A healthcare worker collects a swab sample from a passenger for Covid-19 testing amid a surge in coronavirus cases, at a railway station in Prayagraj, Tuesday. (PTI)
Shanghai will try again to reopen in a few days after it has eliminated COVID-19 transmission among the population at large as an outbreak in China's largest city subsides, an official said Friday. The strict lockdown of the city — now in its seventh week but moved, lifted and reinforced at times to the frustration of residents — is part of the ruling Communist Party's “zero-COVID” goal that has exacted a mounting economic toll and that even the World Health Organization says may be unsustainable.
India witnessed a slight dip in new cases, with 2,827 new Coronavirus infections registered on Thursday. Meanwhile, 24 patients succumbed to the infection since yesterday.
The European Union will no longer require masks to be worn at airports and on planes starting next week amid the easing of coronavirus restrictions across the bloc, authorities said Wednesday. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency said it hoped the joint decision, made with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, would mark “a big step forward in the normalisation of air travel” for passengers and crews, AP reported.
India numbers up, but UP death registrations fell in pandemic year
While the trend of increasing registrations of deaths in India continued in 2020 as well, Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state, saw a big drop, despite the fact that the total number of deaths would probably have risen due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to data from the Civil Registration System (CRS), Uttar Pradesh registered 8.73 lakh deaths in 2020, down from 9.44 lakh deaths registered in 2019.
Kerala, Telangana, Uttarakhand and Delhi also saw a drop in death registrations in 2020 as compared to the previous year. In fact, in percentage terms, Telangana registered a 11 per cent decline as compared to a 7.5 per cent fall in UP.
Why there’s no agreement on India’s Covid death figures
With the images from the Covid pandemic, of burning pyres and floating bodies, still fresh in our minds, the current debate on the magnitude of mortality during 2020 and 2021 looks surreal and unsympathetic. There are two extreme positions. One, that the government is showcasing the whole episode as yet another successful management effort by underreporting the number, and the other, that is projecting India to be the biggest contributor to the death pool globally by using fragmented data and macro-level modelling. By deaths per thousand population, India, however, does not figure among the top 100 countries, though the infection fatality rate of 1.2 per cent places it in seventh position globally.
As accurate death statistics by causes is hard to come by — around 70 per cent of deaths take place at homes even in normal times — attempts have been made to estimate the Covid deaths by identifying “excess” deaths over what would have been the number otherwise. There are conceptual issues involved since deaths due to starvation, returnee migrants miseries, those linked to the lockdown, unemployment, and other ailments not receiving medical help due to pressure on the system, are not due to Covid, but are part of excess deaths. Also, the Supreme Court’s decision to consider all deaths within three months of Covid infliction as Covid deaths resulted in a surge in reporting. Similarly, the lives saved due to the lockdown and measures adopted by people to protect themselves from the virus and those who would have died due to other causes had there been no Covid, would have to be taken on the positive side, increasing the discrepancy between Covid and excess death.
Gurugram: A healthworker administers a dose of Covid-19 vaccine to a beneficiary at a vaccination centre, in Gurugram, Monday, May 9, 2022. (PTI Photo)
A user-friendly, web-based modelling 'simulator' developed by ICMR after the second wave of Covid helped health officials and policymakers in various states to model plausible scenarios for a third wave in India, according to an article published in the British Medical Journal.
Based on experience, experts recommended use of such initiatives to bolster pandemic preparedness in other countries in South and South-East Asia.
The simulator was developed by ICMR in collaboration with Imperial College London and Dure technologies, a locally present (India-based) consultancy firm. The collaboration was spearheaded by Dr Samiran Panda, additional DG ICMR and head of Epidemiology and Communicable Disease Division.
In the article 'Imperfect but useful': pandemic response in the Global South can benefit from greater use of mathematical modelling", the experts explained how the simulator was developed, deployed and how it helped in India's COVID-19 response. (PTI)
The COVID-19 tally in Madhya Pradesh reached 10,41,867 on Friday after the detection of 35 cases, while the toll remained unchanged at 10,735 as no death took place due to the infection during the day, an official said.
The positivity rate went down to 0.4 per cent from 0.5 per cent the previous day, he added. The recovery count increased by 33 to touch 10,30,900, leaving the state with 232 active cases, the official informed.
