below the 5-lakh mark, with its share further shrinking to 4.60 per cent of the total coronavirus infections reported so far, according to the Union Health Ministry. The daily new recoveries exceeding new cases has led to a total net reduction of the active caseload to 4,35,603. A net decline of 11,349 cases has been recorded in the total active cases in a span of 24 hours, the ministry said on Tuesday.
A total of 31,118 new infections were added to the national tally in a day. While some states like Kerala, Delhi, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh have witnessed a decline in the active caseload in a span of 24 hours, others such as Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Assam and Goa have reported an addition to their caseload.
In contrast to 31,118 new reported COVID-19 cases, 41,985 cases have recovered in a span of 24 hours.The total recovered cases stand at 88,89,585 which translates to a recovery rate of 93.94 per cent. "The gap between recoveries and active cases continues to grow and presently stands at 84,53,982," the ministry said. (PTI)
The Gujarat government on Tuesday reduced the price of RT-PCR tests conducted by private laboratories for COVID-19 to Rs 800 from Rs 1,500. Deputy chief minister Nitin Patel told PTI that since the prices of test kits have come down, the state government decided to pass on this benefit to people. 'From today, the government-authorised private laboratories will charge Rs 800 for an RT-PCR test, a reduction of Rs 700 from the current rate,' Patel said.
The prices of test kits have come down following large scale production, he said. If a laboratory assistant is called at home to collect samples, the charge for the RT-PCR test will be Rs 1,100, he said, adding that labs charge Rs 2,000 for the home collection service at present. The decision to slash the test rates was taken by the government's core group under the guidance of Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, he said. (PTI)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been administered an experimental Covid-19 vaccine developed by China, according to a Reuters report. The report quotes a US analyst who has cited two unidentified Japanese intelligence sources.
"Kim Jong Un and multiple other high-ranking officials within the Kim family and leadership network have been vaccinated for coronavirus within the last two to three weeks thanks to a vaccine candidate supplied by the Chinese government," Kazianis wrote. Read more here
Influenza is caused by a virus, but the most common cause of death in influenza patients is secondary pneumonia caused by bacteria, rather than the influenza virus itself. While this is well known, what is largely unknown is why influenza infections lead to an increased risk of bacterial pneumonia.
Now, researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet have described findings leading to so-called “superinfections”. The study is published in the journal PNAS. It can also contribute to research on Covid-19, the scientists suggest.
The researchers cite the example of the Spanish flu, which was an influenza pandemic that swept across the world in 1918–20. Unlike many other pandemics, the Spanish flu disproportionately hit young healthy adults. And one important reason for this was “superinfections” caused by bacteria, in particular pneumococci. Read more here
India detected 31,118 cases of the novel coronavirus in the 24 hours ending 9 am Tuesday, taking its overall tally to 94.62 lakh. This includes 4,35,603 active cases, 88,89,585 people who have recovered and 1,37,621 deaths.ud83eudda0 Active cases fall to about 4.35 lakh, a level last seen in the third week of July ud83eudda0 Biggest contribution on Monday from #Maharashtra, which reported about 3,800 new cases#ExpressExplained (2/2)— Express Explained (@ieexplained) December 1, 2020