Coronavirus India News highlights: India reports 16,135 new cases, 24 deaths in last 24 hours

Karnataka on Monday recorded 749 news Covid-19 cases, one death with a positivity rate of 4.16 per cent. Bengaluru alone logged 696 new infections. The state also saw 940 discharges, while the actives cases remained over 6,400. (ENS)

Gujarat reported 419 COVID-19 cases and one death on Monday, which took the tally to 12,34,117 and the toll to 10,948, a state health department official said. So far, 12,19,657 persons have recovered, including 454 during the day, leaving the state with an active caseload of 3,512, he added.

The official said Ahmedabad reported 155 new cases, Surat 96, Vadodara 40, Mehsana 19 and Bhavnagar 17, among other districts, while the lone death took place in Mehsana. A government release said 43,981 persons got vaccine jabs on Monday, which took the overall number of doses administered in the state to 11.15 crore. (PTI)

Delhi on Monday recorded 420 fresh Covid cases with a positivity rate of 5.25 per cent, while one more person succumbed to the viral disease, according to data shared by the health department here. With these fresh infections and fatalities, Delhi's caseload climbed to 19,37,433 and the death toll increased to 26,272, the health department bulletin said.

The fresh cases on Monday came out of 8,002 tests conducted the previous day, it said. Delhi had on Sunday reported 648 Covid cases with a positivity rate of 4.29 per cent while five people had died due to the infection. On Saturday, it had logged 678 Covid cases with a positivity rate of 3.98 per cent, and two fatalities. (PTI)

The COVID-19 tally in Madhya Pradesh reached 10,44,819 on Monday after the detection of 108 cases, while the death toll remained unchanged at 10,743, an official said. The positivity rate stood at 1.6 per cent, while the recovery count increased by 71 to touch 10,33,348, leaving the state with 728 active cases, the official informed.

With 6,517 samples examined during the day, the number of tests in MP went up to 2,95,30,921, he added. A government release said 12,05,77,894 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far in the state, including 43,555 on Monday. Coronavirus figures in MP are as follows: Total cases 10,44,819, new cases 108, death toll 10,743, recoveries 10,33,348, active cases 728, number of tests so far 2,95,30,921. (PTI)

Maharashtra on Monday reported 1,515 new COVID-19 cases, nearly 50 per cent less compared to the previous day, and three more deaths linked to the infection, taking the overall tally to 79,86,811 and the toll to 1,47,943, said the state health department.

The state logged a drop of 1,447 cases as compared to Sunday when the daily tally was 2,962. Similarly, the number of coronavirus-linked fatalities dipped to three from six the previous day. Mumbai reported 431 COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, said the department in a bulletin.

The bulletin said 2,062 more patients recovered from the infection during the day, pushing up their cumulative count to 78,16,933 and leaving the state with 21,935 active cases. Of the 21,935 active COVID-19 cases, the highest - 7,040 - were in Mumbai, followed by 5,221 in Pune district and 4,605 in Thane district. (PTI)

Researchers have developed a new N95 face mask that can not only reduce COVID-19 spread but also kill the SARS-CoV-2 virus upon contact with it. The mask can potentially be worn longer, causing less plastic waste as it does not need to be replaced as frequently, the researchers said.

"We think the work is a first step toward longer-lasting, self-sterilising personal protective equipment, such as the N95 respirator,” said Edmund Palermo, from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the US.

"It may help reduce transmission of airborne pathogens in general," Palermo said. In research recently published in the journal Applied ACS Materials and Interfaces, the team successfully grafted broad-spectrum antimicrobial polymers onto the polypropylene filters used in N95 face masks. (PTI)

Ladakh has reported 49 fresh cases of coronavirus, thereby increasing the Covid-19 tally to 28,513, while 10 patients were discharged from the hospital, officials said. It is this year's highest single day jump in Covid-19 cases in the union territory, they said. All positive cases were recorded in Leh.

So far, 228 people have succumbed to Covid-19 in Ladakh. Of these, 168 deaths were reported from Leh and 60 from Kargil, according to the officials. The officials said the number of active Covid-19 cases has gone up to 150 in Ladakh-- all in the Leh. A total of 589 sample reports were tested in Ladakh. (PTI)

The Covid-19 tally of Andaman and Nicobar Islands rose to 10,183 on Monday as five more people tested positive for the infection, a health bulletin said. All the fresh infections were detected during contact tracing, it said. The Union territory now has 40 active cases, while 10,014 people have recovered from the disease thus far, including six in the last 24 hours.

