A health worker collects sample. (Express Photo: Amit Mehra)Coronavirus India Live Updates: The flight operations between India and the United Kingdom will resume from January 8, Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Friday. The operations will be restricted to 15 flights per week till January 23 for carriers of the two countries to and from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad only, the minister said.
The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) on Friday approved a coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University for emergency use, Reuters quoted sources close to development as saying. The Indian Express is yet to verify the news independently.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine Covishield, being manufactured by Serum Institute of India, was reportedly recommended to the drug controller by a Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on Covid-19 of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO). The SEC will make appropriate recommendations to the DCGI which will take the final decision, the ministry said. Bharat Biotech is developing Covaxin in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research.
As many as 20,035 new cases of coronavirus cases were detected in India on the last day of 2020, taking the total number of infections to 1 crore and 2.86 lakh. Of these, about 8.24 lakh were detected in December, the lowest since July.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has cleared the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, which means poorer countries may soon access the shot already available in Europe and North America. The global body on late Thursday said that the decision to issue its first emergency use validation for a coronavirus vaccine “opens the door for countries to expedite their own regulatory approval processes to import and administer the vaccine.” The UN health agency said its review found the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which has already received clearance in the United States, Britain, the European Union and a dozen other countries, “met the must-have criteria for safety and efficacy set out by WHO.”
A dry run to assess preparedness to roll out the COVID-19 vaccination drive will be conducted in seven districts in Chhattisgarh on Saturday, an official said.
The dry run will be conducted in three centres in each of the seven districts, namely Raipur, Surguja, Bilaspur, Rajnandgaon, Durg, Bastar and Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi (GPM), state Mission Director of National Health Mission (NHM) Priyanka Shukla told PTI.
District hospital, community health centres (CHCs) and primary health centres (PHCs) have been selected as centres for the exercise which will start from 10 am onwards and 25 people will be part of the dry run in each centre, Shukla, who is also nodal officer for the state's COVID-19 vaccination drive, said.
"During the mock drill, assessment of cold chain management, vaccine supply, storage and logistics along with management of entry, registration, vaccination and observation of persons who will be administered the vaccine, will be carried out," Shukla informed. (PTI)
A total of 15 people died of Covid-19 and 871 tested positive for it in last 24 hours in Uttar Pradesh, taking the death toll due to the disease in the state on Friday to 8,379 and total cases of infection to 5,86,751.
A dry run for vaccination against Covid-19 would be held at six places in the state capital on Saturday, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said in the state's daily health bulletin.
The government is making all preparations for administering vaccines, he added.
The active cases in the state stood at 13,831 with 5,924 people recuperating at home and 1,291 in private hospitals, Prasad said. The number of those cured has gone up to 5,64,541 with the recovery rate cocking 96.21 per cent now in the state, he added. (PTI)
Haryana reported six fatalities linked to the coronavirus on Friday, bringing the death toll to 2,911 even as 286 fresh cases pushed the state's infection tally to 2,62,611, according to a health department bulletin.
According to the state health department's daily bulletin, two new deaths were reported from Rewari and one each from Karnal, Panchkula, Jhajjar and Fatehabad districts.
Among the districts which reported fresh COVID-19 cases are Gurugram (64) and Faridabad (28). (PTI)
Maharashtra's Covid-19 case tally rose to 19,35,636 with 3,524 new cases being reported on Friday, the state health department said.
As many as 59 patients died during the day, taking the death toll of the pandemic in the state to 49,580. But recoveries outnumbered new infections as 4,279 patients were discharged from hospitals during the day.
So far, 18,32,825 Covid-19 patients have recovered in the state while there are 52,084 active cases.
With 76,201 samples tested on Friday, the tally of tests carried out in the state rose to 1,28,23,834. The recovery rate of the state is 94.69 percent while case fatality rate is 2.56 percent. (PTI)
Union health minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday chaired a high-level meeting to review preparedness at various session sites in the country for coronavirus vaccination trial run on January 2.
The senior officials of the health ministry apprised the minister on various improvements that have been made to make the pan India dry run glitch free, such as number of telephone operators has been increased to answer every possible query from the teams on the ground conducting the dry run.
"Block-level task forces have been constituted for physical inspection of the sites and all workers have been oriented for the purpose with the dissemination of FAQs on the process, among other issues," the ministry said in a statement.
Vardhan asked officials concerned to ensure that the vaccination sites and official in-charge abide by the detailed checklist and SOP for vaccination that has been prepared by the health ministry and shared with the states/UTs to guide them in the dry run. (PTI)
The flight operations between India and the United Kingdom will resume from January 8, Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Friday. The operations will be restricted to 15 flights per week till January 23 for carriers of the two countries to and from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad only, the minister said. His announcement comes on a day when the number of positive cases for new UK-borne new coronavirus variant increased to 29 in India.
A total of 29 people have tested positive for the new UK variant of SARS-CoV-2 in India so far, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday.
These include the 25 cases which were announced till Thursday. "All the 29 persons are in physical isolation in health facilities," an official said.
Of the 29, the mutated UK strain was detected in the samples of eight persons at the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in New Delhi, two in the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi, one in the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG), Kalyani (near Kolkata), five in the National Institute of Virology in Pune, three in Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad and 10 were sequenced at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences Hospital (NIMHANS) Bengaluru.
Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travellers, family contacts and others, the ministry said. (PTI)
A day-long dry run to check the preparations for COVID-19 vaccination will be held in four districts of Gujarat on Saturday, a senior official said.
The first such mock-drill had been conducted earlier this week. The new dry run will be conducted in the districts of Dahod, Bhavnagar, Valsad and Anand, said state Commissioner of Health Jai Prakash Shivahare.
As many as 300 registered beneficiaries would undergo dummy vaccination at 12 centres across these four districts.
"The first dry run in Gujarat was successfully held on December 28 and 29. Now, as directed by the Centre, we have selected four districts for the second such drill to check the preparedness of health machinery ahead of the actual vaccination drive," Shivahare said.
"The dry run will replicate everything we would do in the real vaccination drive. We have created vaccination rooms and also trained our staff on how to counsel a beneficiary if he develops any complications after receiving the vaccine," the official said. (PTI)
India’s drug regulator on Friday approved a coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University for emergency use, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
The decision clears the vaccine’s rollout in the world’s second-most populous country which, after the United States, has the highest number of Covid-19 infections.
India wants to start administering the vaccine soon, most likely by Wednesday, said one of the sources, both of whom declined to be named ahead of an official announcement expected later in the day. (Reuters report)
Kerala set to open cinema theatres from January 5 with 50 per cent seating capacity. Covid protocols will be put in place for the visitors.
Schools of Assam reopened for primary students on Friday after 10 months in a staggered way following strict Covid-19 protocols, officials said.
Classroom teaching started on the first day of the new year for pupils studying in classes one to five, though their attendance is not compulsory and will depend on parental consent.
Over 50 per cent students who were full of enthusiasm attended schools wearing masks and they used sanitiser before entering classrooms, officials said.
Students of classes one, two and three will attend school on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays while those studying in classes four and five will go to their institutes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. (PTI)
Kerala reports 4,991 new Covid-19 cases, 5,153 recoveries and 23 deaths reported on new year's day, says Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. A total number of active cases now stands at 65,054. (ANI)
Health Ministry: Meeting of Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the national drug regulator is still going on. SEC will make appropriate recommendations to Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI). The final decision will be taken by the DCGI. (ANI)
Rashtrapati Bhavan Museum Complex, which was closed for public viewing since March 13 last year due to Covid-19 outbreak, will reopen from January 5, PTI reported.
Efforts are on to trace 75 people who have traveled to Karnataka from the UK with authorities hopeful of locating them soon, state Health Minister Sudhakar said on Friday.
The number of returnees from the UK who have tested positive for the new strain of coronavirus prevalent in the European nation remained at seven and results of genome sequencing of 31 others were awaited, he told reporters here.
"We are yet to trace 75 people who traveled from the UK... some foreign nationals are also there who might not have local contact numbers, their details have been collected from the immigration department," Sudhakar said.
He said the Home Department has assured all would soon b traced so that they can be tested. (PTI)
Jharkhand's Covid-19 tally rose to 1,15,113 on Friday as 240 more people tested positive for the infection, while three fresh fatalities pushed the state's coronavirus death toll to 1,030, a health official said.
Ranchi district reported the highest number of new cases at 110, followed by East Singhbhum (31) and Dhanbad (26), he said.
The fresh fatalities were reported in Ranchi, East Singhbhum and Dhanbad districts, the official said. (PTI)
India’s drug regulator is set to approve on Friday a coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University for emergency use, Reuters quoted three sources with knowledge of the matter as saying.
The decision would pave the way for the vaccine’s rollout in the world’s second-most populous country which, after the United States, has the highest number of COVID-19 infections in the world.
Britain and Argentina have already authorised the vaccine for urgent public use. Read more
The World Health Organization says it has cleared the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, meaning poorer countries may soon get access to the shot already available in Europe and North America.
Every country that has a drug regulatory agency will have to issue its own approval for any Covid-19 vaccine, but countries with weak systems usually rely on WHO to vet the shots.
The global body said late Thursday that the decision to issue its first emergency use validation for a Covid-19 vaccine "opens the door for countries to expedite their own regulatory approval processes to import and administer the vaccine."
The UN health agency said its review found the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which has already received clearance in the United States, Britain, the European Union and a dozen other countries, "met the must-have criteria for safety and efficacy set out by WHO." (AP)
After a gap of over nine months, schools and pre-university colleges in Karnataka reopened for students on Friday with strict COVID-19 safety norms.
While regular classes began on Friday for class 10 and second year PUC (class 12) students, who will be facing board exams; students from grades 6-9 came to campuses for the Vidyagama programme, which enables continued schooling.
Wearing masks, students with consent letters from their parents were seen entering the classes after thermal checks and sanitising their hands at schools and PU colleges across the state.
Inside the classes too, students were seen seated maintaining social distancing. (PTI)
Odisha's Covid-19 tally rose to 3,29,866 on Friday as 245 more people tested positive for the infection, while three fresh fatalities pushed the state's coronavirus death toll to 1,876, a health official said.
As many as 139 new cases were reported in quarantine centres, while 106 infections were detected during contact tracing, he said.
Sambalpur registered the highest number of new cases at 35, followed by Sundergarh (34) and Angul (32), the official said.
The fresh fatalities were reported in Khurda, Cuttack and Nabarangpur districts, he said. (PTI)