With 7,862 samples examined during the day, the number of tests in MP went up to 2,91,69,464, he added. A government release said 11,82,45,447 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far in the state, including 23,141 on Friday. (PTI)
Chhattisgarh on Friday recorded two COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to 11,52,333, while the death toll remained unchanged at 14,034, an official said.
The two cases, at a positivity rate of 0.06 per cent, were from Rajnandgaon, while 19 districts in the state had no active coronavirus case as on Friday, he said.
The recovery count increased by nine to touch 11,38,271, leaving the state with 28 active cases, the official said. (PTI)
Mumbai on Friday reported 155 new COVID-19 cases and one death, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.
The caseload in India's financial capital thus rose to 10,61,332 while death toll reached 19,564. The city recorded a COVID-19-related death for the first time after April 30, BMC data showed.
As many as 116 patients recovered during the day, taking the total of recoveries to 10,40,870. There are 898 active patients in the metropolis now. (PTI)
Tamil Nadu recorded 44 new COVID-19 cases, including two returnees from Goa, pushing the tally to 34,54,556, while the death toll remained unchanged with nil fatalities in the last 24 hours, the Health department said on Friday. Among those tested positive include 25 men and 19 women.
Chennai accounted for the majority of new cases with 28, Chengalpet recorded four, Coimbatore, Madurai, reported three each, Tiruchirappalli clocked two, while Kancheepuram, Tirupathur, Tiruvallur and Villupuram recorded one each.
The number of people who have recuperated from the viral disease eclipsed new cases with 58 more people getting discharged in the last 24 hours, aggregating to 34,16,107 leaving 424 active infections, a medical bulletin said. (PTI)
Gujarat's COVID-19 tally reached 12,24,657 on Friday after 35 cases were detected in the last 24 hours, while the death toll remained unchanged at 10,944, a health department official said.
The recovery count increased by 12 to touch 12,13,502, leaving the state with an active caseload of 211, he added.
Gujarat COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases 12,24,657 new cases 35, deaths 10,944, discharged 12,13,502 active cases 211 and people tested so far - figures not released. (PTI)
Maharashtra on Friday recorded 263 new coronavirus infections and two pandemic-related deaths, the state health department said. The state's COVID-19 caseload rose to 78,80,337 and death toll reached 1,47,853.
On Thursday, the state had recorded 231 new cases and one fatality. Mumbai recorded 155 new cases and one death on Friday. Another fatality was reported from neighbouring Thane district.
The case fatality rate in Maharashtra stands at 1.87 per cent. The state has 1,455 active cases now. (PTI)
Happy but cautious at being able to join a mass religious event for the first time since the pandemic began, thousands of Catholic faithful gathered at a sanctuary in Portugal on Friday, as authorities brace for a potential sixth wave of COVID-19.
Retiree Teresa Maria, 62, was one of about 200,000 people who travelled to the famous Fatima Roman Catholic shrine to mark the first of three reported visions of the Virgin Mary, also known as Our Lady, more than 100 years ago. Last year, only 7,500 were allowed inside the sanctuary and people had to stand in circles to maintain social distancing.
For many, it was a special moment to see the sanctuary finally opening doors to a big crowd after the vast majority of COVID-19 rules were lifted last month. But, as daily infections rise again, Teresa Maria decided to keep her mask on.
"I always try to take precautions," she said as she waited for the farewell procession, one of the highlights of the event, to begin. "We are not free from it because cases are going up." (Reuters)
Locked-down Shanghai aims to ringfence its COVID outbreak over the next week, officials said on Friday, while residents in China's capital Beijing largely heeded the advice of authorities to work from home to stem the virus' spread.
Easing weeks of punishing restrictions in the commercial hub would bring relief to China's battered economy, although there is growing concern that Beijing may yet take a similar course of action if it fails to get a nascent outbreak under control.
Shanghai's deputy mayor, Wu Qing, said the city of 25 million aims to eliminate COVID outside of quarantined zones within the next week or so. After that, the city's lockdown will be "lifted in batches", with shops opened and traffic restictions eased, he said in the announcement which confirmed a Reuters story from Sunday. (Reuters)
The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, becomes almost immediately nonviable if deposited on a cash banknote, according to a study. The research, published in the journal PLOS ONE, suggests that the use of credit and debit cards over cash as a COVID-19 prevention measure is not advisable.
