Mass Covid Testing Campaign at Government Taluk Hospital in Kochi. (Photo Credit: PRD, Kerala/file)Coronavirus India Highlights: Kerala on Saturday logged 29,682 new Covid-19 cases along with 142 fatalities. The state witnessed a slight dip in the test positivity rate and was recorded at 17.54 per cent.
Speaking to reporters, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the current lockdowns on Sundays and the night curfew would continue in the state, but further decisions would be taken only after another evaluation meet on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, the Philippines decided to welcome travellers from India and nine other countries including the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia, from September 6, PTI reported. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has approved the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) to lift the current travel restrictions on India and nine other countries starting September 6, the news agency stated.
India reported 42,618 new coronavirus cases and 330 deaths in the last 24 hours ending at 8 am on Saturday. With this, the total number of coronavirus cases rose to 3.29 crore (3,29,45,907) and the death toll increased to 4.4 lakh (4,40,225). Over 30,000 (36,385) Covid patients recovered from the illness, taking the total number of active cases to 4,05,681.
A schoolchild has her temperature taken before entering the school premises as part of safety protocol against Covid-19 coronavirus after authorities relaxed the lockdown norms and reopened educational institutions in Amritsar on Monday August 2 2021. (EXPRESS PHOTO BY RANA SIMRANJIT SINGH)
"Be the Warrior" campaign, part of the health department's Covid-19 mitigation programme to fight the expected third wave of the pandemic, was launched on Saturday by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
The Chief Minister said the aim of the campaign was to reduce the severity of the third wave and also to speed up the vaccination.
"Everyone must safeguard themselves from Covid-19. The campaign aims to ensure that everyone wears a proper mask, washes their hands frequently with soap, water or sanitizer, maintain physical distancing and take two doses of vaccine in order to fight the pandemic," he said after launching the logo of the campaign. (PTI)
Tamil Nadu on Saturday added 1,575 new Covid-19 infections, pushing the overall caseload to 26,21,086, while the number of fatalities touched 35,000 with 20 more people succumbing to the virus. Recoveries outnumbered new infections with 1,610 people getting discharged in the last 24 hours, aggregating to 25,69,771, leaving 16,315 active infections, a health department bulletin said. (PTI)
Maharashtra on Saturday reported 4,130 new coronavirus cases and 64 fatalities, the state health department said. The infection tally in the state thus rose to 64,82,117 while the death toll reached 1,37,707. The number of recoveries rose to 62,88,851, with 2,506 patients discharged during the day. The state now has 52,025 active cases. Maharashtra's case recovery rate stands at 97.02 per cent while the fatality rate is 2.12 per cent. (PTI)
The total lockdown on Sundays and the 10 pm-6 am night curfews as part of Covid-19 restrictions will continue in the state until a review meeting next week, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said Saturday.
Addressing the press in Thiruvananthapuram, Vijayan said a detailed review meeting would be held on September 7 where a decision on extending restrictions would be taken.
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The Centre on Saturday asked eight northeastern states, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir to focus on the second dose vaccination of the 60-plus population, saying the coverage in some of these states was "unsatisfactory". The vulnerability of people aged above 60 to Covid-19 makes this exercise of prime importance, the Centre told these states.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan chaired a review meeting with representatives from Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Uttarakhand and the northeastern states -- Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. (PTI)
Kerala on Saturday logged 29,682 new Covid-19 cases along with 142 fatalities. The state witnessed a slight dip in the test positivity rate and was recorded at 17.54 per cent.
People travelling from India to Turkey will be required from Saturday to submit a negative COVID-19 report from RT-PCR test done not more than 72 hours before arrival, PTI reported quoting the Turkish Embassy. The rule will also apply to those passengers who have been in India in the 14 days prior to their travel to Turkey.
In the updated rules for travellers from India to Turkey, the embassy said that effective from September 4, passengers who certify that they have had at least two doses (single dose for Johnson & Johnson) of the vaccines approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization or Turkey, provided that at least 14 days have passed since the last dose, will be exempted from mandatory quarantine.
Passengers who cannot provide the above mentioned certificate will be quarantined in their residence or the address they will declare. On the 10th day of quarantine, they will be subjected to a PCR test and if the result is negative, the quarantine will be terminated. If the PCR test result is positive, treatment will be conducted in accordance with the COVID-19 guidelines of the country's Ministry of Health. Quarantine period for those who do not have a PCR test on the 10th day will be extended to 14 days, the statement said.
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday said the government has still not considered reopening schools for classes 1 to 5, and guidelines will be issued once again to restrict organising large-scale events and rallies, in view of violation of COVID-19 protocols.
"No, we have not considered it yet. We will see how things will function with class 6,7 and 8, and based on that we will take further decisions," Bommai told reporters in response to a question on reopening school for classes 1-5.
The government has already allowed reopening of schools for students from class 9 to 12 since August 23, and class 6,7 and 8 will reopen from September 6. (PTI)
Delhi on Saturday reported 55 new Covvid-19 cases with zero death. This is fourth day the capital city reported zero Covid fatality. The test positivity rate was recorded at 0.08 per cent.
Mission MaxVax launched by the Akanksha Foundation to ramp up vaccination figures across its communities has helped facilitate over 7,000 vaccinations in Pune and Mumbai in the last two and a half months.
