India’s effective reproduction number (R-value) for Covid-19, an indicator of how quickly a disease is spreading in the population, has increased to over 1 for the first time since mid-January, during the third wave of the pandemic. The R-value, which saw a steady increase over the last few weeks, was 1.07 for April 12-18, according to Sitabhra Sinha, a researcher from Chennai’s Institute of Mathematical Sciences who has been tracking the country’s R-value since the beginning of the pandemic. It was 0.93 the previous week.
The Pune-based Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Virology (ICMR-NIV) has reported three episodes of Covid-19 infection in a healthcare professional. The report was published in the Journal of Infection on Tuesday. The professional had primary SARS-CoV2 infection, breakthrough infection with Delta and reinfection with Omicron over a 16-month period.
NIV researchers said the findings of the study prove the immune evasion potential of the Omicron variant, even after infection and vaccination. In the case of the 38-year-old healthcare professional from New Delhi, researchers at NIV said the patient had a breakthrough infection with Delta derivative (AY.112) and reinfection with the Omicron sub-lineage BA.2. Although the clinical specimens of the primary infection couldn’t be characterised, the probability of B.1 as an infecting variant would be higher as the infection occurred in October 2020, when emerging variants had not been detected in India.
READ | Three episodes of Covid infection found in healthcare professional: report
Just when the pandemic seemed to be getting over in India, the rise in cases in Delhi and Haryana has begun to sound alarm bells once again. The silver lining, as of now, is the fact that the rise in cases has been restricted in these two states, basically Delhi and its neighbourhood, and has not been reported from other parts of the country.
Unlike the other major cities such as Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai or Pune where the number of daily new cases dropped to the lower double-digits, Delhi has continued to report a significantly higher number of cases, over 100 per day on an average.
Poland can reach a compromise with Moderna on increasing the flexibility of Covid-19 vaccine contracts, the health minister said on Friday, striking an upbeat tone after initial talks with the US pharmaceutical company.
Poland has said it will not take or pay for more doses of Covid-19 vaccine under the European Union's supply contract as it already has sufficient doses, potentially setting the stage for a legal battle with manufacturers.
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The country has seen lower vaccine uptake than many other European countries and is seeing its public finances stretched by the effects of the war in neighbouring Ukraine, which has resulted in 2.9 million refugees entering Poland.
"Thank you @moderna_tx for the dialogue started today," Adam Niedzielski wrote on Twitter. (Reuters)
A total of 35,636 precaution doses of Covid-19 vaccine were administered in those aged 18-59 years till 7 pm on Friday, taking the total precaution doses given in this age-group to 3,08,380 so far, according to the Union health ministry data.
The cumulative number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 187.44 crore, with more than 17 lakh vaccine doses being administered till 7 pm, the ministry said.
India on April 10 began administering precaution doses of Covid-19 vaccines to all aged above 18 years at private vaccination centres.
All those above the age of 18, who have completed nine months after the administration of the second dose, are eligible for the precaution dose.
Over 2.63 crore precaution doses have been administered to healthcare workers, frontline workers and to those aged 60 and above so far. (PTI)
Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) V K Bhawra was among 149 police personnel who were administered the booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine during a special camp here on Friday.
Two additional DGPs -- Arpit Shukla and Sharad Satya Chauhan -- and assistant inspector general Sukhwant Singh Gill also got the booster jab.
The Punjab police in association with the health department has been organising special camps for administering Covid-19 vaccination booster dose for its personnel at a dispensary at the Punjab police headquarters here.
This was the third such camp organised here. A total of 363 police personnel have got the booster dose, according to an official release.
Spain's anti-corruption prosecutor said on Friday it would open a preliminary inquiry into alleged corruption by companies purportedly linked to government ministers that won lucrative contracts during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The prosecutor's office said it would assess the allegations submitted by Spain's opposition People's Party (PP) to determine whether the seven companies involved received special treatment and if there were grounds for a full investigation.
Under scrutiny are a contract for a marketing company allegedly linked to Economy Minister Nadia Calvino's husband and the awarding of government support to a business with ties to the parents of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
Neither the Economy Ministry nor the Prime Minister's office responded to a request for comment. (Reuters)
Mumbai on Friday reported 68 Covid-19 cases, a dip from 98 on Wednesday, which was the highest for April so far, and 91 on Thursday, a civic official said.