The researchers found that the virus shows greater stability on plastic money cards, with the live virus still being detected 48 hours after initial deposition. However, no viable virus was detected on either cash or card that was randomly sampled in the study, the researchers said.
"Early in the pandemic, we had this massive outcry for businesses to stop using cash; all these businesses just followed this advice and said OK we are credit card only," said study author Richard Robison, a professor at Brigham Young University (BYU) in the US. (PTI)
Six people have died and 350,000 have been treated for a fever that has spread “explosively” across North Korea, state media said Friday, a day after the country acknowledged a COVID-19 outbreak for the first time in the pandemic.
North Korea likely doesn't have sufficient COVID-19 tests and said it didn't know the cause of the mass fevers. But a big coronavirus outbreak could be devastating in a country with a broken health care system and an unvaccinated, malnourished population.
The North's Korean Central News Agency said of the 350,000 people who developed fevers since late April, 162,200 have recovered. It said 18,000 people were newly found with fever symptoms on Thursday alone, and 187,800 are being isolated for treatment. (AP)
Odisha reported 19 more COVID-19 cases on Friday, the health department said. The toll remained at 9,126 as there was no new fatality for the 10th successive day, it said.
There are 121 active cases and 33 more patients recovered from the disease, it added.
The new cases were detected after testing 14,608 samples, recording a positivity rate of 0.13 per cent. So far, the state has recorded 12,88,272 cases. (PTI)
Shanghai will try again to reopen in a few days after it has eliminated COVID-19 transmission among the population at large as an outbreak in China's largest city subsides, an official said Friday.
The strict lockdown of the city — now in its seventh week but moved, lifted and reinforced at times to the frustration of residents — is part of the ruling Communist Party's “zero-COVID” goal that has exacted a mounting economic toll and that even the World Health Organization says may be unsustainable.
The goal in Shanghai is to achieve “elimination in society,” meaning any new cases would only be in people already in isolation, Vice Mayor Wu Qing said at a news conference. That would allow for an “orderly opening, limited (population) flow, and differentiated management,” Wu said. (AP)
South Korea plans to provide Covid-19 vaccines and other medical supplies to the North, President Yoon Suk-yeol's office said on Friday, a day after the neighbouring country confirmed its first outbreak of coronavirus. "We will discuss detailed plans for assistance with North Korea," Yoon's spokesperson said in a statement. (Reuters)
India recorded 2,841 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s latest update. The total number of active cases is presently at 18,604.
North Korea said Friday that six people died and 3.5 lakh have been treated for a fever that has spread "explosively" across the nation, a day after its first acknowledgement of a Covid-19 outbreak.
The true scale is unclear, but a big Covid-19 outbreak could be devastating in a country with a broken healthcare system and an unvaccinated, malnourished population. North Korea, which likely does not have sufficient Covid-19 tests and other medical equipment, said it did not know the case of the mass fevers.
The North's official Korean Central News Agency said of the 3.5 lakh people who developed fevers since late April, 1,62,200 have recovered. It said 18,000 people were newly found with fever symptoms on Thursday alone, and 1,87,800 people are being isolated for treatment. (AP)
President Joe Biden appealed to world leaders at a COVID-19 summit Thursday to reenergize a lagging international commitment to attacking the virus as he led the U.S. in marking the ``tragic milestone'' of 1 million deaths in America. He ordered flags lowered to half-staff and warned against complacency around the globe.
“This pandemic isn't over,” Biden declared at the second global pandemic summit. He spoke solemnly of the once-unthinkable U.S. toll: “1 million empty chairs around the family dinner table.” The coronavirus has killed more than 999,000 people in the U.S. and at least 6.2 million people globally since it emerged in late 2019, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Other counts, including by the American Hospital Association, American Medical Association and American Nurses Association, have the toll at 1 million.
“Today, we mark a tragic milestone here in the United States, 1 million COVID deaths,” he said. (AP)
Chhattisgarh on Thursday recorded four new COVID-19 cases, taking the overall tally to 11,52,331, while no fresh death due to the infection was registered in the state, an official said.
