DailyWorld News - The First International Newspaper From India https://dailyworld.in/ Tue, 23 Sep 2025 14:46:59 +0530 en https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/four-held-in-up-for-extorting-money-by-issuing-fake-halal-certificate-519577.html Lucknow Feb 13 The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force STF on Monday arrested four members of the Halal Council of India for allegedly extorting money under the guise of halal certificationThe arrested individuals have been identified as Maulana Mudassir Habib Yusuf Patel Mohd Anwar Khan and Mohammed TahirThe STF also recovered four Aadhar cards four PAN cards three mobile phones four ATM cards three driving licenses two voter cards and cash worth Rs 21820 from their possessionAccording to police the Halal Council of India used to charge Rs 10000 per certificate while it had no authority to issue such certificatesThe police said that illegal collections were made under the guise of providing such certification and the STF is probing into the utilisation of these fundsHalal certification is usually considered as an assurance that a product adheres to Islamic principles The Uttar Pradesh government in November 2023 imposed a ban on the manufacture sale storage and distribution of halalcertified products within the state IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/four-held-in-up-for-extorting-money-by-issuing-fake-halal-certificate-519577.html Tue, 13 Feb 2024 04:18:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/ktaka-school-principal-held-for-sending-lewd-messages-to-girl-student-413446.html Raichur Karnataka March 30 The principal of a school has been arrested on charges of sending lewd messages to a tenth grade student and misbehaving with her in this district of the state police said on Thursday According to police the incident had taken place in the limits of Shakthinagar police station The accused principal who is on the verge of retirement managed to get the phone number of the victim and chatted with her Later he started sending lewd messages and vulgar forwards to her mobile He also started making calls to the victim and discussing sensual matters The girl had told police that the accused had asked her not to address him as sir but to treat him like a boyfriend He had sent multiple messages to her forcing her to spend time with him at his residence The accused would address the girl as darling He had also threatened to harm her in the tenth board if she didnt cooperate police said After the girl confided in her parents about the torture by the accused they had thrashed him and handed him over to the police The police have booked him under the POCSO sexual harassment atrocity charges and investigating the case IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/ktaka-school-principal-held-for-sending-lewd-messages-to-girl-student-413446.html Thu, 30 Mar 2023 16:43:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/lucknow-reports-highest-covid-spike-with-18-cases-in-a-day-411025.html Lucknow March 23 Lucknow has reported eight Covid19 cases the highest oneday spike this year according to data provided by the Lucknow Chief Medical Officer According to health officials two cases in Aliganj three in Tudiyaganj two in Chinhat and one in Kaiserbagh tested positive for the infection on Wesdnesday With this the active Covid cases in Lucknow has gone up to 18 said Yogesh Raghuvanshi District Health Education Officer All new patients are in home isolation even as the Health Department has constituted 17 rapid response teams to deal with the rising cases Manoj Agrawal Chief Medical Officer of Lucknow said Testingsampling is being facilitated at hospitals for those with symptoms of Covid Hospitals have also been alerted to arrange beds medicine and medical staff for Covid duty Abhishek Shukla Secretary General of the Association of International Doctors said Due to the recent rains the chances of infection spreading are higher due to high moisture levels Therefore people should strictly adhere to the Covid protocol IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/lucknow-reports-highest-covid-spike-with-18-cases-in-a-day-411025.html Thu, 23 Mar 2023 13:56:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/long-covid-cripples-millions-best-protection-is-vaccination-say-experts-393554.html Hong Kong Jan 29 About 71 per cent of people with long Covid required medical treatment or were unable to work for six months or more according to a new study Some 18 per cent of patients most of whom were younger than 60 had still not returned to work more than a year after their initial infection according to the study by the largest workers compensation fund in New York At least 65 million people are thought to have long Covid according to a latest review of 200 Covid19 studies published in Nature Reviews Microbiology journal earlier this month The USbased researchers estimate that the condition is present in 10 per cent of the 651 million Covid19 cases that have been documented worldwide reports South China Morning Post The World Health Organisation WHO published a standardised clinical case definition of long Covid in 2021 but experts say diagnosis is still a challenge Most Asian countries do not track the number of long Covid patients Experts believe that the best protection from long Covid is vaccination Another study this month warned that Covid19 patients have an elevated risk of death for at least 18 months after they got infected Covid patients were more likely to develop numerous cardiovascular conditions compared to uninfected participants which may have contributed to their higher risks of death according to the study of nearly 160000 participants published in Cardiovascular Research a journal of the European Society of Cardiology ESC The findings indicate that patients with Covid19 should be monitored for at least a year after recovering from the acute illness to diagnose cardiovascular complications of the infection which form part of long Covid said Professor Ian CK Wong of the University of Hong Kong China Compared to uninfected individuals the likelihood of Covid19 patients dying was up to 81 times higher in the first three weeks of infection and remained five times higher up to 18 months later IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/long-covid-cripples-millions-best-protection-is-vaccination-say-experts-393554.html Sun, 29 Jan 2023 12:26:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/indias-first-intranasal-covid-vaccine-inncovacc-launched-392766.html New Delhi Jan 26 Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday unveiled the Covid19 vaccine iNNCOVACC in the presence of Union Minister of State IC for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh iNNCOVACC is the worlds first intranasal Covid19 vaccine to receive approval for the primary 2dose schedule and as a heterologous booster dose It is developed by Bharat Biotech International Limited BBIL in collaboration with Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council BIRAC a PSU under the Department of Biotechnology Ministry of Science and Technology Expressing his elation at the event Mandaviya said that over 65 per cent of vaccines supplied in the world are from India Congratulating the BBIL team and the Department of Biotech for bringing about the worlds first nasal vaccine he stated that being the worlds first intranasal Covid19 vaccine this marks a glorious tribute to the call for Atmanirbhar Bharat The Union Health Minister added that Indias vaccine manufacturing and innovation capability is appreciated all over the world as it has made a mark in producing quality and affordable medicines Congratulating BBIL for innovating another vaccine in collaboration with BIRAC Jitendra Singh said that India has taken a lead in developing vaccines and medicines for diseases common in the developing world He also stated that ZyCoVD the worlds first and Indias indigenously developed DNA based vaccine for Covid19 to be administered in humans including children and adults 12 years and above was also developed in partnership with the Department of Biotechnology in the Ministry of Science Technology under Mission Covid Suraksha through BIRAC iNCOVACC is a cost effective Covid19 vaccine which does not require syringes needles alcohol wipes bandage etc saving costs related to procurement distribution storage and biomedical waste disposal that is routinely required for injectable vaccines It utilises a vectorbased platform which can be easily updated with emerging variants leading to large scale production within a few months These rapid response timelines combined with the ability of cost effective and easy intranasal delivery makes it an ideal vaccine to address future infectious diseases A rollout of iNCOVACC is expected to begin in private hospitals that have placed advance orders Initial manufacturing capacity of several million doses per annum has been established this can be scaled up to a billion doses as required iNCOVACC is priced at Rs 325 per dose for large volume procurement by State Governments and Government of India IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/indias-first-intranasal-covid-vaccine-inncovacc-launched-392766.html Fri, 27 Jan 2023 01:10:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/china-claims-covid-wave-has-past-its-peaked-392911.html Beijing Jan 27 Chinas health authorities have said the Covid19 wave is past its peak with rapid decline in both severe cases and deaths in hospitals but experts remain wary of the governments official data the media reported According to Chinas Center for Disease Control CDC the number of critically ill patients in hospital peaked in the first week of January then rapidly declined by more than 70 per cent says the Guardian report The number of deaths also reached its highest level that week the CDC data revealed Prof Chi Chunhuei director of the centre for global health at Oregon University said local officials were incentivised via punishments and rewards to underreport infection figures during the zeroCovid policy Now that policy was gone they were incentivised to exaggerate infection rates and underreport deaths the Guardian reported Most international experts know this very well Chinas statistics are very unreliable he said Covid cases have swept across China in recent months escalating rapidly after the government suddenly ended its zeroCovid policy in early December 2022 Last week a senior health official said 80 per cent of people had been infected in this wave although it was not clear where the figures came from According to the data there were 128000 critically ill Covid patients in Chinese hospitals on January 5 the highest number reached during this wave It described a peak inside hospitals over the western new year with almost 10000 new critically ill cases a day from December 27 to 3 January the Guardian reported By January 23the total number of critically ill cases had dropped by 72 per cent to about 36000 The number of deaths in hospitals reached their highest point on January 4 with 4273 recorded before falling 79 per cent by January 23 to 896 IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/china-claims-covid-wave-has-past-its-peaked-392911.html Fri, 27 Jan 2023 12:45:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/are-covid-vaccines-affecting-the-heart-inducing-other-non-communicable-diseases-392179.html New Delhi Jan 25 While the Covid19 vaccines are saving lives serious side effects inducing inflammation in the heart have been reported after vaccinations along with other premature noncommunicable diseases NCDs However new research now claims the reported adverse events are low in number According to the WHO more than 850 million cases and over 66 million deaths from Covid have been reported worldwide Currently the death rate has been reduced due to the decreased pathogenicity of new SARSCoV2 variants but the major factor in the reduced death rates is the administration of more than 128 billion vaccine doses globally According to a paper published in openaccess scientific journal MDPI the scientific community must investigate the entire spectrum of Covid19 vaccineinduced complications so that necessary safety measures can be taken and current vaccines can be reengineered to avoid or minimise their side effects We describe in depth severe adverse events for premature metabolic mental and neurological disorders cardiovascular renal and autoimmune diseases and reproductive health issues detected after Covid19 vaccinations and whether these are causal or incidental the researchers wrote In any case it has become clear that the benefits of vaccinations outweigh the risks by a large margin they added However preexisting conditions in vaccinated individuals need to be taken into account in the prevention and treatment of adverse events Diabetes and Covid19 have a bidirectional relationship In addition to causing new onset or worsening preexisting diabetes diabetes and hyperglycemia are linked to a worse prognosis in Covid19 patients However despite the likelihood that severe hyperglycemia is exceedingly uncommon in Covid19 vaccine recipients it is essential for clinicians to be aware of these side effects and anticipate severe hyperglycemia in individuals exhibiting postvaccination symptoms such as excessive urination excessive thirst vision problems and fatigue the team wrote In the context of cardiovascular diseases CVDs since a causal relationship has not been demonstrated between Covid19 vaccination and the onset of hypertension and patients with hypertensive crisis rarely need hospitalization Covid19 vaccinations show substantial benefits compared to its risks Regarding arrhythmia although a case of paroxysmal ventricular arrhythmia was reported for the BNT162b2 vaccine no causal association was found said the researchers Moreover exposure to Covid19 presents a significantly higher risk of developing arrhythmia The trend of Covid19 vaccinerelated myocarditis on the other hand is comparable to that of other viral infections with a greater prevalence among teenagers and young adult males Most notably the risk of myocarditis and hospitalisation in this group of vaccinated individuals is lower than that in unvaccinated Covid19 patients said the paper Regarding neurological disorders mass vaccinations have confirmed that the risks of acquiring severe neurological complications are by far much lower for individuals vaccinated with Covid19 vaccines than individuals who tested positive for Covid19 it added NCDs also known as chronic diseases are nontransmissible diseases of often long duration Examples of NCDs include mental health conditions stroke heart disease cancer diabetes and chronic lung disease IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/are-covid-vaccines-affecting-the-heart-inducing-other-non-communicable-diseases-392179.html Wed, 25 Jan 2023 12:45:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/92-population-in-beijing-to-get-covid-by-january-end-study-391705.html Hong Kong Jan 24 Around 92 per cent of the population in the Chinese capital of Beijing will have Covid by January 31 a new study published in peerreviewed journal Nature Medicine has revealed Nearly 76 per cent of people in Beijing had contracted Covid19 as of December 22 It was expected to reach 92 per cent by January 31 according to researchers from the University of Hong Kong reports South China Morning Post For the study the researchers tracked the reproduction rate of Omicron variant BF7 in Beijing in November and December after China eased its zeroCovid policy There was a surge in cases across the country after the policy changes The study estimated that the reproduction rate jumped from 104 on November 11 to 344 a week later meaning that one person with the virus could infect 344 others Their modelling had shown an estimated peak of 103 million daily cases on December 11 Surveillance programmes should be rapidly set up to monitor the spread and evolution of SarsCoV2 infections and further work should be done to track the transmissibility incidence and infection rate of the epidemic the researchers wrote The number of people with severe Covid19 infections had peaked on January 5 The country reported about 13000 Covidrelated deaths in hospitals between January 13 and 19 Chinas Center for Disease Control and Prevention CDC said last week that 681 hospitalised patients died of respiratory failure and 11977 died of other diseases combined with a Covid infection IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/92-population-in-beijing-to-get-covid-by-january-end-study-391705.html Tue, 24 Jan 2023 10:48:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/skoreas-cumulative-covid-cases-top-30-mn-391413.html Seoul Jan 23 South Korea reported 9227 new Covid19 cases on Monday the lowest number in more than three months health authorities said amid a slowdown in infections and less testing over the Lunar New Year holiday The new cases including 60 from overseas brought the total caseload to 30008756 the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency KDCA said The nation with a population of 516 million also reached the grim milestone of 30 million three years after its first Covid19 case was reported on January 20 2020 Mondays tally marked the lowest since October 10 2022 when the country reported 8973 new cases The country added 26 Covid19 deaths bringing the death toll to 33235 The number of critically ill patients came to 450 slightly down from 460 the previous day the KDCA said On Friday the government said it will lift a mask mandate for most public indoor spaces January 30 but people will still be required to wear masks on public transportation and in medical facilities The government has also been closely watching overseas visitors amid the recent surge in infections in China following Beijings lifting of its zeroCovid policy in December IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/skoreas-cumulative-covid-cases-top-30-mn-391413.html Mon, 23 Jan 2023 07:41:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/hybrid-immunity-best-protection-against-covid-19-researchers-391226.html Toronto Jan 22 People with hybrid immunity are the most protected against severe illness and reinfection a new study has found Results from global data show vaccination and a prior Covid19 infection offer the best defence against severe illness and reinfection according to a University of Calgary research group Hybrid immunity occurs when someone has had at least the full series of vaccines and has a prior infection in any order The study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases will help public policy makers understand the optimal timing of vaccinations The results reinforce the global imperative for vaccination A common question throughout the pandemic was whether previously infected people should also get vaccinated Our results clearly indicate the need for vaccination even among people who have had Covid19 said Dr Niklas Bobrovitz first author on the study In the study investigators were able to look at immune protection against Omicron after a prior SARSCoV2 infection the virus that causes Covid19 vaccination or hybrid immunity Protection against hospitalization and severe disease remained above 95 per cent for 12 months for individuals with hybrid immunity said Dr Lorenzo Subissi WHOScientist and senior author on the study The systematic review and metaanalysis find that protection against Omicron infection declines substantially by 12 months regardless of whether youve had an infection vaccinations or both It means that vaccination is the best way to periodically boost your protection and to keep down levels of infection in the population While the findings demonstrate that vaccination along with a prior infection carries the most protection the scientists warn against intentional exposure to the virus You should never try to get Covid19 said Bobrovitz The virus is unpredictable in how it will affect your system For some it can be fatal or send you to hospital Even if you have a mild infection you risk developing a long Covid IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/hybrid-immunity-best-protection-against-covid-19-researchers-391226.html Sun, 22 Jan 2023 13:58:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/china-says-80-of-population-have-had-covid-19-391305.html Beijing Jan 22 Eight in 10 people in China have now been infected with Covid19 a prominent government scientist has claimed Wu Zunyou the chief epidemiologist of Chinas Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that the present wave of epidemic has already infected about 80 per cent of the people in the country of 14 billion people CNN reported His claim came amid concerns the travel rush that takes place around the Lunar New Year holiday period sometimes dubbed the worlds largest human migration could spread the virus to the countryside and cause a second wave of infections CNN reported But Wu speaking on his personal social media account said this scenario was unlikely as so many people had already caught it In the next two to three months the possibility of a largescale Covid19 rebound or a second wave of infections across the country is very small Wu said Chinas Ministry of Transport estimates over 2 billion passenger trips will take place during the 40day Lunar New Year season as people across the country return to their hometowns for family reunions for the first time without domestic travel restrictions since the start of the pandemic over three years ago CNN reported Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported on Sunday that more than 26 million passenger trips were taken on the eve of Lunar New Year That is only half of the number of travelers from the same day in 2019 prior to the Covid19 pandemic but 508 per cent higher than 2022 it said More than 41 million people traveled by train and 756000 people by air for holiday reunions on the day before the start of Lunar New Year CCTV added The countrys road transport system registered more than 20 million passenger trips on the same day 551 per cent higher than the number from 2022 CNN reported As of Friday Chinas transport system had handled over 560 million passenger trips in the first 15 days of the 40day ongoing Spring Festival travel rush via rail highway water and air up 479 per cent from the same period last year according to CCTV Previously research by the National School of Development at Peking University had suggested more than 900 million people or 64 per cent of the Chinese population were likely to have been infected with Covid19 as of January 11 CNN reported The universitys research also suggested the epidemic peaked across much of the country on December 20 about 13 days after China began easing its Covid restrictions By the end of December infections had peaked everywhere in the country according to the research Chinese health authorities have made similar claims saying on Thursday that visits to clinics for fever and Covid hospitalisations in China have declined since their peaks in late December and early January respectively According to the authorities the number of Covid patients needing critical care in hospitals has also peaked Nearly 60000 people with Covid died in Chinese hospitals between December 8 and January 12 after China abruptly scraped its zeroCovid policies according to government data CNN reported According to an internal estimate from the nations top health officials in the first 20 days of December almost 250 million people in China may have caught Covid IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/china-says-80-of-population-have-had-covid-19-391305.html Sun, 22 Jan 2023 19:09:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/i-had-major-side-effects-from-2nd-covid-booster-shot-elon-musk-391021.html New Delhi Jan 21 Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Saturday joined the growing debate on the serious sideeffects of Covid19 vaccines saying he had major side effects from my second booster shot In a tweet he said that he felt like I was dying for several days Hopefully no permanent damage but I dunno the billionaire said adding that first mRNA booster was ok but the second one crushed me He said that he had the Johnson Johnson vaccine with no bad effects except my arm hurt briefly Musks admission about the sideeffects of Covid vaccines came as Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla evaded difficult questions about the effectiveness of the companys vaccine during the World Economic Forum WEF meeting in Davis Bourla refused to answer any questions and instead repeatedly responded with phrases such as Thank you very much and Have a wonderful day Musk also revealed that his cousin who is young and in peak health had a serious case of myocarditis and had to go to the hospital after the Covid vaccine jab The debate over the sideeffects of Covid vaccines is gaining ground worldwide including in India In India the government earlier this week reaffirmed the aftereffects of different Covid19 vaccines but refuted a report based on an IANS RTI plea pertaining to the potential ramifications of these jabs as illinformed and providing erroneous information As is the case with all other vaccines those who get vaccinated with different Covid19 vaccines may experience mild symptoms like injection site tenderness pain headache fatigue myalgia malaise pyrexia chills arthralgia etc Rarely few individuals may experience severe adverse events depending upon certain predisposing conditions according to an official statement IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/i-had-major-side-effects-from-2nd-covid-booster-shot-elon-musk-391021.html Sat, 21 Jan 2023 18:35:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/china-announces-censorship-crackdown-to-silence-covid-rumours-390460.html Taipei Jan 19 Chinese cyber authorities have announced an internet censorship crackdown to ensure there are no gloomy sentiments caused by pandemic rumours during the lunar new year festival according to a media report It comes as health forecasting firm Airfinity estimated that more than 600000 people have likely died since zeroCovid restrictions were lifted in December 2022 10 times more than Chinese authorities have officially declared The Guardian reported The monthlong Spring Festival online improvement programme will target those spreading what authorities deem to be rumours about the spread of Covid and patient experiences the report said The national cyber administration specified indepth rectification of false information and other issues to prevent gloomy sentiments It specifically cited the investigation and punishment of online rumours related to the epidemic and fabricating patient experiences as well as producing or sharing fake virus treatments The announcement said the work would prevent