A healthcare staff collecting swab sample for Covid test at Jodhpur UHC in Ahmedabad. (Express photo by Nirmal Harindran)
Coronavirus News Highlights: India recorded a single-day rise of 3,016 new coronavirus cases, the highest in about six months, while the active cases increased to 13,509, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Thursday. A total of 3,375 cases were recorded on October 2 last year. The country’s Covid-19 death toll has increased to 5,30,862 with 14 latest fatalities: three reported by Maharashtra, two from Delhi and one reported by Himachal Pradesh in a span of 24 hours and eight reconciled by Kerala. The daily positivity was recorded at 2.73 per cent, while the weekly positivity was pegged at 1.71 per cent.
Meanwhile, Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj Thursday said that the Covid situation in the capital is not alarming and the department was fully prepared to tackle any surge in cases. “A trend has been seen that when Maharashtra witnesses a surge, Delhi also sees a spike in cases due to the large number of international flights which land in Mumbai and Delhi. We are fully prepared for it,” said Bharadwaj during a press conference after chairing an emergency meeting to review the Covid situation. He said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal called and spoke to him Wednesday night about the meeting attended by virologists, epidemiologists, genome sequencing experts, the director general of health services and the special secretary (health).
Amid rising cases of Covid-19, Solapur and Sangli districts have topped the positivity chart in Maharashtra with 20.05 per cent and 17.47 per cent rate, respectively, in March, said the state health department on Thursday. Positivity rate indicates the number of cases detected per 100 tests.
Delhi on Thursday recorded 295 fresh Covid-19 cases at a positivity rate of 12.5 per cent. The number of active cases stood at 932. With this, the cumulative case load has gone up to 2009656.
Amid a rise in Covid-19 cases, the Yogi Adityanath government has put all the frontline workers and government as well as private hospitals on "alert mode", according to an official release issued on Thursday, news agency PTI reported.
According to the release, instructions have been given by the government to take necessary action immediately in districts where confirmed cases are found. Along with this, instructions have also been given to strictly monitor the cases of respiratory tract infection, Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) in all the districts.
As of March 28, the number of active cases of Covid in Uttar Pradesh was 340. In view of this, the Yogi government has issued instructions to make necessary arrangements for Covid-19 management.
With the number of Covid cases rising in the national capital, doctors are advising that people follow Covid-appropriate behaviour. Wearing a mask in public places is the ideal thing to do at the moment, says Dr Suranjit Chatterjee, senior consultant, Internal Medicine, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals. Here are a few tips from Dr Chatterjee on dealing with the current situation
Addressing the recent surge in Covid cases in the national capital, Delhi's Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Thursday said that the state government was set to hold an emergency meeting to review the situation. But he added that no restrictions on movement were on the cards in the immediate future.
Amid rising cases of Covid-19, Solapur and Sangli districts have topped the positivity chart in Maharashtra with 20.05 per cent and 17.47 per cent rate, respectively, in March, said the state health department on Thursday. Positivity rate indicates the number of cases detected per 100 tests.
"Four weeks back, the state had a positivity rate of 1.05 per cent but between March 22 and 28, it reported 6.15 per cent. The districts with a rise in positivity rate include Solapur (20.05 per cent), Sangli (17.47 per cent), Kolhapur (15.35 per cent), Pune (12.33 per cent), Nashik 7.84 per cent and Ahmednagar (7.56 per cent)," said the department in a statement. The daily reporting of Covid-19 cases is high in districts such as Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Raigad, Nashik and Sangli, it added.
The department confirmed the new Covid-19 variant -- XBB.1.16 -- has been found in swab samples of 230 patients in the state so far. "Out of the 230 cases, 151 are from Pune followed by Aurangabad 24, Thane 23, Kolhapur and Ahmednagar 11 each, Amravati 8 and one each in Mumbai and Raigad. Out of the 230 cases, one patient has succumbed to the infection while others have recovered," said the statement. (PTI)
India saw a single-day rise of 3,016 fresh coronavirus cases, the highest in nearly six months, while the active cases increased to 13,509, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Thursday.
A total of 3,375 cases were recorded on October 2 last year.
The country's COVID-19 death toll has increased to 5,30,862 with 14 latest fatalities -- three reported by Maharashtra, two from Delhi and one reported by Himachal Pradesh in a span of 24 hours and eight reconciled by Kerala.
According to the ministry data updated at 8 am, the daily positivity was recorded at 2.73 per cent, while the weekly positivity was pegged at 1.71 per cent. (PTI)
Delhi's COVID-19 cases climbed to 300 on Wednesday for the first time since September last year, while the positivity rate climbed to 13.89 per cent, according to data shared by the city health department.