The death toll remained unchanged at 14,034, he said. The four cases, at a positivity rate of 0.10 per cent, were reported from Raipur (3) and Balrampur (1), he added.
The recovery count increased by two to touch 11,38,262, leaving the state with 35 active cases, the official said. With 4,017 swab samples examined during the day, the tally of tests carried out so far in Chhattisgarh went up to 1,76,84,755, he added. (PTI)
The COVID-19 tally in Madhya Pradesh rose to 10,41,832 on Thursday after the detection of 40 new cases, while no fresh death linked to the respiratory disease was registered in the state, a health department official said.
The death toll remained unchanged at 10,735, the official said. The positivity rate, or cases detected per 100 tests, stood at 0.5 per cent, he said. The recovery count increased by 29 to touch 10,30,867, leaving the state with 230 active cases, the official informed.
With 8,000 swab samples examined during the day, the number of tests conducted so far in MP went up to 2,91,69,602, he added. A government release said 11,82,19,070 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far in the state, including 39,255 on Thursday. (PTI)
Gujarat on Thursday recorded 28 new cases of coronavirus that raised the tally of infections to 12,24,622, an official from the state health department said.
With 23 patients discharged from hospitals, the count of recoveries reached 12,13,490, while the toll stood at 10,944 as no new casualties were reported during the day, the official said. The state currently has 188 active cases, he added.
Gujarat COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases 12,24,622 new cases 28, deaths 10,944, discharged 12,13,490 active cases 188 and people tested so far - figures not released. (PTI)
Telangana on Thursday registered 39 fresh coronavirus cases taking the tally to 7,92,474. Hyderabad reported the highest number of cases with 28.
A health department bulletin said 28 people recuperated from the disease in the last 24 hours and the cumulative number of recoveries till date was 7,87,961. The recovery rate stood at 99.43 per cent.
No fresh fatality occurred due to the viral infection and the toll continued to be 4,111. The bulletin said 13,422 samples were tested on Thursday. The number of active cases was 402, it said. (PTI)
Maharashtra on Thursday recorded 231 fresh coronavirus cases, more than half of them from Mumbai, and one more death linked to the infection, the state health department said.
With this, the state's overall COVID-19 tally rose to 78,80,074, while the death toll increased to 1,47,851, the department said in a bulletin.
Mumbai recorded 139 cases in the last 24 hours, accounting for more than 50 per cent of the new patients in the state. The state's sole death due to the respiratory disease in the day was reported from Solapur district. (PTI)
Mumbai on Thursday reported 139 new coronavirus cases, the highest daily count since February 23, but no death linked to the infection was reported in the financial capital, the city civic body said.
With this, the city's overall COVID-19 tally rose to 10,61,177, while the death toll remained unchanged at 19,563, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said in a bulletin.
For the third consecutive day, Mumbai has logged over 120 COVID-19 cases, while it has registered infections in three digits for the ninth time in May so far. The metropolis had logged 124 COVID-19 cases, but no fresh fatalities on Wednesday. (PTI)
Jammu and Kashmir recorded one fresh Covid case on Thursday that took the infection tally to 4,54,126, officials said. The lone case was reported from Kupwara district in Kashmir division, they said.
There are 54 active cases, while the overall recoveries has reached 4,49,321, officials said.
The COVID-19 death toll stands at 4,751, No Covid-related fatality was reported in the last 24 hours, they said. There were 51 confirmed cases of mucormycosis (black fungus), they added. (PTI)
Despite an upward trend in coronavirus cases in Maharashtra, no scenario of a fourth wave of the pandemic is currently emerging in the state and the new infections are largely restricted to two to four districts, Health Minister Rajesh Tope has said.
Talking to reporters on Wednesday, Tope said during a meeting organised by the Union health ministry in Gujarat last week, he interacted with his counterparts from Punjab, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, which have also reported a rise in new coronavirus cases in the last few weeks.
He said the health ministers of Punjab, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh told him that the cases are rising, but there was “no reason to worry” as hospitalizations were extremely low. (PTI)
Stating that the COVID pandemic continues to disrupt lives, supply chains and test the resilience of open societies, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday said that India has adopted a people-centric strategy against the pandemic. He was speaking at the second Global Covid Summit.