Puducherry reported a steep fall in fresh Covid-19 cases as only nine people were affected by the virus on Monday, a health bulletin stated. With the fresh cases, the overall tally in the Union Territory went up to 1,66,832. The UT had registered 97 fresh cases on Sunday. (PTI)

Odisha recorded 245 new Covid-19 cases on Monday, taking the tally to 12,90,783, the health department said. The test positivity rate fell to 1.92 per cent from 2.68 the previous day, as the cases were detected out of 12,748 samples tested. Khurda district of which the capital city Bhubaneswar is a part, reported the highest number of 135 new infections, followed by 38 in Cuttack. Forty-one children were afflicted with the disease.

On Sunday, the state had logged 346 new Covid-19 cases. There are 1,490 active Covid-19 cases and 65 more people recuperated from the virus, taking the total recoveries to 12,80,114. The Covid-19 death toll remained at 9,126 as there were no new deaths. Fifty-three more Covid patients had died due to comorbidities so far, it added. (PTI)

Scientists in the US have developed a rapid Covid-19 test that can accurately detect all current variants of SARS-CoV-2 within hours.

The test, CoVarScan, detects the signatures of eight hotspots on the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19.

The researchers at the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center in the US tested CoVarScan on samples collected from more than 4,000 patients.

The research, published recently in the journal Clinical Chemistry, shows that the test is as accurate as other methods used to diagnose Covid-19, and can successfully differentiate between all current variants of SARS-CoV-2. (PTI)

Several labs in the West district said that they have been paid less to the tune of crores for Covid-19 tests when payments for bills worth more than Rs 50 crore, that were pending clearance for two years, were finally released.

District authorities, however, said the deductions are based on a random sample verification method adopted by a six-member committee, with payments being deducted for samples processed or reports released beyond 48 hours.

Of the total amount, Rs 35 crore was released as an advance or in the first phase of payment soon after the verification process was completed. Another Rs 3-Rs 4 crore was released in the second phase after laboratories produced additional documents. (Read More)

Assam has reported 74 new Covid-19 cases, taking the tally to 7,24,926, according to the National Health Mission (NHM) bulletin.

The positivity rate has increased to 8.89 per cent on Sunday as against the previous day's 8.15 per cent, it said.

The number of active Covid-19 cases has increased to 574 as against the previous day's 550, the bulletin said.

Kamrup (Metro) district reported the highest of 56 cases followed by six in Darrang, five in Goalpara and two in Dibrugarh among others.

After a lull of more than three months, there has been a surge in the number of Covid cases with 775 new cases reported since June 19 Kamrup Metro district, comprising primarily of Guwahati city, reported 552 cases alone. (PTI)

Parts of eastern China are running fresh rounds of mass Covid-19 testing, as the country faces new waves of infections while recovering from impact of the spring outbreaks that hit Beijing and Shanghai.

China continues to demand local authorities detect and contain new infections as soon as possible in its "dynamic Covid zero" strategy, although it has warned against expanding strict curbs unnecessarily as it struggles to revive the economy.

Daily numbers of locally transmitted infections in mainland China increased to more than 300 over the weekend compared with a few dozens in late June. While tiny by global standards, local officials have still closed some businesses and locked down more than a million people. (Reuters)

India reported 16,135 new Covid-19 cases Monday, slightly up from 16,103 infections logged Sunday and 24 deaths, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The active cases now stand at 1,13,864 and 5,25,223 deaths have been recorded across the country till date. As many as 4,28,79,477 patients have been discharged, the health ministry data also shows.

Macau kicked off a new round of Covid-19 testing for its more than 600,000 residents on Monday, as officials in the world's biggest gambling hub raced to limit spiralling infections in the city's worst outbreak since the pandemic began.

All residents face three rounds of tests this week, in addition to rapid antigen tests, as Monday's 68 new infections took the tally in the former Portuguese colony to 852 since the middle of June. About 12,000 people are in quarantine.

Although the Chinese special administrative region has not ordered a full-scale lockdown of the kind imposed in mainland cities such as the business hub of Shanghai, Macau is already largely closed.

Non-essential government services are shut, with schools, parks, sports and entertainment facilities closed, while restaurants may only provide takeaway items. (Reuters)

To understand how Japan has fared better than most of the world in containing the dire consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, consider Mika Yanagihara, who went shopping for flowers this past week in central Tokyo. Even when walking outside in temperatures in the mid-90s, she kept the lower half of her face fully covered.

“People will stare at you,” Yanagihara, 33, said, explaining why she did not dare take off her mask. “There is that pressure.”

