Coronavirus in India Live updates: Ensure Sputnik V recipients take its 2nd, precaution doses, Centre directs states

The Centre has suggested states to ensure private vaccination centres providing Sputnik V vaccine reach out to beneficiaries for due doses -- both second and precaution -- while ensuring availability of the jab. In a letter to states and Union Territories, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Thursday said it has been observed that the uptake of precaution dose of Sputnik V is only 0.5 per cent of those due for it. Stating that queries have been received by the health ministry about the precaution dose of the Russian vaccine, he referred to an e-mail to all states and Union Territories on May 5 mentioning that those who got two doses of the vaccine may be administered precaution jab using Component 1 of Sputnik V in private Covid vaccination centres. Read more

Delhi on Thursday recorded 520 fresh COVID-19 cases with a positivity rate of 3.44 per cent, while one more person succumbed to the viral disease, according to health department data. With this, Delhi's COVID-19 caseload climbs to 19,42,425 and its death toll to 26,289, it showed. The fresh infections came out of 15,114 COVID-19 tests conducted a day ago, according to the data. On Wednesday, Delhi recorded 490 coronavirus cases with a positivity rate of 3.16 per cent and three fatalities due to the disease. On Tuesday, the city recorded 400 COVID-19 cases with a positivity rate of 2.92 per cent and one fatality.

A nasal spray administered in high-risk adult Covid-19 patients in India reduced viral load by 94 per cent within 24 hours and 99 per cent in 48 hours, according to the results of phase 3 trial of the drug published in The Lancet Regional Health Southeast Asia journal. The study on Nitric Oxide Nasal Spray (NONS) was conducted by Mumbai-based pharmaceutical company Glenmark in 306 vaccinated and unvaccinated adults with symptomatic mild Covid-19 across 20 clinical sites in India. Read more

Puducherry on Thursday witnessed a spike in number of COVID-19 cases with 221 infections reported in the last 24 hours. On Wednesday, the union territory registered 174 cases. The overall caseload now stands at 1,68,274.

Odisha reported 804 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, the highest in nearly five months, the health department said. The positivity rate jumped to 4.18 per cent as the cases were detected after testing 19,218 samples. Seventy-one children were among the new patients, it said.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorised Novavax's Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use in adults. According to CNN, it is the fourth coronavirus vaccine available in the US, and it uses a different type of vaccine technology than the shots already available. Read more

Nick Barragan is used to wearing a mask because his job in the Los Angeles film industry has long required it, so he won't be fazed if the nation's most populous county reinstates rules requiring face coverings because of another spike in coronavirus cases across the country.“I feel fine about it because I’ve worn one pretty much constantly for the last few years. It’s become a habit,” said Barragan, masked up while out running errands Wednesday.

More than 200,000 Covid-19 deaths have been recorded across the UK, showed the latest data released from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).The grim milestone has been reached in late June, but not revealed until Wednesday due to a delay in registration. Up to the start of July, a total of 200,247 Covid-19 deaths have occurred, the ONS said. The figures include deaths due to Covid-19 as well as those involving the virus, Xinhua news agency reported.