misleading the public and causing social panic Social media has been awash with personal stories of people contracting Covid struggling to source medication or healthcare and losing elderly relatives to the disease The personal experiences of many jarred with the official narrative that the outbreak was under control and the response science led prompting unusual levels of online criticism against the government The Guardian reported The ruling Communist party government is hypersensitive to foreign criticism of its Covid response and accusations that it is not being transparent with data Early warnings about the outbreak by Chinese doctor Li Wenliang were initially dismissed and punished as rumour More recent reporting on the mass outbreak following the lifting of restrictions was branded a Chinabashing carnival in state media The Guardian reported IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/china-announces-censorship-crackdown-to-silence-covid-rumours-390460.html Fri, 20 Jan 2023 02:03:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/up-gets-fresh-supply-for-covishield-vax-doses-389763.html Lucknow Jan 18 Uttar Pradesh has received a fresh supply of 42700 Covidshield vaccine doses after a gap of 13 days The stock reached Uttar Pradesh Medical Supplies Corporation Limited from the Union government that released it immediately for vaccination District immunization officer Dr MK Singh said With fresh supplies Covid19 vaccination will start from Wednesday at 34 centres including KGMU SGPGI and RMLIMS and 12 district hospitals and 19 urban and rural community health centres He said that both advanced registration through online mode and walkin registration facility will be available at the vaccination site Candidates would have to carry a identification card Aadhaar Card ration card PAN card voter card passport driving licence for vaccination It has been revealed from various researches that Covid19 does not take severe form after getting vaccination and it reduces the chances of passing on infection to others Therefore everyone above the age of 18 years must get vaccinated he said Vaccination had come to halt in government centres earlier this month due to shortage of vaccines IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/up-gets-fresh-supply-for-covishield-vax-doses-389763.html Wed, 18 Jan 2023 12:10:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/chinas-covid-death-data-underestimate-true-toll-report-389503.html New Delhi Jan 17 The nearly 60000 Covidrelated deaths China reported for the first five weeks of its current outbreak the largest the world has ever seen may underestimate the true toll by hundreds of thousands of fatalities experts were quoted as saying in a media report Chinas abrupt pivot from Covid Zero in early December 2022 unleashed a surge of omicron infections and led to 59938 virusrelated deaths in the nations hospitals through January 12 Bloomberg news agency reported citing the figures disclosed by the National Health Commission While the number swamps the few dozen deaths previously recorded in the official tally which drew widespread criticism both at home and abroad including from the World Health Organization WHO experts say its still likely to be an underestimate given the enormous scale of the outbreak and the mortality rates seen at the height of omicron waves in other countries that initially pursued a Covid Zero strategy the news agency reported This reported number of Covid19 deaths might be the tip of the iceberg ZuoFeng Zhang chair of the department of epidemiology at the Fielding School of Public Health at University of California Los Angeles was quoted by the news agency as saying While the figure is roughly in line with what Zhang estimated might be coming from the countrys hospitals he said its only a fraction of the total Covid deaths across the country Using a report from the National School of Development at Peking University that found 64 per cent of the population was infected by midJanuary he estimated 900000 people would have died in the previous five weeks based on a conservative 01 per cent case fatality rate That means the official hospital death count is less than 7 per cent of the total mortality seen during the outbreak the news agency reported The official toll translates to 117 deaths daily for every million people in the country over the course of five weeks according to a Bloomberg analysis Thats well below the average daily mortality rate seen in other countries that initially pursued Covid Zero or managed to contain the virus after relaxing their pandemic rules When omicron hit South Korea daily deaths quickly climbed to nearly seven for every 1 million people Australia and New Zealand saw mortality nearing or topping four per million a day during their first winters with omicron Even Singapore which had a wellplanned and gradual shift away from its zero tolerance approach had deaths peak at about two per million people daily These figures would suggest that China is having a very mild wave with very few deaths per case Louise Blair head of vaccines and epidemiology at the Londonbased predictive health analytics firm Airfinity was quoted by the news agency as saying It would be the lowest of any countryregion abandoning a zero Covid policy It could be that many of the countrys deaths occurred in nursing care facilities or at home explaining some of the undercount Blair said as Chinas latest disclosure only counted hospital deaths Reports of overwhelmed crematoriums around the country suggest excess mortality is at a high level WHO DirectorGeneral Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently spoke with Ma Xiaowei the director of Chinas National Health Commission about the Covid19 situation in the country WHO appreciates this meeting as well as the public release of information on the overall situation the United Nations health agency said in a statement Chinese officials have provided information to the WHO on a range of topics including outpatient clinics hospitalisations patients requiring emergency treatment and critical care and hospital deaths related to Covid19 infection The WHO is currently analysing the information which covers early December 2022 to 12 January 2023 and allows for a better understanding of the epidemiological situation and the impact of this wave in China IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/chinas-covid-death-data-underestimate-true-toll-report-389503.html Tue, 17 Jan 2023 17:54:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/over-3767-mn-people-vaccinated-for-covid-19-in-myanmar-389516.html Yangon Jan 17 Myanmar had vaccinated more than 3767 million people for Covid19 as of Saturday the ministry of healths latest data showed The figures comprised over 3086 million people aged 18 and above and more than 68 million people aged under 18 years old the ministry was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency The health ministry confirmed three new cases of Covid19 in the past 24 hours bringing the tally to 633753 on Monday Myanmar recorded a total of 19490 deaths from Covid19 and 614221 recoveries as of Monday according to the ministry The Southeast Asian country detected its first Covid19 cases in March 2020 IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/over-3767-mn-people-vaccinated-for-covid-19-in-myanmar-389516.html Tue, 17 Jan 2023 18:59:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/covid-vax-acceptance-up-globally-young-people-hesitant-about-boosters-387748.html New Delhi Jan 10 The global acceptance of Covid19 vaccines increased from 752 per cent in 2021 to 791 per cent in 2022 according to a survey in 23 countries including India that represent more than 60 per cent of the worlds population The willingness of parents to vaccinate their children also rose slightly from 676 per cent in 2021 to 695 per cent in 2022 However vaccine acceptance decreased in eight countries and almost one in eight vaccinated respondents particularly younger men and women were hesitant about receiving a booster dose according to the study published in the journal Nature Medicine Worryingly almost one in eight 121 per cent vaccinated respondents were hesitant about booster doses This hesitancy was higher among the younger age groups 1829 Led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health ISGlobal and the The City University of New Yorks Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy the study underlines a wide variability among countries and the need for tailored communication strategies in addressing vaccine hesitancy The pandemic is not over and authorities must urgently address vaccine hesitancy and resistance as part of their Covid19 prevention and mitigation strategy says Jeffrey V Lazarus Head of the Health Systems Research Group at ISGlobal The 23 highlypopulated countries that were hit hard by the pandemic part of the study were Brazil Canada China Ecuador France Germany Ghana India Italy Kenya Mexico Nigeria Peru Poland Russia Singapore South Africa South Korea Spain Sweden Turkey the UK and the US The data reported here correspond to the third survey conducted between June and July 2022 Of the 23000 respondents 791 per cent were willing to accept vaccination The finding represented an increase of 52 per cent from June 2021 However eight countries observed increased hesitancy from 1 per cent in the UK to 211 per cent in South Africa We must remain vigilant in tracking these data containing Covid19 variants and addressing hesitancy which may challenge future routine Covid19 immunisation programmes said Ayman ElMohandes senior author The survey also provides new information on Covid19 treatments received Globally ivermectin was taken with the same frequency as other approved medications even though the WHO and other agencies do not recommend its use to prevent or treat Covid19 Also almost 4 per cent respondents reported paying less attention to new Covid19 information than before and having less support for vaccine mandates Our results show that public health strategies to enhance booster coverage will need to be more sophisticated and adaptable for each setting and target population says Lazarus IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/covid-vax-acceptance-up-globally-young-people-hesitant-about-boosters-387748.html Wed, 11 Jan 2023 00:46:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/public-reluctance-to-go-for-covid-booster-dose-worries-bengal-govt-386954.html Kolkata Jan 6 Amid fresh Covid19 scare the West Bengal health department is worried over the increasing reluctance of people to go for booster vaccine dose shots Rough figures compiled by the state health department show reluctance and most people take booster doses unnecessary The figures also reveal how the public sincerity in going for the first dose declined marginally for the second dose and finally nosedived in case of the booster dose A state health department official said that over seven crore people went for the first dose which slid down for the second dose However when it came to third and booster dose the number fell to just 15 crore As a result several doses of vaccines at the state health departments family welfare stores at Bagbazar in north Kolkata have expired A state health department official said that up to December last year 80000 doses of COVAXIN expired and more will expire by the current month of January Renowned physician from the city Dr Arindam Biswas however does not want to blame only the public reluctance in the matter There is a major reason that prompted this reluctance and the reason is economical Unlike the first two doses the third and the booster dose was not provided free by the government So many people who do not even earn enough to have two meals a day preferred to stay away from the booster dose Now coming to the point of nasal vaccine the government introduced it at a very late stage and that too has restricted its supply to private hospitals only Finally it seems that the governments drive to create awareness among the people is also low So in my opinion if the government is really keen that people shed their reluctance about the third dose it should introduce provisions for providing them free also Biswas added IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/public-reluctance-to-go-for-covid-booster-dose-worries-bengal-govt-386954.html Sat, 07 Jan 2023 06:16:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/covid-19-thailand-adopts-new-rules-for-foreign-visitors-386764.html Bangkok Jan 6 Thailand adopted a new requirement for foreign visitors to show proof of at least two doses of the Covid19 vaccination government officials have announced Foreign arrivals are also required to have travel insurance that covers potential Covid19related expenses in case their next destination requires a negative RTPCR result Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health minister Anutin Charnvirakul was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying Despite no requirements for Covid19 testing prior to entering the country those suffering from respiratory illnesses should postpone their visits until they have fully recovered Anutin told the press Although Thailands Covid19 situation was improving intensive care patients and deaths were still being observed Anutin said in a statement issued on Wednesday From December 25 to December 31 the country has detected 2111 Covid19 cases with 75 deaths IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/covid-19-thailand-adopts-new-rules-for-foreign-visitors-386764.html Fri, 06 Jan 2023 20:55:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/not-hiding-covid-infections-or-death-figures-claims-china-386805.html Patients with covid symptoms crowded at the Changhai Hospital hall as they receiving medical treatment in Shanghai China on Tuesday Jan 3 2023 As COVID19 rips through China other countries and the World Health Organization are calling on its government to share more comprehensive data on the outbreak Some even say many of the reported numbers are meaningless PTI Washington Jan 6 China has denied allegations that it is hiding Covid infection or death figures saying the severe illness and death in the country compares favourably with other nations the media reported on Friday According to South China Morning Post Beijings embassy in Washington DC countered allegations after several countries including the World Health Organisation WHO criticised China for withholding actual Covid figures requesting the country to come clean on the infection surge and hospitalisations China has always shared its information and data responsibly with the international community Liu Pengyu spokesman for Beijings Washington embassy said in a news briefing Chinese scientists are now working with WHO to have further discussions about the data he said adding that in the last month we have two exchanges with the WHO Last week Mike Ryan the WHOs emergencies director said that the current figures being published from China underrepresented the numbers of hospital admissions ICU admissions and particularly in terms of death The WHO had said that the curbs on travellers from China by various countries is understandable in the absence of comprehensive information from the ground In the absence of comprehensive information from China it is understandable that countries around the world are acting in ways that they believe may protect their populations WHO DirectorGeneral Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had said in a tweet Chinas National Health Commission NHC has stopped publishing daily Covid19 case data handing over the charge to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention CDC as nations including India ask the country to share actual Covid data on an urgent basis However it will still take days for the CDC to activate the epidemic monitor reporting system and allow the organisation to collect and report infection data effectively IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/not-hiding-covid-infections-or-death-figures-claims-china-386805.html Fri, 06 Jan 2023 23:22:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/aussie-population-smaller-older-following-covid-19-pandemic-386415.html Canberra Jan 4 Australias population is smaller and older than previously projected as a result of the Covid19 pandemic According to the data released on Wednesday from the governments annual population report the Australian population grew by just 01 per cent or 33000 people in the first full financial year of Covid19 Xinhua news agency reported The Centre for Population now projects the population will grow to 263 million by the end of financial year 202223 down 600000 from prepandemic expectations Australias population is now on track to hit 299 million in 203233 two years later than previously projected while the median age of Australians will be 401 years Treasurer Jim Chalmers said news that the population would be smaller and older was concerning As the economy recovers from the worst of the pandemic crippling skills and labor shortages are holding our businesses and our economy back he was quoted as saying by the Australian Associated Press on Wednesday As a result Australia will likely become more reliant on migrants to fill work shortages In 2022 the newlyelected government agreed to increase the annual migrant intake from 160000 to 195000 and is now undertaking a review of the immigration system Chalmers said wellmanaged immigration policy is key to Australias future economic development but is not a substitute for training local workers IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/aussie-population-smaller-older-following-covid-19-pandemic-386415.html Thu, 05 Jan 2023 02:25:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-reports-175-fresh-covid-cases-386479.html New Delhi Jan 4 India reported 175 fresh Covid cases in the last 24 hrs while active caseload declined to 2750 said Union Health Ministry on Wednesday Active caseload now accounts for 001 per cent of the total infections The weekly positive rate currently stands at 012 per cent while the daily positive rate stands at 009 per cent The recovery of 187 patients in the last 24 hours took the cumulative tally to 44145854 Consequently Indias recovery rate stands at 9880 per cent In the same period a total of 201690 tests were conducted across the country increasing the overall tally to over 9113 crore With 48292 vaccines administered in last 24 hrs the countrys Covid vaccination coverage exceeded 22011 crore On Tuesday the country had registered 134 coronavirus cases IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-reports-175-fresh-covid-cases-386479.html Thu, 05 Jan 2023 10:54:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/no-bf7-omicron-variant-in-tn-as-per-genome-sequencing-results-386321.html Chennai Jan 2 The genome sequencing report of the six international passengers who had landed at various international airports in Tamil Nadu has reported no BF7 variant of Omicron Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian said that the two Chinareturned passengers who tested Covid19 positive were affected by BA52 One passenger each from Muscat Kuwait and Bangkok was identified with BA2 strain of Omicron Another passenger who arrived from Muscat and tested positive has the XBB1 strain of Omicron The state has already analyzed 93 samples so far and of this 98 percent had tested either BA2 or BA5 while the remaining two per cent tested for the Delta variant The Health Minister also said that all the patients are recovering well after being in home isolation With the Omicron BF7 strain being prominent in countries like China Japan and Hongkong the Central government had made random testing mandatory in international airports IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/no-bf7-omicron-variant-in-tn-as-per-genome-sequencing-results-386321.html Wed, 04 Jan 2023 19:41:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/china-regime-crippled-as-sons-burn-bodies-of-fathers-outside-flats-386221.html New Delhi Jan 2 Once Beijings state media mocked nations such as India that incinerated corpses of pandemic victims in town squares Now the regime is so crippled by Covid that sons must burn the bodies of their fathers outside blocks of flats in its leading cities according to a media report Such is the pitiful state of todays China the country that gave birth to the pandemic just over three years ago but which has long boasted of its supposedly worldbeating ability to contain this cruel disease Daily Mail reported Astonishing leaked figures from Chinese health authorities estimate that 250 million people almost one in five citizens caught Covid in the first 20 days of last month after Preident Xi Jinping abruptly dismantled rigid restrictions imposed since 2020 Having enforced the worlds strictest controls with ruthless lockdowns relentless testing and rigid mass quarantines Xi was panicked into making a humiliating aboutturn on December 7 after a spate of protests With a fragile health system and inadequate vaccination rates the impact was instant and predictable One hospital in Shanghai warned that half the 26 million residents of the countrys most populous city will be infected by now and urged staff to prepare for a tragic battle in the coming weeks Daily Mail reported Other cities are being hit just as hard I can name 20 people I know from different cities who have been infected over the past two weeks said a journalist in Shanghai who has caught Covid along with his partner Its spreading like wildfire Videos shared on social media that evade strict censorship show deserted streets and desperate patients in overcrowded hospitals which are so overwhelmed that the elderly are treated in beds outside in car parks They expose hospital morgues flooded with corpses warehouses overflowing with coffins crematoria unable to cope with demand despite burning huge numbers of bodies each day and pharmacies with shelves swept clean of drugs Daily Mail reported The consequences of President Xis imperious actions and Chinas immense Covid outbreak are alarming for the health of its citizens for the prosperity of the global economy and for the future of this lethal pandemic Yet typically in keeping with the Communist dictatorships deceitful behaviour ever since this strange new virus emerged within its borders officials claim to be focused on protecting lives as they pump out ludicrous data downplaying a tide of fatalities Daily Mail reported So last Wednesday for instance there was just one new Covid death across China and then one more on each of the next two days according to Beijings claims Yet one person in Chengdu a city of more than 16 million people went to a crematorium after their grandmother died only to discover hearses stacked with bodies lined up in front Many had been there for days They cremate more than 1000 bodies every day lately Funeral ceremonies have all been cancelled because theres not enough time said the bereaved citizen A funeral home worker in the southwestern city estimated there had been a fivefold surge in cremations since the government lifted Covid restrictions Were so busy we dont even have time to eat he added Daily Mail reported Staff at a big funeral home in Beijing said their incinerators were running fulltime but there was still a threeweek backlog Fees have doubled At least 2700 people died from Covid in the capital on a single day before Christmas according to one report There is no more cold storage space for bodies disclosed another crematorium worker in a third major city Daily Mail reported IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/china-regime-crippled-as-sons-burn-bodies-of-fathers-outside-flats-386221.html Wed, 04 Jan 2023 12:20:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/aiadmk-lashes-out-at-tn-govt-for-terminating-nurses-posted-during-covid-386227.html Chennai Jan 2 Tamil Nadus main opposition party the AIADMK on Monday come out strongly against the Tamil Nadu governments move to terminate services of nurses who were posted during the Covid pandemic The nurses were appointed on an adhoc basis in 2020 to manage Covid19 pandemic The AIADMKs interim General Secretary and former Chief Minister K Palaniswami in a statement on Monday lashed out against the government decision to terminate the services of these nurses Noting that the DMK during the runup to the 2021 Assembly elections assured that the services of doctors and nurses who were posted on an adhoc basis would be regularised if it comes to power he said that the doctors were first terminated and now the nurses are being terminated The former Chief Minister demanded the state government to withdraw the order regarding the termination of the services of these nurses He also called upon the state government to give preference to these nurses when vacancies for nurses are to be filled by tests conducted through the Medical Services Recruitment Board MRB The AIADMK leader said that the party would conduct a series of agitations against the state government terminating the services of the nurses who were a pillar of strength during the Covid19 pandemic IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/aiadmk-lashes-out-at-tn-govt-for-terminating-nurses-posted-during-covid-386227.html Wed, 04 Jan 2023 13:11:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/centre-revises-guidelines-for-air-passengers-from-identified-high-risk-countries-386256.html New Delhi Jan 2 India on Monday issued revised guidelines for international air passengers arriving from identified highrisk countries including China Singapore South Korea Thailand and Japan mandating an RTPCR test As per the revised guidelines a mandatory requirement for predeparture RTPCR testing to be conducted within 72 hours prior to undertaking the journey has been introduced for passengers in all international flights from these countries the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a statement This will also apply to transiting passengers through the countries irrespective of their originating countries before coming to any Indian airport it said Accordingly the Ministry of Civil Aviations Air Suvidha portal has to be made operational for passengers on all international flights from these countries to submit negative RTPCR test reports as well as to submit selfdeclaration form the Health Ministry said in a communication The existing practice of post arrival random testing of 2 per cent travellers irrespective of port of departure shall continue it said The Ministry said that the guidelines has been revised in the context of the evolving trajectory of Covid19 cases in some countries especially China and Hong Kong Singapore South Korea Thailand and Japan Launched in August 2020 to ensure the safety of travellers and Indian citizens Air Suvidha is a digital portal developed by the