Two more Covid-related deaths were also reported, it said.
On Tuesday, Delhi logged 214 cases with a positivity rate of 11.82 per cent.
Himachal has witnessed a spurt in Covid-19 cases with 255 persons testing positive in the past 24 hours and one fatality, health officials said on Wednesday.
A 65-year-old man died due to coronavirus in Kangra district on Wednesday.
So far 4,196 persons have died due to Covid in the hill state and the number of active cases has risen to 755. Till March 13, the active case tally stood at 60. (PTI)
More from India
According to a new study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, children born to mothers who had Covid-19 during pregnancy may be more likely to develop obesity.
More than 100 million Covid-19 cases have been reported in the United States since 2019, and there is limited information on the long-term health effects of the infection. Pregnant women make up 9% of reproductive-aged women with Covid-19, and millions of babies will be exposed to maternal infection during fetal development over the next five years.
"Our findings suggest that children exposed in utero to maternal COVID-19 have an altered growth pattern in early life that may increase their risk of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease over time," said Lindsay T. Fourman, M.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Mass, adding, "There is still a lot of research needed to understand the effects of COVID-19 on pregnant women and their children." The researchers studied 150 infants born to mothers who had COVID-19 during pregnancy and found they had lower birth weight followed by greater weight gain in the first year of life as compared to ~130 babies whose mothers did not have a prenatal infection. These changes have been associated with an increased risk for obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease in childhood and beyond. (ANI)
Agriculture and Social Welfare Minister of Puducherry C Jayakumar told the territorial Puducherry Assembly on Wednesday that the government had framed a scheme to provide monthly assistance of Rs 2,000 to children who lost either their father or mother during the Covid-19 in the Union Territory.
Replying to the views expressed by members during the debate relating to demands for grants to his departments in the House, the Minister said that the scheme would cover 416 children. He said that families need to be relieved of their financial hardships in looking after the children, and hence the scheme was formulated to mitigate their suffering. (PTI)
India becomes the first country to develop its own mathematical system to estimate the cases of Tuberculosis burden, Health ministry official sources said.
"Estimation of Tuberculosis (TB) burden especially in terms of incidence and mortality has never been an easy task, especially with aggregated reporting or when the coverage of case base surveillance system has not reached saturation levels. However, with the introduction and rapid scale-up of Ni-kshay (a case-based web-based surveillance system) in India since 2012, the quality of information on notification has been continuously improving," an official source told ANI on Tuesday.
"Laboratory services have been decentralized and scaled up with high quality rapid diagnostic tests viz., Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT). With the scale-up of private sector engagement & mandatory notification, the coverage of private sector notification has increased over 7 times since 2014. The introduction of active case finding has helped the country in a community screening of vulnerable and giving an opportunity for early diagnosis, thereby reducing per capita transmission rate in the community," official sources said. (ANI)
Maharashtra Excise Minister Shambhuraj Desai and NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal tested positive for Coronavirus disease on Tuesday.
Desai, while confirming this, tweeted that his health is fine.
"My covid test is positive. I am receiving treatment from doctors in home isolation at my residence. My health is fine and there is no reason to worry. I appeal to those who have come in direct contact with me in the last three-four days to immediately get tested for Covid if they have any symptoms," he said in his tweet.
Amid rising Covid-19 cases in the country, Maharashtra reported 450 new cases of the infection and 3 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the officials of the state public health department. (ANI)
The discovery of a small molecule that neutralises the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, could provide a new basis for medication to shorten the course of the virus after exposure to it, according to a new study.
Researchers from the University of Houston (UH), US, said that the molecule could provide immediate protection against viral infection and thus, may be suitable for people across age groups, particularly for high-risk and immunocompromised individuals who typically do not generate sufficient antibodies after vaccination.
The molecule worked unlike Pfizer's antiviral treatment Paxlovid, which, they said, was only useful during the first three days of showing symptoms.
The discovery is described in the journal Biomedicines, news agency PTI reported.
In March 2020, weeks before the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic, its director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus delivered a speech in which he emphasised the importance of testing: …the most effective way to prevent infections and save lives is breaking the chains of transmission.
And to do that, you must test and isolate. You cannot fight a fire blindfolded. And we cannot stop this pandemic if we don’t know who is infected. We have a simple message for all countries: test, test, test. Read More
India saw 2,151 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, the highest in five months, according to the data updated by the Union Health Ministry on Wednesday at 8 am. Meanwhile, seven deaths were reported with one in Karnataka and three each in Maharashtra and Kerala.