The foundation collaborates with the government to provide quality education to children from low-income communities and runs 27 English medium schools in Pune, Mumbai and Nagpur, impacting over 10,000 children with the help of 575 educators and an alumni base of more than 4,000.
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New Zealand reported its first coronavirus death in more than six months on Saturday, while the number of new cases continued to trend downward. Health authorities said the woman who died was in her 90s and had underlying health problems.
Authorities reported 20 new community cases, all in the largest city of Auckland. New Zealand remains in lockdown as it tries to eliminate an outbreak of the delta variant that began last month. New cases in the outbreak have steadily fallen from a peak of more than 80 each day. New Zealand has so far escaped the worst of the pandemic and has reported just 27 coronavirus deaths since it began. (AP)
India's Covid-19 vaccination coverage has crossed 68 crore, the Union health ministry said on Saturday.
India has sent about 150 tonnes more oxygen to Sri Lanka to help the island nation combat the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sri Lanka on Friday extended its nationwide lockdown till September 13 amidst a surge in the number of COVID-19 deaths and mounting pressure on the healthcare system.
"Lifeline from India to Sri Lanka close to 150 tonnes of oxygen from Vizag and Chennai reached the shores of Colombo," the Indian High Commission in Colombo tweeted on Saturday. India since mid last month has been sending urgent supplies of oxygen to Sri Lanka following a personal request for assistance by the Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa, it said. Indian naval ship Shakti in August delivered 100 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen to Sri Lanka to help the island nation. (PTI)
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is lifting a coronavirus ban on travelers from 10 countries including India, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia, the presidential spokesperson said on Saturday.
The ban, introduced in April then expanded to more countries in July to prevent the spread of the more contagious Delta variant, will be lifted on Monday, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement. (Reuters)
India reported 42,618 new coronavirus cases and 330 deaths in the last 24 hours ending at 8 am on Saturday. With this, the total number of coronavirus cases rose to 3.29 crore (3,29,45,907) and the death toll increased to 4.4 lakh (4,40,225). Over 30,000 (36,385) Covid patients recovered from the illness, taking the total number of active cases to 4,05,681.
Of the new cases and deaths recorded since yesterday, Kerala recorded 29,322 cases and 131 deaths yesterday.
In anticipation of a Covid-19 third wave, the Karnataka government Friday decided to keep Dasara festivities in Mysuru and adjoining districts low-key.
Announcing the decision to conduct the state’s official festival in a “simple and traditional” manner for the second consecutive year, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said, “We have decided to release Rs 6 crore to celebrate Dasara festival at Mysuru, Chamarajanagar, and Sriragapatna.”
The budget announced this year, incidentally, is lower than the condensed budget of Rs 10 crore announced by B S Yediyurappa last year. Under normal circumstances, the state spends an average of Rs 50 crore every year towards Dasara celebrations. Read more
The COVID-19 tally in Madhya Pradesh reached 7,92,215 on Friday with the addition of 18 cases, while the day also saw the toll remaining unchanged at 10,516, an official said. The recovery count stands at 7,81,598, leaving the state with 101 active cases, he said. With 68,226 samples being examined during the day, the number of tests in MP went up to 1,67,92,936, the official added. An official release said 4,79,84,081 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in MP so far, including 1,38,798 on Friday. --PTI
Andhra Pradesh reports 1520 new Covid-19 cases, 1,290 recoveries and 10 deaths in the last 24 hours.
Terming the Covid situation in Kerala ‘alarming’, the Supreme Court on Friday put interim stay on Kerala government’s decision to hold Class XI exam physically from September 6. The next hearing in the case is scheduled on September 13.
Kerala’s overall coronavirus cases have breached 41 lakh as its consistently high number of daily infections showed no signs of a let-up, with the state witnessing over 30,000 new infections on Thursday too.
Biological E has received approval for conducting phase II/III human clinical trial of COVID-19 vaccine candidate Corbevax on children above five years and adolescents, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) said on Friday. Corbevax, an RBD protein sub-unit vaccine, has been developed with supported from the Department of Biotechnology and its PSU Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), it said. --PTI
This week the World Health Organization named a new ‘variant of interest’ of the coronavirus, called the Mu variant. It was first found in Colombia in January 2021, and has been found in about 39 countries so far.
Mu has changes, called mutations, which mean it might be able to evade some of the protection we get from COVID vaccines.
But one reassuring element is that, despite being around since January 2021, it doesn’t seem to be outcompeting Delta, the dominant variant across most of the world.
If Mu was truly a really bad variant, we would have expected to have started to see indications of this, and we haven’t yet. Read the full explainer here.
Seven and a half months into the national vaccination drive, India has got more than half its adult population inoculated with at least one dose of a Covid-19vaccine.
In the two small states of Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh, and in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, almost every eligible person has received at least one dose of the vaccine, data show.
As on September 1, nearly 51 crore people — which is 54 per cent of the estimated 93.8 crore people above the age of 18 years in India — had received at least one dose of the vaccine. Over 15.32 crore of these individuals have received their second dose as well. Read the full report here.
India reported 45,352 new coronavirus cases and 366 deaths in the last 24 hours ending at 8 AM on Friday. With this, the country’s overall caseload rose to 3,29,03,289, while the death toll increased to 4,39,895. With 34,791 recoveries, active cases now stand at 3,99,778. Presently the recovery rate stands at 97.45 per cent.