“We have made the highest-ever allocation to our annual healthcare budget. Our vaccination programme is the largest in the world. We have fully vaccinated almost 90 per cent of the alien population and more than 50 million children. India manufactures four WHO approved vaccines and has the capacity to produce 5 billion doses this year,” Modi said.
He further stated: “We must build a resilient global supply chain and enable equitable access to vaccines and medicines. WTO rules need to be more flexible. WHO must be reformed and strengthened to build a more resilient global health security architecture.”
“Last month we laid the foundation of WHO Centre for Traditional Medicine in India with an aim to make this age-old knowledge available to the world. It is clear that a coordinated global response is required to combat future health emergencies,” the PM added.
Delhi on Thursday recorded 1,032 fresh COVID-19 cases and zero death, while the positivity rate stood at 3.64 per cent, according to data shared by the state health department.
With these new cases, the national capital's overall Covid tally has increased to 18,98,173 while the death toll stood at 26,184. Delhi reported 970 fresh Covid cases at a positivity rate of 3.34 per cent and one death on Wednesday.
A total of 28,386 tests were conducted a day earlier, according to the latest health bulletin. According to the government health bulletin, there are 4,928 active cases in Delhi right now. (PTI)
Scotland Yard on Thursday said that it had issued over 100 fixed penalty notice fines for COVID-19 lockdown breaches at UK government offices as part of its ongoing investigation into the so-called partygate scandal.
The Metropolitan Police had previously confirmed 50 fines, including one each issued to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, his wife Carrie Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak for attending a birthday party for the British prime minister at the Cabinet Room in 10 Downing Street in June 2020.
The force's Operation Hillman inquiry into these illegal gatherings has been ongoing, which has now resulted in a further 50 fines. (PTI)
With the count of daily new coronavirus cases in Delhi fluctuating over the last few days, experts on Thursday said the city will keep witnessing such trends for fairly long and attributed it to behavioural changes among citizens.
The national capital reported 970 COVID-19 cases and one death due to the disease on Wednesday while the positivity rate was at 3.34 per cent. The day before, Delhi reported 1,118 coronavirus cases and one fatality while the positivity rate was at 4.38 per cent.
On Monday, the city logged 799 cases of the disease and three deaths -- the highest in a day in over two months -- while the positivity rate was at 4.94 per cent. (PTI)
President Joe Biden will appeal for a renewed international commitment to attacking COVID-19 as he convenes a second virtual summit on the pandemic and marks 1 million deaths in the United States.
“As a nation, we must not grow numb to such sorrow," Biden said in a statement Thursday. "To heal, we must remember. We must remain vigilant against this pandemic and do everything we can to save as many lives as possible.” The president called on Congress to provide more funding for testing, vaccines and treatments, something lawmakers have been unwilling to deliver so far.
The lack of funding — Biden has requested another $22.5 billion of what he calls critically needed money — is a reflection of faltering resolve at home that jeopardizes the global response to the pandemic. (AP)
The number of new coronavirus cases reported worldwide has continued to fall except in the Americas and Africa, the World Health Organisation said in its latest assessment of the pandemic.
In its weekly pandemic report released late Tuesday, the U.N. health agency said about 3.5 million new cases and more than 25,000 deaths were reported globally, which respectively represent decreases of 12% and 25%.
The downward trend in reported infections began in March, although many countries have dismantled their widespread testing and surveillance programs, making an accurate count of cases extremely difficult.
WHO said there were only two regions where reported COVID-19 infections increased: the Americas, by 14%, and Africa, by 12%. Cases remained stable in the Western Pacific and fell everywhere else, the agency said. (AP)
North Korea imposed a nationwide lockdown Thursday to control its first acknowledged COVID-19 outbreak after holding for more than two years to a widely doubted claim of a perfect record keeping out the virus that has spread to nearly every place in the world.
The outbreak forced leader Kim Jong Un to wear a mask in public, likely for the first time since the start of the pandemic, but the scale of transmissions inside North Korea wasn't immediately known. A failure to slow infections could have serious consequences because the country has a poor health care system and its 26 million people are believed to be mostly unvaccinated. Some experts say North Korea, by its rare admission of an outbreak, may be seeking outside aid.
