Coronavirus in India Live, Covid-19 4th Wave Live Tracker: A healthcare worker collects a swab sample of a woman for Covid-19 testing amid a surge in coronavirus cases, in Jammu, Saturday, May 7, 2022. (PTI Photo)Coronavirus India News Live Updates Today: India reported 2,487 new Covid-19 cases and 13 deaths in the last 24 hours ending at 8 am Sunday, the Union health ministry said. This is slightly lower than the 2,858 Covid-19 cases reported on Saturday. As many as 2,878 patients recovered from the infection, leaving 404 active cases in the country. The total number of active cases now stands at 17,692.
Delhi Saturday recorded 673 new Covid cases and four more deaths, while the positivity rate was 2.77 per cent, according to data shared by the health department. The city had on March 18 reported 607 Covid-19 cases and one fatality, while the positivity rate on that day was 0.76 per cent. Currently, the national capital’s overall Covid tally increased to 18,99,745 while the death toll mounted to 26,192. A total of 24,317 tests were conducted a day earlier, a health bulletin said. Also, Maharashtra recorded 248 new cases of Covid-19 and one pandemic-related death, according to the state health department. Mumbai reported 131 new cases of Covid-19 and one pandemic related death.
In a separate development, mainland China reported 1,789 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours, of which 239 were symptomatic and 1,550 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Sunday. That compares with 2,072 new cases a day earlier – 276 symptomatic and 1,796 asymptomatic infections, which China counts separately.
India reported 2,487 new Covid-19 cases and 13 deaths in the last 24 hours ending at 8 am Sunday, the Union health ministry said. This is slightly lower than the 2,858 Covid-19 cases reported on Saturday.
Hello and welcome to today's live blog. We bring to you the latest news updates related to the Coronavirus cases across India and the world. Stay tuned!
Akshay Kumar on Saturday shared on social media that he will not be attending Cannes Film Festival 2022 as he has tested positive for Covid-19. A disappointed Akshay tweeted, “Was really looking forward to rooting for our cinema at the India Pavilion at #Cannes2022, but have sadly tested positive for Covid. Will rest it out. Loads of best wishes to you and your entire team, @ianuragthakur. Will really miss being there.” Read More
Nagaland on Saturday reported one fresh Covid-19 case, pushing the tally to 35,493, a health department official said. The new case was detected in Dimapur district.
The Covid-19 death toll remained at 760 as no fresh fatality was reported, the official said. Nagaland now has two active COVID-19 cases, while 33,245 people have recovered from the disease and 1,486 patients have migrated to other states, he said. (PTI)
Delhi on Saturday recorded 673 new Covid cases and four more deaths, while the positivity rate stood at 2.77 per cent, according to data shared by the health department. The city on Friday had also reported four deaths, the highest single-day fatality count in over two months.
The number of patients under home isolation was 3,122 on Saturday, the bulletin said, adding, that there were 3,936 active cases. There are 9,581 beds for Covid-19 patients in Delhi hospitals and 154 (1.6 per cent) of them are occupied, it said. (PTI)
Gujarat on Saturday recorded 31 new cases of Covid-19 that raised the tally of infections to 12,24,688, an official from the state health department said.
While the toll remained steady at 10,944 with no fresh casualties, the count of recoveries reached 12,13,526 after 24 patients were discharged from hospitals during the day, the official said. With this, the number of active cases has reached 218, of which two patients are on ventilator support.
District-wise, Ahmedabad reported 20 new cases, followed by Vadodara with six, Rajkot with three, and Bhavnagar and Surat one case each, it was stated. As many as 23,786 people received their Covid-19 jab on Saturday, increasing the total number of doses administered so far to 10.83 crore. (PTI)
Tamil Nadu on Saturday added 35 more Covid-19 infections, including two returnees from the United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom, pushing the statewide tally to 34,54,591, the health department said. Chennai accounted for the majority of new cases with 21.
The overall death toll remained unchanged at 38,025 with zero fatalities recorded in the last 24 hours. Presently, there are 408 active cases in the state. (PTI)
Mumbai reported 131 new cases of Covid-19 and one pandemic related death on Saturday. The new cases take the total tally to 10,61,463 and the toll to 19,565, a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official said.
The recovery count increased by 171. As per BMC data, Mumbai's recovery rate is 98 per cent. (Inputs from PTI)
Maharashtra recorded 248 new cases of Covid-19 and one pandemic-related death, according to the state health department. The lone death was reported in Mumbai. On Friday, the state had reported 263 cases and one fatality. (PTI)
Over 32 crore Covid vaccine doses have been administered in Uttar Pradesh, making it the first state to achieve the fete, a spokesperson claimed on Saturday.
