Empty bed inside a Covid-19 hospital in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Coronavirus India Highlights: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch India’s Covid-19 inoculation drive on January 16 and will interact with some of the healthcare workers who will be receiving the shots on Day 1, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday.
Less than 2 days before India starts its nationwide inoculation drive, about 95 per cent of 1.1 crore Covishield vaccine doses purchased by the government have been delivered across the country and the remaining 1 lakh vials will be delivered shortly, sources told PTI. The first consignment of Oxford-Astrazeneca’s Covishield vaccine was dispatched from Pune early Tuesday.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Thursday said that the Delhi government has “done and reviewed” all preparations for the Covid-19 vaccination drive, set to commence on January 16. Giving out details of the inoculation exercise in Delhi, he said that 81 centres will be allocated initially and over 8,000 frontline workers will be vaccinated on every scheduled day. For four days a week — Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday — about 100 people will be vaccinated at each of these centres each day.
Meanwhile, India recorded 16,946 new Covid-19 cases, in the last 24 hours ending 8 am Thursday, taking the total tally to over 1.05 crore. Out of these, active cases further dropped to 2.13 lakh, while recoveries went up to over 1.01 crore. With 198 deaths reported on Wednesday, the death toll stands at over 1.57 lakh. Kerala reported more than 6,000 cases, its total caseload now is over 8.25 lakh. Maharashtra, with 3,556 new cases, was the only other state to report more than 1,000 cases on Wednesday.
The Delhi government on Thursday told the Delhi High Court that it was actively considering the Expert Committee’s suggestions, including the opening of telemedicine facilities, for those who are suffering from oost-COVID health issues. The court observed that it has no doubt that the government will act in a proactive manner in this regard.
The court was also told by the government that the Expert Committee has recommended the SOP issued by the Centre in September 2020 regarding the post-COVID management protocol be implemented.
The division bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli on Thursday disposed of the case in which the High Court since last year has been monitoring the COVID-19 situation in the national capital, considering the “substantially lower” number of coronavirus cases in Delhi and the imminent rollout of vaccines. ENS
The WHO team of international researchers that arrived in the central Chinese city of Wuhan on Thursday hopes to find clues to the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The visit has been shrouded in secrecy, with neither China nor the WHO revealing exactly what the team will do or where it will go. The search for the origins is likely to be a years-long effort that could help prevent future pandemics. So, Why Wuhan? We explain here.
A new study conducted by Public Health England (PHE) says that people infected with COVID-19 in the past are likely to be protected against reinfection for several months, supporting similar findings surrounding immunity from this disease.
Even so, experts have warned that even people with immunity may still be able to carry the virus in their nose and throat and therefore have a risk of transmitting it to others. Therefore, it is important that individuals who have acquired the disease and recovered from it continue to take all precautions such as wearing masks, regularly washing their hands, and maintaining a distance of at least two metres from others. Click here to read our Explainer.
Pakistan on Thursday reported 3,097 new Covid-19 cases, the highest number in about a month, pushing the total number of infections in the country to 5,11,921. The country also reported 46 more deaths, taking the coronavirus toll to 10,818. The surge came as Sindh province reported 1,769 cases in the last 24 hours, news agency PTI reported citing the Ministry of National Health Services.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Thursday said the Delhi government is fully prepared for the COVID-19 vaccination roll-out starting January 16, with over 8,000 healthcare workers to be immunised every scheduled day in the city.
Addressing an online media briefing, he said the city government has received a total of 2.74 lakh doses of the vaccine so far from the Centre, which would be sufficient to cater to 1.2 lakh healthcare workers.
"Every person will receive two doses, and the Centre has given 10 per cent extra in stock in case of any mishappening like damage of vials. There are a total of 2.4 lakh healthcare workers in Delhi who have registered for vaccination, and more doses are expected to arrive soon," he said. (PTI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the rollout of India’s Covid-19 vaccination programme on January 16, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday. He is likely to interact via video link with some healthcare workers from across the country who will be receiving the shots on the first day, according to sources.
Modi is also likely to launch the Co-WIN (Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network) App, a digital platform created for real-time monitoring of Covid-19 vaccine delivery and distribution, they said.
Around three lakh healthcare workers will get vaccine shots at 2,934 sites across the country on the first day of the massive nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive, a senior official said. (PTI)
Japan expanded a coronavirus state of emergency to seven more prefectures Wednesday, affecting more than half the population amid a surge in infections across the country. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga also said Japan will suspend fast-track entry exceptions for business visitors or others with residency permits, fully banning foreign visitors while the state of emergency is in place.
