COVID patients at Shehnai Banquet hall, New Delhi, May 18, 2021. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha)Coronavirus India Live Updates: The Union Health Ministry Wednesday said that those who have got infected with Covid-19 after getting their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine should defer the second dose by 3 months after clinical recovery.
The Health Ministry also recommended Covid-19 vaccination for all lactating women.
Meanwhile, hours after External Affairs Minister slammed Delhi Chief Minister for his remarks on “Singapore strain,” Deputy CM Manish Sisodia hit back accusing the Centre of being bothered only about its “image in Singapore.” Stating that the Centre was doing “cheap politics,” Sisodia said, “Centre is worried about its image in Singapore but not about children under threat from COVID strain. It did not consider alerts about COVID London strain and many lost their family members due to it.”
India reported 4,529 deaths on Tuesday, the highest so far in a day. Maharashtra reported over 1,300 deaths, nearly half of which were more than a week old. Karnataka reported 525 deaths, while Tamil Nadu added 364 to the toll. Over 2.67 lakh fresh cases were reported in the country. While Tamil Nadu recorded more than 33,000 cases, Karnataka and Kerala both reported over 30,000 cases. Maharashtra, which was leading the list for months reported the country’s fourth highest case count with 28,438 new infections. The active cases in the country dropped further to 32.26 lakh.
The government on Tuesday said that around 200 districts have been reporting a decline in cases for the last two weeks and, after consistently increasing for the past 13 weeks, the country’s overall case positivity has registered a decline over the past seven days. The “pandemic curve is stabilising”, and the reproduction number (R) has now fallen below 1, Dr V K Paul, head of India’s Covid-19 Task Force, said. “This means the pandemic is shrinking overall,” he added.
Volunteers of a NGO distribute ration at Budhwarpeth in Pune on Monday. (Express Photo: Pavan Khengre)
Referring to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal's remarks on the Covid-19 variant in Singapore, Singapore High Commissioner to India Simon Wong Wednesday said the Singapore government prefers to deal with virus and its variants in scientific terms. "We abide closely with WHO’s recommendation of not giving virus any geographical name. We focus more on scientific aspect than to put finger on anyone," he added.
"This morning, we invited High Commissioner Kumaran to express concern that prominent figure in Delhi failed to ascertain facts before making claims. Following meeting, MEA spox pointed Delhi CM has no competence to pronounce on Covid variant.""We were happy to see EAM Dr Jaishankar had put 3 points that Singapore & India are solid partners in the fight against Covid, that Delhi CM doesn't speak for India, and that the comments made were irresponsible," he further added.
Wong said that they would wish to put an end to this episode because authorities representing Government of India had spoken and they are heartened by those assurances. "It (Delhi CM's remarks) would not impact our (India-Singapore) hand-in-hand fight against Covid. As witnessed y'day & today with transportation of medical aid, we're working together. Pandemic knows no boundary or political colour."Wong further said they are satisfied with GoI's clarification."In Singapore, we have Protection from Online Falsehoods & Manipulation Act (POFMA) to mitigate misinformation & we reserve right to invoke POFMA on assertions made by CM (Delhi). However, we're satisfied with GoI's clarification."
The Union Health Ministry has come out with new guidelines on vaccination, stating four specific categories of individuals should defer Covid-19 vaccinations. Read our explained copy here to know all the details.
A novel Covid-19 test developed by a startup incubated by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru is expected to help detect the presence and the response of antibodies acting against Coronavirus, after vaccination as well, its developers said.The testing technique developed by PathShodh Healthcare, according to IISc, is a first-of-its-kind, semi-quantitative electrochemical ELISA test for Covid-19 IgM and IgG antibodies.
According to its developers, the technology is based on the measurement of electrochemical redox activity of IgM and IgG antibodies specific to the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Glycoprotein (S1). Read more
The Union Health Ministry Wednesday came up with new guidelines on Covid-19 vaccination, stating four specific categories of individuals should defer Covid-19 vaccination.
Those who have tested positive for the virus should defer the vaccine by three months after recovery. For those who have got Covid-19 after getting their first vaccine dose, the ministry recommended deferring the second dose by 3 months after recovery.
The new guidelines recommended to the states that persons with any other serious general illness requiring hospitalization or ICU care should also wait for 4-8 weeks before getting the Covid-19 vaccine. It is to be noted those who have severe comorbities, including cancer, should not defer vaccination; however, only those who have been hospitalised or have undergone treatment for the comorbidities in critical care should defer vaccination.
In addition to the above categories, the new recommendations also state that in Covid-19 patients who have been given anti-SARS-2 monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma - Covid-19 vaccination is to be deferred by three months from the date of discharge from the hospital.
Tamil Nadu Government will commence vaccinating people of 18-44 age group from May 20, said Health and Family Welfare Minister Ma Subramanian.
“Initially, the government will vaccinate those people aged between 18 years and 44 years from whom the coronavirus can spread much faster like auto-rickshaw drivers and factory workers,” the minister said.
Chief Minister MK Stalin will launch the initiative.
The Union Health Ministry Wednesday recommended Covid-19 vaccination for all lactating women.
The Health Ministry Wednesday said that for people who have been infected with Covid-19 after getting the first dose of vaccine, the second dose is to be deferred by 3 months after clinical recovery from coronavirus.
Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said Wednesday that the statement made by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on the Covid strain in Singapore was meant to express worry for the children of the country, but the Centre is only focusing on its image abroad.
Kejriwal had said in a tweet on Tuesday, “A new variant of coronavirus found in Singapore is being said to be very dangerous for children. This can usher in the third wave (of COVID-19) in India. I appeal to the Central government to immediately halt air services with Singapore, and work on developing a vaccine for children on a priority basis.”
