Coronavirus Updates: 53 Students in Odisha's Sundargarh Test Covid Positive; India Logs 7,579 New Cases and 236 Deaths

Liquor shops in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur city will offer a 10 percent discount on country liquor to people who take the second jab of the COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, an official said on Tuesday. However, the move drew criticism from an MLA of the ruling BJP, who said it will encourage people to consume liquor. The Madhya Pradesh government will organise a mega campaign on Wednesday to cover more population under its coronavirus vaccination programme. A 10 per cent discount will be given on purchase of country liquor at three shops located at Sitamau Fatak, Bhuniakhedi and Old Bus Stand, Mandsaur’s district excise officer Anil Sachan said.

With an addition of 12 new cases, the COVID-19 tally in Madhya Pradesh rose to 7,93,052 on Tuesday, while one more patient succumbed to the infection, a health department official said. The death toll increased by one to reach 10,527, the official said. The state’s recovery count increased to 7,82,435 after 12 patients were discharged from hospitals during the day, he said.There are now 90 active coronavirus cases in Madhya Pradesh.

Immune responses to other human coronaviruses, which mostly only cause harmless colds, can provide some protection against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), according to new research published in the journal Nature Communications’. It is known that infections with the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, and vaccination lead to strong antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2. This week, researchers at the University of Zurich (UZH) revealed a cross-reactive immune response which experts believe could be an important piece of the puzzle of how to achieve comprehensive coronavirus immunity. People who have had strong immune responses to other human coronaviruses also have some protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection, said Alexandra Trkola, head of the Institute of Medical Virology at UZH.

European Union governments kicked off a debate on Tuesday about how long vaccines are effective against COVID-19 and whether evidence of a booster dose will be required to maintain free travel across the bloc as cases spike. The executive European Commission is due to present a proposal this week to coordinate free movement using COVID-19 passes, after Austria became the first country in western Europe on Monday to reimpose a lockdown since vaccines were rolled out. EU coordination on the passes, showing if a holder is fully vaccinated or has a recent negative test or recovery from infection, has allowed an easing of curbs on cross-border travel.

Kerala on Tuesday recorded a rise in number of COVID-19 cases, reporting 4,972 infections and 370 deaths, raising the caseload to 50,97,845 and the toll to 38,045. The state had on Monday seen a dip in cases at 3,698 after consistently maintaining a high level of infections over the past few months With 5,978 more people recovering from the virus since Monday, the total recoveries reached 50,18,279 and the active cases dropped to 52,710, an official press release said. Among the 14 districts, Thiruvananthapuram recorded the highest with 917 cases, followed by Thirssur (619) and Kozhikode (527).

Four fully-vaccinated Army officers, two of them participating in a course of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), tested positive for coronavirus in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore district, an official said on Tuesday. “Four Army officers have tested positive for coronavirus in the last three days in Indore. They had received both doses of the anti-COVID-19 vaccine. They have no symptoms and their condition is fine,” said Dr Amit Malakar, nodal officer, COVID-19, Indore.

The Netherlands on Tuesday started transporting COVID-19 patients across the border to Germany to ease pressure on Dutch hospitals struggling to deal with a surge in coronavirus cases. A patient was transferred by ambulance from Rotterdam to a hospital in Bochum, some 240 km (150 miles) east, on Tuesday morning, and another would follow later in the day, health authorities said. The number of COVID-19 patients in Dutch hospitals has swelled to its highest level since May in recent weeks and is expected to increase further as infections jump to record levels.

At least 4 lakh residents of Gujarat’s Ahmedabad city have not taken the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine despite being eligible for the same, a civic official said on Tuesday. To ensure 100 per cent vaccination, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has launched a door-to-door survey to trace people who have not taken both doses of the vaccine against COVID-19, the AMC’s medical officer of health Dr Bhavin Solanki said.

Fifty-three girl pupils of a government-aided high school in Odisha’s Sundargarh district and 22 MBBS students of Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (VIMSAR), Burla in Sambalpur tested positive for COVID-19 in the last three days, a health official said. The state’s coronavirus tally rose to 10,47,386 on Tuesday as 212 more people, including 70 children, tested positive for the infection; while two fresh fatalities pushed the death toll to 8,396, he said.