Ministry of Civil Aviation where passengers travelling to India can provide details of their travel RTPCR report and vaccination status in a selfdeclaration form To ensure smooth passage of international travellers arriving in India the Ministries of Civil Aviation and Health and Family Welfare had mandated contactless selfdeclaration at Air Suvidha Portal during the last year IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/centre-revises-guidelines-for-air-passengers-from-identified-high-risk-countries-386256.html Wed, 04 Jan 2023 14:55:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/air-suvidha-portal-goes-live-for-uploading-rt-pcr-test-report-385726.html New Delhi Dec 31 The Air Suvidha portal became live once more on Saturday for air passengers coming from certain countries to upload their negative RTPCR test report According to the latest guidelines passengers arriving from China Singapore Hong Kong South Korea Thailand and Japan have to mandatorily upload a negative RTPCR report on the Air Suvidha portal The test has to be conducted 72 hours prior to departure Earlier this week the Centre had issued revised Covid guidelines for passengers arriving in international flights from these countries As per the guidelines the practice of random testing of 2 per cent of arriving passengers in each international flight will also continue They should also give an undertaking on the portal or otherwise to the Ministry of Civil Aviation through the concerned airlines before they are allowed to undertake the journey that they would abide by the decision of the appropriate government authority for any postarrival requirement including homeinstitutional quarantine and selfhealth monitoring as warranted said the new guidelines issued on December 29 with respect to passengers coming from certain highrisk countries Air Suvidha is a digital portal developed by the Ministry of Civil Aviation where passengers travelling to India can provide details of their travel RTPCR report and vaccination status in a selfdeclaration form The authorities had launched the Air Suvidha to ensure the safety of the travellers as well as Indian citizens To ensure the smooth passage of international travellers coming to India the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Ministry of Health Family Welfare had mandated contactless selfdeclaration on the Air Suvidha portal last year The portal was launched in August 2020 IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/air-suvidha-portal-goes-live-for-uploading-rt-pcr-test-report-385726.html Mon, 02 Jan 2023 10:04:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/widespread-pressure-on-funeral-homes-in-china-amid-covid-outbreak-385770.html New Delhi Dec 31 China said that it has been fully transparent about its Covid19 reporting amid criticism on social media over the governments reporting of the outbreak and widespread pressure on funeral homes according to a media report Social media comments in China took issue with recent death figures which admitted to just one death on December 26 as many people know family and friends who have died and are having trouble booking cremations RFA reported Ask your conscience do you believe this one comment read while another quipped Is this the department of disease control or the ministry of magic Where local governments are publishing figures they often make confusing reading and bear little resemblance to what people are seeing with their own eyes on the ground The current wave of infections has prompted calls for the cancellation of the annual Spring Festival Gala which airs on Lunar New Year as people reunite with their families However posts calling for this were rapidly removed by government censors RFA reported Bodies were piling up in peoples homes awaiting cremation bookings across China in recent days as funeral homes recruited more staff to transport the dead amid a nationwide outbreak of Covid19 since the loosening of pandemic restrictions Mortuaries and funeral homes have been overwhelmed in Beijing in recent days with a weekslong backlog of bodies awaiting cremation RFA reported Local media in Guangzhou reported on huge crowds of people waiting to secure cremation bookings outside the citys Yinheyuan funeral parlor with many complaining that their loved ones remains were still in their homes and that they couldnt make a booking on the phone Shanghai news site The Paper quoted the deputy emergency room chief of Shanghais Ruijin Hospital as saying that emergency room visits have doubled in the city due to the current wave of COVID19 infections We are seeing an emerging peak of serious cases amid the increase in Covid19 infections it quoted Zhuang Xu as saying adding that some ERs are seeing as many as 1000 patients a day twice their usual capacity Emergency rooms are under great pressure and there are acute staff shortages he said adding that nearly half of the emergent patients are elderly people half of whom have symptoms of pneumonia Many are being admitted due to hypoxemia and difficulty breathing the report quoted Zhuang as saying RFA reported An official at the Yongnian district civil affairs bureau in the northern city of Handan confirmed in a report by Yu Media that funeral homes in the city are also currently under huge pressure Sanjeev Sharma can be reached at Sanjeevsiansin IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/widespread-pressure-on-funeral-homes-in-china-amid-covid-outbreak-385770.html Mon, 02 Jan 2023 12:48:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-logs-226-fresh-covid-cases-385563.html New Delhi Dec 31 India reported 226 fresh Covid cases on Saturday in the last 24 hours a marginal decline against against the 243 infections registered the previous day the Union Health Ministry said The active caseload currently stood at 3653 cases accounting for 001 per cent of the countrys total positive cases The weekly and daily positivity rates were 015 per cent and 012 per cent respectively The recovery of 179 patients in the last 24 hours took the cumulative tally to 44144029 Consequently Indias recovery rate stands at 9880 per cent Also in the same period a total of 187983 tests were conducted across the country increasing the overall tally to over 9107 crore With 91732 vaccines administered in last 24 hours Indias Covid19 inoculation coverage exceeded 22010 crore as of Saturday morning IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-logs-226-fresh-covid-cases-385563.html Sun, 01 Jan 2023 12:08:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/chinas-manufacturing-drops-to-lowest-level-in-3-yrs-as-covid-surges-385570.html Hong Kong Dec 31 The grim Covid situation has battered manufacturing in China as it reached its worst level in nearly three years in December the media reported on Saturday According to the South China Morning Post citing data released by the National Bureau of Statistics the manufacturing purchasing managers index slid to 47 in December the lowest since a reading of 357 in February 2020 Zhao Qinghe a senior economist at the Bureau said The pandemic has led to big disruption to both the supply and demand sides of enterprises staff attendance and logistics The Bureau did not disclose the number for November China is also set to miss its economic growth target of around 55 per cent this year The pandemic also took a toll on services with the official services PMI dropping to 416 in December from 467 in November Fresh Covid outbreak has hampered Chinas supply chain leaving foreign investors worried and weakening the countrys competitiveness China is now at a critical point if it wants to defend its position as the worlds major supplier of various materials The country is now planning to reopen borders on January 8 and abandon quarantine after it downgrades its treatment of Covid19 Strict control measures including compulsory quarantine for travellers coming to China will also be removed after the downgrade Local authorities have stopped publishing official estimates of Covid19 infections or the impact on supply chains Many industries have reported lower output partly because of the infections but also because of the slower winter season Chinese automaker BYD said last week that its December output will decrease by about 8 per cent IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/chinas-manufacturing-drops-to-lowest-level-in-3-yrs-as-covid-surges-385570.html Sun, 01 Jan 2023 12:37:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/covid-19-skoreas-critically-ill-patients-hit-8-month-high-385626.html A police robot vehicle patrols near the crowd that has returned to a mall following the easing of pandemic restrictions in Beijing Sunday Jan 1 2023 Australia and Canada have joined a growing list of countries requiring travelers from China to take a COVID19 test prior to boarding their flight as China battles a nationwide outbreak of the coronavirus after abruptly easing restrictions that were in place for much of the pandemic Words on the robot reads I am patrolling Please take care to give way PTI Seoul Jan 1 South Koreas new Covid19 cases fell for the fifth straight day on Sunday but the number of critically ill patients rose to the highest in about eight months as the government is bracing for a wintertime surge and a spike in imported cases from China The country confirmed 57527 new coronavirus infections including 110 from overseas bringing the total to 29116800 Yonhap news agency reported citing the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency KDCA The latest tally marked the fifth straight fall since Tuesday when the figure soared to 87578 It also was lower than 58413 reported a week earlier Sunday figures usually drop due to fewer tests over weekends The KDCA reported 63 Covid19 deaths bringing the death toll to 32219 The death rate stood at 011 per cent The number of critically ill patients rose to 636 higher than the previous days 557 It was the first time in about eight months that the number has topped 600 South Korea has been stepping up efforts to contain a surge in coronavirus infections in the winter season and bracing for a spike in Chinese travelers as Beijing eases virus curbs On Friday the Seoul government said that it will require travellers coming from China to show a negative Covid19 test until the end of February before boarding flights to South Korea All travellers from China will also be required to receive a PCR test within the first day of their arrival The rules will be enforced from Monday In preparation for the new rules the government said that it has set up facilities and deployed personnel necessary to carry out coronavirus tests on up to 550 inbound travelers a day at Incheon International Airport west of Seoul The number of imported cases topped 100 for the first time in about three months Of the total 110 imported cases reported Sunday 25 came from China IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/covid-19-skoreas-critically-ill-patients-hit-8-month-high-385626.html Sun, 01 Jan 2023 17:21:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/kerala-cm-asks-people-to-be-cautious-over-covid-booster-dose-for-above-60-385373.html Thiruvananthapuram Dec 30 A meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday to assess the Covid situation in the state concluded by advising all above the age of 60 to take the booster dose of the Covid vaccine He said that while caution has to be exercised there is no need to worry All the frontline Covid workers have also been advised to take the booster dose The meeting was informed by the health authorities that on an average there are around 7000 Covid tests being done daily At the moment there are 474 Covid positive cases in the state of which 72 people are in hospitals and 13 in ICUs A request has been made to the Centre for vaccines The meeting was informed that all the 14 district hospitals in the state have oxygen plants installed and there is adequate stock of PPE kits masks and medicines The Rapid Response Team is also ready an awareness drive has also started and a Covid Monitoring Cell has been set up The meeting said masks should be used in public and where people assemble in good numbers and all other precautions should be taken Vijayan asked all to ensure that the directives of the Centre are followed IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/kerala-cm-asks-people-to-be-cautious-over-covid-booster-dose-for-above-60-385373.html Sat, 31 Dec 2022 16:40:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/most-indians-to-ring-in-new-year-at-home-amid-covid-scare-report-385240.html New Delhi Dec 30 As Covid scare reaches India 8 in 10 people are likely to ring in the New Year at home with immediate family members as the state governments advise against large gatherings a report has said Only 4 per cent citizens said they will attend big parties and community gettogethers to ring in the New Year 79 per cent are likely to stay home and either celebrate with immediate family or not celebrate at all While 12 per cent plan to visit a friends place to celebrate 5 per cent plan to avoid socialising in light of the increased Covid risk according to social community engagement platform Local Circles Given the Covid risk those in big cities and celebrating must follow Covid appropriate norms of masking and social distancing regardless of whether their state or district mandates these norms or not the findings showed The Karnataka government has advised that all large assemblies should be strictly outdoor and as far as possible during the day to avoid late night and early mornings For people over 60 years those with comorbidities pregnant and lactating women the government has advised them to stay away from such assemblies For hotels pubs restaurants clubs and resorts etc where the celebrations are being organised the government has restricted the number of guests to the existing seating capacity if held indoors India reported 243 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours against 268 cases reported on the previous day said the Union Health Ministry on Friday IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/most-indians-to-ring-in-new-year-at-home-amid-covid-scare-report-385240.html Sat, 31 Dec 2022 04:35:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/up-doubles-covid-sampling-as-5-fresh-cases-emerge-385026.html Lucknow Dec 30 As Covid19 cases surge around the world Covid sampling has almost been doubled in Uttar Pradesh While genome sequencing is being ensured for all those testing positive for the infection the test positivity rate TPR remains low According to statistics the TPR in the last 24 hours was 001 and five people tested positive in more than 47000 tests including more than 23000 RTPCR tests State Surveillance Officer Vikasendu Agrawal said The sample of each patient testing positive for Covid is sent for genome sequencing At present there are 20 samples for genome sequencing in the state The average daily sample collection till the third week of December was 27000 and now it has been increased to 50000 a day Till now Uttar Pradesh has tested 126978771 samples since the pandemic began in March 2020 There are 47 active cases in the state at present Agrawal added Testing has been ramped up in the wake of Covid spike in some countries and the rush of foreign travellers for the New Year Experts said people travelling out of the statecountry should ensure they stay in home quarantine Abhishek Shukla Secretary General Association of International Doctors said Once the virus infects a person the symptoms take a few days to show up Hence if people stay in home isolation by themselves it will be the best way to check the spread of infection Contact tracing has also been stepped up in Lucknow Instead of the earlier up to 30 people now at least 50 people will be tracked for each positive case The state capital has five active Covid cases after it got zero covid status on December 7 Increased contact tracing will help us detect any Covid positive case at an early stage said Manoj Agrawal Chief Medical Officer Lucknow IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/up-doubles-covid-sampling-as-5-fresh-cases-emerge-385026.html Fri, 30 Dec 2022 07:00:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-reports-243-fresh-covid-cases-385150.html New Delhi Dec 30 India reported 243 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours against 268 cases reported on the previous day said the Union Health Ministry on Friday The active caseload stands at 3609 cases accounting for 001 per cent of the countrys total positive cases The weekly positive rate currently stands at 016 per cent while the daily positive rate stands at 011 per cent The recovery of 185 patients in the last 24 hours took the cumulative tally to 44143850 Consequently Indias recovery rate stands at 9880 per cent Also in the same period a total of 213080 tests were conducted across the country increasing the overall tally to over 9105 crore With 81097 vaccines administered in the last 24 hours Indias Covid19 vaccination coverage exceeded 22009 crore as of Friday morning IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-reports-243-fresh-covid-cases-385150.html Fri, 30 Dec 2022 17:50:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/countries-curbing-china-understandable-in-absence-of-covid-data-who-chief-385194.html New Delhi Dec 30 The World Health Organization WHO chief on Friday said that the curbs on travellers from China by various countries is understandable in the absence of comprehensive information from the ground WHO DirectorGeneral Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the remark as several countries from the US to South Korea put restrictions on air travellers from China which is seeing a massive Covid surge but not revealing data In the absence of comprehensive information from China it is understandable that countries around the world are acting in ways that they believe may protect their populations the WHO chief said in a tweet He said that the world body remains concerned about the evolving situation We continue encouraging China to track the COVID19 virus and vaccinate the highest risk people We continue to offer our support for clinical care and protecting its health system Ghebreyesus added He had said last week that the WHO is very concerned over the evolving situation in China and appealed for specific data on disease severity hospital admissions and intensive care requirements Chinas National Health Commission NHC has stopped publishing daily Covid19 case data handing over the charge to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention CDC as nations including India ask the country to share actual Covid data on an urgent basis Chinas NHC began to release the daily new tally from January 21 2020 when epidemic experts identified that the virus could spread from between humans However it will still take days for the CDC to activate the epidemic monitor reporting system and allow the organisation to collect and report infection data effectively IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/countries-curbing-china-understandable-in-absence-of-covid-data-who-chief-385194.html Fri, 30 Dec 2022 20:58:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/searches-for-outbound-flights-overseas-hotels-jump-to-three-year-peak-in-china-384954.html Hong Kong Dec 27 Chinas partial reopening has been met with an outpouring of joy and relief from citizens both the hundreds of millions isolated inside the country for the past three years and those overseas separated from their loved ones according to a media report Authorities announced on Monday that starting January 8 China will drop quarantine requirements for all international arrivals its most significant move yet in transitioning away from its stringent zeroCovid policy CNN reported The border remains largely closed to foreigners apart from a limited number of business or family visits though the government signaled Monday this could loosen too CNN reported For many Chinese nationals abroad who have been unable to return or unwilling to endure the lengthy quarantine the news meant they could finally go home a bittersweet victory after much sacrifice Those within China are also celebrating and anticipating outbound travel Most have not left the country for several years and are now flooding booking sites to plan longawaited vacations CNN reported Online searches for outbound flights and overseas hotels jumped to a threeyear peak on Tripcom a Chinese travel booking website according to company data Searches for popular destinations increased tenfold within half an hour of the announcement with many people searching for outbound group tours during the Lunar New Year holiday season in late January data shows Macao Hong Kong Japan Thailand South Korea the United States and the United Kingdom were among the websites top 10 destinations with the fastest growth in search volume since the announcement CNN reported But the border relaxations have sparked concern among some as China fights its most severe wave of Covid infections since the pandemic began IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/searches-for-outbound-flights-overseas-hotels-jump-to-three-year-peak-in-china-384954.html Thu, 29 Dec 2022 20:40:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-reports-15-754-fresh-covid-cases-47-deaths-354169.html New Delhi Aug 19 India on Friday reported marginal rise at 15754 fresh Covid cases in the last 24 hrs against 12608 infections on Thursday said Union Health Ministry In the same period the country has reported 47 more Covid deaths taking the nationwide death toll to 527253 The active caseload of the country stands at 101830 cases accounting for 023 per cent of the countrys total positive cases The recovery of 15220 patients in the last 24 hours took the cumulative tally to 43685535 Consequently Indias recovery rate stands at 9858 per cent Meanwhile Indias daily positivity rate has marginally declined to 347 per cent while the weekly positivity rate in the country currently also stands at 390 per cent Also in the same period a total of 454491 tests were conducted across the country increasing the overall tally to over 8818 crore As of Friday morning Indias Covid19 vaccination coverage exceeded 20927 crore achieved via 27810025 sessions Over 399 crore adolescents have been administered with a first dose of Covid19 jab since the beginning of vaccination drive for this age bracket IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-reports-15-754-fresh-covid-cases-47-deaths-354169.html Sat, 20 Aug 2022 10:23:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/daily-covid-cases-cross-100-mark-in-odisha-341649.html Bhubaneswar June 28 The daily Covid19 cases crossed the threefigure mark in Odisha on Tuesday after more than four months According to data shared by the Information Public Relations Department Odisha on Tuesday reported 113 fresh Covid19 cases in six districts of the state in the last 24 hours Khordha district registered the highest 65 Covid19 cases followed by Cuttack which recorded 21 new cases Sundergarh district recorded six new cases whereas Puri Jajpur and Sambalpur witnessed 1 2 and 4 cases respectively There were 14 cases from State Pool The people from other states residing in Odisha and testing positive are reported as Pool cases The daily infections jumped by 44 compared to 69 detected on Monday Out of the total 113 cases 67 are quarantine cases while the rest 46 are local contacts Currently there are 517 active cases in the state Till now the state has recorded 1289441 confirmed cases of which 1279745 patients have recovered and 9126 succumbed to the virus Another 53 Covid19 patients have died due to other reasons the health department said The states Director of Health Services Bijay Mohapatra said The infections are rising slowly but the situation is not alarming in our state We have to see when it will reach its peak We need to relook at the strategy to curb the transmission Meanwhile the state government has again appealed to the people to use masks and avoid visiting crowded places IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/daily-covid-cases-cross-100-mark-in-odisha-341649.html Wed, 29 Jun 2022 09:30:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/woman-dies-after-taking-second-dose-of-covid-vax-174217.html Patna Nov 20 A woman in Bihars Aurangabad district has died after taking the second dose of Covid19 vaccine on Saturday an official said The deceased Rinku Devi went to Sadar Hospital in Aurangabad and took the second dose of Covid vaccine She collapsed on the road while returning home in Bhadua village Her husband Jitendra Singh rushed her to the Sadar Hospital where the doctors declared her dead on arrival Angered by her death a large number the womans family members went to the Sadar hospital and allegedly damaged some properties besides assaulting the medical staff including two doctors Vikash Kumar deputy CMO and Amrit Kumar The two doctors had to escape in a bid to save themselves The situation was normalised after over 100 police personnel arrived at the hospital and managed to disperse the mob My wife was healthy while visiting the Sadar hospital She wanted to take the second dose of Covid vaccine as just couple of days remaining for our daughters marriage I am sure that the doctors of the hospital had given her wrong injection that led to her death Murder case should be registered against the alleged doctors and nurses Jitendra Kumar said An officer of Khudwa police station said We have received complaint from the medical staffs who were beaten by violent mob We are also waiting for the postmortem report to ascertain actual cause of her death Legal action will be initiated after the report IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/woman-dies-after-taking-second-dose-of-covid-vax-174217.html Sun, 21 Nov 2021 13:58:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-logs-13-058-new-covid-cases-164-deaths-166462.html New Delhi Oct India reported 13058 new Covid cases on Tuesday the lowest in 231 days and 164 deaths in the last 24 hours according to Union Health Ministry data With the new fatalities the overall death toll has increased to 452454 The recovery of 19470 patients in the same period has increased the cumulative tally of recovered patients to 33458801 Indias recovery rate stands at 9814 per cent currently at its highest peak since March 2020 The active caseload presently is 183118 lowest since March 2020 which constitute 054 per cent of the countrys total positive cases The testing capacity across the country continues to be expanded In the last 24 hours a total of 1181314 tests were conducted India has conducted over 5931 crore cumulative tests so far While the testing capacity has been enhanced across the country the weekly positivity rate at 136 per cent remains less than 3 