Coronavirus News Live Updates Today: India reported 2,927 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours as of 8 am Wednesday, according to the Union Health Ministry. As 2,252 patients recovered from the infection, the number of active cases in India is not at 16,279. The country also reported 32 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of covid-related fatalities to 5,23,654.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with chief ministers on the emerging Covid situation in the country on Wednesday through video conferencing, an official said. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan will make a presentation at the conference. “PM Modi will interact with CMs on the Covid-related situation in the country through video conferencing tomorrow at 12 noon,” the official said. With several festivals coming up, Modi had on Sunday urged people to stay alert to the threat from the coronavirus and continue to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour such as wearing masks and frequently washing hands.
The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) Tuesday granted emergency use authorisation to Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for the age group 6-12 years and Corbevax for the age group 5-12 years. Zydus Cadila’s two-dose Covid-19 vaccine, meanwhile, has been approved for the 12 years and above population.
Healthcare workers conduct Covid-19 test at the Girls College after two cases were reported, in Lucknow, Monday, April 25, 2022. (PTI Photo)
The Distrtict Magistrate of Dehradun, Uttarakhand has directed authorities to fine Rs 500 to those who come without face masks in the city. The decision was taken in view of the increasing rate of Covid-19 infection in the capital as well as the district, news agency ANI reported.
As 2,252 patients recovered from the infection, the number of active cases in India is not at 16,279. The country also reported 32 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of covid-related fatalities to 5,23,654.
India reported 2,927 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours as of 8 am Wednesday, according to the Union Health Ministry.
Amid fresh Covid-19 concerns in different parts of the country and apprehensions of a possible fourth wave of the pandemic, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday indicated that precautionary and surveillance measures may be reintroduces at airports and border districts of the state, depending on the Centre’s advisory. He appealed to people to follow precautionary measures like wearing masks and maintaining social distance to control the spread of virus.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with chief ministers on the emerging Covid situation in the country on Wednesday through video conferencing, an official said. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan will make a presentation at the conference. “PM Modi will interact with CMs on the Covid-related situation in the country through video conferencing tomorrow at 12 noon,” the official said.
With several festivals coming up, Modi had on Sunday urged people to stay alert to the threat from the coronavirus and continue to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour such as wearing masks and frequently washing hands.
Hello and welcome to today's live blog. We bring to you the latest updates related to the Covid-19 cases across the country. Stay tuned!
Following the record surge in Covid cases during the Omicron-driven wave, some 58% of the U.S. population overall and more than 75% of younger children have been infected with the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, according to a US nationwide blood survey released on Tuesday.
The study of blood samples sent to laboratories between December and February - when Omicron cases were raging - showed children, many of whom remain unvaccinated, had the highest rates of infection during that surge, while people 65 and older - a heavily vaccinated population - had the lowest.
Scientists looked for specific antibodies produced in response to the SARS-CoV-2 virus that are only present after an infection and are not generated by Covid vaccines. In children aged 11 and younger, 75.2% were positive for infection-related antibodies from December to February, up from 44.2% in the prior three month period. (Reuters)
Telangana on Tuesday recorded 30 new Covid cases taking the tally to 7,91,857. Hyderabad reported the highest number of cases with 17.
A Health department bulletin said 24 people recuperated from the infection raising the cumulative number of recoveries till date to 7,87,508. The recovery rate stood at 99.45 per cent.
No fresh fatality occurred due to the infectious disease and the death toll continued to be 4,111. The bulletin said 15,633 samples were tested on Tuesday. The number of active cases was 238, it said. (PTI)
US Vice President Kamala Harris tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, the White House announced, underscoring the persistence of the highly contagious virus even as the US eases restrictions in a bid to revert to pre-pandemic normalcy.
The White House said Tuesday that Harris tested positive on both rapid and a PCR tests, and said she "has exhibited no symptoms." Harris will isolate at her residence but continue to work remotely, and would only return to the White House once she tests negative for the virus. The White House said neither President Joe Biden nor first lady Jill Biden were considered a “close contact" of Harris in recent days.
Harris, 57, received her first dose of the Moderna Covid vaccine weeks before taking office and a second dose just days after Inauguration Day in 2021. She received a booster shot in late October and an additional booster on April 1. (AP)
The Covid tally in Madhya Pradesh rose to 10,41,336 on Tuesday after detection of 13 new cases, while no fresh death linked to the infection was reported in the state, a health department official said.
The death toll remained unchanged at 10,735 as no casualty was reported in the last 24 hours, the official said. The positivity rate, or coronavirus cases detected per 100 tests, was 0.2 per cent, he said.
The recovery count increased by eight to touch 10,30,526, leaving the state with 75 active cases, the official informed. With 5,633 swab samples examined during the day, the cumulative number of tests in MP went up to 2,90,51,828, he added. (PTI)
Tamil Nadu on Tuesday added 72 new Covid infections, pushing the caseload to 34,53,679 while the death toll remained unchanged at 38,025 with nil fatalities being recorded in the last 24 hours, the Health department said. Recoveries reached 34,15,250 with 30 more people getting discharged in the last 24 hours, leaving 404 active infections, a medical bulletin said.
