Trial run for Covid-19 vaccination drive underway at Rosa Garden in Thane on Friday. (Photo: Deepak Joshi)Covid-19 India Live Updates: The Covid-19 fatality rate in India has been showing a steady decline to further dropped to 1.44 per cent due to focused efforts of the Centre, states and Union Territories on effective clinical management of the hospitalised cases, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday. With effective containment strategy, aggressive testing and standardised clinical management protocols based on holistic standard of care protocol across government and private hospitals, the number of new deaths have fallen, it stated, adding that Less than 300 new COVID-19 deaths were recorded in the country consistently for the last 16 days.
The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) Sunday announced that devotees need not produce their Covid negative certificate to enter the 12th century shrine in Puri from January 21. The decision was taken at a meeting attended by SJTA chief Krishan Kumar, Puri district magistrate-cum collector Samarth Verma and Superintendent of Police K B Singh.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Sunday announced that the state government is making arrangements to make Covid-19 vaccines available to its citizens free of cost. “I am happy to announce that our government is making arrangements to facilitate the administration of covid-19 vaccine to all the people of the state without any cost,” ANI quoted Banerjee. Several states including Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh have announced free vaccines for their citizens once the roll out starts.
India recorded 18,645 new Covid cases in the 24 hours ending 8 am Sunday, taking the total number of infections to over 1 crore and 4.5 lakh. Active cases further dropped to 2.33 lakh, while recoveries continued to rise and stand at 1,00,75,950. A total of 201 deaths were reported on Saturday, the toll currently stands at over 1.51 lakh. Kerala reported 5,528 new cases, while Maharashtra had 3,581 fresh infections on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the number of Indians infected with the new UK variant of the coronavirus went up to 90 on Saturday.
Japan discovers new strain of coronavirus, which has some similarities to those discovered in the UK and South Africa, The Spectator Index reported.
The Delhi Prisons Department has asked around 3,600 staff members including security personnel to enrol themselves to receive coronavirus vaccine shots, officials said on Sunday, as the authorities gear up for the inoculation drive. According to a senior jails official, around 1,600 jail staff, 1,000 Tamil Nadu Special Police personnel who carry out security duty at Tihar Jail and 1,000 paramilitary personnel are being enrolled. The date, time and place of vaccination for each person will be intimated to him/her on their mobile number, they said, adding, however, that no inmate will get the shot in the first phase as it has been reserved for frontline workers. --PTI
The COVID-19 fatality rate in India has been showing a sustained decline and has further dropped to 1.44 per cent due to focused efforts of the Centre, states and Union Territories on effective clinical management of the hospitalised cases, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday. With effective containment strategy, aggressive testing and standardised clinical management protocols based on holistic standard of care protocol across government and private hospitals, the number of new deaths have dipped, it stated. "Less than 300 new COVID-19 deaths are being recorded in the country for the last 16 days," the ministry said. --PTI
Puri temple darshan will no more require COVID-19 negative certificate from January 21, which was mandatory earlier for entry into the temple premise, informs temple's chief administrator. Temple will remain closed once a week for sanitisation.
Doctors and nurses at a South African hospital group noticed an odd spike in the number of COVID-19 patients in their wards in late October. The government had slackened its lockdown grip, and springtime had brought more parties. But the numbers were growing too quickly to easily explain, prompting a distressing question.
“Is this a different strain?” one hospital official asked in a group email in early November, raising the possibility that the virus had developed a dangerous mutation.
That question touched off a high-stakes genetic investigation that began here in Durban on the Indian Ocean, tipped off researchers in Britain and is now taking place around the world. Scientists have discovered worrisome new variants of the virus, leading to border closures, quarantines and lockdowns, and dousing some of the enthusiasm that arrived with the vaccines.
Britain has been particularly overwhelmed. Infections and hospitalizations have skyrocketed in recent weeks since that country discovered its own variant of the virus, which is more contagious than previous forms. By one estimate, the mutated virus is already responsible for more than 60% of new infections in London and surrounding areas.Doctors and nurses at a South African hospital group noticed an odd spike in the number of COVID-19 patients in their wards in late October. The government had slackened its lockdown grip, and springtime had brought more parties. But the numbers were growing too quickly to easily explain, prompting a distressing question. (Read full story here)
The year was 1999. Officials and scientists at the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) were a little unsure about what to do next. They had invited offers from Indian firms to become partners in the development of a vaccine for rotavirus. And the only company to have shown interest was an inexperienced three-year-old upstart from Hyderabad with little track record to boast of.
The lack of enthusiasm was not entirely unexpected. Earlier that year, the only existing vaccine for rotavirus, one produced by an American company, had to be withdrawn after some recipients reported a rare type of bowel obstruction. The vaccine had been introduced in the market the previous year.
Rotaviruses are the most common cause of diarrhoea in infants worldwide. According to WHO, they were responsible for deaths of about 215,000 children below five years of age in 2013, a majority of them in India.(Read Amitabh Sinha's report here)
Every Indian should be administered the Covid-19 vaccine for free, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal appealed to the Centre on Saturday. “Corona is the biggest pandemic of the century. It is important to protect our people from it. I appeal to the Centre to vaccinate every citizen for free. The expenditure towards carrying this out will save a lot of lives,” he tweeted.
The Delhi government also announced that teachers will be considered frontline workers as part of the vaccination drive. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia tweeted Saturday, “Delhi’s teachers have played a very significant role in supporting the government in fighting the pandemic. Quarantine centre, containment zone, surveys, duty to check face mask adherence, online teaching – they have taken the lead across sectors. Hence, the government has kept teachers in the category of frontline workers.”
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Sunday announced the state government’s arrangements to make Covid-19 vaccines available to its citizens free of cost.”I am happy to announce that our government is making arrangements to facilitate the administration of covid-19 vaccine to all the people of the state without any cost,” ANI quoted Banerjee.
India recorded 18,645 new Covid cases in the 24 hours ending 8 am Sunday, taking the total number of infections to over 1 crore and 4.5 lakh. Active cases further dropped to 2.33 lakh, while recoveries continued to rise and stand at over 99.27 lakh. A total of 201 deaths were reported on Saturday, the toll currently stands at over 1.51 lakh.Kerala reported 5,528 new cases, while Maharashtra had 3,581 on Saturday.
A 45-year-old daily-wage worker, who participated in the Phase 3 trial for Bharat Biotech-ICMR’s Covaxin in Bhopal at the People’s Medical College and Hospital, died December 21, nine days after he got the first jab, according to hospital records.
The postmortem report of Deepak Marawi, a father of three, suspected “poisoning” as a cause. Bharat Biotech, in a statement, said that the “serious adverse reaction” had been “thoroughly investigated” and was found “not related to vaccine or placebo”. A state government panel, too, ruled out any “lapses.”
Bharat Biotech said it couldn’t confirm if Marawi received the vaccine or the placebo since it was a double-blind study. It added that the volunteer, at the time of enrolment, “had fulfilled all the inclusion and exclusion criteria” and was reported to be healthy in all the “site follow up calls post seven days of dosing.” Read Iram Siddique's report here
Noting India's image as the world's pharmacy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Saturday it is ready with two locally manufactured COVID-19 vaccines to "protect" humanity, and asserted the world is not only waiting for them but also watching as to how the nation runs the globe's biggest vaccination programme.
In his address at the inauguration of the 16th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) Convention, Modi also said that if democracy is most strong, vibrant and lively anywhere in the world, it is in India despite the grim forecasts about its survival in the country at the time of independence. He urged Indian diaspora to use more and more made-in-India products, saying it will inspire confidence among those living around them to use these items as well. (PTI)