per cent for the last 116 days The daily positivity rate has been reported to be 111 per cent It has remained below 3 per cent in the past 50 days and below 5 per cent in the last 133 days With the administration of 8741160 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours Indias Covid19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 9867 crore as per provisional reports This has been achieved through 9744653 sessions According to the Health Ministry more than 1042 crore Covid19 vaccine doses are still available with the StatesUTs to be administered IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-logs-13-058-new-covid-cases-164-deaths-166462.html Tue, 19 Oct 2021 19:44:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/41-up-districts-are-now-coronavirus-free-165308.html Lucknow Oct 14 Forty one districts in Uttar Pradesh are now Covid free The drop in fresh and active cases in Amroha Ayodhya Badaun Baghpat Ballia Basti Bahraich Bhadohi Bijnor Chandauli Chitrakoot Deoria Etah Etawah Farrukhabad Fatehpur Ghazipur Gonda Hamirpur Hapur Hardoi Hathras Jaunpur Kanpur Dehat Kasganj Kushinagar Lakhimpur Kheri Lalitpur Mahoba Mainpuri Mau Mirzapur Rampur Sant Kabir Nagar Shamli Shravasti Siddhartha Nagar Sitapur Sonbhadra Sultanpur and Unnao indicate complete elimination of Covid19 from over 54 per cent of the state According to a government spokesman none of the 75 districts in the state have reported fresh Covid cases in doubledigits lately which indicates the virus is receding The transmission levels in the state have been brought down by restricting the fresh cases below 50 for over two consecutive months The state continues to scale up the stringent testing mechanism which has helped in breaking the Covid chain with effective protocols in place and by sticking to the timetested strategy of case isolation and contacttracing combined with an alert community surveillance system The spokesman said that over 17 per cent of the population eligible for Covid19 vaccination has received both doses of the vaccine So far UP has administered over 1175 crore vaccine doses In addition the state has also achieved the landmark of administering the first dose of the Covid vaccine to over 62 per cent of the eligible adult population IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/41-up-districts-are-now-coronavirus-free-165308.html Fri, 15 Oct 2021 08:59:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/bjp-mp-manoj-tiwari-unhappy-over-restrictions-imposed-on-chhath-celebrations-164658.html New Delhi Oct 12 Despite the restrictions imposed by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority DDMA on Chhath Puja celebrations in the national capital BJP MP Manoj Tiwari has exuded confidence that with the Purvanchal communitys support they will be allowed to observe the festivities in the open in compliance with Covid19 appropriate behaviour Chhath is celebrated hygienically and while maintaining social distancing as women who fast are not supposed to touch anyone or anything It can be celebrated with ease while adhering to all the Covid19 guidelines in the open the actorturnedpolitician told IANS Chhath Puja a Hindu festival mainly celebrated in Bihar Jharkhand parts of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand is due on November 10 this year As per the fresh Covid19 guidelines issued by the DDMA earlier this month Chhath Puja celebrations in the city has been prohibited in public places and people have been advised to celebrate the same in their homes The NorthEast Delhi MP questioned both the DDMA and Delhi government over the order The DDMA comprises people from Delhi government which has made this proposal of banning the Chhath celebrations in the capital We do not think it is fair Tiwari told IANS To garner support of the Purvanchal community Tiwari has started a Rath Yatra chariot procession Women in Delhi met me and expressed their desire to celebrate Chhath as usual and I am sure that with the communitys support we will achieve our goal he added Meanwhile the Aam Aadmi Party AAP has condemned the recent press meet on Chhath Puja by the BJP Delhi saying The health and lives of people are most important for us We feel sad that BJP is playing dirty politics over it BJP has no concern for the lives of the people IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/bjp-mp-manoj-tiwari-unhappy-over-restrictions-imposed-on-chhath-celebrations-164658.html Tue, 12 Oct 2021 14:32:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/mad-rush-for-pandal-hopping-might-lead-to-the-spread-of-covid-164548.html By Saibal Gupta Kolkata Oct 11 The Covid protocol went for a toss as thousands of people crisscrossed the city on Panchami night on Monday even two days before the official beginning of the pujas If this is an indicator then it is going to be a crowded puja this year which might give sleepless nights to the state government puja organisers and the medical experts as well Across parts of north and south Kolkata pandalhoppers poured on the streets from late Sunday afternoon and the crowd kept swelling through the evening Public health experts warned about a fresh surge in Covid cases if people dropped their guard and kept mingling without wearing masks but on Sunday evening Covid seemed to be the last thing on the minds of the revellers Police officers said that pandalhoppers started crowding parts of Gariahat Rashbehari and Behala in the south and pockets of Tallah Hatibagan Maniktala and Sovabazar in the north from late afternoon Across parts of Singhi Park and Ekdalia Evergreen in Gariahat the young crowd started pouring in from around 2 pm said a senior police officer Near several key intersections pedestrian channels had to be created with moveable guardrails to steer pandalhoppers and those who were out for lastminute Puja shopping The crowd this Tritiya is much more than what we witnessed on Tritiya 2020 said one of the organisers of Badamtala Ashar Sangha in Kalighat Many who are fully vaccinated possibly thought it was fine to step out for some pandalhopping This wasnt the case last year Health experts are worried because there was a muchrestricted crowd in 2020 and the state government was successful in keeping the spread of coronavirus under control But this year despite the restrictions imposed by the Calcutta High Court the limitless flow of people will definitely keep the state health department fingercrossed The department has already issued an advisory urging the people to avoid gatherings and processions as much as possible this year keeping in mind the possibility of Covid third wave and spreading of infection The health department also suggested that revellers should keep the festivities confined to their families instead of moving in large crowds The health advisory further said that Sindur Khela a popular ritual on Dashami in which women smear vermillion on each others faces should also be avoided this year considering the possibility of a fresh explosion of cases through body contact The health department further said that people and more so children the elderly or those battling ailments should avoid crowded public places especially restaurants pandals and market places Those developing fever or cold symptoms during the festival should avoid stepping out and isolate themselves at home the advisory stated The state government in a subsequent order said Spacious Open Pandals with Separate EntryExit Pandals shall have to be spacious and should be kept open from all sides If in case it becomes essential to have closed ceiling the sides will have to be kept open Pandals must keep adequate space and arrangements for ensuring physical distancing in terms of the existing Covid19 pandemic norms There should be separate Entry and Exit arrangements with separate gates Mingling and crowding should be avoided at all places Floor markings and other signages should be made on entry and exit routes and assembly points to ensure compliance of physical distancing norms Use of masks and sanitizers shall be compulsory for all visitors to the pandals To meet any exigency organisers shall make adequate arrangements for distribution of masks in close vicinity of the pandal for visitors who inadvertently come to the pandal premises without wearing masks The use and availability of hand sanitizers should similarly be made compulsory in the pandal premises and neighbourhood Public health experts warned that the Covid graph had started rising in Kolkata again and people should be careful There is a slow but steady rise in Covid cases But that seems to have become unimportant It can trigger a fresh wave which will be disastrous said a senior public health expert who is also the member of the state governments Covid expert committee Police or administration cannot ensure safety People have to be cautious themselves he added IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/mad-rush-for-pandal-hopping-might-lead-to-the-spread-of-covid-164548.html Tue, 12 Oct 2021 01:22:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/most-americans-resumed-risky-behaviour-before-covid-vaccines-arrived-study-164257.html New York Oct 9 Despite repeated warnings during the pandemic the majority of Americans resumed risky social and travel activity before vaccines became available new research has revealed After months of lockdowns and quarantines many Americans were eager to get life back to normal even as public health experts continued to warn the public that the pandemic was ongoing and social distancing needed to be maintained A study conducted by researchers at Texas AM University found that more than half 603 per cent of the respondents resumed or intended to resume at least one risky travel or leisure behaviour before vaccines became available and approximately one in six 175 per cent had performed four or more risky behaviours Risky behaviours included eating inside of restaurants eating or drinking inside at bars attending various large social events and attractions traveling by airplane visiting family and friends by car staying in a hotel going on a cruise and riding a bus or shuttle Visiting family and friends was the most common risky activity resumed followed by eating inside a restaurant said the survey done by Jay E Maddock and Courtney Suess from Texas AM University Variables such as being younger fiscally conservative or having less perceived susceptibility to Covid19 were associated with being more likely to resume local leisure behaviours according to the study published in the the Journal of Health Care Organization Provision and Financing However higher education and socioeconomic status were associated with a greater likelihood of taking a flight This finding was notable because a higher level of education and socioeconomic status are typically associated with less risktaking behaviour Future pandemic messaging that focuses on perceived susceptibility may be the key to encouraging behaviours that are protective rather than risky Having appropriate messages and working with local state and national health departments and the CDC to really think through how we respond will help us be ready for the next pandemic Maddock said IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/most-americans-resumed-risky-behaviour-before-covid-vaccines-arrived-study-164257.html Sun, 10 Oct 2021 21:34:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/bombay-hc-declines-request-for-judicial-probe-in-goa-o2-shortage-deaths-137419.html Panaji June 28 In a development which could spell relief for the Goa government the Bombay High Court bench in Goa on Monday declined to set up a judicial probe into deaths due to oxygen shortage in the states top government health facility The court stated that the petitioners had not provided exact details leading to the fatal incidents and cited the absence of family members of deceased persons from the bunch of petitions which the court has been hearing for more than a month now According to us it will not be appropriate to consider the issue of setting up a Judicial Commission to inquire into the deaths at the Goa Medical College in May 2021 or the issue of payment of compensation in these petitions a division bench of Justices MS Sonak and MS Jawalkar said in their order This is because there are no proper pleadings in any of the petitions on this issue By merely filing some miscellaneous application which is also quite vague the petitioners cannot seek such a relief the order also said Apart from requesting a judicial probe into the deaths of nearly 80 patients at the Goa Medical College in midMay due to oxygen shortage multiple petitioners had also sought the High Courts intervention in the maladministration at the apex health facility The petitioners had also sought compensation for the kin of those who had died due to oxygen shortage One of the petitioners the South Goa Advocates Association had specifically sought the appointment of an Inquiry Commission panel headed by a retired High Court judge with a judicial magistrate doctors and police officials as members In its argument before the High Court the Goa government had contended that a judicial probe would lower the morale of the frontline workers engaged in the governments Covid management efforts IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/bombay-hc-declines-request-for-judicial-probe-in-goa-o2-shortage-deaths-137419.html Wed, 30 Jun 2021 00:16:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/delhi-reports-lowest-daily-covid-surge-since-april-last-year-137429.html New Delhi June 28 The national capital on Monday reported 59 new Covid cases marking the citys lowest daily surge in cases since April 15 last year The daily Covid positivity rate declined further to 010 per cent while the city reported two Covid related deaths in the last 24 hours The death toll in Delhi due to the Covid pandemic has risen to 24967 till Monday as 72 people recovered from the disease taking the national capitals total number of recoveries to 1407473 till date A total of 58895 Covid samples were tested in the last 24 hours including 47407 through RTPCR and 11488 through the Rapid Antigen method Furthermore in an improvement indicator in Covid situation in Delhi the active cases have reduced to 1553 which during the peak of the second wave was close to 1 lakh Delhi reported its highest active cases 99852 on April 28 on the day the city had registered around 26000 cases Between April 22 this year to May 7 Delhis daily new cases were on an average above 20000 including highest 28395 cases were reported on April 20 Delhi has been under phase wise unlock after the second wave of the pandemic for the last four weeks and on Monday some more activities were restarted including gymnasiums Yoga centres hotels marriage halls with only 50 per cent capacity However cinemas theatres spas schools colleges and educational institutes swimming pools and entertainment and amusement parks will remain shut till further orders IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/delhi-reports-lowest-daily-covid-surge-since-april-last-year-137429.html Wed, 30 Jun 2021 01:21:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-to-share-covid-vax-technology-with-50-countries-free-of-cost-137375.html New Delhi June 28 India is all set to share free of cost its Covid19 vaccination technology with more than 50 countries from Latin America Africa and Asia CEO of National Health Authority Dr RS Sharma made the revelation while addressing the 2nd Public Health Summit 2021 organized by Confederation of Indian Industry CII here Sharma said that CoWIN portal for vaccination is unique in the world in terms of portability scalability and inclusivity and it is a citizencentric platform and that 300 million plus registrations and vaccinations with granular details of each individual are available on the portal with a very simple process of registration More than 50 countries from Latin America Africa and Asia have shown interest in our vaccination system and we will share the technology with them free of cost Sharma informed In his address Dr Randeep Guleria Director AIIMS Delhi called for a robust health care system in India with about 25 per cent of Gross Domestic Product GDP as health budget He also underlined the need for close collaboration between the Centre and the states on health issues despite health being a state subject Guleria further called for equitable access to healthcare in rural and remote areas stressing there is need for augmentation of specialised manpower and upgradation of health infra in the country Speaking on the event Union Minister Jitendra Singh said that Covid has strengthened PublicPrivate Partnership model in Indias healthcare system with a winwin situation for both He said that this partnership between Industry and Public Health Experts can work on different models such as health care and diagnostics delivery vaccine development Research and Development telemedicine facilities for rural areas and digital delivery of medicines The minister said that this partnership could be a game changer and will truly transform the health sector in India Referring to the worlds largest free vaccination drive Singh said with the delivery of more than 32 crore doses India is the fastest country in the world to administer vaccines This he said not only makes it the worlds fastest vaccination drive but also makes it distinct because of the smooth manner in which it has proceeded despite the heterogeneous character of the country and a huge population of 135 crore IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-to-share-covid-vax-technology-with-50-countries-free-of-cost-137375.html Tue, 29 Jun 2021 20:33:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/549-recoveries-259-new-cases-6-covid-deaths-in-jk-in-24-hrs-137382.html Srinagar June 28 Recoveries outnumbered new cases in JK on Monday as 549 patients were discharged after recovery while 259 new Covid cases were reported in 24 hours Officials said 549 patients were discharged from different hospitals after recovery while 259 new cases 90 from Jammu division and 169 from Kashmir were reported Six patients succumbed all from Kashmir division as the total number of people killed by coronavirus rose to 4310 in JK So far 314990 people have been infected with coronavirus out of which 305684 have recovered Total number of active cases is 4996 out of which 2020 are from Jammu division and 2976 are from Kashmir division IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/549-recoveries-259-new-cases-6-covid-deaths-in-jk-in-24-hrs-137382.html Tue, 29 Jun 2021 21:10:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/andhra-records-2-000-new-covid-cases-tally-at-188-lakh-137389.html Amaravati June 28 Andhra Pradesh on Monday reported 2224 new Covid cases pushing the states overall tally beyond 188 lakh even as its active caseload dropped to 42252 As many as 4714 more persons have recovered in the past 24 hours raising the states total number of recoveries over 182 lakh Chittoor district reported the highest number of cases at 409 followed by East Godavari 299 West Godavari 259 Krishna 222 Guntur 191 Kadapa 173 Prakasam 157 Visakhapatnam 122 Nellore 116 Vizianagaram 93 Anantapur and Kurnool 66 each and Srikakulam 51 Except for Vizianagaram district all others have logged overall infections beyond 1 lakh East Godavari tops the chart with more than 26 lakh cases followed by Chittoor 21 lakh cases Meanwhile 31 more persons succumbed to the virus in the past 24 hours raising the states Covid death toll to 12630 With 71758 more tests conducted in the past 24 hours the total number of tests carried out in Andhra Pradesh so far has crossed 218 crore IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/andhra-records-2-000-new-covid-cases-tally-at-188-lakh-137389.html Tue, 29 Jun 2021 21:40:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/karnataka-hires-2-050-more-doctors-to-treat-covid-patients-137417.html Bengaluru June 28 Amid the pandemics second wave the Karnataka government has recruited an additional 2050 doctors to treat Covid patients in rural areas said state Health Minister K Sudhakar on Monday We have appointed 2050 doctors who are in addition to 1750 doctors recruited in May to treat Covid patients in government hospitals in rural areas across the state Sudhakar told reporters here As serving in rural areas for the first two years of service is compulsory for all new doctors Sudhakar said the new recruits would also be deployed in district hospitals and primary health centres PHCs in all villages to contain the virus spread and prepare them for battling the possible Covid third wave Of the 2050 doctors hired 1001 will work in 18 staterun hospitals 666 at taluk hospitals and PHCs in villages across the state said Sudhakar a medical doctor by profession Of the remaining doctors 348 will be deputed for the National Health Mission 90 at community health centres CHCs and 3 in neprourology units As part of ramping up the states healthcare infrastructure nearly 4000 doctors have been directly recruited in a month which is a record in terms of numbers and time taken to appoint them asserted Sudhakar With the Covid second wave flattening the minister said the states recovery rate was 95 per cent and positivity rate 262 per cent except in 5 districts Dakshina Kannada Hassan Kodagu and Mysuru where it is above 5 per cent With 175 lakh tests daily Karnataka ranks third in testing after Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra as around 34 crore people which is 50 per cent of the states population have been tested since midMarch 2020 when the pandemic broke out in the country reiterated Sudhakar Case fatality rate has also reduced to below 25 per cent with no deaths reported in 11 of the 30 districts across the state since a week Of 3332 cases of mucormycosis black fungus reported in the state since May 1600 of them were operated so far 387 recovered and 262 died and the rest are under treatment in staterun and private hospitals added Sudhakar IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/karnataka-hires-2-050-more-doctors-to-treat-covid-patients-137417.html Tue, 29 Jun 2021 23:55:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/police-use-drones-for-surveillance-in-trichy-125968.html Chennai May 16 The Trichy district police have deployed drones for surveillance on whether people are coming out of their homes during the lockdown period The drones will be in action in five divisions of Trichy district including Lalgudi Jeeyapuram Musiri Mannaparai and Thiruverumbur A senior police officer while speaking to IANS said We are deploying drones in the busy areas and as of now we will have one drone a day in one division The drone facility will help us identify the violators and people are also aware that we are using drones hence most will fall in line The police are of the opinion that the gatherings in public places in Trichy have come down drastically but people are venturing out on two wheelers in large numbers The use of drones is helping the police keep track of violators during lockdown Trichy district police superintendent in a press statement said that the police had so far booked and fined 16262 people for not wearing masks since the lockdown was imposed and a total of 608 were penalized for not maintaining social distance About 800 police personnel and 300 home guards are deployed by the Trichy district police to monitor the situation and the rural police have kept a tight vigil at 20 entry points in the district Two wheeler patrol in 30 places and four wheeler in 15 places were deployed across the district according to the statement of the district police superintendent IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/police-use-drones-for-surveillance-in-trichy-125968.html Mon, 17 May 2021 02:06:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/haryana-extends-lockdown-till-may-24-125972.html Chandigarh May 16 The Haryana government on Sunday announced to extend the statewide lockdown till May 24 to contain the coronavirus pandemic Home Minister Anil Vij said Mahamari AlertSurkshit Haryana extended from 17 May to 24 May Stringent measures will be taken to implement the alert he said in a tweet The development comes as Haryana continues to report a steady decline in Covid19 cases reporting 9676 new infections officially on Saturday The states health bulletin also reported 144 deaths on Saturday A day earlier the state saw 9676 cases with the total active cases rose to 84870 According to the health bulletin the state reported 6546 deaths till Saturday IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/haryana-extends-lockdown-till-may-24-125972.html Mon, 17 May 2021 02:43:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/congress-mp-rajeev-satav-loses-battle-to-covid-125822.html Pune May 16 Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member from Maharashtra Rajiv Satav passed away in a hospital here after a 23day long battle with Covid19 party officials said here on Sunday He was 46 and belonged to the core team of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Satav had developed Covid symptoms on April 19 and a swab test turned out to be positive on April 21 He was admitted to the Jehangir Hospital in Pune and as his condition worsened a week later he was put on a ventilator After a brief spell of recovery his condition again deteriorated alarmingly since the last week and he remained in the ICU where he succumbed early today Health Minister Rajesh Tope said on Friday that besides Covid19 Satav was also being treated cytomegalovirus infection and some additional complications with the help of experts State Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat visited the hospital and inquired about his health while Minister of State for Agriculture and Congress leader Vishwajeet Kadam was regularly in touch with the family and the hospital IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/congress-mp-rajeev-satav-loses-battle-to-covid-125822.html Sun, 16 May 2021 11:52:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-records-311-lakh-new-covid-cases-4-077-deaths-125836.html New Delhi May 16 Witnessing a decline in the last 24 hours India on Sunday reported 311170 new Covid19 cases and 4077 fatalities the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said In the past 24 days Indias daily Covid tally has plateaued over the threelakhmark and over 3000 casualties for 18 days On Wednesday India recorded 4205 fresh Covid deaths the highest ever while on May 7 the country had recorded its highest ever cases of 414188 Indias total tally of Covid19 cases now stands at 24684077 with 3618458 active cases and 270284 deaths so far According to the Health Ministry a total of 362437 people have been discharged in the last 24 hours with 20795335 being cured from Covid till date The Health Ministry said that a