Mucormycosis (black fungus), which is primarily affecting people recovering from COVID, has been declared an epidemic in Rajasthan, officials said on Wednesday.
Currently, the state has around 100 black fungus patients and a separate ward has been made at Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital in Jaipur for their treatment.
Mucormycosis has been notified as an epidemic and a notifiable disease in the state under the Rajasthan Epidemic Act 2020, according to a notification issued by state's Principal Health Secretary Akhil Arora.
More than 20 lakh Covid-19 tests were conducted across the country in a span of 24 hours, which is a global record and the highest ever done in a single day in India, while the daily positivity rate has declined to 13.31 per cent, the Union Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
India's Covid-19 daily recoveries exceeded the number of daily new cases for the sixth consecutive day. Cumulative recoveries have surged to 2,19,86,363 with 3,89,851 patients recuperating in a day. The national recovery rate has grown further to touch 86.23 per cent.
"More than 20 lakh tests were conducted in the last 24 hours (the highest ever conducted in a single day in India), while the daily positivity rate has declined to 13.31 per cent," the ministry said. (PTI)
More than 20 lakh Covid-19 tests were conducted across the country in a span of 24 hours, which is a global record and the highest ever done in a single day in India, while the daily positivity rate has declined to 13.31 per cent, the Union Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
India's Covid-19 daily recoveries exceeded the number of daily new cases for the sixth consecutive day. Cumulative recoveries have surged to 2,19,86,363 with 3,89,851 patients recuperating in a day. The national recovery rate has grown further to touch 86.23 per cent.
"More than 20 lakh tests were conducted in the last 24 hours (the highest ever conducted in a single day in India), while the daily positivity rate has declined to 13.31 per cent," the ministry said. (PTI)
The Karnataka government has announced a Covid relief package of Rs 1,250 crore for farmers, auto and cab drivers, construction workers, artistes and various workers in the unorganised sector.
This comes at a time when a lockdown is underway in the state to prevent the virus from spreading and opposition parties have been calling for relief measures for those whose livelihoods have been affected by the restrictions.
Responding to the Centre’s remarks on the 'Singapore strain', Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia accused the BJP of doing “cheap politics.” “Centre is worried about its image in Singapore but not about children under threat from COVID strain. It did not consider alerts about COVID London strain and many lost their family members due to it,” he said, news agency PTI reported.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday accused the Centre of diverting attention and said while deaths due to COVID-19 are increasing the vaccines are reducing. He also shared graphs showing a decline in COVID-19 vaccinations and the rise in number of daily deaths due to coronavirus.
'Vaccines are decreasing and Covid deaths are increasing. The Central government policy - Divert attention, spread untruth, make noise by hiding facts,' he wrote in a tweet in Hindi
The Karnataka government has set a goal to vaccinate all those eligible in the state by November end, against coronavirus. "Our major objective is to vaccinate all by October end or November end. All our efforts are in the direction of vaccinating every citizen by the end of the year," Health Minister K Sudhakar said on Wednesday. He was speaking to reporters to announce the receipt of two lakh doses of Covishield from the Pune-based Serum Institute of India.
COVID-19 is ravaging Brazil, and, in a disturbing new wrinkle that experts are working to understand, it appears to be killing babies and small children at an unusually high rate.
Since the start of the pandemic, 832 children 5 and under have died of the virus, according to Brazil’s health ministry. Comparable data is scarce because countries track the impact of the virus differently, but in the United States, which has a far larger population than Brazil, and a higher overall death toll from COVID-19, 139 children 4 and under have died.
And Brazil’s official number of child deaths is likely a substantial undercount, as a lack of widespread testing means many cases go undiagnosed, said Dr. Fátima Marinho, an epidemiologist at the University of São Paulo. Read more
Every fifth person in Maharashtra has either been exposed to coronavirus or received vaccination, data from the health department shows. Maharashtra’s population is estimated to be 12 crore, of which 2 crore have been administered the first vaccine dose and 54 lakh have contracted the infection, providing 20 per cent of the population some level of immunity. Read more
India registered a 13 per cent decrease in new COVID-19 cases in the past week but the number of fresh infections was still the highest around the world, the WHO has said.
The number of new cases and deaths continued to decrease with just over 4.8 million new cases and just under 86,000 new deaths reported globally in the past week, a 12 per cent and 5 per cent decrease respectively compared to the previous week, according to the COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update Data received by the World Health Organization from national authorities as of May 16. It said that the highest number of new cases were reported from India (2,387,663 new cases), a 13 per cent decrease over the previous week
BJP MLA Gotam Lal Meena died of COVID-19 at a hospital in Udaipur on Wednesday. The 56-year-old Meena was MLA from Dhariawad constituency in Rajasthan's Pratapgarh district. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, BJP state president Satish Poonia and other leaders condoled Meena's death. Meena is the fourth MLA in Rajasthan to succumb to coronavirus.
A day after Arvind Kejriwal raised concerns over the 'Singapore variant', Singapore had summoned the Indian envoy and conveyed 'strong objection' to the remarks. The envoy had told them that the Delhi CM 'had no competence' on Covid variants. The Delhi Chief Minister does not speak for India, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said in tweets.
'Singapore and India have been solid partners in the fight against Covid-19. Appreciate Singapore's role as a logistics hub and oxygen supplier. Their gesture of deploying military aircraft to help us speaks of our exceptional relationship. However, irresponsible comments from those who should know better can damage long-standing partnerships. So, let me clarify - Delhi CM does not speak for India,' the Foreign Minister tweeted.