It took the tally in the metropolis to 10,59,141, while the death toll remained unchanged at 19,562, he said.
He said 44 persons were discharged during the day, which had taken the recovery count to 10,39,105, leaving the city with an active caseload of 474.
So far, 1,68,26,035 samples have been examined, including 8,700 in the last 24 hours, he added.
A Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation health bulletin said 65 of the 68 new cases were asymptomatic, while the remaining three had been hospitalised, though none of them needed oxygen support.
It also stated only 12 out of the 26,044 hospital beds earmarked for Covid-19 treatment were currently occupied.
Civic data showed the recovery rate is 98 per cent, the positivity rate stands at 0.007 per cent, the caseload doubling time was 11,343 days and the overall case growth rate between April 15 and 21 was 0.005 per cent. (PTI)
Delhi logs 1,042 fresh Covid cases, two deaths in a day. Positivity rate 4.64 per cent: Health Bulletin. (PTI)
A European Medicines Agency committee on Friday recommended approving the use of Pfizer and BioNtech's Covid-19 vaccine, Comirnaty, as a booster for adults who have previously been inoculated with other vaccines.
The recommendation from Europe's drug regulator comes days after the two companies showed that a third dose of their shot produced significant protection against the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in healthy children aged five to 11. (Reuters)
World Health Organisation Director General Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus on Friday appreciated Nepal's national campaign against Covid-19, as he met Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and discussed measures to further strengthen the cooperation between the country and the UN health agency.
Ghebreyesus, who arrived here on Thursday on a three-day official visit, praised Prime Minister Deuba for such effective work that most of the eligible people were vaccinated against the coronavirus with smooth management, according to sources at the Prime Minister's Office.
During the meeting, Ghebreyesus termed Nepal government's strategy for control and prevention of Covid-19 as effective, the prime minister's press coordinator Govinda Pariyar said.
In the meeting, Ghebreyesus also extended thanks to the Nepal government for launching the vaccination against typhoid among children - the first in South Asia.
"Another compliment he made was Nepal's progress on various health indicators, including child and maternal mortality over a short span of time," Pariyar said. (PTI)
Within three weeks of lifting its mask mandate, the Delhi government Friday made masks mandatory at public places with immediate effect, and imposed a fine of Rs 500 for any violation as coronavirus cases rise in the city again.
However, those travelling together in a private four-wheeler are out of the purview of the new rule, according to an order issued by the city's Health and Family Welfare Department.
The order does not mention if people travelling in hired cabs and taxis will be required to wear masks.
The Delhi Disaster Management Authority(DDMA) had in a meeting last Wednesday decided to make masks mandatory at public places with a fine of Rs 500 for any violation.
The DDMA meeting, attended by Lt Governor Anil Baijal and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal among others, had noted that Covid case positivity rate has been increasing in Delhi over the past fortnight. (PTI)
With the addition of four new cases of Covid-19 the tally of infections in Maharashtra's Nashik district reached 4,76,040 on Friday, an official said.
As many as 4,67,128 have recovered from the disease so far in the district, while the toll stands at 8,899, he said.
There are currently 13 active cases in the district, the official said.
According to the administration, of the total number of cases, 2,72,797 were from Nashik city, 1,77,112 from other parts of the district, 13,882 from Malegaon and 8,333 patients were from outside the district. (PTI)
With its ancient fort and sandy beaches, the city of Galle on Sri Lanka's southern coast should be awash with holidaymakers at this time of year.
Instead, another power cut has plunged the city into darkness, and the historic quarter lies mostly deserted except for a lone tourist using a flashlight to find his way along the pitch black street.
As Sri Lanka sinks deeper into its worst economic crisis since independence, hopes in Galle that it could once more become the booming tourist destination it was before COVID-19 halted global travel in 2020 have been dashed.
Power cuts and essential food shortages have hit the island nation hard for weeks, drawing out protesters onto the streets and putting President Gotabaya Rajapaksa under mounting pressure to resign. On Tuesday, one person died in a protest, the first fatality since the demonstrations began last month.
Tourism earned Sri Lanka $4.4 billion and contributed 5.6% to GDP in 2018, but this dropped to just 0.8% in 2020. However, arrivals topped 100,000 in March for the first time in two years, Sri Lanka's tourism office said. Overall tourism numbers are higher than they were in 2021, marking what many thought would be a pandemic revival. (Reuters)
Hong Kong will allow non residents to enter the financial hub from May for the first time in more than two years, a small step in unwinding stringent coronavirus restrictions which have turned the city into one of the world's most isolated places.