Japan’s Covid death rate, just one-twelfth of that in the United States, is the lowest among the world’s wealthiest nations. With the world’s third-largest economy and 11th-largest populace, Japan also tops global rankings in vaccination and has consistently had one of the globe’s lowest infection rates. (Read More)

With the gradual dropping of Covid-19 cases in Mumbai, the tally of active patients dropped by 44.8 per cent in the last seven days. A day after witnessing 811 Covid-19 cases, the city recorded 761 cases as on July 3 with a drop of 6 per cent.

For the last one week, the city has been witnessing a gradual plunge in daily caseload. Between June 19 and 26, the city reported 12,727 cases. On an average, the city witnessed 1,818 cases daily. In the following week between June 27 and July 3, a total of 6,609 cases were recorded and the daily average dropped to 944. The daily caseload plunged by 48 per cent in the past week compared to the preceding seven days.

With this gradual plateauing of cases, active cases also dropped to 7,671– the lowest recorded since June 8 when the city had 7,000 patients who were undergoing treatment for Covid-19. (Read More)

She was 19 when she got married in 2011. She settled down in Pandesara with her husband, who worked in a textile factory. The couple separated in 2018, and she got custody of their two children. Elders in the family made efforts to bring them back together, but failed.

In 2020, she filed a case under CrPC Section 125, seeking maintenance from her husband. At a Lok Adalat held on June 26 this year, the couple told the Surat family court that they wanted to reunite.

During the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns, the man was out of work, and he would call his estranged wife and chat with her. Times were difficult, and he supported her financially. The couple — the man is 34, the woman is 30 — and their children, a 9-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy, now live together again. (Read More)

A Hong Kong lawmaker who met President Xi Jinping during a rare visit by the Chinese leader to the territory last week said he tested positive for Covid-19 two days after the meeting.

Steven Ho, who is part of the city's largest pro-Beijing party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), tested positive for coronavirus on July 2 and has self isolated, according to an announcement on his Facebook page on Sunday.

Ho said he tested negative for the virus on June 30, the day he was shown in a photo with Xi, displayed by local broadcaster RTHK.

Xi was in Hong Kong to mark the 25th handover celebration of the territory to the mainland from Britain and swear in the city's new leader John Lee. It was his first public trip outside the Chinese mainland since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Ahead of Xi's visit to Hong Kong, officials ramped up coronavirus testing and quarantine protocols along with a massive security force, blocking roads and the airspace around the picturesque Victoria Harbour. (Reuters)

Chhattisgarh on Sunday recorded 91 Covid-19 cases at a positivity rate of 2.06 per cent, taking the tally in the state to 11,54,727, while the death toll remained unchanged at 14,038, an official said.

Raipur led with 26 cases, followed by 12 in Bilaspur, nine in Durg and eight in Surguja, while 15 districts did not report any case, he said.

The recovery count rose by 110 to reach 11,39,668, leaving the state with an active tally of 1,021, the official said. (PTI)

Tamil Nadu has witnessed a rise in the number of new coronavirus cases. It saw 2,672 in the last 24 hours, including two returnees from Maldives, pushing the overall tally to 34,82,775 till date, the Health Department said on Sunday.

There were no fatalities in the last 24 hours and the death toll remained at 38,026, a bulletin said here. As many as 1,487 people recuperated from the virus in the last 24 hours, aggregating to 34,30,245 leaving 14,504 active infections.

Chennai registered 1,072 new cases followed by Chengalpet 373, Coimbatore 145, Tiruvallur 131 and Tiruchirappalli 104, while the remaining were spread across districts. Tirupathur recorded the least with two fresh cases. (PTI)

 Mumbai on Sunday recorded 761 new coronavirus positive cases and three fatalities, the city civic body said.

With this addition, the city's overall infection tally rose to 11,15,042 and death toll to 19,617. Of the 761 new patients, 720 are asymptomatic, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said in its bulletin.

Of the three patients who succumbed to the infection during the day, two deceased - a 76-year-old man and a 33-year-old man - had co-morbidies. The third patient was a 88-year-old man. (PTI)

Gujarat on Sunday reported 456 Covid-19 cases, which took the tally to 12,33,698, while the death toll remained unchanged at 10,947, a state health department official said.

The recovery count increased by 386 during the day and reached 12,19,203, leaving the state with an active caseload of 13,548, he added.

He said Ahmedabad led with 207 cases, followed by 97 in Surat, 41 in Vadodara, 15 Bhavnagar, among other districts. A government release said 11.15 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered in Gujarat so far, including 12,372 on Sunday. (PTI)

The Covid-19 tally in Madhya Pradesh reached 10,44,711 on Sunday after the detection of 108 cases, while the death toll remained unchanged at 10,743, an official said.