Suga's announcement comes less than a week after he declared a state of emergency for Tokyo and three nearby prefectures. The new declaration, which adds seven other prefectures in western and central Japan, takes effect Thursday and lasts until Feb. 7.
The severe situation is continuing, but these measures are indispensable in turning the tide for the better," Suga said at a news conference, bowing as he sought understanding from the public.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Thursday said that all preparations for the Covid-19 vaccination drive, set to commence on January 16, are done and reviewed by the state government. Giving out details of the inoculation exercise in Delhi, he said that 81 centres will be allocated for the drive on Saturday. For four days a week--Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday-- about 100 people will be vaccinated at each of the centres everyday. These centres will be increased from 81 to 175 in a few days and then to 1,000 across the state, he added.
Kolkata has been allocated the highest number of COVID vaccines in West Bengal, at 93,500, for the first phase of the vaccination drive scheduled to begin on January 16, a senior health official said on Thursday. North 24 Parganas district has been allocated the second-highest number of COVID vaccines at 47,000, followed by Murshidabad at 37,500, he said.
"All necessary preparations are on the track for the vaccine rollout. The district-wise allocation has been made as per data uploaded on CoWIN portal as on January 12, 9.45 am for the first dose of COVID vaccination of health workers and personnel of armed forces," the Health Department said in a communication to the CMOHs in all the districts. West Bengal has been allocated 6,44,500 vaccines for the first phase of the drive.
China reported its biggest jump in COVID-19 cases in more than 10 months as infections in northeastern Heilongjiang province nearly tripled, underscoring the growing threat ahead of a major national holiday when hundreds of millions of people usually travel.
Aggressive containment measures including lockdowns, travel curbs and mass screenings have helped China bring cases down to a fraction of what it saw at the height of the pandemic in early 2020. But the country has yet to be able to completely stamp out the disease, which has now killed nearly 2 million worldwide, even as COVID-19 vaccinations have begun.
This flareup, concentrated in the northeast, which is now seeing its worst wave yet, coincides with the arrival of the World Health Organization-led team of experts in Wuhan, where the disease first emerged in late 2019. The team will spend around a month, including two weeks of quarantine, for their investigation into the origins of the pandemic.(Reuters)
India recorded 16,946 new Covid-19 cases, in the last 24 hours ending 8 am Thursday, taking the total tally to over 1.05 crore. Out of these, active cases further dropped to 2.13 lakh, while recoveries went up to over 1.01 crore. With 198 deaths reported on Wednesday, the death toll stands at over 1.57 lakh.
Delhi recorded 357 fresh COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, taking the infection tally in the city to over 6.31 lakh, even as the positivity rate slipped to 0.50 per cent. This is also the tenth time the daily incidences count stood below the 500-mark in January.
The infection tally in the city stood at over 6.31 lakh and the death toll mounted to 10,718 with 11 new fatalities, they said. This month, 585 cases were reported on January 1 and 494 on January 2; 424 on January 3; 384 on January 4, and 442 on January 5; 654 on January 6; 486 on January 7 and 444 on January 8; 519 on January 9 and 399 on January 10; 306 on January 11 and 386 on January 12. The active cases tally on Wednesday stood at 2,991, while the positivity rate dropped to 0.50 per cent.
Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain had earlier said that the positivity rate had been below one per cent for the past several days, indicating improvement in the pandemic situation here.(PTI)
As much as 95 per cent of 1.1 crore Covishield vaccine doses purchased by the Indian government have been been delivered across the country a day after transportation of the vaccine began, sources said on Wednesday. The first consignment of the Covishield vaccine against coronavirus from the Oxford/AstraZeneca stable rolled out of the Serum Institute of India manufacturing facility in Pune on Tuesday morning. Planes ferried vaccine consignments to 13 cities from Pune on the same day. "So far 95 per cent of the doses of the total purchase order (of 1.1 crore doses) have been delivered. Remaining over one lakh doses will be delivered shortly," saidsources involved in the transportation arrangements. (PTI)
The full initial procurement of 1.65 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines has been allocated to all states and UTs in proportion to their healthcare workers database, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday. As the country is set to begin a massive anti-coronavirus inoculation drive from January 16, the ministry said each vaccination session will cater to a maximum of 100 beneficiaries per day and it has advised states not to organise "unreasonable numbers of vaccination per site per day".