Hong Kong's rules for airlines that carry infected Covid-19 patients will also be eased slightly, the government said in a statement on Friday, with the threshold for suspending incoming flights rising to five infected passengers from three currently.
A ban on individual airline routes will be shortened to five days from 7.
Foreign travellers will be subject to the same procedure as residents, the government said.
The announcement comes with daily infections under 1000 for more than a week from a peak of more than 70,000 on March 3.
Hong Kong's borders have essentially been closed since early 2020 with very few flights and weeks-long quarantine for arrivals. (Reuters)
Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla on Friday warned against the return to the business-as-usual approach, saying we “can’t afford to put a price tag on the life of a citizen” as the pandemic is not behind us yet.
The chief executive defended his call for lowering the vaccination gap to six months from the present nine months to ensure that people don’t see again the pains they underwent in the first two waves of the pandemic, and not for making money, as he has made already enough.
“I have also offered vaccines for free to avoid waste, which I wouldn’t have done if my objective is money,” he said. (Read More)
Singapore will remove most remaining Covid-19 restrictions from April 26, in response to a decline in new daily infections, its health ministry said on Friday.
The measures include removing limits on group sizes, allowing the full return of employees to workplaces and scrapping a requirement for vaccinated travellers to take a Covid test before departing for Singapore. (Reuters)
Officials in Shanghai promised Friday to ease anti-virus controls on truck drivers that are hampering food supplies and trade, while city streets were still largely empty after millions of people were allowed out of their homes.
A deputy mayor, Zhang Wei, promised ``every effort'' to resolve problems that prompted complaints about lack of food and fears that the shutdown, which barred most of Shanghai's 25 million people from going outdoors, might disrupt global trade.
The streets of China's most populous city were quiet despite an easing of restrictions beginning April 13 that has released more than 10 million people. Many were barred from leaving their neighborhoods. Others had nowhere to go because most factories, shops and offices were closed.
In one neighborhood, a woman rode a skateboard and a couple took a child's photo outside a park. Delivery drivers rode past on scooters while government employees in white suits sprayed disinfectant on trash bags. (AP)
No student or staff should be allowed entry into school premises without thermal scanning and if any of them tests Covid positive, the institute's authorities must take appropriate quarantine measures, according to Delhi government guidelines for schools.
The guidelines were issued in the wake of a spike in coronavirus patients in the city that on Thursday logged 965 cases, 1,009 on Wednesday, 632 on Tuesday and 501 on Monday.
Schools have also been advised to ask students to not share lunch and stationery items, the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) issued by the city government stated.
Parents should be advised to not send their ward to school if the child or any member in the family tests positive or shows Covid symptoms, it said.
"If a student as well as staff member displays any Covid symptoms, they should be moved away from other people into an outdoor ventilated space or quarantine room," the SOP stated. (PTI)
Eighteen more students of IIT Madras tested positive for Covid-19 Friday morning taking the tally to 30 till now. Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan, who termed the spread as a small cluster, visited the campus on Friday alongside other health department officials to oversee the RT-PCR tests being carried out for those residing on the campus.
Radhakrishnan said the first case was detected on April 19 and two more students tested positive on April 20 following which the health department, the Chennai municipal corporation and the medical team at the IIT Madras campus took samples of those who were in close contact with these students.
A UK patient with a severely weakened immune system had Covid-19 for almost a year and a half, scientists reported, underscoring the importance of protecting vulnerable people from the coronavirus.
There’s no way to know for sure whether it was the longest-lasting Covid-19 infection because not everyone gets tested, especially on a regular basis like this case.
But at 505 days, “it certainly seems to be the longest reported infection,” said Dr. Luke Blagdon Snell, an infectious disease expert at the Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. (AP)
DOMESTIC AIR traffic is recovering from the Covid blow, having edged past the pre-pandemic daily passenger count of 4 lakh, and the aviation market is now seeing a fresh dose of competition with a pitched battle for the second spot.
Low-cost carrier IndiGo stays at the top with more than half the domestic market share, but there are three contenders — Air India, SpiceJet and GoFirst — for the second spot. According to monthly traffic data published by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for March, GoFirst became the third airline this year to occupy the No.2 rank in terms of passenger market share after Air India and SpiceJet had dominated the spot.
