Coronavirus LIVE Updates: Kerala Reports 5,299 Backlog Deaths in Last 16 Days; India Registers 10,853 New Cases

Odisha on Sunday registered 318 new cases taking the state’s COVID-19 caseload to 10,43,469 while three fresh fatalities pushed the coronavirus death toll to 8,357, a health department official said. The new cases included 58 children and adolescents. The rate of infection among people in the age group of 0 to 18 years now stands at 18.23 per cent against the previous day’s 11.05 per cent.

The state had reported 208 COVID-19 cases on Saturday, 170 on Friday and 351 on Thursday. Of the 318 new cases, 186 were from quarantine centres while the remaining 132 were local contacts. Khurda district of which Bhubaneswar is a part, recorded the highest of 139 cases, followed by Cuttack (31).

Khurda district alone accounted for above 43 per cent of the state’s daily caseload. Six other districts reported nil cases. With 318 people testing positive for the infection out of 62,842 samples tested, the state’s daily test positivity rate (TPR) now is 0.50 per cent. The TPR was 0.40 per cent on Saturday and 0.30 on Friday.

Singapore has reported emerging cases of a rare virus-linked paediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome amidst a rising number of COVID-19 cases as it tries to arrest the spread of the contagion. The country reported 3,035 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday and 12 deaths due to complications linked to the coronavirus.

Four infections are among over 8,000 paediatric COVID-19 cases that are “considered rare” and are emerging since the start of the pandemic, the Health Ministry said in the statement. All four, age ranging from two months to eight years, were admitted to hospital between October and November this year, according to media reports.

The union territory of Puducherry registered 35 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, a senior official of the Department of Health said on Sunday. The new cases were detected at the end of the examination of 2,534 samples pushing the overall tally to 1,28,200, Director of the Health Department G Sriramulu said in a release.

The 35 fresh infections were spread over Puducherry (14), Karaikal (12), Mahe (5) and Yanam (4). No fresh fatality was reported from any of the four regions-Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam- in the last 24 hours and the death toll remained at 1,862, the Health Department Director said.

Zydus Cadila’s three-dose Covid vaccine ZyCoV-D is set to be included in the national anti-coronavirus inoculation programme this month with the Centre placing a purchase order with the Ahmedabad-based firm for one crore doses, official sources said on Sunday. The Union Health Ministry is learnt to have given the go ahead to initiate the preparatory work for the introduction of the indigenously developed world’s first DNA-based Covid jab, which in all probability will be given to adults initially under the country’s vaccination drive, sources in the know of developments said.

ZyCoV-D is the first vaccine cleared by India’s drug regulator for inoculation of those aged 12 years and above. “The Centre has already placed a purchase order with Zydus Cadila for supply of one crore doses of ZyCoV-D, each costing around Rs 358 excluding taxes, at the earliest. This price includes the cost of a disposable painless jet applicator which has to be used for administering each dose,” an official source said.

The New Zealand government will increase the income of 346,000 families by an average of NZ$20 ($14) per week as a part of new support measures amid Covid-19, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. In a suite of improvements to family support from April 2022, the government aims to lift an estimated 6,000 more children out of poverty, reports Xinhua news agency.

“Covid-19 has been tough on families and has contributed to the increase in the cost of living. Increasing support for low and middle income families to help cover the basics is the fair thing to do,” Ardern said in a statement. “Ending child poverty is a priority for this government,” she said, adding that the changes are targeted towards the lowest income families.

Ladakh recorded 27 new cases of coronavirus, pushing the overall virus tally to 21,033 and active cases to 114, officials said on Sunday. The Union Territory has so far registered 209 Covidrelated deaths 151 in Leh and 58 in Kargil since the outbreak of the pandemic last year. The officials said a total of 1,179 people were tested for COVID19 in the twin districts on Saturday and 27 of them returned positive in Leh. Four coronavirus infected patients were discharged from a hospital in Leh, taking the number of recoveries in Ladakh to 20,710, they said. The officials said the active cases in Ladakh have risen to 114 with 110 in Leh and four in Kargil. No Covidrelated death was reported on Saturday, the officials said.

India saw a single-day rise of 10,853 COVID-19 infections, which took the country’s total tally of cases to 3,43,55,536, while active cases have declined to 1,44,845, the lowest in 260 days, according to Union health ministry data updated on Sunday. The death toll has climbed to 4,60,791 with 526 more fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 20,000 for 30 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 133 consecutive days now, the ministry said. The active cases have declined to 1,44,845, comprising 0.42 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March last year, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.24 per cent, the highest since March last year, it said.

With the addition of 95 new cases of coronavirus, the infection count in Maharashtra’s Thane district has gone up to 5,66,631, while four deaths pushed the toll to 11,542, an official said on Sunday. These new cases were reported on Saturday, he said.

The COVID-19 mortality rate in Thane is 2.03 percent, he added. In neighboring Palghar district, the COVID-19 case count has gone up to 1,38,149, while the death toll is 3,289, another official said.

Arunachal Pradesh’s COVID-19 tally rose to 55,180 as four more persons tested positive for the infection, two more than the previous day, a senior health official said here on Sunday. The total number of recoveries in the state rose to 54,840 as five more persons recuperated from the disease on Saturday, the official said.

The COVID-19 recovery rate in the state now is 99.38 per cent, while the active percentage is 0.11, State Surveillance Officer (SSO) Dr Lobsang Jampa said. The COVID-19 death toll in the frontier state remained at 280 as no fresh fatality was reported in the last 24 hours, the SSO said.