total of 182220164 people have been vaccinated so far in the country including 1733232 who were administered vaccines in the last 24 hours According to the Indian Council of Medical Research ICMR 314850143 samples have been tested up to May 15 for Covid19 Of these 1832950 samples were tested on Saturday IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-records-311-lakh-new-covid-cases-4-077-deaths-125836.html Sun, 16 May 2021 13:02:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/allahabad-hc-asks-govt-to-set-up-panel-for-covid-plaints-125258.html Prayagraj Uttar Pradesh May 13 The Allahabad High Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh government to constitute a threemember Pandemic Public Grievance Committee PPGC in every district to look into the grievances of the public in Covid treatment in the state The panel would comprise one chief judicial magistrate CJM or a judicial officer professor of a medical college and an administrative officer of the rank of additional district magistrate ADM The court in its order on Tuesday further directed that in rural areas complaints can be made directly to the subdivisional magistrate SDM of concerned tehsil who shall transmit the same to PPGC The committee will also look into all the viral news itself Earlier the state government counsel had informed that the government had announced a compensation of Rs 30 lakh to those who caught Covid infection during panchayat election duty on which the court asked the state government to rethink about the compensation amount and increase it to Rs 1 crore The court observed It is not a case that somebody volunteered to render hisher services during election but it was all made obligatory to those assigned with election duty to perform their duties during election even while they showed their reluctance While hearing a PIL relating to Covid care a Division Bench comprising Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Ajit Kumar said that the recent surge of the Covid19 pandemic in the state is engulfing in it the remote rural areas and smaller city and town areas of almost all the districts of Uttar Pradesh The court went on to observe It would be in the fitness of the things that purchase of vaccine is not only expedited but vaccination programme is launched at a warfooting Even in our last order we had made clear that unless and until everyone was vaccinated nobody was safe We hope and trust that the state government would try to purchase as many vials of desired vaccines as possible to vaccinate the maximum number and at least more than 23 of the population in 23 months time Not satisfied with the affidavit filed by Badugu Deva Paulson secretary Home Government of Uttar Pradesh the court said that neither the required information as mandated by its earlier order was given nor compliance was made of its various directions passed earlier The court was unhappy with the affidavit as no information regarding the number of ambulances in the state or the meals provided to Covid patients of government hospitals were mentioned in the affidavit The court directed the state government counsel to apprise it as to how the state is managing Covid hospitals requirement of oxygen beds and lifesaving drugs and gadgets in districts of Bahraich Barabanki Bijnor Jaunpur and Shravasti The state government was also asked to disclose in its affidavit the number of testing done in these places urban and rural and laboratory from where the testing was being performed The data has to be given from March 31 2021 to May 10 The bench also expressed its concern about the vaccination of physically challenged persons and asked the government to apprise it as to how it proposes to inoculate such persons who cannot be brought to the vaccination centres and then those who cannot make online registration The court has fixed May 17 as the next date of hearing in the case IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/allahabad-hc-asks-govt-to-set-up-panel-for-covid-plaints-125258.html Fri, 14 May 2021 03:40:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/karnataka-logs-in-39-998-new-covid-cases-517-deaths-125223.html Bengaluru May 13 With the pandemics second wave unabated 39998 new Covid cases were registered in a day across Karnataka including 16286 in Bengaluru while 517 patients succumbed to coronavirus said the state health bulletin on Wednesday With 39998 new cases registered on Tuesday the states Covid tally shot up to 2053191 including 592182 active cases while recoveries rose to 1440621 with 34752 discharged during the day said the bulletin As epicentre of the pandemic in the state Bengaluru reported 16286 fresh cases in a day taking its Covid tally to 999805 including 360619 active cases while recoveries increased to 630221 with 18089 patients discharged in the last 24 hours The infection claimed 517 lives including 275 in Bengaluru taking the states death toll to 20368 and the citys toll to 8964 since the pandemic broke out in midMarch a year ago Among districts which reported over 1000 new cases are 2360 in Tumakur 1823 in Ballari 1773 in Mysuru 1572 in Hassan 1138 in Bengaluru Rural 1125 in Shivamogga and 1077 in Dakshina Kannada with the rest in the remaining 23 districts across the state Out of 134792 tests conducted during the day across the state 10560 were through rapid antigen detection and 124232 through RTPCR method Positivity rate was 2967 per cent and case fatality rate 129 per cent across the state on Tuesday Meanwhile 88437 people including 57682 above 45 years of age and 22506 in the 1844 years ago group were vaccinated across the state during the day Cumulatively 10882080 beneficiaries including healthcare workers and frontline warriors received the jab since the nationwide vaccination drive was launched on January 16 across the southern state added the bulletin IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/karnataka-logs-in-39-998-new-covid-cases-517-deaths-125223.html Thu, 13 May 2021 23:42:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/kerala-journalist-dies-of-covid-19-124398.html Thiruvananthapuram May 10 A journalist in Kerala who had tested positive for the Covid19 has died after developing coronavirusreated complications Vipin Chand 42 passed away on Sunday following a massive heart attack He is survived by his wife Sreedevi and son Maheshwar Following his death the demand to declare journalists as frontline workers has grown once again Vipin had started his career with Indiavision Malayalam news channel in 2005 and joined Matrubhumi in 2012 Kerala Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala Union minister of state for External affairs and several other political leaders and people from all walks of life expressed their condolences on the passing away of the journalist Union minister of state for External affairs V Muraleedharan called upon the state government to consider journalists in the category of frontline workers and to provide all the benefits of the frontline workers including priority in vaccination Kerala is yet to consider journalists as frontline Covid19 workers Punjab Odisha Bihar Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have already given journalists the status of frontline Covid 19 workers IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/kerala-journalist-dies-of-covid-19-124398.html Mon, 10 May 2021 13:35:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/lakshadweep-wasting-max-covid-vax-hry-assam-too-124130.html New Delhi May 8 Amidst increasing Covid19 vaccine demands in the country wastage of the key injection has been a matter of concern for the government with reports of highest 22 per cent wastage of the vaccine in Lakshadweep followed by Haryana and Assam After Lakshadweep Haryana account for the second highest state with wastage of 665 per cent Covid vaccine followed by Assam 607 per cent Ministry of Health and Family Welfares MoHFW latest data said Rajasthan has reported 550 per cent wastage of Covid vaccine Punjab reports 505 per cent wastage and Bihar recorded 496 per cent wastage Dadra and Nagar reported 493 per cent Covid vaccine wastage followed by Meghalaya 421 per cent Tamil Nadu 394 per cent and Manipur 356 per cent Two days ago Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised Kerala for reducing vaccine wastage Good to see our healthcare workers and nurses set an example in reducing vaccine wastage Reducing vaccine wastage is important in strengthening the fight against COVID19 PM Modi tweeted The nationwide Covid19 vaccination drive was started on January 16 for the healthcare workers The country had launched its third phase of the vaccination drive on May 1 for people aged between 1844 years As per official data Centre has so far provided more than 1749 crore vaccine doses 174957770 to states and UTs free of cost Of this the total consumption including wastages is 166549583 doses according to official data made available at 8 am The total number of Covid19 vaccine doses administered stands at 167346544 according to the Union Health Ministry India on Saturday recorded 4187 deaths due to Covid19 pandemic in the last 24 hours the highest so far along with 401078 fresh cases taking the total number of cases in the country to 21892676 It is the fourth time after May 1 that India has crossed the fourlakhmark of new cases in last 24 hours On Friday India recorded 414188 cases The country also breached the maximum deaths in 24 hours On May 6 India recorded 3980 deaths the highest till then IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/lakshadweep-wasting-max-covid-vax-hry-assam-too-124130.html Sun, 09 May 2021 14:46:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/pm-modi-hails-maha-cms-covid-measures-124143.html Mumbai May 8 Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday called up Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to get an overview of Maharashtras war against the Coronavirus an official said During the conversation the PM lauded Thackerays efforts and observed that the state has put up a good fight during the ongoing second wave of Covid19 Thanking Modi the CM appreciated his guidance in the states Covid war right from the beginning and how the Centre had accepted certain suggestions given by Maharashtra Thackeray took the opportunity to request for more Central help and support in terms of critical needs like oxygen and apprised the PM on the states plan to tackle the possible Covid19 third wave expected to hit soon Since the outbreak of the pandemic Maharashtra has emerged among the worsthit in the country with a caseload of 4996758 which surpassed the infections of Turkey and a total of 74413 fatalities recorded till date besides 654788 active cases just below Frances 823825 active cases IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/pm-modi-hails-maha-cms-covid-measures-124143.html Sun, 09 May 2021 16:00:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-records-414-lakh-new-covid-cases-3-915-deaths-123533.html New Delhi May 7 India has recorded 414188 fresh Covid19 cases in the last 24 hours the highest so far along with 3915 fatalities taking the total number of cases in the country to 21491598 the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Friday It is the third time after May 1 that India has crossed the four lakh mark of active cases in last 24 hours On Thursday India recorded 412262 cases It is the 15th straight day when India recorded more than three lakh cases while over 3000 casualties have been reported for the last nine days Indias total tally of Covid19 cases now stands at 21491598 with 3645164 active cases and a total of 234083 deaths so far According to the Health Ministry a total of 331507 people have been discharged in the last 24 hours The Health Ministry said that a total of 164973058 people have been vaccinated so far in the country including 2370298 who were administered vaccines in the last 24 hours According to the Indian Council of Medical Research ICMR 298601699 samples have been tested up to Thursday May 6 for Covid19 Of these 1826490 samples were tested on Thursday IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-records-414-lakh-new-covid-cases-3-915-deaths-123533.html Fri, 07 May 2021 13:55:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/portal-to-give-bed-status-in-bluru-pvt-hospitals-for-covid-patients-122683.html Bengaluru May 4 The Private Hospitals Nursing Homes Association Phana on Monday set up a portal to provide bed status in private hospitals across Bengaluru for treating Covid patients under their quota A dedicated portal Search My Bed has been launched to provide information on bed availability in the citys private hospitals under their quota which is 50 per cent of their capacity for treating Covid patients said Phana in a statement To meet the growing demand for beds due to rising cases during the pandemics second wave the state government has directed private hospitals and nursing homes to reserve 50 per cent of their beds to treat Covid patients referred by its Health Department or staterun hospitals As the central bed management system has information on availability of beds under the government quota our portal will show bed status in private hospitals under their quota for admitting Covid patients said the statement Of 11000 beds in staterun and private hospitals across the city 5013 of them were allocated through the system over the last 5 days Covid patients who want to get treated at private hospitals can check their bed status for admission at the earliest said the association The portal provides the number of Covid patients in private hospitals under their quota bed statusavailability and their contact number for admission as the data is uploaded in real time Private hospitals are required to upload data on general HDU ICU and ICUventilator beds available and this should be displayed at their help desks for the benefit of Covid patients Meanwhile nonprofit organisation Give India Foundation offered to set up a 500bed transit Covid Care Centre CCC at Bangalore Palace grounds We are planning to use the corporate social responsibility CSR funds of private companies to strengthen the Covid care infrastructure in the city said Deputy Chief Minister CN Ashwaha Narayana the Chairman of the newly setup Covid task force to contain the pandemic across the state in a statement here As an online donation platform the Foundation provides resources to NGOs across the country for various public causes Its founder Atul Sateja assured Narayana that the organisation would support the state government in augmenting the medical infrastructure in CCCs across the state IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/portal-to-give-bed-status-in-bluru-pvt-hospitals-for-covid-patients-122683.html Tue, 04 May 2021 21:42:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/karnatakas-total-covid-cases-cross-16-lakh-217-deaths-122121.html Bengaluru May 3 With the pandemics second wave unabated total Covid cases in Karnataka crossed 16lakh mark as 37733 tested positive in a day while 217 patients succumbed to the infection said the state health bulletin on Sunday With 37733 new cases registered on Saturday the states Covid tally shot up to 1601865 including 421436 active cases while 1164398 recovered with 21149 discharged during the day said the bulletin here As epicentre of the pandemic Bengaluru reported 26199 fresh cases on Saturday taking its Covid tally to 797292 including 281767 active cases while recoveries rose to 508923 with 10361 discharged in the last 24 hours The virus claimed 217 lives including 64 in Bengaluru taking the states death toll to 16011 and the citys toll to 6601 since the pandemic broke out in midMarch a year ago Among districts most new cases registered are 2750 in Mysuru 1302 in Tumakur 1156 in Ballari 996 in Dakshina Kannada 792 in Hassan 741 in Dharwad 691 in Bagalkot 653 in Mandya 620 in Shivamogga 584 in Bidar and 567 in Koppal with the rest in the remaining 19 districts across the state The state health department has discontinued giving data on the number of patients in the intensive care units ICUs in the hospitals across the state in the bulletin Out of 158365 tests conducted during the day across the state 12426 were through rapid antigen detection and 145941 through RTPCR method Positivity rate rose to 2382 per cent and case fatality rate was at 057 per cent across the state on Saturday Meanwhile 23569 people including 8245 senior citizens above 60 years of age and 13054 in the 4559 years age group were vaccinated during the day across the state Adults in the 1844 years age group were not given the shot on Sunday due to shortage of the dose Cumulatively 9805229 people including healthcare workers frontline warriors and 45 adults in the 1844 years age group have received the jab since the vaccination drive was launched on January 16 across the southern state added the bulletin IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/karnatakas-total-covid-cases-cross-16-lakh-217-deaths-122121.html Mon, 03 May 2021 03:52:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/karnataka-logs-29-744-new-covid-cases-with-201-deaths-120353.html Bengaluru April 27 Riding on the pandemics second wave 29744 new Covid cases were reported in Karnataka in a day with 201 patients succumbing to the infection said the state health bulletin on Monday With 29744 patients testing positive on Sunday the states Covid tally shot up to 1368945 including 281042 active cases while recoveries rose to 1073257 with 10663 discharged during the day said the bulletin As epicentre of the pandemic in the state Bengaluru reported 16545 fresh cases on Sunday taking the citys Covid tally to 670201 including 192669 active cases while 471626 recovered with 4313 discharged in the day The virus claimed 201 lives including 105 in Bengaluru taking the states death toll to 14627 and the citys toll to 5905 since the pandemic broke out in midMarch a year ago Among districts reporting large number of new cases are 1563 in Mysuru 1197 in Tumakur 929 in Mandya 872 in Kalaburagi 786 in Ballari 747 in Hassan and 609 in Raichur across the state Of the 1815 patients in the intensive care units ICUs 590 are in Bengaluru hospitals 265 in Kalaburagi 149 in Tumakur 122 in Dharwad 89 in Belagavi 87 in Shivamogga and 86 in Davanegere across the state Out of 166407 tests conducted during the day across the state 10792 were through rapid antigen detection and 155615 through RTPCR method Positivity rate rose to 1787 per cent while case fatality rate was 067 per cent across the state on Sunday Meanwhile 137901 people including 63566 senior citizens and 64579 in the 4559 years age group were vaccinated across the state during the day Cumulatively 827370 beneficiaries including healthcare workers and frontline warriors took the jab since the vaccination drive was launched on January 16 across the southern state added the bulletin IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/karnataka-logs-29-744-new-covid-cases-with-201-deaths-120353.html Tue, 27 Apr 2021 05:42:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/delhi-hospitals-struggling-amid-rising-covid-cases-120369.html New Delhi April 27 The healthcare system in the national capital seems to be on the edge due to a massive increase in the number of patients following the second wave of Covid19 A patient was seen lying on the ground for hours in the RML Hospital However the security personnel on the gate did not let the patient go inside citing instructions from the higherups even as the family members kept pleading Kewal Kumar a resident of Paschim Puri in Delhi was having breathing problems following which he was taken to a private hospital from where he was referred to the LNJP after the doctors detected coronalike symptoms However when his family reached LNJP the patient was not allowed inside He had to spend hours outside the hospital even as his health condition was worsening Kewal Kumars brother Veer Chand told IANS My brother is having trouble in breathing and got pain in the legs Eventually a crowd started gathering outside the hospital to see the patient However after the arrival of the media persons a stretcher was sent immediately Speaking on this issue Dr Suresh Kumar Medical Director of LNJP Hospital told IANS He was not lying on the ground he had fallen The patient does not have a corona infection He has multiple organ problems We are examining him and he is also being tested for Covid19 According to Dr Kumar there are 400 Covid beds in the hospital which are filled up with patients At the same time the while oxygen beds are also full A large number of patients are coming to the hospital due to which we are facing a lot of crisis he said IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/delhi-hospitals-struggling-amid-rising-covid-cases-120369.html Tue, 27 Apr 2021 08:29:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/mutations-keep-on-happening-one-needs-to-be-alert-120125.html New Delhi April 25 Member of Maharashtras Covid19 Task Force Dr Shashank Joshi on Sunday said that mutations keep on happening and one needs to be medically alert During an interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his monthly radio programme Mann Ki Baat Dr Joshi said Theres no need to be afraid of that These mutations keep on happening the way we change our clothes the virus keeps changing its colours Hence there is nothing to fear and we shall overcome this wave too However one needs to be alert medically He pointed out that Covid has a 14 to 21 days timetable in which one should avail of the doctors advice Speaking about the use of Remdesivir he said There is a new experimental medicine called Remdesivir But one thing about this medicine is that one has to stay 23 days lesser in the hospital and it aids in clinical recovery And this medicine works only when it is taken in the first 910 days and it is to be taken only for five days He warned that the way people are running after Remdesivir they should stop doing that This medicine has a limited role it should be taken only when people are put on oxygen in a hospital strictly as per the Doctors advice It is important for all people to understand this he said He pointed out that 98 per cent people recovered with an injection called Heparin for thinning blood Hence it is not at all required to run after all these expensive medications Whenever this medicine is available it should be given only to appropriate people On this many myths are doing the rounds Joshi said Dr Joshi who was awarded the Padma Shri in 2014 mentioned that that treatment protocol must be as per the doctors advice If people abide by information provided by the Government they will not face these difficulties Joshi also observed that many people start clinical treatment very late because they believe that the illness will subside on its own something that should not be done IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/mutations-keep-on-happening-one-needs-to-be-alert-120125.html Mon, 26 Apr 2021 00:08:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/modis-diya-jalao-call-has-culminated-into-burning-pyres-119864.html Panaji April 24 Prime Minister Narendra Modis Diya Jalao call to mark the fight against Covid19 a year back has culminated with burning pyres across the country Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar said on Saturday There are disturbing images circulating on various media platforms of hundreds of pyres burning of those who succumbed to Covid On the other side reports of hundreds of bodies awaiting their turn for cremation have also surfaced This sad situation arose only because the BJP government did not care for the welfare of the common man Chodankar said in a statement His Diya Jalao event has now culminated into burning of pyres all across the nation with innocent people dying of lack of medical oxygen and medicines Chodankar also said It is most unfortunate that when people are made to run from pillar to post begging for medical oxygen medicines etc in a desperate attempt to keep their near and dear ones alive the BJP is still in Celebrations mode organising tika utsavs with posters of the Prime Minister the statement also said IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/modis-diya-jalao-call-has-culminated-into-burning-pyres-119864.html Sun, 25 Apr 2021 00:39:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/61-year-old-covid-patient-commits-suicide-in-bluru-119867.html Bengaluru April 24 A 61yearold Covid patient has committed suicide at a hospital here the police said on Saturday According to the police the deceased is identified as Ramanna a resident of Anjana Nagar Sunkadakatte of Bengaluru The police said that the deceased died by hanging in the Intensive Care Unit ICU of private 50bed Hospital in Vijayanagar which has three ventilators The police said that the prima facie investigations reveal that he committed suicide by hanging The police claimed they have not recovered any suicide note yet and exact reasons for victim taking such extreme step are still not known The family members claim that he was depressed however hospital staff claim that he appeared to be cheerful before 1130 pm on Friday when he was attended last by the hospital staff the police said The police added that when the hospital attendee again approached at around 1 am to administer his health status the staff found that his room was locked from inside and when it was forced open he was found hanging The police said that the hospital is claiming that he was on a recovery path and responding to the medicines quite well and the hospital had also informed him that he would be shifted from ICU to the general ward on Friday morning or evening He was admitted on April 20 with severe breathlessness and he was directly admitted to the ICU The hospital staff claim they found him normal till he locked himself The police have registered a case and an investigation is underway IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/61-year-old-covid-patient-commits-suicide-in-bluru-119867.html Sun, 25 Apr 2021 01:11:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/more-post-vax-deaths-from-pfizer-than-astrazenaca-jabs-sputnik-119876.html New Delhi April 24 Russian Covid vaccine Sputnik V which is now the third Covid19 vaccine in India has claimed that the available public data suggests more people died after taking the Pfizer jab than AstraZeneca Sputnik V study shows that there are significantly more deaths following vaccination with Pfizer than with AstraZeneca vaccine per 1 million administered doses based on official publicly available data by 13 international health regulators Sputnik V said in a tweet late on Friday The causes of such major discrepancies in the number of death cases among different vaccines should be the focus of honest scientific and public discussion it added Both Pfizer and