Read Pranav Mukul's full report here
Shanghai has extended the COVID-19 lockdown to April 26, amid reports of growing public resentment as the eastern metropolis of 26 million reported 11 more deaths on Thursday, taking the toll in the current outbreak to 36.
China on Thursday reported 2,119 locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which 1,931 were reported in Shanghai, according to the National Health Commission. Shanghai has added 17,629 new cases in the previous 24 hours, 4.7 per cent fewer than a day earlier, according to data released on Friday, taking the city's cumulative cases since March 1 to 443,500. (PTI)
An increase of 808 Covid-19 cases has been recorded in India's active caseload in a span of 24 hours. The active cases comprise 0.03 per cent of the total infections.
Puducherry recorded zero coronavirus cases on Thursday and the cumulative figure remained 1,65,777. There was no active case as the one patient in home quarantine recovered and the overall recoveries stood at 1,63,815.
Omicron sublineage BA.2.12 has been detected in a majority of the samples sequenced from Delhi in the first fortnight of April and it could be behind the recent surge in Covid-19 cases in the city, sources said Thursday.
However, an Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) source has claimed that Omicron variant derivative BA.2.12.1 has also been found in a few samples in Delhi which is said to be contributing to the recent rise in cases in the US. But officials have not confirmed that it indeed was found in some samples in Delhi. (PTI)
A senior health official in Telangana on Thursday urged citizens to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour in view of a rise in cases in some States, even as he discounted the possibility of a fourth wave in the State where about 93 per cent of the people have developed anti-bodies.
Citing the sero-survey conducted recently by the city-based National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), State Director of Public Health G Srinivasa Rao said the sero-positivity rate was found to be 92.9 per cent among the general population in the State. The sero-positivity rate was 93.1 per cent among healthcare workers. It was over 97 per cent in Hyderabad.
India recorded 2,451 new Covid-19 cases and 54 deaths in the 24 hours ending 8 am Friday, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Active cases currently stand at 14,241 while the recovery rate remained unchanged at 98.75 per cent.
Tamil Nadu on Thursday posted 39 fresh Covid-19 cases, pushing the caseload to 34,53,390 as the state continued to witness an increasing trend.
The toll remained 38,025 with zero fatalities being recorded in the last 24 hours, a medical bulletin said. Taking cognizance of the rise in new cases, the government directed the health department to step up testing of samples to around 25,000 a day from the present 18,000 cases.
Delhi has started providing free Covid-19 precautionary dose to beneficiaries in the 18-59 age group at government vaccination centres, the city health department said on Thursday. The administration of the precautionary or third dose of Covid-19 vaccine to the 18-plus population through private vaccination centres had started across the country on April 10.
Delhi logged 965 fresh Covid cases in a day with a positivity rate of 4.71 per cent while one person died due to the infection, according to data shared by the city health department on Thursday. A total of 20,480 tests were conducted in the city a day ago, the data showed. Delhi had reported one death and 1,009 Covid cases on Wednesday, the maximum since February 10, with a positivity rate of 5.7 per cent.
The subject expert panel on Covid-19 vaccines on Thursday recommended India’s drug regulator to grant emergency use authorisation to Hyderabad-based Biological E’s Corbevax for the age group of 5-12 years subject to various conditions, health ministry sources said.
Top sources told The Indian Express that recommendations of the subject expert committee will be taken up by India’s drug regulator for formal approval of the vaccine in the next few days.
With Thursday’s approval, Biological E’s Corbevax will become the first Covid-19 vaccine candidate that could be likely administered for children aged above 5 years, after the government expert body on Covid-19 takes a final decision to roll out Covid-19 vaccination for this age group. Read more
Delhi will provide free Covid precautionary dose to beneficiaries in the 18-59 age group at government vaccination centres, the city health department said on Thursday.
The administration of the precautionary or third dose of Covid vaccine to the 18-plus population through private vaccination centres had started across the country on April 10.
"In order to give the benefit of precaution dose to all eligible beneficiaries in Delhi, the same will be available for 18 to 59 years' age group, free of cost in all government CVCs from April 21," the health department said in an order. (PTI)
Italy reported 75,020 Covid related cases on Thursday, against 99,848 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily number of deaths fell to 166 from 205.
Italy has registered 162,264 deaths linked to Covid since its outbreak emerged in February 2020, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the eighth highest in the world. The country has reported 15.93 million cases to date.