The positivity rate, or cases detected per 100 tests, was 1.6 per cent, he added. The recovery count increased by 53 with 691 active cases, the official informed. (PTI)

Telangana on Sunday recorded 457 new Covid-19 cases so far Hyderabad district registered the highest number of cases with 285.

A health department bulletin said 494 people recuperated from the infection and the cumulative number of recoveries till date was 7,93,521. The recovery rate was at 98.90 per cent. (PTI)

Kerala on Sunday recorded 3,322 fresh Covid-19 cases and two deaths which raised the total caseload in the State to 66,53,272 and the fatalities to 70,048 respectively.

The State reported that 3,258 people recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours and that the active cases increased to 28,720, according to official data.

On Saturday, the southern State reported 3,642 fresh cases and nine deaths. (PTI)

Shanghai and Beijing, China's top two cities which went through stringent Covid-19 lockdowns in the last two months due to the spread of the Omicron variant, has accelerated the resumption of rail and air services, gearing up for the summer travel peak as the number of cases came down drastically.

The Chinese mainland reported 385 cases, including 75 positive cases on Saturday.

Of the 75 locally-transmitted confirmed Covid-19 cases, 61 were reported from Anhui Province, the National Health Commission said on Sunday. The rest of the cases were reported from Shandong, Jiangsu, Shaanxi and in Shanghai, the commission said. (PTI)

Sikkim reported six new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the tally to 39,254, a health department bulletin said on Sunday.

East Sikkim recorded five fresh cases, and South Sikkim registered one infection.

Sikkim now has 47 active cases and 37,998 people have recovered from the disease so far and 755 others migrated out, the bulletin said. (PTI)

??New cases in State: 826
??New cases in B'lore: 746
??Positivity rate: 3.25%
??Discharges: 600(B'lore-573)
??Deaths: 0
??Active cases in State: 6,666
??Active cases in B'lore: 6,248
??Tests: 25,348

The city if Delhi reported 648 new covid-19 cases on Sunday and 5 pandemic-related deaths. The positivity rate stands at 4.29% while there are a total of 3,268 active cases in the city and 785 patients recovered today. 

Maharashtra on Sunday recorded 2,962 Covid-19 cases, including 761 in Mumbai, and one more patient of BA.4 sub-variant of Omicron besides six fatalities, the health department said in a bulletin.

With the latest additions, Maharashtra's tally of infections rose to 79,85,296 and the Covid-19 death toll to 1,47,940. A day earlier, the state had seen 2,971 cases and five fatalities. The state is now left with 22,485 active cases. (PTI)

Puducherry has registered 97 new Covid-19 cases, marking a dip in the number of fresh infections, a senior official said on Sunday. On Saturday, the Union Territory reported 101 cases.

Director of Health G Sriramulu, in a release, said the 97 cases surfaced during examination of 1,214 samples in the last 24 hours. There was no fresh fatality reported. 

The active cases were 513 today while nine patients out of them were in hospitals and the remaining 504 in home quarantine. (PTI)

Since the pandemic began, more than 6 million people have died from COVID around the world. The good news is that we now have a wide range of treatments as well as highly effective vaccines which have helped reduce the number of severe Covid cases.

Still, some people are more likely to get very sick or die from COVID than others. Our research, carried out before vaccines became available, showed that obesity is one of the factors that increases a person’s risk of being hospitalised or dying from COVID. We have now followed this up with a new study looking at how body weight affects the uptake and effectiveness of Covid vaccines, and discovered that being underweight can also be a risk factor for severe disease. (Read More)

After the country started reporting Omicron sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5, virologists and experts have cautioned against worrying endlessly about infections. Staying vigilant is important but there is no need to panic as most people in the country have been vaccinated or been infected.

Himachal Pradesh has witnessed a spike in coronavirus infection with the state reporting a five-fold increase in cases in June compared to May and 82 fresh cases in the first two days of July.

The positivity rate has shot up from 0.8 in May to 6.6 in July, an official said and dubbed the development "worrying". Dr Gurdarshan Gupta, chief medical officer, Kangra, issued an alert in the district on Sunday regarding the spurt in Covid-19 cases. (PTI)

 Ladakh recorded 35 fresh Covid cases that took the overall infection tally to 28,464, officials said on Sunday.

This was the highest single-day rise in four months and took the number of active cases to 111 – all in Leh district, they said. Kargil district does not have any active case and the last Covid patient was discharged on June 29.