Uttar Pradesh is followed by Maharashtra with 16.60 crore Covid vaccine doses administered so far. According to data on the CoWin portal updated till 12 pm on Saturday, around 32.01 crore of the total 189 crore vaccine doses administered in the country are from Uttar Pradesh, he said. (PTI)
There is a surge in the Covid-19 cases driven by two omicron sub-variants in South Africa according to health experts.
For about three weeks the country has seen increasing numbers of new cases and somewhat higher hospitalisations, but not increases in severe cases and deaths, said Professor Marta Nunes, a researcher at Vaccine and Infectious Diseases Analytics at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto.
The new surge in South Africa comes from two variants of Omicron - BA.4 and BA.5. These variants appear to be much like the original strain of omicron that was first identified in South Africa and Botswana late last year and swept around the globe. (Inputs from PTI)
China withdrew as host of soccer’s 2023 Asian Cup on Saturday in the latest cancellation of the country’s sports hosting duties during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Asian Football Confederation praised Chinese soccer officials for making “this very difficult but necessary decision in the collective interests of the AFC Asian Cup.” Read More
North Korea’s admission that it is battling an “explosive” COVID-19 outbreak has raised concerns that the virus could devastate a country with an under-resourced health system, limited testing capabilities, and no vaccine programme.
The isolated North confirmed on Thursday its first COVID-19 infections since the pandemic emerged more than two years ago, shifting to the “maximum emergency epidemic prevention system” and imposing a national lockdown. On Friday it reported its first COVID-related death. Read More
The CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad, which leads the development of mRNA vaccine technology in India, has now announced the development of a potential mRNA vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2. The mRNA vaccine technology so developed is indigenous and devoid of technology contributions from elsewhere.
The team at the Atal Incubation Centre-CCMB (AIC-CCMB) led the development of the vaccine candidate. “We observed robust immune response against SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in mice, upon administration of two doses of the mRNA. The anti-spike antibodies generated were found to be more than 90 per cent efficient in preventing the human ACE2 receptor binding to the coronavirus,” said Dr Rajesh Iyer, a scientist involved in the project. Read More
Unable to sell its huge stock of Covid vaccine Sputnik Light amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Bengaluru-based Stelis Biopharma has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting for procurement of the jabs for inoculating citizens here or supplying to other countries under the Vaccine Maitri programme.
Stelis Biopharma, the biopharmaceutical arm of Strides Pharma Science, said it could not sell 2.5 crore units of the single-dose vaccine manufactured by it due to several constraints following the Russian-Ukraine war.
The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) had granted emergency use permission to Sputnik Light, subject to certain regulatory provisions, in February this year. However, it is currently not being administered in the country.
In the letter written on May 13, Arun Kumar, Founder and Director of Stelis Biopharma Limited, said that after the prime minister had requested the industry to gear up to tackle the pandemic, the firm invested over Rs 700 crore to set up a state-of the-art vaccine manufacturing facility within six months despite the Covid-19-induced restrictions and quickly commenced the production of Sputnik Light.
The company also received government approvals to produce and export the jabs. (PTI)
Odisha recorded 18 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, the Health Department said. The toll remained at 9,126 as no new fatality was recorded for the 11th successive day, it said. There are 131 active cases, while eight more patients have recovered from the disease, it added. (PTI)
Three more people tested positive for Covid-19 in Ladakh, increasing the total caseload to 28,266. Of the fresh cases, two were detected in Leh and one in Kargil. The death toll remains unchanged at 228. At present there are nine active cases in Ladakh. (Inputs from PTI)
With about 30 per cent of students not returning to schools as classroom teaching resumed after a gap of two years due to the pandemic, the Odisha government has asked the district collectors to work for bringing them back. Analysing the daily attendance data from the schools as provided by the District Education Officers (DEOs), it was seen that around 70 per cent of students are attending the classes, School and Mass Education Department secretary BP Sethi said in a letter to the districts.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern tested positive for Covid-19 with moderate symptoms, her office said in a statement on Saturday. She will not be in parliament for the government’s emissions reduction plan on Monday and the budget on Thursday, but “travel arrangements for her trade mission to the United States are unaffected at this stage,” the statement said.
Ardern had been symptomatic since Friday evening, returning a weak positive at night and a clear positive on Saturday morning on a rapid antigen test, it said.
Across the world, there is a desperate attempt to measure the cost of the Covid-19 pandemic, and one such measure is the excess deaths. In countries where robust infrastructure exists to register every death promptly, reliable and verifiable estimates of excess deaths are publicly available. However, in many countries with inadequate birth and death registration infrastructure, estimates of excess deaths are subjected to uncertainty and shrill politicking. Even with sophisticated statistical methodology, unreliable data would lead to imprecise and speculative estimates. Unfortunately, social and news media’s overzealousness has led to the politicisation of excess deaths under these circumstances. The latest to join this fray is the World Health Organisation (WHO).