Israel began rolling out Covid-19 vaccines for children aged five to 11 on Monday, becoming one of a handful of countries to inoculate children so young as it seeks to ward off another pandemic wave. Over the summer, the Jewish state experienced an upsurge in coronavirus infections, fuelled by the Delta variant, and launched one of the earliest campaigns for booster shots.

Ladakh has recorded 16 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to 21,327 while the active cases in the union territory has come down to 230, officials said on Monday. Ladakh has registered 212 Covid-related deaths — 154 in Leh and 58 in Kargil — since the outbreak of the pandemic last year. Ten patients were recovered and discharged from a hospital from Leh. The total number of those recovered is 20,885, they said. All the 16 fresh cases were reported in Leh, the officials said. A total of 492 sample reports in Ladakh were found negative, they said. There was no death reported due to Covid in Ladakh on Sunday. With this, the total number of active COVID-19 cases in Ladakh has gone up to 230, including 219 in Leh and 11 in Kargil district.

New Zealand will adopt a new system of living with the coronavirus virus from Dec. 3, which will end tough restrictions and allow businesses to operate in its biggest city, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday. New Zealand remained largely COVID-19 free until August but has been unable to beat an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant, forcing Ardern to abandon an elimination strategy and switch to treating the virus as endemic. Its biggest city Auckland has been in lockdown for over 90 days, although some measures were eased recently.

Eric Zemmour, the hard-right French political commentator and possible presidential candidate, said on Monday that he felt fears over the COVID-19 virus had been overblown. “We have gone too far, and we have gone too far since the beginning,” Zemmour told France Info radio.

Around 18 lakh people in West Bengal have not turned up in time for the second dose of COVID-19 vaccine, owing to a number of reasons – contracting the virus after the first shot, death or migration to other states for work – according to a recent survey conducted by the health department. The figure includes beneficiaries of the first dose of both Covaxin and Covishield, the prescribed duration of the second dose of which are 28-42 days and 84-112 days, respectively, the study conducted in 23 districts and five health districts of the state showed. “Close to 18 lakh people have not appeared for the second dose. It’s a very serious matter,” a senior health department official told PTI.

India is not considering authorising booster COVID-19 doses yet as many in the country have been naturally infected and the government believes two doses of a vaccine offers sufficient protection for now, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.

As vaccine supplies have increased, some doctors and public health experts in India have urged the government to start a booster programme for the most vulnerable like many Western nations have done. But authorities will instead concentrate on having most of India’s 944 million adults complete a two-dose vaccination by January before shifting their focus to a big expansion in exports, said the sources who are involved in vaccine-policy discussions.

Schools closed across the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe on Monday and France’s president warned of a very explosive situation in the territory, after protests against COVID-19 rules and vaccinations descended into days of rioting and looting. France’s central government sent in police special forces to try to restore order to the former colony, as emergency workers said they were unable to reach neighborhoods barricaded by angry crowds.

Austria became on Monday the first country in western Europe to reimpose lockdown since vaccines were rolled out, shutting non-essential shops, bars and cafes as surging caseloads raised the prospect of a third winter in deep freeze for the continent. Germany will also need tighter restrictions to control a record-setting wave of infections, outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel was quoted as saying, remarks that erased gains on European stock markets and sent bond yields down.

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to gather information from the States on the progress made on disbursal of ex-gratia compensation of Rs 50,000 to the kin of COVID-19 victims and pulled up the Gujarat government for issuing notification constituting a scrutiny committee contrary to its directions. A bench of Justices MR Shah and BV Nagarathna which sought to know from Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, as to how many people have got the payment, said he should collect the data from all the States, and a grievance redressal committee should be set up before the next date of hearing on November 29.

The total number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 117 crore on Monday, the Union health ministry said. More than 63 lakh (63,98,165) vaccine doses were administered to the beneficiaries till 7 pm on Monday, it said, adding that the daily vaccination tally is likely to increase with the compilation of the final reports by late night. The countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16 with the healthcare workers (HCWs) getting inoculated in the first phase. The vaccination of the frontline workers (FLWs) started from February 2.