Amid a spike in Covid cases, authorities have announced a 15-day summer break in government and private schools from July 4 and urged people to strictly follow the SOPs like wearing masks at public places. (PTI)

Odisha recorded 346 cases on Sunday, the highest spike in over four months, pushing the tally to 12,90,538, the health department said.

The test positivity rate shot up to 2.68 per cent from 1.7 per cent the previous day, it said. On February 22, the state had logged 428 cases. The coronavirus death toll, however, remained at 9,126.

The fresh infections, detected out of 12,897 samples, comprise 49 children.

Odisha now has 1,310 active cases, while a total of 12,80,049 people have recovered from the disease so far, it added.

Maharashtra's Thane district has reported 457 new cases of coronavirus, taking its infection tally to 7,28,968, a health official said on Sunday. With the addition of these cases on Saturday, the district currently has 4,979 active COVID-19 cases, he said.

One death was reported on Saturday, which raised the COVID-19 toll in the district to 11,908, the official said, adding that the recovery count in Thane has reached 7,101,624. (PTI)

As many as 110 more Covid-19 cases were reported in Assam, the highest single-day tally in over four months, pushing the caseload in the state to 7,25,036, a National Health Mission (NHM) bulletin said on Sunday.

No fresh death due to the virus was reported with the toll remaining unchanged at 6,639. 

Apart from that, 1,347 coronavirus-infected patients have died due to other reasons since 2020, the bulletin said. (PTI)

One more death was reported due to Covid-19 in Mohali on Saturday, taking the total number of fatalities to 1,155. This is the second death in two days in the district.As many as 36 positive cases were also reported on Saturday, increasing the total number of cases to 96,924. Of the 312 active cases, three patients are hospitalised. All the patients are admitted in the L-2 facilities in the hospitals. Read more

The German player who criticized Harmony Tan for pulling out of their doubles match at Wimbledon has contracted COVID-19.

Tamara Korpatsch said on Instagram that she tested positive and withdrew from her next tournament in France.

It’s at least the fourth known COVID-19 case among players who competed or planned to compete at the All England Club. Read more

Delhi on Saturday recorded 678 fresh cases with a positivity rate of 3.98 percent, while two more people succumbed to the viral disease, according to data shared by the health department here.

Delhi on Friday had logged 813 fresh COVID-19 cases with a positivity rate of 5.30 percent, and three fatalities.

Gujarat on Saturday reported 580 COVID-19 cases, which took the tally to 12,33,242, while the death toll remained unchanged at 10,947, a state health department official said.

The recovery count increased by 391 during the day to touch 12,18,817, leaving the state with an active caseload of 3,478, he said.

Ahmedabad reported 236 new cases, the highest in the state, followed by Surat with 106 cases, Vadodara 36 and Mehsana 29 cases, among other districts, he added. A government release said 11.15 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far, including 39,438 Saturday. 

On July 2, According to West Bengal health ministry, the state recorded 1,499 new positive cases. The total number of active cases as of Saturday was 20,32,663.

As many as 483 patients were discharged. The recovery rate in the state was 98.50 percent and three deaths were reported on Saturday with the case fertility rate of the state at 1.04 percent. Kolkata reported 550 new cases, while its neighbouring North 24 Parganas district recorded 429 infections, followed by South 24 Parganas (98), Hooghly (88) and Howrah (67), the bulletin stated. 

The state has been actively collecting samples for testing and on Saturday 10.036 samples were collected. So far West Bengal has administered 46,731 vaccine doses. 

After a push from the government to increase the coverage of precaution doses of the Covid vaccine, the numbers crossed the 2 lakh mark in two Delhi districts – West and New Delhi – which have been leading in the administration of the third dose in terms of numbers and proportion of population covered. West district has administered 2.19 lakh precaution doses so far, while New Delhi district has administered 2.08 lakh. Read more

Tamil Nadu on Saturday logged 2,533 new coronavirus cases, including a returnee from Assam, pushing the caseload to 34,80,103 till date, the health department said.

The death toll remained unchanged at 38,026 with nil fatalities reported in the last 24 hours, a medical bulletin said.

As many as 1,372 people were discharged in the last 24 hours aggregating to 34,28,758 leaving 13,319 active infections.

Chennai accounted for the majority of new cases at 1,059, Chengalpet 393, Tiruvallur 142, Coimbatore 117 while the remaining was spread across other districts. Cuddalore, Dharmapuri, recorded the least with one case, each.

The state capital leads among districts with 5,603 active infections and overall 7,63,525 coronavirus cases.

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