AstraZeneca were yet to react to the Sputnik V study In January 23 elderly patients reportedly died in Norway following their immunization with the PfizerBioNTech mRNA vaccine against Covid19 On the other hand several countries have halted the use of AstraZeneca as the shot may have caused some recipients to develop blood clots Recently the regional health authorities in Italys Lombardy region have said that public confidence in the countrys use of the AstraZeneca Covid19 vaccine has been hindered by the jabs safety fears This week the Therapeutic Goods Administration TGA Australias medical regulator has ruled that a 48yearold womans death due to blood clotting was a side effect of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine Meanwhile Hyderabadbased pharmaceutical major Dr Reddys Laboratories DRL has received permission from the Drugs Controller General of India DCGI to import the Sputnik V vaccine in India for restricted use in emergencies After Covishield and Covaxin Sputnik V developed by the Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow is now the third Covid19 vaccine to get emergency use approval in India This week the Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology and the Russian Direct Investment Fund RDIF reported that the Sputnik V Covid19 vaccine showed a 976 per cent efficacy IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/more-post-vax-deaths-from-pfizer-than-astrazenaca-jabs-sputnik-119876.html Sun, 25 Apr 2021 02:24:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/sir-ganga-ram-hospital-gets-5-tonnes-of-oxygen-119939.html New Delhi April 25 Hours after raising an SOS alarm about depleting oxygen around midnight Sir Ganga Ram Hospital SGRH in the national capital has received five tonnes of oxygen on Sunday morning around 4 am With the crisis mounting and stock of oxygen sliding on Saturday night local MLA Raghav Chadha of the Aam Aadmi Party arranged one tonne of oxygen past midnight as immediate help At 1030 pm on Saturday the SGRH raised an alarm that they had been left with oxygen stock for only 45 minutes and sought help from the authorities The hospital claimed that they have no information about availability of oxygen and contacted all authorities with a hope to get help The government has allocated 9 tonnes in the last 24 hours but SGRH has received 45 tonnes Rest should come from Inox before midnight which is highly impossible that remaining 45 tonnes comes in half an hour Inox is not responding and stock is depleting fast an SGRH official had said There are 130 patients on oxygen 30 on invasive ventilation 40 patients in Covid emergencies of which 15 are on ventilators the SGRH said Hospital administration had approached local MLA Chadha who had arranged some supplies yesterday and today afternoon At 1215 am on Sunday Chadha tweeted A cryogenic vehicle carrying reserve liquid oxygen is about to reach Ganga Ram Hospital catering to the interim need until full supply comes Yet another all nighter for Team Kejriwal so that Delhi doesnt gasp for breath Few minutes later a tanker carrying one ton oxygen arrived at SGRH which provided a breather for two hours Finally around 415 am the SGRH received five tonnes of oxygen supplied by Inox Hospital administration said that it will last for 1112 hours IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/sir-ganga-ram-hospital-gets-5-tonnes-of-oxygen-119939.html Sun, 25 Apr 2021 11:09:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/oxygen-brings-relief-to-luckdnow-but-patients-in-home-isolation-suffer-119941.html Lucknow April 25 Even as a special freight train Oxygen Express carrying 51000 litres of medical oxygen in three tankers arrived in Uttar Pradesh from Bokaro on Saturday problems continue for patients in home isolation The state government has made it mandatory for patients in home isolation to produce doctors prescription before they can buy oxygen cylinders Lokendra Tripathi who needs oxygen for his father 83 and mother 79 I need to keep oxygen for an emergency situation and no doctor is ready to give a prescription even though they verbally advise me to keep a cylinder at hand Both the parents are Covid positive though they are asymptomatic at the moment Meanwhile the Oxygen Express has brought some relief to the pandemicbattered state The supplementary supply will provide a more than a 48hour buffer for over 1000 patients with low oxygen saturation sources said Indian Medical Association Lucknow head Dr Rama Srivastava said We were told 38000 litres has arrived in Lucknow The supplementary supply will be a lifesaver for 8001000 patients with critical oxygen saturation levels in Lucknow A Covid patient with poor oxygen saturation easily consumes 50 litre of jumbo cylinder in 24 hours More O2 tankers are in queue to reach UP Bipin Mishra the additional district magistrate finance said We expect the supply of O2 delivered to Lucknow will last up to threefour days The seven O2 plants in city will disburse the lifesaving gas to government and private hospitals as well as individuals isolated in their homes after Covid infection Divisional Commissioner Ranjan Kumar said The oxygen supply from Bokaro has been sent to hospitals in Lucknow and Barabanki Some supplies have been diverted to patients in home isolation Sanjay Tripathi divisional railway manager of Northern Railways Lucknow division said Four empty tankers left for Bokaro on Saturday morning prior arrival of refilled three tankers including two at Lucknow and one in Varanasi Similarly by evening at least four more empty tankers were being prepared to dispatch Bokaro IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/oxygen-brings-relief-to-luckdnow-but-patients-in-home-isolation-suffer-119941.html Sun, 25 Apr 2021 11:20:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/38-covid-deaths-over-8k-cases-in-telangana-119986.html Hyderabad April 25 Hitting a new high Telangana reported 38 deaths and 8126 new cases during the 24hour period The fresh fatalities pushed the cumulative death toll to 1999 while the overall number of cases soared to 395232 The daily death toll which was 29 on Thursday jumped to 33 on Friday and spiked further to 38 on Saturday According to a bulletin by the state health department the case fatality rate in the state is 050 per cent against the national average of 11 per cent The alarming rise in number of new infections continued across the state In Greater Hyderabad the daily spike slightly declined to 1259 after hitting a record 1464 the previous day but the surge continued in most of the districts Nine out of 33 districts recorded 300 or more cases during the 24hour period that ended 8 pm Saturday Medchal Malkajgiri and Rangareddy district adjoining Hyderabad reported 676 and 591 cases respectively Nizamabad district bordering Maharashtra remained the worst affected district outside Hyderabad and surroundings with 497 new cases The daily figures indicate emergence of new hotspots Nalgonda district saw steepest jump to 346 from 122 the previous day Similarly Siddipet which had reported 192 cases on Friday saw the daily count surging to 306 Khammam saw the daily cases soaring to 339 Mahaboobnagar too witnessed the number mounting to 306 In Warangal Urban the daily count rose to 334 Only seven districts in the state reported new cases in double digits The number of active cases mounted to 62929 A total of 3307 people recovered from the virus during the last 24 hours taking the total number of recoveries to 330304 The recovery rate has slipped further to 8357 per cent against the national average of 83 per cent The health authorities tested 108602 samples taking the total number of tests to over 124 crore Samples tested per million population improved to 335663 IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/38-covid-deaths-over-8k-cases-in-telangana-119986.html Sun, 25 Apr 2021 14:32:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/madrasa-offer-to-turn-into-covid-facilities-120033.html Lucknow April 25 The Islamic Madrasa Modernization Teachers Association of India has written to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath seeking conversion of all of the state madrasas into Covid facilities They have offered the services of teachers as corona warriors in the field The letter states that the decision was taken in view of the bed crisis for Covid19 patients in the state and country There are several madrasas in each district which can be converted into Covid facilities Madrasa teachers are willing to work as covid warriors too so their services can be used for the state and the country the letter stated The teachers association has said that madrasa teachers are also ready to work as Covid warriors to save lives of people and be of any other use in the crisis to the government The request sent to the chief minister is awaiting a response but the association is hopeful the space and service from them can be helpful to society at large IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/madrasa-offer-to-turn-into-covid-facilities-120033.html Sun, 25 Apr 2021 17:06:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/2-day-partial-lockdown-begins-in-kerala-119816.html Thiruvananthapuram April 24 With Covid cases spiking like never before in Kerala the state government announced twoday lockdown on Saturday and Sunday The partial lockdown began on a cautious note with the police taking a tough stand to not let anyone come out on the streets without any valid reason Following the lockdown all the state government offices were given a holiday on Saturday Likewise only shops which sell essential items are allowed to open and public transport is allowed but private vehicles are not allowed to ply without any genuine reason On Friday 28447 turned Covid positive an alltime high in the state after 130617 samples was sent for testing in the past 24 hours Across the state currently there are 178983 Covid positive people In the past one week the tally touched one lakh Ernakulam district with a record 29708 active cases is now leading the rest of the state in having the highest number of cases We are checking all the passing vehicles and we are acting strict and fining people besides registering cases against those who come out with a valid reason Those who have a genuine need will be permitted to go and for that they have to come with a declaration said a police officer engaged in enforcing lockdown norms In Palakkad district police registered a case against the organisers for holding a horse race in which 54 horses took part IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/2-day-partial-lockdown-begins-in-kerala-119816.html Sat, 24 Apr 2021 20:15:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/quarantine-or-negative-covid-report-must-in-himachal-119794.html Shimla April 24 The Himachal Pradesh government has made it mandatory for all those returning to the state to remain in oneweek home quarantine or else enter with a negative RTPCR report These announcements were made by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur in a video message on Friday night He said those returning home should inform either the urban body or Panchayati representatives about their return to their home A day earlier the hill state saw the highest death toll of 26 in a day IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/quarantine-or-negative-covid-report-must-in-himachal-119794.html Sat, 24 Apr 2021 18:21:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/yogi-announces-free-vaccination-for-those-above-18-years-118979.html Lucknow April 21 Uttar Pradesh will now offer the Covid vaccine free of cost from May 1 as Indias vaccine net widens to include all people over the age of 18 The decision was taken late on Tuesday night at a virtual cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who last week tested positive for the virus Adityanath tweeted In the cabinet meeting it has been decided that corona virus vaccination of all the people above 18 years of age in Uttar Pradesh will be made free Coronavirus will lose India will win The health department has been tasked with working out the logistics of this exercise in the most populous state in the country We have to increase vaccination centres and create a database of the target agegroup the chief minister said in a statement On Monday the central government had said that all those over the age of 18 can get the shot from May 1 Currently only people over 45 are eligible Faced with criticism over reports of vaccine shortage the centre had also said that states could now buy doses directly from manufacturers up to 50 per cent of their supply at a preagreed price Uttar Pradesh is Indias second most affected state with over two lakh active corona virus cases New cases have seen a frightening spike since March 31 when 918 cases were reported On Tuesday nearly 30000 new cases were detected The deadly surge in new cases has increased pressure on the states already creaking health infrastructure with hospital beds unavailable even in the bigger cities Another point of concern is the supply of medical oxygen IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/yogi-announces-free-vaccination-for-those-above-18-years-118979.html Wed, 21 Apr 2021 06:44:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/ktaka-oppn-averse-to-lockdown-favours-section-144-118641.html Bengaluru April 20 Bengaluru legislators and MPs on Monday unanimously favoured imposing Section I44 prohibition of unlawful assembly of people instead of enforcing measures like lockdown partial lockdown or night curfew After the meeting convened by the Karnataka Revenue Minister R Ashoka who also heads the state disaster management committee that was also attended by Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa virtually Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee working president R Ramalinga Reddy told reporters that they Congress were completely opposed to measures like lockdowns and nigh curfew We have suggested that if at all the state government was planning to enforce lockdown then the state government must take steps to pay at least Rs 25000 per account in the state which roughly translates to Rs 15000 crore This amount is for the poor people to look after their families he said He added that there was no need for such measures as it would be appropriate to impose Section 144 which will automatically prevent people coming out in groups and restrict peoples gathering Launching an attack on the Karnataka government Reddy charged that the meeting convened by the minister Ashoka was just an eyewash and outcome of this meeting will have to be waited till Tuesday Yediyurappa who attended this meeting virtually has assured us that our concerns will be addressed appropriately during all party meetings on Tuesday he said He accused that neither Revenue minister Ashoka nor the health minister K Sudhakar had answers about shortage of drugs beds and oxygen in hospitals Despite having an years experience tackling pandemic like this they have failed miserably They should have equipped themselves as soon as the second wave had hit the neighbouring state Kerala But unfortunately they audaciously waited Covid to knock at their doors and then they woke up This is an irony of this government which lacks depth in handling crises like this magnitude he slammed Meanwhile Congress party senior leader CM Ibrahim told reporters that the Bengaluru legislators have appealed to the Karnataka government to take steps to clear doubts about Covid vaccines People are questioning us that some people are dying in a short duration after the vaccine is given This is where the governments role comes in They must take steps to allay fears he said He also added that the government must take steps to give decent burial to Covind deaths First of all government lacks clarity on many issues when we question them they do not even have proper response or solution to a problem he said IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/ktaka-oppn-averse-to-lockdown-favours-section-144-118641.html Tue, 20 Apr 2021 05:53:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/covid-2nd-wave-also-affecting-newborn-and-youth-117717.html New Delhi April 16 As the country is reeling under the second wave of Covid19 amid a massive spike in the number of positive cases doctors in the national capital said the return of the lethal disease is affecting even the newborn and the youth While Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is considering the second wave as dangerous doctors call it very dangerous Speaking to IANS Dr Ritu Saxena Head of Emergency Department at the LNJP Hospital said This time Covid is also seen in children few days old children are also getting infected Since this new wave has started 7 to 8 children have been admitted so far The youngest among them is a newborn baby who was infected in the hospital itself In addition about 30 per cent of young people between 15 and 30 years of age have also been infected Dr Saxena further said All those young people who have got affected had fever also In the second wave its also being seen that if one person is positive in the house then the whole family is also found infected In the last 24 hours in Delhi 17282 new patients of corona were confirmed and over one lakh 108534 samples were tested A positivity rate of 1592 was recorded and a total of 104 patients died due to the virus officials said on Thursday Weekend curfew has been imposed in Delhi in view of increasing cases The curfew will start at 10 pm on Friday night and continue till 6 am on Monday IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/covid-2nd-wave-also-affecting-newborn-and-youth-117717.html Sat, 17 Apr 2021 00:29:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/up-gets-25-000-vials-of-remdesivir-from-gujarat-117214.html Lucknow April 15 The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has procured 25000 vials of Remdesivir injection used in the treatment of Covid19 The vials were brought from Ahmedabad on Wednesday evening by a state aircraft A government spokesperson said that other than Remdesivir the government was keeping a close watch over availability of eight other medicines prescribed for Covid patients These include Ivermectin Paracetamol Doxycycline Azithromycin Vitamin C Zinc tables Vitamin B Complex and Vitamin D3 These are part of the medicine protocol followed even by patients in home isolation Health department officials have been asked to ensure that there is no shortage of these drugs in any district For that the chief minister has also asked the health department to coordinate with all districts to find out how much stock they have and when they will need replenishments The department has spoken to drug manufacturing companies to ensure a steady supply of these medicines and to distributors of medicines to make sure that they are readily available in the market he said Drug Controller Dr AK Jain said that seven Indian companies in the country are producing Remdesivir injections under a voluntary licensing agreement with Messrs Gilead Sciences America The companies have assured the government that they would provide more doses as per the need of the state at the earliest At present there is a sufficient amount of Remdesivir available and it is being administered to serious patients he said However the injection is not available in the open market and most chemists said that they would require a clearance from the district magistrate before giving Remdesivir Dr SK Khanna a private medical practitioner said It is ridiculous that one needs clearance form the chief medical officer CMO to get admitted to even a private medical facility and then permission is needed form the district magistrate for buying Remdesivir This red tape system is causing more fatalities because both officials are rarely available in their offices BJP spokesman Harish Chandra Srivastava said that he would speak to the party leadership in this regard and ease the system IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/up-gets-25-000-vials-of-remdesivir-from-gujarat-117214.html Thu, 15 Apr 2021 09:59:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/cong-demands-vax-for-all-starts-social-media-campaign-116517.html New Delhi April 12 Amid rising cases of Covid19 in the country the Congress has started a social media campaign for vaccination for all Claiming that the country is facing shortage of vaccines the party said that export of the vaccine should be stopped immediately and the people of India should be vaccinated first Speaking on the campaign Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said The country needs corona vaccine please raise your voice as everybody has a right for secured life Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said there should be ban on vaccine exports Indians should be vaccinated first thats indispensable before we take care of the rest of the world We urge the Centre to first ensure that vaccines are available to all Indians and only then lift the export moratorium on vaccines Former Home Minister and senior Congress leader P Chiadmbaram has also attacked the government and said that one day the government calls the vaccination drive a festival utsav Another day it calls the drive the second war Which is it Remember the day after the PM had announced the first lockdown he claimed that the war against Covid will be won in 21 days as compared to the Mahabharata war that was won in 18 days What happened to that war India reported 168912 new Covid19 cases in the last 24 hours setting another grim oneday record as the overall tally reached 13527717 so far The health ministry data said here on Monday With this India has once again taken its spot as the secondworst hit nation in terms of infections after the US As many as 904 deaths were reported taking the total Covid related deaths in the country to 170179 so far India is now the fourthworst Covid affected country worldwide after the number of active cases rose to 1201009 A total of 75086 patients recovered in the last 24 hours taking the number of recoveries to 12156529 with a recovery rate of 9044 per cent IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/cong-demands-vax-for-all-starts-social-media-campaign-116517.html Tue, 13 Apr 2021 00:04:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/reduced-testing-size-sees-telanganas-daily-covid-tally-dip-116582.html Hyderabad April 12 Relatively lower number of tests resulted in lower tally of new Covid19 cases on Sunday As per the bulletin for the 24 hours ending 8 pm on Sunday 2251 new cases were reported in Telangana The new infections pushed the states cumulative tally to 329529 according to the bulletin issued by the state government on Monday On Saturday the state had reported an alltime high daily tally since August of 3187 new cases from a record testing size of 115371 In comparison on Sunday only 79027 samples were tested Six people were reported dead due the virus during the last 24 hours that ended 8 pm Sunday taking the death toll to 1765 The director of public health and family welfare said the fatality rate stands at 053 per cent against the national average of 130 per cent The number of active cases jumped to 21864 including 14431 persons who are in homeinstitutional isolation A total of 565 people recovered from the pandemic during the last 24 hours taking the cumulative recoveries to 305900 The recovery rate has slipped further to 9282 per cent but is still above the national average of 899 per cent Greater Hyderabad reported 355 cases while its bordering districts MedchalMalkajgiri and Rangareddy districts reported 258 and 200 cases respectively Nizamabad district bordering Maharashtra reported 244 new cases while Jagtiyal reported 117 new cases All the remaining districts except Mulugu reported fresh cases in double digits Mulugu district reported the lowest daily tally of 7 cases IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/reduced-testing-size-sees-telanganas-daily-covid-tally-dip-116582.html Tue, 13 Apr 2021 08:17:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/s-korea-reports-49-more-cases-of-covid-19-variants-116441.html Mumbai A health worker takes a swab sample of a outstation passenger for COVID19 tests at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus amid the ongoing surge in coronavirus cases in Mumbai Monday April 12 2021 PTI Seoul April 12 South Korea on Monday reported 49 new cases of Covid19 variants amid concerns that the spread of more transmissible strains may further strain the countrys virus battle Of the additional cases identified in the past seven days 44 people were confirmed to have been infected with the coronavirus variant believed to have originated in Britain followed by four South Africa variant cases and the Brazilian strain with one according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency KDCA Yonhap News Agency reported Twenty nine of the newly added variant cases were from people travelling from overseas with South Korean nationals accounting for 26 of them The total number of cases of the three types of variants confirmed here since October last year came to 379 So far variants traced to Britain accounted for 324 followed by South Africa with 46 and Brazil with nine The country has been raising its guard against community spread of variant cases amid looming woes over a bigger wave of infections in spring Some of the cluster infections have included patients who contracted the Covid19 variants To better control variant cases health authorities early this month decided to extend the ban on passenger flights arriving from Britain which has been in place since December 23 for another three weeks until April 22 All travellers coming to South Korea have been required to present certificates of negative polymerase chain reaction PCR tests taken within 72 hours of their departure since late February They are also required to undergo a 14day isolation period upon their entry into the country In its latest measures the country decided to make all arrivals take PCR tests within five to seven days after their entry Those coming from South Africa and Tanzania are required to stay at temporary shelters for 14 days South Korea meanwhile reported 587 more Covid19 cases on Monday raising the total caseload to 110146 IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/s-korea-reports-49-more-cases-of-covid-19-variants-116441.html Mon, 12 Apr 2021 18:01:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/bhu-makes-arrangements-for-covid-positive-students-116110.html Varanasi Uttar Pradesh April 11 Keeping in mind the rapid spread of Covid cases the Banaras Hindu University BHU administration has taken specific safety measures with immediate effect for the management of Covid19 positives cases in the hostels According to the BHU spokesperson a notification