Warning against letting the guard down against the disease, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said, "We are still in midst of Covid-19 second wave; September and October crucial in pandemic management because of several festivals." Explaining the importance of masks, Bhushan added: "Covid-19 vaccines are disease modifying and not disease preventing, so it is very important to use mask even after vaccination."
Taking a dig at the Government's asset monetisation pipeline plan, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi urged people to protect themselves against the coronavirus pandemic amidst a recent surge, as the government is "busy in sales", PTI reported. "Rising COVID numbers are worrying. Vaccination must pick up pace to avoid serious outcomes in the next wave," he said on Twitter.
India reported 46,164 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours ending on Thursday at 8 AM, taking the overall caseload to 3.25 crore (3,25,58,530). Meanwhile, the death toll increased to 4.36 lakh (4,36,365), with 607 fresh fatalities. Active cases have declined to 3.33 lakh (3,33,725).
Meanwhile in the United States, children are being hospitalized in record numbers across the country, with doctors are warning that it could significantly get worse as schools begin to reopen. An average of 303 children per day are being admitted to hospitals, the highest levels since the U.S. started tracking paediatric cases about a year ago, the CDC said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday took to Twitter and said, "Record vaccination numbers today! Crossing 1 crore is a momentous feat".
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Even as Kerala continued to report over 30,000 positive cases for the third consecutive day, Health Minister Veena George on Friday said 43 per cent of Intensive Care Units and 75 per cent of ventilators in the government sector are still vacant. While speaking to media, George said 66 per cent of beds in the Covid First Line Treatment Centres (CFLTC) are also currently vacant. She also said that Kerala was the only state which had undertaken studies related to the breakthrough infections. (PTI)
India on Friday administered more than 93 lakh doses under its Nationwide Vaccination drive, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said. This is the highest ever vaccination achieved in a single day since the start of the vaccination drive.
In another significant achievement, India’s Covid-19 vaccination coverage crossed 62 crore (62,09,43,580) landmark milestone as per the 7 pm provisional report today.
Kerala recorded 30,000 plus daily infections for the third consecutive day on Friday with 32,801 new cases in the past 24 hours. With 179 new fatalities, the death toll in the state mounted to 20,313. Test positivity rate was recorded at 19.22 per cent.
Delhi on Friday reported zero Covid-19 deaths for the second successive day. Meanwhile, the state reported 46 new infections.
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj S Bommai on Friday said the state will start at least five lakh Covid-19 vaccinations everyday from September 1 with the help of the Centre.
"We did five lakh inoculations on a trial basis on Wednesday. Now we will start five lakh vaccinations daily from September 1," Bommai who returned here on Thursday evening after a visit to Delhi, told reporters. He said his visit to the national capital was mainly to meet Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and seek the Centre's support to start five lakh inoculations daily from September onwards. Mandaviya assured his support and said that the Centre would supply the stock of vaccines based on the consumption of the State, Bommai added. (PTI)
Schools in Delhi is set to re-open in a phased manner. Classes for std 9th to 12th will begin from September 1st. Classes for std 6th to 8th will begin from September 8th.
At a time when the Kerala government is drawing flak for its alleged failed Covid-19 management in view of high test positivity rate and increased daily cases, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has rejected the criticism terming it as "unwanted" and suspected it as attempts to undermine people's support in its fight against the pandemic.
In an article published in the latest edition of "Chintha" weekly, one of the mouthpiece publications of the ruling CPI(M), he said a section in the society was making deliberate attempts to create confusion among people by criticising the state's disease management strategies. These moves were to trigger public sentiments against the government and thus create a situation in which the fight against the virus infection was viewed lightly by the people, he alleged.
The Chief Minister's statement assumes significance as the opposition Congress-led UDF and BJP were demanding him to end silence as the daily Covid cases had crossed the 30,000 mark after an interval this week. (PTI)
The risk of developing adverse events such as blood clots is considerably higher after infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus than after immunisation with Pfizer and AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines, according to a large UK study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) on Friday.
The team led by researchers at the University of Oxford in the UK conducted the study on thrombocytopenia -- a condition with low platelet counts -- and thromboembolic events or blood clots following COVID-19 vaccination with Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech preventives.