The official Korean Central News Agency said tests of samples collected Sunday from an unspecified number of people with fevers in the capital, Pyongyang, confirmed they were infected with the omicron variant. (AP)
The European Commission said on Thursday it will gradually put an end to the temporary rules that allowed the 27 EU member countries to benefit from extra public support during the coronavirus pandemic.
Adopted in March 2020, the so-called State Aid COVID Temporary Framework relaxed the European Union's strict state-aid regulations to help mitigate the impact of the pandemic.
In light of the improving economic situation in the region, coupled with the lifting of restrictions put in place to contain the spread of the virus over the past two years, the commission said that another prolongation of the scheme is not necessary. (AP)
Indian citizens and students travelling abroad can soon take the third precautionary dose of the vaccine against Covid-19 as per the travel guidelines of the destination country, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare announced Thursday.
“Indian citizens & students travelling overseas can now take the precaution dose as required by the guidelines of the destination country. This new facility will be available soon on the CoWIN portal,” tweeted Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya. At present, in India, the third precaution dose of Covid-19 vaccines has been made available to the 18+ population groups at private vaccination centres.
However, according to the current guidelines, only those adults who have completed nine months after the administration of the second dose would be eligible for the precaution dose. Read more.
China's leaders are struggling to reverse an economic slump without giving up anti-virus tactics that shut down Shanghai and other cities, adding to challenges for President Xi Jinping as he tries to extend his time in power.
The ruling Communist Party has declared its “zero-Covid” goal of preventing all infections takes priority over the economy. It is a decision with global implications and comes despite warnings by experts including the head of the World Health Organization that the goal might be unattainable. “We don't think it is sustainable,” the WHO director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said Tuesday.
China kept infection numbers low until early this year with a strategy that shut down cities, but entailed soaring costs. Beijing has switched to “dynamic clearing” that seals buildings or neighbourhoods if infections are found. But with thousands of new cases of the highly infectious omicron variant reported every day, that keeps most of Shanghai's 25 million people at home. Big parts of Beijing and other cities with tens of millions of people also are closed.
That is disrupting manufacturing and hampering the global flow of goods from smartphones to iron ore, increasing inflation risks in the United States and Europe. Consumer spending is weak, chilling Chinese demand for imports. (AP)
With 2,827 new coronavirus infections being reported in a day, India's tally of Covid-19 cases rose to 4,31,13,413, while the active cases dipped to 19,067, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.
The death toll climbed to 5,24,181 with 24 fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated. The active cases comprise 0.04 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate was 98.74 per cent, the ministry said.
A decrease of 427 cases has been recorded in the active Covid-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. India's Covid-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. (PTI)
President Joe Biden will appeal for a renewed international commitment to attacking Covid-19 as he convenes the second global Covid-19 summit at a time when faltering resolve at home jeopardizes that global response.
Eight months after he used the first such summit to announce an ambitious pledge to donate 1.2 billion vaccine doses to the world, the urgency of the US and other nations to respond has waned. Momentum on vaccinations and treatments has faded even as new, more infectious variants rise and billions across the globe remain unprotected.
Congress has refused to meet Biden’s request to provide another $22.5 billion in what he has called critically needed aid funding. Read more.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Thursday participate in the second global virtual summit on Covid-19, being hosted by US President Joe Biden, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Wednesday. The MEA said the summit intends to galvanise new actions to address the challenges of the pandemic and build a stronger global health security architecture. Modi participated in the first global virtual summit on Covid-19, hosted by Biden on September 22 last year. Read more.
Delhi reported 970 fresh Covid cases and one more death on Wednesday while the positivity rate declined to 3.34 per cent, according to data shared by the health department here. It is for the first time since April 15 that the positivity rate in Delhi has gone down below four per cent.
The city had recorded 366 fresh Covid-19 cases and zero death on April 15, while the positivity rate was at 3.95 per cent. With the new cases, Delhi's Covid-19 infection tally has risen to 18,97,141 while the death toll reached 26,184, according to the latest health bulletin. As many as 29,037 tests to detect Covid-19 were conducted in Delhi a day before, it stated. Delhi reported 1,118 fresh coronavirus cases and one death on Tuesday, while the positivity rate was 4.38 per cent. (PTI)
West Bengal reported 25 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, officials said. The positivity rate dipped to 0.27 per cent from 0.68 per cent on Tuesday. The new cases were detected after testing 9,303 samples, they said.