in this regard has been issued under which each hostel will identify and dedicate some rooms in the hostel in the vicinity of washrooms for students testing positive This place would be isolated Any student developing symptoms of Covid19 should get tested and isolate himself in the room If a student is tested positive he should immediately inform the warden who will keep the student in the isolation room in the hostel and also inform the CMO If the condition requires hospitalisation the student will be referred to the superspecialty block for admission In other cases the doctor will prescribe the medicine and supply it from the health centre The hostel administration will collect the medicine and send it to the concerned student The warden will also inform the parents after the student is tested positive The supply of food and essential items will be made available by the hostel administration by taking all precautions Safety gears like PPE kits masks caps and faceshield will be provided by the hostel administration The hostel administration will also procure oximeter and thermal scanner for monitoring and hypo chloride solution for sanitising IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/bhu-makes-arrangements-for-covid-positive-students-116110.html Sun, 11 Apr 2021 14:36:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-reports-1-31-968-new-covid-cases-780-deaths-115754.html New Delhi April 9 India has reported 131968 new Covid19 cases and 780 deaths in the last 24 hours the Health Ministry said on Friday India is now the fourthworst Covidhit country worldwide after the number of active cases rose to 979608 The death toll stood at 167642 the Health Ministry said A total of 61899 patients recovered in the last 24 hours taking the number of recoveries to 11913292 with a recovery rate of 9122 per cent The Health Ministry said that a total of 1364205 samples were tested in the last 24 hours So far 254041584 samples have been tested A total of 3691511 people were vaccinated in the last 24 hours taking the total vaccination count to 94334262 In a meeting with chief ministers on Thursday Prime Minister Narendra Modi directed all states and Union Territories to focus on aggressive testing and microcontainment to curb the spread of Covid19 IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-reports-1-31-968-new-covid-cases-780-deaths-115754.html Sat, 10 Apr 2021 01:49:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/telangana-records-2-478-cases-in-a-new-daily-high-115756.html Hyderabad April 9 In a new daily high Telangana on Friday reported 2478 new Covid19 cases during the last 24 hours as the surge continues across the state The new infection climbed to 2478 from 2055 the previous day The fresh cases pushed the states cumulative tally to 321182 Five more persons succumbed to the virus during the last 24 hours that ended 8 pm Thursday taking the death toll to 1746 According to the director of public health and family welfare the fatality rate remains at 054 per cent against the national average of 130 per cent The number of active cases jumped to 15472 from 13362 the previous day They include 9674 who are in homeinstitutional isolation A total of 363 people recovered from the pandemic during the last 24 hours taking the cumulative recoveries to 303964 The recovery rate has slipped further to 9463 per cent but still above the national average of 912 per cent Greater Hyderabad crossed 400mark to report 402 cases while districts bordering it continue to witness a surge Medchal Malkajgiri and Rangareddy districts reported 208 and 162 cases respectively Nizamabad district bordering Maharashtra became the third worst affected district with 176 new cases Nirmal registered 111 new cases followed by Jagtiyal 105 Kamareddy 98 Mahaboobnagar 96 Nalgonda 88 Karimnagar 87 Mancherial 85 Warangal Urban 82 Sangareddy 79 and Adilabad 72 The admissions into hospitals treating Covid cases have also gone up to 5798 from 5099 the previous day According to director of public health 4219 patients were undergoing treatment in 244 private hospitals while 1579 beds were occupied in 61 government hospitals For the first time since the pandemic broke out the authorities conducted over one lakh tests in a single day Of the total 101986 tests conducted during last 24 hours 89645 samples were tested in government laboratories and 12341 in private labs With this the number of tests conducted in the state so far climbed to 10761939 Samples tested per million population rose to 289143 IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/telangana-records-2-478-cases-in-a-new-daily-high-115756.html Sat, 10 Apr 2021 02:05:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/amid-vaccine-spat-maharashtra-tops-with-93l-jabs-115795.html Mumbai April 9 Amid a major vaccinewar with the Centre it has emerged that Maharashtra continues to fly high in terms of the inoculation drive despite having nearlyexhausted its stocks officials said here on Friday As per the latest data released for April 9 today the state has administered the highest 9338531 jabs comprising 8435010 first doses and 903521 second doses making it the best performer in the national vaccination programme officials pointed out The state is followed by Rajasthan with 8807351 vaccinations comprising 7772197 first jabs and 1035194 second doses Next is Gujarat with 8475305 vaccinations including 7501404 first doses and 973901 second jabs In the past two days the Centre and Maharashtra have been engaged in a bitter war of words with the latter accusing the former of stepmotherly treatment for the state which is worsthit by the Covid19 pandemic Top leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government and Shiv SenaNationalist Congress PartyCongress said that the Centre has not given sufficient numbers of vaccines to Maharashtra but was allegedly concentrating on Gujarat and other states ruled by Bharatiya Janata Party Lashing out at the MVA BJPs Leader of Opposition Fadnavis said on Thursday evening that the vaccines supply is not on the basis of population but purely based on states performance of execution of vaccination process Refuting the MVA leaders contentions Fadnavis also pointed out that only three states Maharashtra Gujarat and Rajasthan have been given over 1crore doses by the Centre While Maharashtra has a population of 12 crore Gujarat and Rajasthan each have around 6 crore population and the latter is ruled by Congress he said As per the current figures Uttar Pradesh ranks fourth with 8145161 vaccinations notched till date comprising 6951956 first jabs and 1193205 second doses At the bottom of the list are lesspopulated smaller territories like Lakshadweep Islands 10737 Union Territory of Daman Diu 28441 Andaman Nicobar Islands 30799 and Union Territory of Dadra Nagar Haveli 31851 IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/amid-vaccine-spat-maharashtra-tops-with-93l-jabs-115795.html Sat, 10 Apr 2021 07:13:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/month-after-jab-rss-chief-bhagwat-tests-covid-positive-115914.html Nagpur April 10 Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat has tested Covid19 positive and is undergoing treatment in a private hospital here According to an RSS functionary he was suffering from some minor cough and cold issues and underwent an RTPCR test After the report came Covid19 positive he was admitted to the Kingsway Hospital on Friday Incidentally the 70yearold Bhagwat who had taken his first dose of Covid19 vaccine on March 7 is responding well to the treatment and his condition is described as stable Currently Nagpur the states second capital is amongst the worsthit Corona hotspots in the state besides Mumbai and Pune in the ongoing ferocious second wave of the pandemic IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/month-after-jab-rss-chief-bhagwat-tests-covid-positive-115914.html Sat, 10 Apr 2021 16:06:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/rt-pcr-tests-to-start-in-cgarh-airports-railway-stations-115931.html Raipur April 10 Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has said the state government will start the RTPCR testing at airports and railway stations in the wake of rising Covid19 cases Necessary steps are being taken for expansion of Covid screening treatment and vaccination facilities Baghel said here on Friday during a meeting He had held a virtual meeting with the editors of various media houses on Friday and sought suggestions regarding prevention of Covid19 and economic activities to be conducted Baghel said he has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to set the minimum age of vaccination to 18 years The chief minister said an initiative will soon be taken to fix the rates of Covid19 test and treatment of corona positive patients in private hospitals In Chhattisgarh 1435 tests per 10 lakh population are being done every day while the national average for the same is 929 tests per 10 lakh population per day it was said during the meeting The percentage of RTPCR tests in the month of October 2020 was 26 per cent which has increased to 40 per cent in April 2021 A total of 36 specialized Covid hospitals and 66 Covid care centres have been established by the state government to provide treatment to the Covid19 patients Besides 78 private hospitals in the state have also been authorized for Covid19 treatment Till April 8 a total of 3727552 vaccine doses have been provided to the people in the state The first dose of vaccination has been given to 87 per cent of the health workers 84 per cent of the frontline workers and 43 per cent of the beneficiaries aged above 45 years IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/rt-pcr-tests-to-start-in-cgarh-airports-railway-stations-115931.html Sat, 10 Apr 2021 17:00:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-reports-1-45-384-new-covid-cases-794-deaths-115946.html New Delhi April 10 India has reported 145384 new Covid19 cases and 794 deaths in the last 24 hours the Health Ministry said on Saturday India is now the fourthworst Covidhit country worldwide after the number of active cases rose to 1046631 The death toll stood at 168436 the Health Ministry said A total of 77567 patients recovered in the last 24 hours taking the number of recoveries to 11990859 with a recovery rate of 9080 per cent The Health Ministry said that a total of 1173219 samples were tested in the last 24 hours So far 255214803 samples have been tested A total of 3415055 people were vaccinated in the last 24 hours taking the total vaccination count to 98075160 IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-reports-1-45-384-new-covid-cases-794-deaths-115946.html Sat, 10 Apr 2021 17:34:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/goa-to-launch-tika-utsav-to-maximise-covid-vaccination-cm-115731.html Panaji April 9 The Goa government will launch Tika Utsav a grassroots drive to maximise coverage of the Covid19 vaccine for people above 45 years Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on Friday The drive was launched a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a virtual conference with Chief Ministers urged the states to encourage citizens to get vaccinated Goa will hold Tika Utsav across the state from April 1114 2021 The vaccination drive will be undertaken at the panchayat level for maximum coverage Sawant said even as the state has witnessed a spike in Covid19 cases over the last few weeks It will be celebrated in Goa in all the village panchayats We have the infrastructure available halls etc The PM has stressed on testing tracking and asked that we increase the number of testing facilities the Chief Minister said adding that if all people above 45 years get vaccinated the state would see 50 per cent coverage Sawant also said observing SOPs and vaccination was the only solution to the Covid19 crisis and not a lockdown The Chief Minister also ruled out the imposition of a night curfew saying it was not a priority option considering that Goa is a tourism destination But people should not step out without reason and avoid stepping out at night he also said A total of 582 persons tested positive for Covid19 in the last 24 hours in Goa which now has 3331 active cases IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/goa-to-launch-tika-utsav-to-maximise-covid-vaccination-cm-115731.html Fri, 09 Apr 2021 23:33:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/night-curfew-in-lucknow-kanpur-varanasi-as-covid-cases-surge-115255.html Lucknow April 8 The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has decided to impose night curfew in Lucknow Kanpur and Varanasi from Thursday The curfew will come into effect on April 8 and will remain effective till April 16 The night curfew will be enforced from 10pm to 6am According to an order issued by Lucknow district magistrate Abhishek Prakash the night curfew will be applicable only in Lucknow Municipal Corporation area and not in rural Lucknow The supply of fruits vegetables milk LPG petroldiesel and medicine will continue Government and semigovernment personnel working night shifts and private sector personnel engaged in essential goods services will be exempted The restrictions will not be applicable for medical nursing and para medical institutions he said People coming and going at railway station bus stations and airport will be able to travel by showing their ticket No restrictions have been imposed on the movement of freight trains Lucknow has reported 1333 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours while 6023 new Covid cases have been recorded in the state The Chief Minister in a latenight meeting on Wednesday has also authorised district magistrates in Uttar Pradesh to impose night curfew in their respective areas if faced with more than 500 Covid19 cases All government nongovernment or privately run schools colleges and educational institutes and coaching institutes have been closed in Lucknow Examinations theoretical and practical will be conducted in recognized educational institutions in strict compliance with Covid19 protocol the district magistrate added Night curfew will also be imposed in Varanasi from April 8 and will continue from 9 pm to 6 am All nonmedical institutions will be closed Students will be allowed to go to educational institutions only for examinations and a strict eye will be kept on religious and social events as well The general public will not be allowed to participate in the aarti procession at the Ghat IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/night-curfew-in-lucknow-kanpur-varanasi-as-covid-cases-surge-115255.html Thu, 08 Apr 2021 14:17:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/modi-takes-2nd-jab-says-vax-can-defeat-covid-115393.html New Delhi April 8 Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday received the second dose of Covid19 vaccine here at the citys premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences AIIMS giving a message to the people that vaccination is among the few ways we have to defeat the virus The Prime Minister also advised the citizens through a Twitter message If you are eligible for the vaccine get your shot soon Register on CoWingovin Got my second dose of the Covid19 vaccine at AIIMS today Thursday Vaccine is among the few ways we have to defeat the virus Modi tweeted He also posted a photograph while taking the second jab The Prime Minister has taken Covaxin Indias homegrown vaccine developed by Hyderabadbased Bharat Biotech The two nurses who administered the Covid19 vaccine to the Prime Minister on Thursday are P Niveda from Puducherry and Nisha Sharma from Punjab Niveda was also involved in administering the first dose of Covid to the Prime Minister on March 1 He was the first beneficiary on March 1 as the second phase of nationwide vaccination against the deadly pandemic began Amid the second wave of Covid19 across the country the Centre allowed administering vaccine shots at workplaces with around 100 eligible beneficiaries from April 11 Currently people at the age of 45 and above are eligible for vaccination The Union Health Ministry recently said India has surpassed the US to become the fastest Covid19 vaccinating country in the world with an average daily rate of 3093861 vaccine doses So far over 901 crore Covid19 vaccine doses have been administered in India the Health Ministry said on Thursday IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/modi-takes-2nd-jab-says-vax-can-defeat-covid-115393.html Thu, 08 Apr 2021 21:53:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/tourist-from-maharashtra-dies-of-covid-in-srinagar-113044.html Srinagar March 31 A 70yearold tourist from Maharashtra died of Covid19 in a hospital here on Wednesday Reports said the tourist from Pune had been admitted to Srinagars chest diseases hospital on March 30 after he was referred for specialised treatment from the SMHS hospital in the city where he was admitted following breathlessness and other Covid19 symptoms The patient had Covid pneumonia and he passed away today doctors said at the chest diseases hospital He had arrived in Srinagar along with his son and both had surprisingly tested negative at the Srinagar airport on their arrival The son of the expired patient is also being treated at the hospital now It must be mentioned that there has been an alarming resurgence of Covid19 positive cases in Jammu and Kashmir where 359 new cases came to light on Tuesday IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/tourist-from-maharashtra-dies-of-covid-in-srinagar-113044.html Wed, 31 Mar 2021 07:52:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/covid-strikes-fourth-estate-in-lucknow-112385.html Lucknow March 28 Corona has struck at the fourth estate in Lucknow in a big way Pramod Srivastava 48 member of the UP State Accredited Journalist Committee 2021 elections for which were held on March 21 died on Saturday evening Two days ago he had tested positive and was admitted to KGMU on March 25 in a serious condition Doctors said he died due to respiratory failure At least six journalists who took part in the elections that took place on March 21 have also tested positive so far One of them was admitted to SGPGIMS late on Saturday evening The state information department has arranged for a special Covid test camp for journalists on Sunday and has asked all those who participated in the elections to get themselves tested The city has become a hotspot in the state with a steady rise in the number of cases and deaths in the past few days Out of four Covid19 deaths in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday three took place in Lucknow Similarly 25 per cent of the total new infections were in the state capital In remaining districts the numbers were below 50 IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/covid-strikes-fourth-estate-in-lucknow-112385.html Sun, 28 Mar 2021 17:08:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/1st-case-of-covid-re-infection-in-rajasthan-cured-112169.html Jaipur March 27 The first case of Covid19 reinfection reported in Rajasthan the fourth case in India has been treated successfully here in Jaipur confirmed doctors The patient this time is a 28yearold dental doctor who was admitted with Covid reinfection in RHL COVID centre for last two weeks said Dr Sheetu Singh Director RHL Lung Centre First case of Rajasthan and 4th case of India a 28yearold dentist was admitted with Covid reinfection in RHL COVID centre for the last two weeks After participating in a party she had fever and cough on November 15 2020 On November 17 she tested positive for Covid and later she recovered with treatment Again after a gap of 4 months she fell ill with cough and high grade fever On testing she was positive for Influenza A and Covid The noteworthy aspect of the case is that despite previous infection one dose of vaccine and good antibodies the patient developed a moderately severe Covid pneumonia requiring oxygen said Sheetu Her antibodies were 120 which is also a marker of old Covid infection Moreover she has received her first jab of vaccine 15 days earlier She developed Covid second time and this was a reason of concern as she was vaccinated 15 days back It needs to be mentioned here that the World Health Organisations chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan has earlier said that Covid19 reinfection has been rare because only a few dozen cases have been reported among the 38 million who have already contracted the illness But she added that it can happen This was way back in October last year IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/1st-case-of-covid-re-infection-in-rajasthan-cured-112169.html Sat, 27 Mar 2021 15:08:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/us-fda-authorises-amazons-covid-19-test-kit-112272.html San Francisco March 27 Ecommerce giant Amazon has received the emergency use authorisation EUA from the US Food and Drug Administration FDA for a Covid19 test kit made by its subsidiary STS Lab Holdco Amazon plans to use the realtime RTPCR Test for detecting SARSCoV2 as part of the companys overall preparedness and response programme Individuals who are permitted to enter Amazon facilities under these health and safety measures will be invited to be tested periodically using the Amazon Test The US FDA said in a statement that the Amazon realtime RTPCR test for detecting SARSCoV2 will be performed at laboratories designated by STS Lab Holdco a subsidiary of amazoncom Amazon employees may automatically be provided with a testing appointment The appointment day and time will be determined by the testing cadence which is typically every 14 days depending on the individuals work schedule and previous test result The test is done using a nasal self swab that can be done either under the supervision of a health care provider or as part of an athome kit where a patient takes their own sample and mails it to a lab The new test is a modification of another Covid19 test made by BGI Genomics For individuals who are not automatically scheduled for testing Amazon will communicate information about testing availability frequency and other aspects of Amazons testing programme through a variety of channels including regular manager alerts directtoemployee notifications text messages and signage the FDA authorisation read IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/us-fda-authorises-amazons-covid-19-test-kit-112272.html Sat, 27 Mar 2021 23:12:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/new-covid-cases-cross-2-500-mark-in-karnataka-111881.html Bengaluru March 26 Riding on the second wave new Covid cases crossed the 2500mark in Karnataka after 4 months with 1623 of them from Bengaluru said the state health bulletin on Thursday With 2523 new cases registered on Wednesday the states Covid tally shot up to 978478 including 18207 active cases while 947781 recovered with 1192 discharged in the last 24 hours said the daily bulletin As the epicentre of the virus Bengaluru reported 1623 fresh cases taking its Covid tally to 422859 including 12472 active cases while 405817 recovered with 665 discharged during the day Of the 10 lives lost to the infection 6 are from Bengaluru 2 from Mysuru and 1 each from Ballari and Belagavi taking the states death toll to 12471 since the pandemic broke in midMarch last year Of the 150 Covid patients in intensive care units ICUs 51 are in Bengaluru hospitals 17 in Kalaburagi and 12 each in Bidar and Mandya with the rest spread in the remaining 27 districts across the state Out of 108396 tests conducted during the day 6414 were through rapidantigen detection and 101982 through RTPCR method Positivity rate for the day was 232 per cent and case fatality rate 039 per cent across the state on Wednesday Meanwhile 35531 people were vaccinated across the state during the day Among the beneficiaries 23106 were senior citizens above 60 years of age 9579 comorbid in the 4559 age group 1089 healthcare workers and 1757 frontline warriors Cumulatively 3044524 people have received the jab since the vaccine drive was launched on January 16 across the southern state IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/new-covid-cases-cross-2-500-mark-in-karnataka-111881.html Fri, 26 Mar 2021 14:18:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/tgana-logs-170-new-covid-infections-tally-299l-106962.html Hyderabad March 6 Telangana on Saturday recorded 170 new Covid19 cases raising the states tally to over 299 lakh even as 196 more people recovered from the virus in the past 24 hours officials said Hyderabad accounted for the highest number of cases at 28 followed by Medchal Malkajgiri 15 Rangareddy 14 Karimnagar 12 and Adilabad and Nalgonda 8 each Among other places that reported fresh cases were Nizamabad and Warangal Urban 7 each Siddipet 6 Mehboobnagar Peddapalli Rajanna Siricilla and Sangareddy 5 each Although the total number of cases have crossed 299 lakh the number of active cases in the state stood at 1936 declining slightly from 1939 a week ago more than the neighbouring Telugu state of Andhra Pradesh Meanwhile one more Covid death occurred in the past 24 hours raising the statewide death toll to 1640 The southern states Covid fatality rate stands at the same 054 per cent rate compared to the national average of 14 per cent Powered by 196 more recoveries total number of recoveries in Telangana has crossed 296 lakh narrowing the gap between total cases and recoveries The states recovery rate stood still at 988 per cent even after a weeks time which is still higher than the national average of 97 per cent In the past 24 hours the state tested 40712 samples for the virus taking the total number of tests over 89 lakh For per million population Telangana has tested 239 lakh samples IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/tgana-logs-170-new-covid-infections-tally-299l-106962.html Sat, 06 Mar 2021 17:26:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/australasian-covid-19-trial-starts-in-india-105870.html New Delhi March 1 The AustralaSian Covid19 trial ASCOT which aims to discover which existing treatments are most effective in hospitalised patients has been expanded into India The first patients were recruited last week to the first two sites Christian Medical College and Hospital Ludhiana in Punjab and Sterling Multispecialty Hospital in Pune Maharashtra George Institute for Global Health which has partnered with ASCOT to oversee the trial in India said on Monday While ASCOT began as an Australian and New Zealand trial expanding internationally to allow more widespread access to investigational treatments was crucial according to ASCOT Principal Investigator Associate Professor Steven Tong a Royal Melbourne Hospital infectious diseases clinician and colead of clinical research at the Doherty Institute A key principle of the trial is equity in terms of access to experimental treatments that