Some of these events have led to restricted use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, known as Covishield in India, in a number of countries. (PTI)
“Only once, out of the blue, he told me he had a debt of Rs 10-12 lakh. To which, I suggested selling off the house and property. But he was not ready for it,” Akhil, 23, recalled a conversation with his father G Vinod a few months before the latter died by suicide.
The bakery in Irumpupalam in Idukki district that Vinod ran for nearly eight years was not doing well. When the second wave of Covid-19 hit in early April this year prompting four months of a stern lockdown and restrictions, it slashed jobs of daily-wagers in the town, who formed the bakery’s chief clientele. To make matters worse, Vinod was injured in an accident this June while driving his auto-rickshaw down a steep slope. And when he was hospitalised, he picked up the Covid-19 virus there, forcing him to stay off work for another two weeks.
“I could figure out that he was quite tense and disturbed at that time. A couple of times we had to take him to the hospital as his blood pressure shot up and down. He had borrowed a lot of money from private lenders and the interest kept soaring. When I asked him whom to pay, he didn’t say anything,” said Akhil, who was working as a driver at the time. Read the full report here.
As the world nervously keeps a track of all the new Covid-19 variants and its sub-lineages, every virus sample is technically a new ‘variant’, as its sequence does not match with that of any other virus’ sequence.
Now, the scientists have expanded the Delta family from four to 13 variants. Some cases of the Delta variant, the most widely prevalent variant of concern in India, are being “reclassified” to another sub-lineage — AY.12 — that has been associated with a large number of cases in Israel, the India SARS-CoV-2 Genome (INSACOG) consortium, which tracks emerging variants, said in a report. Read the full explainer here.
The number of coronavirus patients in U.S. hospitals breached 100,000 on Thursday, the highest level in eight months, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, as a resurgence of COVID-19 spurred by the highly contagious Delta variant strains the nation’s health care system.
U.S. COVID-19 hospitalizations have more than doubled in the past month. Over the past week, more than 500 people with COVID were admitted to hospitals each hour on average, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The United States reached its all-time peak for hospitalizations on Jan. 6 when there were 132,051 coronavirus-infected patients in hospital beds, according to a Reuters tally. Read the full Reuters report here.
A contaminant found in a batch of Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccines delivered to Japan is believed to be a metallic particle, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported, citing sources at the health ministry.
Japan on Thursday suspended the use of 1.63 million doses shipped to 863 vaccination centres nationwide, more than a week after the domestic distributor, Takeda Pharmaceutical, received reports of contaminants in some vials.The NHK report, published late on Thursday, cited ministry sources as saying the particle reacted to magnets and was therefore suspected to be a metal. Moderna has described it as “particulate matter” that did not pose a safety or efficacy issue. Read the full Reuters report here.
In view of the rising number of Delta plus variant cases in Maharashtra, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) on Thursday made institutional quarantine or hospitalisation mandatory for every patient testing positive for coronavirus in the city. Municipal commissioner Radhakrishnan B has issued an order regarding this and directed all zone commissioners to put patients testing coronavirus positive under institutional quarantine or ensure their hospitalization, a NMC release said. (PTI)
India reported 44,658 new Covid-19 cases and 496 deaths in the last 24 hours, ending at 8 AM on Friday. With this the country’s caseload has increased to 3,26,03,188, while the death toll has risen to 4,36,861. India on Thursday completed administering at least one dose of the Covid-19vaccine to half its eligible adult population, as it crossed 61.10 crore cumulative vaccinations across the country.
India on Thursday completed administering at least one dose of the Covid-19vaccine to half its eligible adult population, as it crossed 61.10 crore cumulative vaccinations across the country.
According to the government, based on the projected mid-year count for 2020, the total population of the country aged 18 years and above is approximately 94 crore. On Thursday, India completed administering 47.29 crore first doses — which is 50.30 per cent of this projected adult population.
Daily vaccinations have so far averaged 52.16 lakh doses in August, compared to 43.41 lakh doses administered in July. Read the full report here.