There are 395 active cases in the state at present, which was 22 less than Tuesday's count as more people recovered in the last 24 hours. The state reported 47 new recoveries. West Bengal has so far reported 20,18,671 Covid-19 cases. The death toll remained at 21,203 with no new fatalities. (PTI)
More than two years after a deadly strain of coronavirus was first identified in the central city of Wuhan, China remains locked in a Covid crisis.
Around 400 million people are currently thought to be living under some form of lockdown across the country. One of China's largest cities, Shanghai, has been paralysed for the past month, with many of its residents hemmed in by hastily erected metal fences. The capital, Beijing, is now striving to avoid a similar fate.
The extraordinary story of China's ongoing, and increasingly desperate, struggle against Covid-19 combines hubris at its own early public health successes with a failure to sufficiently vaccinate its elderly people, and is fuelled by rising anti-Western sentiment over the last five years. The result is that China now faces a dilemma: either the high numbers of deaths and overwhelmed health services that would result from a rampant virus, or the rapidly mounting social and economic costs of prolonged lockdowns and stay-at-home orders nationwide. (PTI)
A United Nations Weibo post on the World Health Organization chief's comments that China's zero-tolerance Covid-19 policy is not sustainable was removed from the Chinese social media platform on Wednesday morning shortly after being published.
WeChat, another Chinese social media platform, disabled the sharing function of a similar post by the United Nations. Addressing a media briefing on Tuesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: "We don't think that it is sustainable considering the behaviour of the virus and what we now anticipate in the future."
His remarks were posted in Chinese by the United Nations on its social media accounts. The United Nations and Weibo did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The item on WeChat carried the explanation: "This article has been prohibited from sharing because it has violated relevant laws and regulation." Tedros's remarks generated much buzz on China's heavily censored internet, as a prolonged lockdown in Shanghai and increasing curbs on mobility in Beijing and other cities caused mounting frustration among people. (Reuters)
China stocks rose on Wednesday as investors took comfort in signs of lower domestic Covid-19 infections, while U.S. President Joe Biden's decision to consider eliminating Trump-era tariffs on Beijing further listed risk appetite.
The CSI300 index was up 2% at 4,000.00 points, by the end of the morning session, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.6% to 3,085.43 points. The Hang Seng index added 1.7% to 19,971.18 points. The Hong Kong China Enterprises Index gained 2.4% to 6,818.91.
Shanghai said on Wednesday half the city had achieved "zero-Covid" status, but uncompromising restrictions had to remain in place under a national policy. Meanwhile, new infections detected in Beijing dropped to the lowest level since April 26. The head of the World Health Organization said on Tuesday China's zero-tolerance Covid-19 policy is not sustainable given what is now known of the virus. "Over the past week, the Covid situation has continued to improve at the national level," said Nomura in a note. "However, the turning point for economic fundamentals and most financial assets in coming weeks (or months) depends mainly on Beijing's stance on zero-Covid strategy instead of daily cases." (Reuters)
With 2,897 coronavirus infections being reported in a day, India's tally of cases rose to 4,31,10,586, even as active cases have decreased to 19,494, according to Union health ministry data updated on Tuesday. The death toll has climbed to 5,24,157 with 54 fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.
The active cases comprise 0.05 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.74 per cent, it said. The data showed that a decrease of 143 cases has been recorded in the active caseload in a span of 24 hours. The daily positivity rate has been recorded at 0.61 per cent and the weekly positivity rate at 0.74 per cent, according to the health ministry.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has increased to 4,25,66,935, while the case fatality rate has been recorded at 1.22 per cent. The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the Covid-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 190.67 crore, the ministry said. India's Covid-19 tally had crossed two crore cases on May 4 and three crore cases on June 23 last year. (PTI)
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said Tuesday he has tested positive for Covid-19 and is experiencing mild symptoms. Via Twitter, the billionaire philanthropist said he will isolate until he is again healthy. “I'm fortunate to be vaccinated and boosted and have access to testing and great medical care,” Gates wrote. The Seattle-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the most influential private foundation in the world, with an endowment of about $65 billion. (PTI)
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