Patients in hospital with Covid - not including those in intensive care - stood at 10,231 on Thursday, up from 10,207 a day earlier. There were 40 new admissions to intensive care units, down from 44 on Wednesday. The total number of intensive care patients stood at 415, increasing from a previous 413. (Reuters)
Gujarat reported 19 new coronavirus positive cases and one fatality on Thursday, taking its infection tally to 12,24,214 and death toll to 10,943, the state health department said.
The Covid-linked death was reported for the first time in the state in nearly a month. The state had last reported such fatality on March 22. The latest death occurred in Vadodara.
As 12 patients were discharged during the day, the number of recoveries rose to 12,13,173, the department said in a release. With this, the number of active cases in the state stood at 98. (PTI)
Maharashtra on Thursday recorded 179 fresh coronavirus cases, 17 more than the day before, and one fatality linked to the infection, the health department said.
With this, the state's overall Covid tally rose to 78,76,382, while the toll increased to 1,47,831, the department said in a bulletin. On Wednesday, the state had recorded 162 coronavirus cases, but zero fatality.
Mumbai recorded 91 cases, more than half of the new patients detected in the state in the last 24 hours. The state's active cases rose to 762 --- 72 more than the day ago. (PTI)
Genome sequencing laboratories in Delhi have detected a sub-variant of the omicron sub-variant BA.2, which was announced by the New York state health department, which said that it had 23% to 27% growth advantage over the BA.2 variant of omicron.
The samples, which were positive for the new sub-variant (BA2.12.1), have been sent to the country’s apex Covid-19 genome sequencing consortium INSACOG for confirmation, according to officials from Delhi’s health department.
“We have not detected the sub variant yet. We have known of this sub-variant only for a couple of week and it will take some time before we can say whether it is more transmissible, whether it causes different symptoms,” said a senior official from INSACOG. Read more
Some hospitals in Canada's most populous provinces are cancelling or postponing medical procedures in the face of another wave of the coronavirus pandemic, increasing backlogs of procedures that health practitioners say will take years to work through and could cost more lives.
There are some signs the sixth Covid wave may be peaking in Ontario, Canada's most populous province. But hospitals are facing a double whammy of new Covid infections and, to a much greater degree, health workers off sick or isolating due to Covid just as some had begun to tackle pandemic backlogs.
Covid hospitalisations in Ontario are below their January peak but, as a lagging indicator, keep rising after estimated infections may be peaking. Health worker absences are hitting operations when burnout is high and as hospitals struggle to cope with years of deferred care, administrators say. (Reuters)
Jammu and Kashmir reported 10 fresh Covid cases on Thursday that took the infection tally to 4,53,966, officials said. Of the new cases, five each was reported from Jammu and Kashmir division, they said.
Jammu district logged four new cases, followed by three in Srinagar, two in Baramulla and one in Kathua, officials said. There are 55 active cases while the overall recoveries has reached 4,49,160, they said.
The Covid death toll stands at 4,751. No Covid-related fatality was reported in the last 24 hours, officials said. There were 51 confirmed cases of mucormycosis (black fungus), they added. (PTI)
A senior health official in Telangana on Thursday urged citizens to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour in view of a rise in cases in some States, even as he discounted the possibility of a fourth wave in the State where about 93 per cent of the people have developed anti-bodies.
Citing the sero-survey conducted recently by the city-based National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), State Director of Public Health G Srinivasa Rao said the sero-positivity rate was found to be 92.9 per cent among the general population in the State. The sero-positivity rate was 93.1 per cent among healthcare workers. It was over 97 per cent in Hyderabad.
Rao said R-value in the State is less than 0.5 per cent. R-value indicates the number of people an infected person can spread the disease to. The positivity rate in the State is 0.14 per cent. (PTI)
Vaccine inequity remains an issue both within India, where less than 2 per cent of the population has received a Covid booster, and the globe with 56 countries unable to inoculate even 10 percent of their people, says Johns Hopkins scientist Amita Gupta.
Tracking hospitalisation rates which provide an indicator of severity of illness is key, the chief of the Division of Infectious Disease, and Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said while stressing that no one is safe from Covid until everyone in the world gets vaccinated.
She cited the example of the Omicron variant to buttress her point. The highly transmissible variant is believed to have emerged in November last year in South Africa and Botswana due to inadequate immunisation in African countries before spreading globally, Gupta said, adding that another variant is likely to follow the same trend. (PTI)
Mumbai on Thursday recorded 91 new Covid-19 cases. Of the total, 90 are asymptomatic and one was hospitalised. No virus-related fatalities were reported in the city on Thursday.
