India Coronavirus Dispatch: Third wave inevitable, says AIIMS chief

Over 60,000 fresh cases reported

India reported 60,753 fresh coronavirus infections on Saturday, taking the cumulative caseload to 29.8 million, according to central health ministry data. The country saw 1,647 deaths due to the pandemic, taking the death toll to 385,137. The active caseload is at 760,019, while the total recoveries have surged to 28.6 million. As many as 272.3 million vaccine shots have been administered since the nationwide inoculation programme kicked off on January 16. Of these, 3.3 million were given on Friday. Read more

Third wave could hit India in 6-8 weeks: AIIMS chief

AIIMS chief Randeep Guleria told NDTV that a third Covid-19 wave in India is "inevitable" and could hit the country in the next six to eight weeks. The remark came amid unlocking in parts of the country after weeks of strict restrictions. Guleria believes India's biggest challenge is to inoculate a large population, and the increase in vaccine dose interval for Covishield "may not be a bad" approach to cover more people. He stressed that the mutation of the virus needs to be closely studied as he talked about the new Delta-Plus variant, which has evolved from the Delta variant. Read more

As Delhi unlocks, Covid violations hit two-month high

The number of tickets issued for violation of Covid-mandated behaviour has risen to a two-month peak in recent days as the six-week-long lockdown in Delhi has eased, a report in The Indian Express said. As many as 5,301 people were issued tickets on Thursday for violations such as stepping out without masks, wearing masks improperly, spitting, and not maintaining social distancing. Close to 2,500 people were being given tickets every day till the last week of May when the lockdown was in place. Over the past two months, 189,307 such tickets have been issued—at an average of 3,053 per day. Read more

Karnataka: Mucormycosis fatality rate greater than that of Covid

The mortality rate of "black fungus" or mucormycosis, a post-Covid complication, is higher than that of Covid in Karnataka, a report in The Hindu said. While the State’s case fatality rate (CFR) for Covid is 1.2%, the mortality rate from mucormycosis has touched 7.8%. Till June 17, it had claimed 225 lives of the total 2,856 persons infected. Bhujang Shetty, chairman of Narayana Nethralaya and member of the State’s expert committee on mucormycosis, said there was no need to panic as the root cause of the condition was uncontrolled diabetes. Read more

Two first-dose vaccine certificates can be merged to get final one

The Centre has introduced a new feature on Co-Win to merge two first dose certificates to get a final one, a report in the Times of India said. This brings relief to many vaccine recipients who had received two doses using different cellphone numbers, which count as two first doses on the Co-Win platform. Now, users can log in on Co-Win with their registered cellphone number, click on “Raise an issue” option, select “Merge multiple first dose provisional certificates” and follow the listed steps to get the final vaccination certificate. Read more