For the second consecutive day, Kerala reported over 30,000 new Covid-19 infections on Thursday. According to the data shared by the state health ministry, 30,007 coronavirus cases, 162 deaths and 18,997 recoveries were recorded in the last 24 hours. Active cases stood at 1,81,209. A total of 1,66,397 samples were tested in last one day while the test positivity rate is 18.03%.
Programmatic data collection processes are on to assess vaccine effectiveness. NTAGI reviewing vaccine effectiveness data on regular basis. Currently, there's no proposal for change in dose interval for COVISHIELD, COVAXIN & SPUTNIK V under consideration: NTAGI Chief Dr NK Arora.
Warning against letting the guard down against the disease, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said, "We are still in midst of Covid-19 second wave; September and October crucial in pandemic management because of several festivals." Explaining the importance of masks, Bhushan said added: "Covid-19 vaccines are disease modifying and not disease preventing, so it is very important to use mask even after vaccination."
Government says 41 districts in India reporting weekly positivity rate of more than 10 per cent.
Kerala has more than 1 lakh active cases. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu & Andhra Pradesh have 10,000 to 1 lakh active cases. Kerala contributes to 51%, Maharastra 16% & rest of the three states contribute to 4-5% of the cases in the country," says Union Health Secy Rajesh Bhushan in a press briefing.
58.4 per cent of total Covid-19 cases last week were reported from Kerala: Govt
The Odisha government has decided to resume physical classes for standard 9 students in special schools across the state following a decline in COVID-19 cases. The government has already allowed the resumption of classroom teaching in schools across the state for students of class 9. The Department of Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (SSEPD) has asked Collectors of 10 districts to reopen class 9 in Special Schools and hostels for students. SSEPD Director Bratati Harichandan in a letter to the District Collectors of Balasore, Cuttack, Ganjam, Kalahandi, Koraput, Keonjhar, Puri, Kandhamal, Sundargarh and Khurda suggested to reopen schools for physically challenged student of Class 9 and reopen hostels. --PTI
The Delhi High Court Thursday dismissed a plea challenging AAP government's notifications reserving rooms in four hotels linked to two hospitals for treatment of officials of various public authorities and their families.
A bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh said it does not find merit in the petitioner's submission that the government orders were not passed by competent authorities.
The court refused to accept the submission of the petitioner's counsel that resources of the state remained unutilised due to the exclusive reservation of facilities for COVID-19 treatment of government officials and their families. It said the submission of petitioner's counsel does not take into account the ground reality of the second wave of the pandemic. (PTI)
India on Thursday donated a medical oxygen plant to Nepal as part of New Delhi's continued commitment to the Himalayan nation in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.
India's Ambassador here Vinay Mohan Kwatra handed over the 960 Litres Per Minute (LPM) medical oxygen plant to Minister of State for Health Umesh Shrestha at a ceremony at the Ministry of Health and Population, as part of India's robust partnership with Nepal in tackling the coronavirus pandemic, the Indian Embassy here said in a statement.
The plant has been installed at B P Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS), and is designed to cater to providing 5 LPM per person, amounting to a total capacity of 960 LPM, it said. (PTI)
People infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, are most contagious two days before, and three days after they develop symptoms, according to a study conducted in China.
The research, published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, also found that infected individuals were more likely to be asymptomatic if they contracted the virus from a primary case -- the first infected person in an outbreak -- who was also asymptomatic.
"In previous studies, viral load has been used as an indirect measure of transmission," said Leonardo Martinez, an assistant professor at Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) in the US. (PTI)
The Odisha government has decided to resume physical classes for standard 9 students in special schools across the state following a decline in COVID-19 cases. The government has already allowed the resumption of classroom teaching in schools across the state for students of class 9.
The Department of Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (SSEPD) has asked Collectors of 10 districts to reopen class 9 in Special Schools and hostels for students. SSEPD Director Bratati Harichandan in a letter to the District Collectors of Balasore, Cuttack, Ganjam, Kalahandi, Koraput, Keonjhar, Puri, Kandhamal, Sundargarh and Khurda suggested to reopen schools for physically challenged student of Class 9 and reopen hostels.