Omicron sublineage BA.2.12 has been detected in a majority of the samples sequenced from Delhi in the first fortnight of April and it could be behind the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in the city, sources said Thursday.
However, an Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) source has claimed that Omicron variant derivative BA.2.12.1 has also been found in a few samples in Delhi which is said to be contributing to the recent rise in cases in the US.
But officials have not confirmed that it indeed was found in some samples in Delhi. (PTI)
Twelve students at the IIT Madras campus have tested positive for Covid-19, prompting health secretary J Radhakrishnan to inspect the campus and to direct officials to sanitize the locality and follow safety guidelines.
Radhakrishnan said the first case was detected on April 19 and two more students tested positive on April 20 following which the health department, the Chennai municipal corporation and the medical team at the IIT Madras campus took samples of those who were in close contact with these students. Read more
Even though Covid cases are on the rise, there is no need to panic and the risk for those who have taken the vaccines is very low, an Uttar Pradesh government spokesperson said here on Thursday.
According to health experts, it is possible that in the coming days, there may be an increase in new cases of the disease, but the current variant of the virus is a "normal" one, the official said. There is no need to panic but caution has to be maintained, he added.
On guidelines issued by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at a meeting to review the Covid situation in the state, the spokesman said there is a need to be vigilant about the health safety of children and that they should be made aware of Covid protocols in schools. (PTI)
The Punjab government on Thursday advised people to wear face masks at crowded places amid a surge in coronavirus cases in some of the states.
Punjab on Wednesday had reported 30 fresh cases, taking its coronavirus tally to 7,59,334.
According to the advisory issued by the Department of Home Affairs and Justice, wearing of masks should be ensured in closed environments such as in buses, trains, aircrafts, cinema halls, shopping malls, departmental stores, offices and classrooms. (PTI)
The omicron variant overtook delta in January when the third wave was at its peak in the capital as shown by government data, which revealed that 79% of the total samples sent for genome sequencing was of omicron and 14% was of delta. In February and March, omicron cases had an incidence of 100% and delta stood at zero. A total of 783 samples were sent for sequencing of which 504 were analysed and the prevalence of omicron was at 100%, data showed.
Meanwhile, about 97% deaths during the peak of the third wave of the pandemic had the omicron variant, shows data. While 1,035 people died of Covid from January-March, a majority of these deaths were incidental – they were people with serious illnesses or those admitted to hospitals with co-morbidities, who were later infected with Covid. Read more
Shanghai reported eight more deaths due to COVID-19, taking the toll in the current outbreak in the eastern metropolis to 25, while the Chinese mainland reported over 19,300 cases due to the new Omicron variant. Wednesday saw eight deaths from COVID-19, all in Shanghai, China's National Health Commission reported on Thursday.
With this, the death toll in China since coronavirus emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019 has reached 4,663 according to official data. On Wednesday, the Chinese mainland reported total 19,382 COVID-19 cases, including 2,830 who tested positive while the rest were asymptomatic cases with a majority of them in Shanghai, the country's financial hub. (AP)
The Punjab government Thursday has said that wearing of masks in public places will now be mandatory.
The World Health Organisation said that the number of reported new Covid-19 cases worldwide decreased by nearly a quarter last week, continuing a decline since the end of March. The Geneva-based UN health agency said in a weekly report that nearly 5.59 million cases were reported between April 11 and 17, 24% fewer than in the previous week, AP reported.
The number of Covid-19 vaccines being administered in Delhi has remained low – around 22,500 on an average over the last seven days – despite the number of cases of the viral infection beginning to increase and with the Centre pushing for better vaccination coverage. The number of vaccines administered in Delhi went down in mid-February and early March because Delhi reached a saturation point in most categories. Over 90% of the adult population in the capital have been fully-vaccinated.
After a lull, the numbers once again went up when the administration of the second dose for children between the ages of 15 and 17 years started and then again when the drive was opened up for those between the ages of 12 and 14 years. At present, the highest number of shots is being administered to the latter. Read more
Thailand on Thursday received 200,000 doses of India-made Covovax vaccines as part of a flagship initiative of the Quad grouping to help countries combat the coronavirus pandemic. The vaccine doses were handed over to Thai Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul in Bangkok by India's Ambassador to Thailand Suchitra Durai, Australian envoy Allan McKinnon, Japan's Nashida Kazuya and US Charge d'Affaires James Wayman, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.
