Coronavirus March 18 Latest News: The UK government has lifted the remaining Covid-19 related international travel restrictions, including filling in Passenger Locator Forms before arrival and compulsory pre-departure tests for unvaccinated travellers. Meanwhile in India, the Centre has advised all states and Union Territories to continue focusing on the five-fold strategy to prevent Covid-19 surge in the country. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has written to all Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, Secrataries (Health) of all States/UTs, emphasizing that there should be a continued focus on Test-Track-Treat-Vaccination and adherence to Covid Appropriate Behavior.
In other news, the WHO has warned that the global rise in fresh cases of Covid-19, especially in parts of Asia, is just the tip of the iceberg! “After several weeks of declines, reported cases of COVID-19 are once again increasing globally, especially in parts of Asia. These increases are occurring despite reductions in testing in some countries, which means the cases we are seeing are just the tip of the iceberg,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
The WHO said that a combination of factors was causing the spike, including the highly transmissible Omicron variant and its BA.2 sublineage, and the lifting of public health and social measures. The officials have also said that Low vaccination rates in some countries, driven partly by a “huge amount of misinformation” also explained the rise, reported Reuters. Tedros cautioned all countries to remain vigilant and continue testing, sequencing, vaccinating and apply common-sense public health measures to protect health workers and the general public.
The Covid-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update released this week stated that new infections saw a 8% rise globally compared to the previous week, with 11 million new cases and just over 43,000 new deaths reported from March 7-13. It is said to be the first rise since the end of January.
To know more, here are top 10 latest updates on Covid-19 from India and around the world:
1. Gennova Biopharmaceuticals, which is making India’s 1st mRNA COVID19 vaccine, submits phase 2 and phase 3 data to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for evaluation: Sources
2. Kerala reported 847 new Covid-19 cases, 1,321 recoveries, and 3 deaths today. As many as 12 deaths which were not added due to lack of documents and 44 deaths as per the new guidelines of the central government, added. With the new fatalities, the state’s Covid-19 death toll increased to 67,197. The state still has 6,464 active Covid-19 cases. Maharashtra recorded 171 fresh Coronavirus infections and three deaths on Friday, taking its overall tally of Covid-19 cases to 78,72,203 and death toll to 1,43,765, a health department official said. So far, 77,22,754 people have recovered from the viral infection in the state, including 394 on Friday. The state still has 1,680 active cases. The recovery rate stands at 98.10 per cent and fatality rate at 1.82 per cent.
3. Citing the resurgence of coronavirus cases in southeast Asia and parts of Europe, the Centre has asked the states to restart monitoring influenza-like illness and severe acute respiratory infections so that no early warning signals are missed and Covid is controlled, reported PTI.
4. India reported 2,528 fresh Covid cases, 3,997 recoveries, and 149 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the official data shared by the Health Ministry on Friday. The count of active cases has declined to 29,181 which comprises 0.07 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has further improved to 98.73 per cent, the health ministry said. According to the data, a reduction of 1,618 cases has been recorded in the active Covid caseload of the country in a span of 24 hours. The Ministry said that there has been a sustained fall in the weekly and daily positivity rates too. Both were recorded at 0.40 per cent, it added.
5. America’s new COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha is an effective communicator for the country on how to approach and tackle coronavirus, the White House said hours after President Joe Biden appointed the Indian-American physician as his top advisor on the pandemic, reported PTI. Jha, the Dean of Public Health at Brown University, replaces outgoing COVID czar Jeffrey Zients, and will take up the position on April 5.
6. The Canadian government’s announcement that it is dropping the requirement for vaccinated travelers to show a negative Covid test result to enter the country was greeted with relief by tourism and business groups on both sides of the border on Thursday, reported AP. Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said tests will no longer be needed beginning April 1.
7. Britain’s medicines regulator has approved AstraZeneca’s antibody-based Covid treatment for preventing infections in adults with poor immune response, as per Reuters. The decision to grant approval for the treatment, Evusheld, was endorsed by the government’s independent scientific advisory body, Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said on Thursday.
8. In a bid to curb a new spike in Covid infections, the Chinese commercial hub of Shanghai is pushing ahead with a mass testing initiative. The city, home to about 25 million people, saw symptomatic local community infections hit 57 on March 17, with another 203 domestically transmitted asymptomatic cases, up from eight and 150 respectively a day earlier, reported Reuters.
9. Lawmakers in Germany voted Friday to abolish most of pandemic restrictions despite a surge in cases. The Bundestag passed an amendment to the pandemic rules in a 388-277 vote with two abstentions. The upper house of parliament, made up of Germany’s 16 states, is expected to consider the measure later Friday. The changes mean that the requirement to wear face masks will be dropped for most public settings from Sunday, though they may still be required on public transport. Visitors of care homes will also continue to need negative COVID-19 tests, but these will not be required any longer in other walks of life.
10. The COVID-19 tally in Thane district of Maharashtra rose to 7,08,651 with an addition of eight more cases, while no fresh death linked to the infection was reported here, an official said on Friday, reported PTI. Four Covid-19 patients are currently undergoing treatment in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Covid tally remained unchanged at 10,029 as no fresh infection was detected, while the toll stood at 129. A total of 9,896 people have recovered from the disease so far.