🦠 Top Covid-19 news
1. Delhi's COVID-19 cases breached the 200 mark for the first time since September last year on Tuesday, while the positivity rate climbed to 11.82 per cent, according to data shared by the city health department.
2. Jammu and Kashmir Secretary of Health and Medical Education Department Bhupinder Kumar on Tuesday convened a meeting to review the current COVID-19 situation besides assessing preparedness for tackling the pandemic with all the stakeholders of the department.
3. With the Omicron sub-variant XBB.1.16 causing yet another spurt in new Covid cases, Maharashtra health authorities have appealed to the public to take precautionary doses.
The World Health Organization on Tuesday changed its recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines, suggesting that high-risk populations should receive an additional dose 12 months after their last booster.
The health agency defined high-risk populations as older adults, as well as younger people with other significant risk factors. For this group, the agency recommends an additional shot of the vaccine either 6 or 12 months after the latest dose, based on factors such as age and immunocompromising conditions. Read More
With the Omicron sub-variant XBB.1.16 causing yet another spurt in new Covid cases, Maharashtra health authorities have appealed to the public to take precautionary doses. As many as 17.5 crore Covid vaccine doses have been administered across Maharashtra. However, to date, less than a crore have taken booster shots.
Dr Sachin Desai. Maharashtra immunization officer, told The Indian Express that time and again the authorities have urged the public across different age groups to complete the vaccination schedule. Read More
Chandigarh reported seven new cases of Covid on Tuesday, with the number of active cases now jumping to 36, and the positivity rate, over the last seven days, settling at 1.62.
On November 27, the UT Health Department had issued a Covid advisory for the public, with a follow up meeting being held with various senior doctors and officials on Tuesday to take a stock of the situation and gauge the preparedness of various aspects of Covid management in government hospitals, wellness centres and dispensaries of the city. Read More
Delhi's COVID-19 cases breached the 200 mark for the first time since September last year on Tuesday, while the positivity rate climbed to 11.82 per cent, according to data shared by the city health department.
The national capital recorded 214 fresh cases of the viral disease on Tuesday.
Delhi recorded 115 fresh coronavirus cases with a positivity rate of 7.45 per cent on Monday. The city logged 153 cases with a positivity rate of 9.13 per cent on Sunday and 139 cases with a positivity rate of 4.98 per cent on Saturday, news agency PTI reported.
Maharashtra on Tuesday recorded 450 new cases of Covid-19 that raised the tally of infections to 81,42,509 and three fatalities, an official from the state health department said, news agency PTI reported. The daily count of infections has doubled since Monday, when the state reported 205 cases.
With the addition of the latest casualties, the toll has reached 1,48,438, while the count of recoveries rose to 79,91,728 after 316 patients recovered in the 24 hours, the official said.
Mumbai city saw 135 new case, taking its tally to 11,55,662, which includes 19,747 deaths. With this, Maharashtra now has 2,343 active cases, of which 663 were from Mumbai district, followed by 605 cases in Pune and 429 in Thane district. The recovery rate is at 98.15 per cent and case fatality rate was 1.82 per cent, the report stated.
Former Maharashtra minister and senior Nationalist Congress Party leader Chhagan Bhujbal on Tuesday said he has tested positive for Covid-19, news agency PTI reported. Earlier, he had contracted the viral infection when the pandemic was at its peak.
The NCP leader shared on Twitter the news about his health. He was recently on a tour of Yeola, his assembly constituency in Nashik district. Bhujbal said he had a fever when he was returning to Nashik from Yeola. He underwent a test for coronavirus on Monday which returned positive. The NCP leader has appealed to all those who had come in contact with him in the past 2-3 days to go for COVID tests if they have symptoms like fever, breathing difficulties, runny nose and a sore throat.
Nashik district on Tuesday reported 11 new cases, taking the overall infections in the district to 4,82,642, officials said.
In the wake of a spike in influenza cases and rise in Covid-19 cases in the last two weeks in the country and the state, the Karnataka health department Monday in a circular said that the exercise of whole genome sequencing (WGS) for tracking of newer variants should be expedited to evoke timely response.
The circular issued by state health commissioner Randeep D stated that wearing masks on hospital premises by patients, health professionals and health workers should be ensured by the hospital authorities. Read more
With the Omicron sub-variant XBB.1.16 causing yet another spurt in new Covid cases, Maharashtra health authorities have appealed to the public to take precautionary doses. As many as 17.5 crore Covid vaccine doses have been administered across Maharashtra. However, to date, less than a crore have taken booster shots.
Dr Sachin Desai. Maharashtra immunization officer, told The Indian Express that time and again the authorities have urged the public across different age groups to complete the vaccination schedule. Read more