Arunachal Pradesh now has 60 active COVID-19 cases. Tawang district has the highest number of active cases at 11, followed by Lower Dibang Valley, Lohit and East Siang at nine cases each.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked the officials to escalate the pace of the Covid vaccination programme, with a focus on the second dose, across the state. The chief minister has issued directions to expedite the inoculation drive by setting a target of delivering 25 to 30 lakh doses every day, in the next two months.

According to the government spokesman, the chief minister said, “A target should be set to vaccinate around 25 to 30 lakh people daily so that 100 per cent eligible population gets vaccinated against Covid-19. To expedite vaccine coverage, the additional chief secretary, health, must start the preparations and speed up the proceedings by holding a meeting with all the chief medical officers of the state.”

Tanzanian authorities have said that between 80,000 and 100,000 people will be vaccinated daily against Covid-19 during the second phase of the inoculation campaign. A statement by the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children said the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Abel Makubi, revealed the acceleration of the vaccination in a meeting with Regional Medical officers and Covid-19 vaccination coordinators in the capital Dodoma.

The global coronavirus caseload has topped 249.5 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 5.04 million and vaccinations soared to over 7.22 billion, according to Johns Hopkins University. In its latest update on Sunday morning, the University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload, death toll and the total number of vaccine doses administered stood at 249,502,872, 5,043,945 and 7,226,106,343, respectively.

A US federal appeals court Saturday halted a vaccine mandate by President Joe Biden’s administration that is intended to push millions of workers at businesses with more than 100 employees into getting Covid-19 shots. The New Orleans-based US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said that because petitioners “give cause to believe there are grave statutory and constitutional issues with the Mandate, the Mandate is hereby STAYED pending further action by this court.” The traditionally conservative court ordered the government to reply to the motion for a permanent injunction by 5:00 pm Monday.

The Karnataka government on Friday withdrew the night curfew that was enforced in April this year, to curb Covid-19. The night curfew, which is generally effective from 10 pm to 5 am, has been withdrawn with immediate effect, Chief Secretary P Ravi Kumar said in a notification. According to a report in The Indian Express, the hotel industry and the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) have welcomed the move by the government as an important step to revive the service industry in cities such as Bengaluru.

Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor Manoj Sinha reviewed the coronavirus situation in the Union Territory on Saturday and directed for strict enforcement of Covid-appropriate behaviour to check any spike in the cases. Sinha also reviewed the situation of dengue in Jammu and directed the officials concerned for effective prevention efforts even as a central team is in Jammu to assess the on-ground situation in the Union Territory.

Reviewing the COVID-19 situation during a series of meetings with the members of the Covid Task Force, deputy commissioners and superintendents of police, Sinha emphasised on the need to take effective and quick actions to minimise COVID-19 impacts. He termed rapid asymptomatic testing and contact tracing as important tools to help reduce the spread of the virus.

Punjab recorded 25 fresh Covid cases, taking the infection tally to 6,02,517, according to a medical bulletin. The death toll remained at 16,562 as no new Covid-related fatality was reported in the state. Of the fresh cases, Mohali reported 10, followed by eight in Jalandhar and two each in Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran. There are 219 active cases in the state, while 21 people have recuperated from the infection in the last 24 hours, taking the number of those who have been cured to 5,85,736, according to the bulletin.

Meanwhile, Chandigarh reported one Covid case, taking the total count to 65,360. The death toll in the city stood at 820. There are 29 active cases in the Union Territory, 64,511 people have recovered from the infection.

Chhattisgarh’s COVID-19 tally rose to 10,06,159 on Saturday as 27 new cases came to light, while the death toll remained unchanged at 13,584, an official said. The number of recoveries touched 9,92,316 after seven people were discharged from hospitals and 19 completed home isolation during the day, leaving the state with 259 active cases, he said.

“Korba and Jashpur recorded five new cases each. No fresh case was reported in 19 districts. With 10,264 samples examined during the day, the number of tests in Chhattisgarh went up to 1,37,36,558,” the official added. Chhattisgarh’s coronavirus figures are as follows: Positive cases 10,06,159, New cases 27, Death toll 13,584, Recovered 9,92,316, Active cases 259, today tests 10,264, Total tests 1,37,36,558.

Slovenia will on Monday increase restrictions designed to curb the Covid-19 pandemic, the government said on its website amid the worsening situation. From Monday, any gathering of people will be prohibited temporarily apart from those within the same household. People will no longer be allowed to use ordinary textile face masks but surgical masks or FFP2 masks in all indoor public spaces.

In order to enter most public institutions, people will have to show personal identification as well as a certificate of vaccination, a negative test or proof that they have recovered from Covid-19, Xinhua news agency reported.

Chile reported 2,895 cases of Covid-19 and 27 deaths in the last 24 hours amid an outbreak of infections in the country, the Ministry of Health (Minsal) has reported. With these figures, the accumulated number of infections rose to 1,706,622, with 37,841 deaths.

Minsal said in a statement on Saturday that the positivity rate in the country in the last 24 hours reached 3.36 per cent after the results of 82,419 tests were analyzed, Xinhua news agency reported.

As Australia’s New South Wales (NSW) state has begun to see a tapering of its vaccination rates, authorities announced on Sunday that the state would transition to the booster program phase of its vaccination rollout. As the state inches towards its 95 per cent inoculation target as of midnight Friday, 93.9 per cent of the NSW’s above 16 years population have had at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, and 89.7 per cent have been fully vaccinated, Xinhua news agency reported.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, during Sunday’s press conference, said the state would transit to its booster program phase, focusing first on the state’s most vulnerable population.