"Steps may please be taken for reopening of Class 9 of Special Schools and hostels functioning thereunder subject to some conditions," Harichandan said in the letter. (PTI)
The "carelessness" of the Kerala government, which is more focused on celebrating the anniversary of the Moplah riots, was the reason for the steep rise in COVID-19 cases and test positivity rate in the state, Union Minister of State for External Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs V Muraleedharan said on Thursday.
The southern state had on Wednesday logged 31,445 fresh coronavirus infections and the toll mounted to 19,972 with 215 new deaths and the TPR rose to 19.03 per cent. Kerala had reported more than 30,000 cases after a gap of three months. The last time it had crossed this mark was on May 20, in the midst of the second wave, when it recorded 30,491 cases.
Addressing the media in New Delhi, the minister said the high number of fresh cases, rising test positivity rate (TPR) which was close to 20 per cent and the number of fatalities in Kerala, together indicate that the state was going through a very bad phase of the pandemic. (PTI)
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday voiced concern over the rise in coronavirus cases in the country, and said people should take care of themselves as the government is "busy in sales". Gandhi has been accusing the BJP government of selling out the country's assets built in the last 70 years, after it announced its asset monetisation pipeline plan. "Rising COVID numbers are worrying. Vaccination must pick up pace to avoid serious outcomes in the next wave," he said on Twitter. (PTI)
Puducherry Lt Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Thursday said the territorial government is taking all possible efforts to contain the Covid-19 pandemic and has largely succeeded (in its efforts).
Delivering her customary address in Tamil to the territorial Assembly on the opening day of the budget session (2021-2022) here, she said she was confident that Puducherry would certainly be free from the coronavirus pandemic soon with the cooperation of the government machinery and the people.
Soundararajan said she wanted to reiterate that the people of the union territory had voted for the government with high expectations and hoped that all the Members of the House under the able guidance of the Chief Minister would work hard to fulfil their expectations and Puducherry prosperous, free from poverty and unemployment in course of time. (PTI)
Amidst a surge in coronavirus cases, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor inaugurated a protest led by the Youth Congress in Thiruvananthapuram against the Kerala government's handling of the Covid crisis.
Addressing the recent surge in coronavirus cases in Kerala, Union Minister V Muraleedharan told ANI: "The situation in Kerala is grave. The state, instead of using scientific methods to contain the spread, is trying to use pandemic for political objectives. I urge it to follow ICMR guidelines. Kerala's home quarantine (plan) has miserably failed."
"The testing mechanism, as suggested by ICMR and (testing) numbers are far less in the state. The State should give more attention to restricting COVID," he added.
India reported 46,164 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours ending on Thursday at 8 AM, taking the overall caseload to 3.25 crore (3,25,58,530). Meanwhile, the death toll increased to 4.36 lakh (4,36,365), with 607 fresh fatalities. Active cases have declined to 3.33 lakh (3,33,725).
The Greater Chennai Corporation will hold a mega Covid-19 vaccination camp on August 26. The civic body has been involved in several initiatives to increase coverage, including door-to-door vaccination for senior citizens and special vaccination camps in markets and big residential complexes.The corporation will conduct 400 camps in all the 200 wards of the city on Thursday.
The civic body, in a press release, said it would pay special attention to vaccinate the differently-abled, pregnant women, lactating mothers, people with high blood pressure and diabetes, and conduct special camps for people residing in slum areas. Read the full report here.
Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) has withheld supply of about 1.63 million doses in Japan after it was notified of contamination of its COVID-19 vaccine vials with particulate matter, the U.S. vaccine maker said on Wednesday.
The contamination, the company said, could be due to a manufacturing issue in one of the production lines at its contract manufacturing site in Spain. Read the full AP report here.
In what may hint at a high rate of Covid-19 transmission in the state following Onam, Kerala on Wednesday reported 31,445 fresh Covid-19, with the test positivity rate (TPR) touching 19 per cent now. This is the first time that the state has reported more than 30,000 fresh cases since May 20 this year, when the second wave was raging.
On Wednesday, seven of the 14 districts — Ernakulam, Thrissur, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Palakkad, Kollam, and Kottayam — reported upwards of 2000 cases each. While Ernakulam reported the highest number of fresh infections (more than 4000 cases), Thrissur, Kozhikode, and Malappuram reported more than 3000 cases each. Read the full report here.