Meanwhile, following the cluster of Covid positive cases detected at the campus of the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras here last week, 31 more people have tested positive totalling to 111 confirmed cases at the campus, the government said.
Chennai accounted for the majority of new coronavirus infections with 52, Chengalpet 9, Tiruvallur 3, while Coimbatore, Kancheepuram recorded two cases, respectively. (PTI)
As schools around the country return to full in-person classes, and amid reports of some small children testing positive for Covid-19, the national drugs controller on Tuesday (April 26) cleared children as young as 5 years old to receive vaccination against the coronavirus.
Once the modalities for the rollout are finalised by the government, kids in the age group of 5-12 can be vaccinated with Biological E’s Corbevax.
The United States and United Kingdom have allowed vaccination of children age 5 with Pfizer/BioNTech’s mRNA vaccine. Corbevax, which is being used at present to vaccinate pre- and young teens in the 12-14 years age group, is built on a different technological platform. Read full Explainer
Yang Wenhui should be a proud example of China’s rise from economic rubble to global powerhouse.
Growing up poor, he ate so much cabbage that he did not touch it again for many years. He worked as a farmer and a construction worker before joining the country’s nascent logistics industry. In 2003, he started his own freight logistics company, striking gold as online shopping took off in the 2010s and products moved swiftly between provinces.
Then the omicron variant started spreading in China. In the government’s zealous pursuit of its “zero-COVID” policy, dozens of cities along the 1,300 miles of highway between the capital, Beijing, and the southern province of Guangdong, his main freight route, imposed travel restrictions and lockdowns. Many truckers were grounded. Cargo prices rose 20% in a matter of weeks. Read full NYT story written by Li Yuan
New Delhi is again experiencing an uptick in cases of COVID-19 . The third biggest city in the world – Shanghai – has been going through a protracted lockdown for weeks and sub-variants of Omicron are popping up around the world.
This week, I will be in joining leaders, including Prime Minister Modi and President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, at the Raisina Dialogues in India to discuss the challenges of our time and how inequity is a root and exacerbating force.
From the ongoing pandemic, to the climate catastrophe, to rising conflict that is transforming geopolitics, humanity is currently locked in a downward spiral that needs intentionality from leaders to break out of. And if we don’t tackle inequity and the danger of greedy nationalism, we’ll be missing the true lesson of the last few years. Read full opinion piece by Ayoade Alakija
The Chandigarh Administration on Monday made use of face masks mandatory. Its violation will invite a fine of Rs 500.
An order issued by the Chandigarh Adviser stated that use of face masks would be mandatory in closed environments.
The order issued by the Adviser said, “The undersigned in exercise of the powers conferred under Section 22 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, in my capacity as Chairperson, State Executive Committee, State Disaster Management authority hereby orders that wearing of face mask shall be compulsory in the closed environment like public transport like buses, taxis, auto-rickshaws etc, cinema halls, shopping malls, departmental stores, shops.” Read more
The head of the World Health Organization on Tuesday urged countries to maintain surveillance of coronavirus infections, saying we are "blind" to how the virus is spreading because of falling testing rates.
"As many countries reduce testing, WHO is receiving less & less information about transmission and sequencing," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference at the U.N. agency's headquarters in Geneva. "This makes us increasingly blind to patterns of transmission and evolution," he added. (Reuters)
Italy reported 29,575 Covid related cases on Tuesday, against 24,878 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily number of deaths rose to 146 from 93.
Italy has registered 162,927 deaths linked to Covid since its outbreak emerged in February 2020, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the eighth highest in the world. The country has reported 16.2 million cases to date. Patients in hospital with Covid - not including those in intensive care - stood at 10,328 on Tuesday, up from 10,050 a day earlier.
There were 23 new admissions to intensive care units, down from 26 on Monday. The total number of intensive care patients stood at 409, decreasing from 416 on Monday. Some 182,675 tests for Covid were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 138,803, the health ministry said. (Reuters)
Over 86 per cent of India's adult population is now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus infection, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said as the number of cumulative vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 188 crore on Tuesday.
More than 19 lakh (19,67,717) vaccine doses have been administered till 7 pm on Tuesday. The daily vaccination tally is expected to increase with the compilation of the final reports for the day by late night.
Over 46,044 precaution doses of Covid vaccine were administered in those aged 18-59 years till 7 pm on Tuesday, taking the total number of precaution doses given in this age-group to 5,15,290 so far, according to the health ministry data. (PTI)
Authorities in the Chinese capital have rolled out mass Covid testing for nearly 21 million residents in most of the city, as they race to contain a fresh outbreak of the Omicron variant in Beijing that has sparked panic buying amid fears of a Shanghai-style lockdown.
After testing over 3.5 million on Monday, Beijing reported 21 positive cases Monday, taking the total number of cases during the last few days to 155.
Gene sequencing of 38 infected samples conducted by the Beijing municipal disease prevention and control centre found that the virus is a Covid Omicron variant, Pang Xinghuo, deputy head of the centre, said. (PTI)