Coronavirus in India live updates: India reports 17,336 daily new cases, highest in over 100 days

Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, says his Covid-19 recovery is an “example” for the nation on the protection offered by vaccines and boosters. Speaking during a White House briefing, Fauci, 81, said he began experiencing virus symptoms on June 14 and tested positive a day later. He was prescribed the anti-viral drug paxlovid, which has proven to be highly effective at preventing serious illness and death from Covid-19, on June 15.

The renewed Covid vaccination call launched this month, Har Ghar Dastak 2. 0, has hit a hurdle in Assam. The state is facing the worst-ever landslides this monsoon and reaching the people is a challenge, while vaccine hesitancy among tribals in Dima Hasao district is continuing to frustrate the government. Many villages have taken ‘unanimous decisions’ not to allow entry to health staff seeking to vaccinate villagers. The village headman of Vaktop Leipei on behalf of 15 families has written to the health department requesting them not to stay away.

The state recorded the highest single-day tally (5,218) in the current surge of Covid cases, with Mumbai accounting for nearly half of the cases (2,479) on Thursday.Mumbai recorded another death, adding up to 23 fatalities in June so far against the combined toll of 11 deaths in March, April and May. Navi Mumbai also recorded its first Covid death after 4 months when a 30-year-old congenital heart patient died due to Covid-related complications on Thursday.

In the wake of upsurge in Covid-19 cases, health minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday reviewed the Covid-19 scenario in the country and directed officials to focus on surveillance and genome sequencing and to monitor hospitalisation to keep atab on rising cases of severe acute respiratory infection and influenza like illnesses.

Covid jabs have prevented an estimated 19.8 million deaths worldwide in the first year of the vaccine programme, reducing the potential global death toll during the pandemic by 63% during that period, a mathematical modelling study published today in The Lancet Infectious Diseases estimates. Based on estimates of excess deaths from 185 countries and territories, the study pegged there would have been 31.4 million potential deaths due to Covid-19 during the same period in the absence of vaccination.