"The consignment comprising 200,000 doses of Made in India, Covovax vaccines was presented to Anutin Charnvirakul, Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Public Health of Thailand on April 21 in Bangkok," it said. Thailand on Thursday received 200,000 doses of India-made Covovax vaccines as part of a flagship initiative of the Quad grouping to help countries combat the coronavirus pandemic. The vaccine doses were handed over to Thai Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul in Bangkok by India's Ambassador to Thailand Suchitra Durai, Australian envoy Allan McKinnon, Japan's Nashida Kazuya and US Charge d'Affaires James Wayman, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. "The consignment comprising 200,000 doses of Made in India, Covovax vaccines was presented to Anutin Charnvirakul, Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Public Health of Thailand on April 21 in Bangkok," it said. (PTI)
With some states registering a spike in Covid-19 cases, the Odisha government on Wednesday asked all the district authorities and other stakeholders to maintain a close watch on the situation and keep a contingency plan ready to deal with any possible exigency. Public Health Director Dr Niranjan Mishra, however, asserted that the COVID situation in Odisha is very much under control and there is nothing to worry about.
Nevertheless, he said that the state needs to remain prepared because of the rapid-spreading nature of the coronavirus. The Directorate of Public Health, in a letter to all the district collectors, chief medical officers, authorities of medical college and hospitals and municipal commissioners, asked them to maintain surveillance to ascertain whether there is an outbreak in any cluster. (PTI)
India recorded 56 new Covid-19 related deaths over the last 24 hours, out of which 53 were from Kerala and one each from Delhi, Mizoram and Odisha.
The daily positivity rate recorded in India in the last 24 hours was at 0.53 per cent and the weekly positivity rate as 0.43 per cent, according to the Union health ministry.
The question of the number of people who died in India as a result of the pandemic has been festering in recent months. Scientists estimate this number by counting the total number of people who died during the pandemic and comparing this with the number of people who were expected to have died based on historical data on mortality. The difference between these two figures is referred to as “excess mortality”, which could be attributed to the pandemic. Not all these additional deaths are directly due to the virus; some could also have been due to indirect effects of the pandemic, such as people dying of hunger or of other diseases because of the shutting down of the economy and routine health care during the lockdown. Nevertheless, it can be assumed that, had the pandemic not happened, there would not have been any of these additional deaths. Vikram Patel writes
Telangana on Wednesday recorded 20 new Covid-19 cases taking the state's tally to 7,91,692. Hyderabad reported the highest number of cases with 14. A health department bulletin said 13 people recuperated from the infection raising the cumulative number of recoveries till date to 7,87,387.
As 1,231 patients recovered from the Covid-19 infection in the last 24 hours, the active cases of the country stood at 13,433. The active case percentage stood at 0.03% of the total infections.
West Bengal's Covid-19 tally rose to 20,17,874 Wednesday after 28 more people tested positive, a health bulletin said. The death toll remained unchanged at 21,200 as no fresh fatality was recorded. The number of active cases dipped to 258 from 272 on Tuesday, while 42 more people were cured of the disease, taking the total number of recoveries to 19,96,416 and the discharge rate to 98.94 per cent.
India reported 2,380 Covid-19 cases and 56 deaths in the 24 hours ending 8 am Thursday. Active cases in the country are above 13,000.
The US Justice Department is filing an appeal seeking to overturn a judge’s order that voided the federal mask mandate on planes and trains and in travel hubs, officials said Wednesday. The notice came minutes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked the Justice Department to appeal the decision handed down by a federal judge in Florida earlier this week. (PTI)
India’s effective reproduction number (R-value) for Covid-19, an indicator of how quickly a disease is spreading in the population, has increased to over 1 for the first time since mid-January, during the third wave of the pandemic. The R-value, which saw a steady increase over the last few weeks, was 1.07 for April 12-18, according to Sitabhra Sinha, a researcher from Chennai’s Institute of Mathematical Sciences who has been tracking the country’s R-value since the beginning of the pandemic. It was 0.93 the previous week.
Hello and welcome to today's Covid-19 live blog. We bring to you the latest news updates related to the Covid-19 cases and restrictions across all states in India. Stay tuned!