"States have been advised to organise vaccination sessions taking into account 10 percent reserve/wastage doses and an average of 100 vaccinations per session each day.
"Therefore, any undue haste on the part of states to organize unreasonable numbers of vaccination per site per day is not advised," the ministry said.
It also said that states and UTs have also been advised to increase the number of vaccination session sites that would be operational every day in a progressive manner as the vaccination process stabilizes and moves forward. (PTI)
Coronavirus deaths in the US hit another one-day high at over 4,300 with the country's attention focused largely on the fallout from the deadly uprising at the Capitol. The nation's overall death toll from COVID-19 has eclipsed 380,000, according to Johns Hopkins University, and is closing in fast on the number of Americans killed in World War II, or about 407,000. Confirmed infections have topped 22.8 million.
With the country simultaneously facing a political crisis and on edge over threats of more violence from far-right extremists, the US recorded 4,327 deaths on Tuesday by Johns Hopkins' count. Arizona and California have been among the hardest-hit states.
The daily figure is subject to revision, but deaths have been rising sharply over the past 2 1/2 months, and the country is now in the most lethal phase of the outbreak yet, even as the vaccine is being rolled out. New cases are running at nearly a quarter-million per day on average.
More than 9.3 million Americans have received their first shot of the vaccine, or less than 3 per cent of the population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is well short of the hundreds of millions who experts say will be need to be inoculated to vanquish the outbreak.
England's health care system may move patients into hotels to ease pressure on hospitals struggling to handle rising COVID-19 admissions. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Wednesday that the National Health Service was looking at various ways to reduce the strain on hospitals, including moving patients to hotels when appropriate. Discussions about the issue were first reported by the Guardian newspaper.
"We would only ever do that if it was clinically the right thing for somebody," Hancock told Sky News. "In some cases, people need sit-down care, they don't actually need to be in a hospital bed."
Two districts of Karnataka on Wednesday received 2.52 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccine, Covishield, as Health Minister K Sudhakar said the state would soon also get 20,000 doses of Bharat Biotech's Covaxin. According to the minister, the only difference between the two vaccines is Covishield has five ml of vaccine in a vial and Covaxin has 10 ml.
One vial can vaccinate 20 people. Both the vaccines will be given in the state, he said, adding that the vaccination drive will start from January 16 in line with the Centre's guidelines. Frontline workers will get the vaccine first. (PTI)
Uttar Pradesh recorded 487 fresh COVID-19 cases on Wednesday which took its tally to 5,94,641 while 15 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 8,529. This is the first time in almost seven months that the state has reported less than 500 infections in a day, said Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Amit Mohan Prasad.
The number of active cases in the state stands at 10,132. Of these, 3,746 are in home isolation, 1,010 are undergoing treatment in private hospitals, and the remaining are being treated in government facilities, he said. So far, 5,75,980 people have recovered from the infection and been discharged from hospitals. The recovery rate of the state stands at 96.86 per cent, he added.
There have been 8,529 deaths due to COVID-19, Prasad said. So far, over 2.57 crore tests have been done in the state, with over 1.38 lakh conducted on Tuesday alone, he said. (PTI)
A new potentially life-saving inhaler-based treatment which is hoped will protect COVID-19 patients from developing severe illness has begun a major trial at UK hospitals. It involves inhaling a protein called interferon beta-1a (SNG001), which the body produces when it gets a viral infection, and the hope is it will stimulate the body's immune system and prime cells to be ready to fight off viruses.
Synairgen's SG018 trial is a randomised placebo-controlled study being conducted in approximately 20 countries enrolling a total of 610 COVID-19 patients who require supplemental oxygen. "We need treatments as well as vaccines to fight highly pathogenic viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 [COVID-19]. Development of treatments like ours will remain necessary in cases where vaccines are not effective, for those who do not get vaccinated, and in case the virus mutates to the point where vaccines become less effective," said Richard Marsden, CEO of Synairgen. (PTI)
Japan expanded a coronavirus state of emergency for seven more prefectures Wednesday, affecting more than half the population as infections spread across the country.
Prime Minister Yoshide Suga's announcement comes less than a week after his January 7 emergency declaration for Tokyo and three nearby prefectures. The new declaration adds seven other prefectures in western and central Japan. The measure, which focuses on requests for bars and restaurants to close at 8 p.m. and for people to avoid nonessential outings, takes effect Thursday and lasts until February 7.