Traders and transporters during a special vaccination drive against COVID-19 by Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) in Navi Mumbai. (PTI Photo) Coronavirus in India 2021 Live Updates: Has India passed the great Diwali test? 48 hours after the festivities, India’s Covid trajectory has not seen any major spike. Yes, there are pockets of concern – areas in Jammu and Kashmir are reporting a relatively high number of cases, Kerala continues to report more than half of the total cases detected across India, if we look at the overall situation, it seems to be under control. On Sunday, India witnessed 10,583 new coronavirus infections. Though the cases were marginally lower than yesterday, one should also note that we are conducting fewer tests. The November 7 ICMR data shows that less than 10 lakh Covid tests were carried out across the country.
Another important point that the health experts have been highlighting is the rate of vaccination. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also taken note of this. The Centre has also launched a door-to-door inoculation drive called ‘Har Ghar Dastak’. Experts have said that if we are not able to vaccinate a sizeable chunk of the population, we may give way to another Covid way. As in the US, this phase of the contagion may well be called the pandemic of the unvaccinated. Also, in addition to this, several new, deadlier variants of the novel coronavirus are also being reported. This can also change the success story into another Covid disaster.
Here are the latest Covid-related updates from India and around the globe:
Highlights
Singapore has reported emerging cases of a rare virus-linked paediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome amidst 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. Of these four cases, one four-year-old is in the children's intensive care unit (CICU) breathing with the support mechanical ventilation, one is in a general ward and two have been discharged. - PTI
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. - PTI
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. - PTI
Grammy-winning singer Ed Sheeran has recovered from COVID-19 and has revealed that his one-year-old daughter Lyra, whom he shares with wife Cherry Seaborn, also tested positive for the virus at the time. The British singer-songwriter had shared his diagnosis late last month and in a recent interview with Howard Stern, he detailed his experience with the coronavirus. "I tested for COVID and I announced it a couple days afterwards because I had to cancel [some] stuff. As soon as I got a cold, I just started testing every single day. I was just like, I want to make sure I don't have it,” said Sheeran. - PTI
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 Covid-related 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 COVID-19 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 Covid-related death was reported on Saturday, the officials said. - PTI
Bengal's COVID-19 pandemic scenario improved slightly with 670 fresh cases reported from different parts of the state taking the caseload in the state to 15,97,765, the health department said. The state had reported 763 new cases of the contagion on Friday and 918 cases the day before. The city also witnessed a decline in COVID infection as 181 fresh cases were reported in the last 24 hours, the department said in a bulletin. On Friday, the city had accounted for 203 new cases and 228 on Thursday. The bulletin said the positivity rate of the disease too slipped to 2.21 per cent from Friday's 2.53 per cent. The number of deaths, however, rose slightly as 14 fatalities were reported from the state with the city accounting for four, South 24 Parganas district three and North 24 Parganas and East Bardhaman districts two each. - PTI
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. The data stated that a decrease of 2,105 cases has been recorded in active COVID-19 cases in a span of 24 hours. - PTI