could potentially have benefits for patients Tong said The ASCOT Management Team and Leadership Group recognised early in the course of the trial that in order for it to have generalisability external validity and be adequately powered it would need to be expanded to international sites The number of patients with Covid19 in India remains significantly higher than in Australia and New Zealand While there are other ongoing clinical trials in India for Covid19 the novel combinations of treatments included in ASCOT will provide greater opportunities to patients for accessing new treatments said Bala Venkatesh Professorial Fellow at the George Institute for Global Health One new treatment thats recently been added to ASCOT is nafamostat which in laboratory experiments has shown to block SARSCOV2 from entering human cells and be far more potent than remdesivir Nafamostat is mainly used in Korea and Japan as a treatment for acute pancreatitis and some blood clotting conditions explained Tong The ASCOT trial aims to generate results quickly After the trial begins results will be continually analysed so that ineffective therapies can be stopped and new therapies can be evaluated as part of the trial IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/australasian-covid-19-trial-starts-in-india-105870.html Mon, 01 Mar 2021 23:15:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/pfizer-biontech-covid-vax-neutralises-uk-south-africa-variants-study-98751.html New York Jan 28 Drugmakers Pfizer and BioNTech have said that their Covid19 vaccine has been found in laboratory studies to work against new variants first identified in the UK and South Africa The results were published on the preprint server bioRxiv and submitted to a peerreviewed journal While these findings do not indicate the need for a new vaccine to address the emerging variants the companies are prepared to respond if a variant of SARSCoV2 demonstrates evidence of escaping immunity by the Covid19 vaccine Pfizer and BioNTech said in a statement on Wednesday To study the effect of these mutations three engineered viruses with key mutations were tested against the panel of human sera from 20 participants in the previously reported Phase 3 trial who had been immunized with the PfizerBioNTech COVID19 vaccine The sera from individuals vaccinated with the PfizerBioNTech Covid19 vaccine neutralised all the SARSCoV2 strains tested showed the study Neutralisation against the virus with the three key mutations present in the South African variant was slightly lower when compared to neutralisation of virus containing the other mutations that were evaluated the results showed However the the two companies believe the small differences in viral neutralisation observed in these studies are unlikely to lead to a significant reduction in the effectiveness of the vaccine Pfizer and BioNTech are encouraged by these early in vitro study findings and are currently evaluating the full set of mutations in the spike protein of the South African variant the two companies said adding that the flexibility of BioNTechs proprietary mRNA vaccine platform is well suited to develop new vaccine variants if required Earlier this week Moderna said that its twodose regimen of the Covid19 vaccine is expected to be protective against emerging strains detected to date Moderna said it is also working on a Covid19 booster shot to protect against a new variant first identified in South Africa A study carried by bioRxiv also showed that Covaxin the Covid vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech in India effectively neutralises UK variants of SARSCoV2 reducing the possibility of mutant virus escape IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/pfizer-biontech-covid-vax-neutralises-uk-south-africa-variants-study-98751.html Fri, 29 Jan 2021 08:26:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/australia-gives-provisional-approval-to-pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-97884.html Sydney Jan 25 Australias medical regulator on Monday granted provisional approval to Pfizers Covid19 vaccine making it the first Covid vaccine to receive regulatory approval in Australia The first doses of the vaccine are expected to be administered in late February The TGA Therapeutic Goods Administration has today provisionally approved the PfizerBioNTech COVID19 vaccine for use in Australia This is an important step in our fight against this terrible virus Australias Prime Minister Scott Morrison tweeted The TGA provisional approval is for individuals 16 years of age and older Provisional approval of this vaccine is valid for two years and means it can now be legally supplied in Australia The approval is subject to certain strict conditions such as the requirement for Pfizer to continue providing information to the TGA on longer term efficacy and safety from ongoing clinical trials and postmarket assessment The vaccine has been shown to prevent Covid19 however it is not yet known whether it prevents transmission or asymptomatic disease the TGA said in a statement Australians should take confidence in the thorough and careful approach taken by our worldclass safety regulator Morrison said in a statement Our priority has always been to keep Australians safe and protect lives and livelihoods Todays approval is another big step forward for our community particularly in the protection of our most vulnerable people In Australia the vaccine will be rolled out in five phases over the coming months and over time will involve more than 1000 vaccination administration sites IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/australia-gives-provisional-approval-to-pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-97884.html Tue, 26 Jan 2021 04:37:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-reports-13k-new-covid-cases-131-deaths-97758.html New Delhi Jan 25 With 13203 new coronavirus infections reported in the last 24 hours India on Monday continued its streak of low singleday cases increasing the overall tally to 10667736 health officials said For the past 18 days the country has been recording less than 20000 daily new infections Also the death toll remained below 300mark for the past 28 days On January 19 India had reported 10064 new coronavirus infections the lowest singleday spike in seven months The country had recorded over 10000 cases on June 6 last year The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Monday said that with 131 fresh deaths the overall death toll in India stood at 153470 As per the Ministrys data 10330084 people have recovered so far and currently there are 184182 active cases The recovery rate stands at 9683 per cent while the fatality rate at 144 per cent About 80 per cent of the daily new cases are reported from eight states Kerala Maharashtra Karnataka Tamil Nadu Chhattisgarh Gujarat West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh The nationwide immunisation drive began across the country on January 16 with approval of two Covid vaccines in the country As many as 1613667 beneficiaries have received the Covid vaccine jabs so far IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-reports-13k-new-covid-cases-131-deaths-97758.html Mon, 25 Jan 2021 17:55:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/sc-delhi-high-court-chief-justice-will-do-needful-on-physical-hearings-96742.html New Delhi Jan 20 On the issue of resuming physical hearings in the Delhi High Court the Supreme Court on Wednesday said it trusts the chief justice of the High Court and he will do whatever is required A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde and comprising Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian said they also want to resume physical hearings but it is necessary to ask health authorities before taking a decision We are not going to take the opinion of advocates on health things said the Chief Justice The remarks from the top court were made by disposing as withdrawn pleas challenging the Delhi High Court decision to resume physical hearings in the High Court and also the trial court with effect from January 18 Senior advocate Kapil Sibal representing petitioners submitted that a meeting is scheduled with registrar general to discuss the issue and sought adjournment of the matter However the Chief Justice told Sibal to withdraw the plea and approach the Delhi High Court The Chief Justice expressed that they are also keen to resume physical hearings We want to get back to action said the Chief Justice citing the court has asked for medical opinion on resuming physical hearings Senior advocate Vikas Singh submitted that common man is not getting justice through virtual hearings Solicitor General Tushar Mehta replied that courts have not denied access to justice to single citizen The bench observed that it is aware of the opinion of Bar and in fact it has been hearing it for past nine months The plea has been filed by practicing lawyers Kartik Nayar Nancy Roy Sachit Jolly and Amit Bhagat contended to continue with virtual hearing procedure and cited they have been appearing before the courts through virtual mode on a daily basis amid the pandemic The petitioners argued that advocates litigants and nonlegal personnel should not be compelled to appear before the court as it may prove hazardous for their health and wellbeing The Delhi High Court on January 14 said it has decided to increase the number of judges for physical hearings from January 18 onwards and also issued directions to the district courts to begin physical courts on alternate days of the week The office order issued by Registrar General Manoj Jain cited the decision of the Full Court of the High Court wherein 11 benches two division benches and nine singlejudge benches will resume physical hearing January 18 onwards and the remaining benches will continue to take up matters virtually IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/sc-delhi-high-court-chief-justice-will-do-needful-on-physical-hearings-96742.html Fri, 22 Jan 2021 00:17:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/possible-allergic-reactions-to-moderna-covid-vaccine-under-probe-96534.html New York Jan 20 USbased drugmaker Moderna has confirmed that it has received a report from Californias health department that several individuals at one vaccination centre in San Diego were treated for possible allergic reactions after vaccination from one lot of the companys Covid19 vaccine The company is fully cooperating with the California Department of Public Health CDPH in investigating these reported adverse events Moderna said on Tuesday The confirmation comes after California State Epidemiologist Dr Erica Pan on Sunday recommended halting the administration of lot 41L20A of the Moderna Covid19 vaccine due to possible allergic reactions that are under investigation A higherthanusual number of possible allergic reactions were reported with a specific lot of Moderna vaccine administered at one community vaccination clinic Fewer than 10 individuals required medical attention over the span of 24 hours said Dr Pan Out of an extreme abundance of caution and also recognizing the extremely limited supply of vaccine we are recommending that providers use other available vaccine inventory and pause the administration of vaccines from Moderna Lot 041L20A until the investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC US Food and Drug Administration FDA Moderna and the state is complete All appeared to be experiencing a possible severe allergic reaction during the standard observation period a type of adverse event that the CDC reports some people have experienced when receiving a Covid19 vaccine The vaccine site switched to another lot of Moderna vaccine after closing for a few hours Moderna said that it is unaware of comparable clusters of adverse events from other vaccination centres which may have administered vaccines from the same lot or from other Moderna lots Moderna confirmed that a total of 1272200 doses were produced in batch number 041L20A with nearly a million doses 964900 already distributed to approximately 1700 vaccination sites in 37 states the company said in a statement While Moderna said it does not know how many doses may have ended up in the arms of people it did report that the lot was shipped between January 48 and thus it expects that a significant portion of the distributed doses have already been used Moderna said a detailed review of the manufacturing intermediates and final drug product was performed including raw materials batch records release and characterization testing results and Moderna shipping and storage records The review confirmed that all criteria for product release of lot 041L20A were met the statement added IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/possible-allergic-reactions-to-moderna-covid-vaccine-under-probe-96534.html Thu, 21 Jan 2021 10:08:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/6-815-more-test-corona-positive-in-kerala-96595.html Thiruvananthapuram Jan 20 As many as 6815 new coronavirus cases were detected in Kerala on Wednesday after tests on 61532 samples with the states test positivity rate touching 1108 per cent In all 7364 patients were cured and discharged from hospitals across Kerala on Wednesday A total of 69691 persons are still under treatment at various hospitals Ernakulam reported highest 1031 new cases and Kasargod the least 64 cases in a day Eighteen more fatalities took the Covid death toll in the state to 3524 Of the new cases 91 patients have come from outside the state while 6219 others tested positive through contacts The source of infection in 447 patients was not known A total of 209118 persons are under observation including 197656 in home or institutional quarantine and 11462 persons in hospitals As many as 58 health workers also tested positive on Wednesday including 10 in Kannur nine in Kozhikode eight in Ernakulam seven in Pathanamthitta five each in Kollam and Wayanad four in Palakkad three in Thrissur two each in Thiruvananthapuram and Idukki and one each in Alappuzha Malappuram and Kasargod The number of hotspots in Kerala on Wednesday remained unchanged at 405 IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/6-815-more-test-corona-positive-in-kerala-96595.html Thu, 21 Jan 2021 14:16:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/mental-well-being-in-men-declined-more-in-second-wave-of-pandemic-96621.html London Jan 20 Psychological wellbeing could affect both the genders but it declined more in men as compared to women during the second wave of the pandemic a new study suggests The study indicates that in Denmark the mental wellbeing of both men and women declined when the country closed down during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic with women being hit the hardest But during the second wave it was the other way round in terms of gender as the psychological wellbeing of men and women was generally low but it has fallen most in men according to a paper published in the journal Acta Neuropsychiatrica We see that mens psychological wellbeing is lower in the NovemberDecember measurement than it was during the spring lockdown while the trend has gone in the opposite direction for women said researcher Soren Dinesen Ostergaard from Aarhus University in Denmark The fiveitem WHO wellbeing index WHO5 is used as a screening tool for example general practitioners to assess whether a patient should be further examined for depression The responses to the five questions in the WHO5 result in a total score between 0 and 100 with a higher score indicating higher psychological wellbeing If the score is below 50 the probability of depression is substantial The researcher explained that the average WHO5 score in the NovemberDecember survey had decreased by just under 4 points for men and 25 points for women since the second assessment at the end of April Compared to the first assessment at the end of Marchbeginning of April during the peak of the first wave the psychological wellbeing has risen slightly with just under 15 points for women while it has fallen correspondingly for men However there are still more women with scores below 50 on the WHO in the NovemberDecember assessment 27 per cent of women compared to 23 per cent of men Of course we cannot know for sure that the course of the corona pandemic is the cause of the variations we see in the psychological wellbeing But the results fit this explanation The onset of winter may however also play a role the researcher said The gender difference in our results is interesting but we cannot determine the underlying mechanisms based on the data at hand Perhaps it has to do with uncertainties related to employment The job market has been negatively affected by the pandemic especially the private sector which occupies more men than women so perhaps it is a question of men worrying more about their employment prospects and their familys economic situation than women This is something we will try to address in the next round of the survey he noted For the study the research included 1554 respondents IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/mental-well-being-in-men-declined-more-in-second-wave-of-pandemic-96621.html Thu, 21 Jan 2021 15:50:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/active-covid-cases-drop-below-4k-in-telangana-96493.html Hyderabad Jan 20 Telanganas active Covid cases dropped below 4000 on Wednesday as the state continued to record better recovery rate The total number of active cases stood at 3919 including 2270 who were in home or institutional isolation During the last 24 hours 351 people recovered from the virus taking the cumulative recoveries to 286893 The recovery rate improved further to 9811 per cent against the national average of 967 per cent During the last 24 hours ending 8 pm Tuesday the state logged 267 new cases taking the tally to 292395 Two more persons succumbed to the virus pushing the death toll to 1583 According to director of public health and family welfare the fatality rate remained 054 per cent against the national average of 14 per cent While 4496 per cent of the deaths occurred due to Covid 5504 per cent had comorbidities The daily count in Greater Hyderabad continues to be below 100 The state capital saw 55 new cases during the last 24 hours Karimnagar district recorded the second highest number at 20 followed by Medchal Malkajgiri 18 Rangareddy 16 Warangal Urban 10 and Mancherial 10 each The daily count in remaining districts was in single digit The authorities conducted 27471 tests While 22960 samples were tests in government labs 4511 tests were conducted in private labs With this the cumulative number of tests conducted in the state rose to 7542537 Tests per million population reached 202647 According to officials 70 per cent of 292395 cases reported in the state so far were asymptomatic The data shows that 639 per cent of those tested positive so far were aged between 2150 years As many as 2291 per cent were aged above 51 years The positive cases include 1318 per cent who were below 20 years Of the total cases 6044 per cent were male and 3937 per cent female IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/active-covid-cases-drop-below-4k-in-telangana-96493.html Thu, 21 Jan 2021 03:46:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-records-over-13k-new-covid-cases-162-deaths-96282.html New Delhi Jan 20 With 13823 new coronavirus infections reported in the last 24 hours India on Wednesday continued with its low streak of singleday cases posting an overall tally of 10595660 according to the Union Health Ministry The country has been recording less than 20000 daily new cases from the past 13 days Daily toll has remained below the 300mark for the past 26 days On Tuesday India had recorded 10064 cases lowest since June 6 The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said 162 deaths were reported in the past 24 hours taking the overall toll to 152718 As per the Ministrys data 10245741 people have recovered so far and currently there are 197201 active cases The recovery rate stands at 9670 per cent while the fatality rate is 144 per cent The Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Tuesday said that five states are the major contributor to the total active cases Kerala tops the charts with 3422 per cent of the total active infections followed by Maharashtra at 2588 per cent Uttar Pradesh at 430 percent Karnataka at 402 per cent and West Bengal at 344 per cent About 72 per cent of the daily new cases are reported from six states Kerala Maharashtra Tamil Nadu Gujarat Chhattisgarh and Karnataka It is Maharashtra Kerala West Bengal Karnataka Tamil Nadu Delhi Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand who have logged 73 per cent of the total daily deaths The mostawaited mass vaccination drive started on January 16 with approval of two Covid vaccines in the country As many as 631 lakh beneficiaries have received doses of Covid vaccines so far IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-records-over-13k-new-covid-cases-162-deaths-96282.html Wed, 20 Jan 2021 14:09:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/loss-of-smell-most-relevant-sign-of-covid-study-96326.html London Jan 20 It is due to Covid19 that a majority of patients with respiratory infections lose their sense of smell claims a new study According to a study published in the journal Chemical Senses the disease also often results in both the loss of taste and other senses in the mouth This emphasises how important it is to be aware of this symptom as it may be the only symptom of the disease said Alexander Wieck Fjaeldstad Associate Professor at Aarhus University who also stresses only around half of patients with a loss of smell have gotten their sense of smell back after 40 days For the study a total of 23 nationalities and over 4500 Covid patients from all over the world have responded to the researchers questionnaire The findings showed that the average loss of the sense of smell was 797 on a scale from 0100 which indicates a large to complete sensory loss said the researcher The loss of the sense of smell the sense of taste was also significantly reduced to 690 on a scale from 0100 just as the remaining sense of feeling in the mouth was also reduced this time to 373 on a scale from 0100 It shows that the loss of smell is specific to Covid19 which is both relevant in relation to recognising the infection and because it indicates that the sense of smell is closely linked to how SARSCoV2 infects the body the researcher said IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/loss-of-smell-most-relevant-sign-of-covid-study-96326.html Wed, 20 Jan 2021 17:14:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/researchers-demonstrate-success-with-new-therapy-for-covid-96349.html New York Jan 20 A new therapy developed by researchers is showing success as a way to prevent Covid19 disease The study published in the Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology showed that mouse models with Covid19 showed positive results when a small peptide was introduced nasally The peptide proved effective in reducing fever protecting the lungs improving heart function and reversing cytokine storm a condition in which an infection triggers the immune system to flood the bloodstream with inflammatory proteins This could be a new approach to prevent SARSCoV2 infection and protect Covid19 patients from breathing problems and cardiac issues said researcher Kalipada Pahan Professor at Rush University in the US Understanding the mechanism is proving important to developing effective therapies for Covid19 Pahan added Many Covid19 patients in the ICU suffer from cytokine storm that affects lungs heart and other organs Although antiinflammatory therapies such as steroids are available very often these treatments cause immunosuppression Since SARSCoV2 binds to angiotensinconverting enzyme 2 ACE2 for entering into the cells we have designed a hexapeptide corresponding to the ACE2interacting domain of SARSCoV2 AIDS to inhibit the binding of virus with ACE2 Pahan said AIDS peptide inhibits cytokines produced by only SARSCoV2 spike protein not other inflammatory stimuli indicating that AIDS peptide would not cause immunosuppression We found that after intranasal treatment AIDS peptide reduces fever protects lungs normalises heart function and enhances locomotor activities in a mouse model of Covid19 Pahan added Although vaccine is available Covid19 could potentially morph into a seasonal and an opportunistic event the researchers said IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/researchers-demonstrate-success-with-new-therapy-for-covid-96349.html Wed, 20 Jan 2021 18:48:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/delhi-students-excited-to-be-back-in-schools-96187.html New Delhi Jan 19 Delhi schools which have been closed for the past 10 months due to the coronavirus pandemic reopened on Monday and there is great enthusiasm among the students who say they prefer normal classes in school to online classes Students say opening of the schools is much better for preparing for board examinations At the same time private schools have also asked children to bring their Covid test reports to prove they are not carrying the virus Students say We are very happy with the opening of the schools There were some problems in online studies at home we were unable to ask our questions in a proper manner and not understand the answers In offline studies you can understand your problems in a better way and if you dont understand then you can ask Most parents have given their approval to send children to schools amid the pandemic The schools administration believes that soon most parents will also approve and the number of students in school will increase However there have been some changes Schools will not have prayer meetings or assembly nor will the canteens be open Schools have also not provided transport facilities to the children Children have to reach school by themselves Principal of Vidya Bal Bhavan School Dr Satveer Sharma told IANS It is a relief for all to open schools children will now be able to study effectively whereas teachers and children will be able to sit face to face and talk about problems related to education We will be able to discuss it as well We have told the children to also bring their Covid reports and submit them to the schools this will keep us and other children safe Medical rooms in schools have been converted to Covid19 isolation rooms A school teacher told IANS that It was great meeting the children There were lot of challenges during the online classes We are expecting that the number of children in the school will increase in the coming days At the Government Girls Secondary School in Delhi when the 10th class students reached the school they were very happy Children have been coming to school wearing masks and all the rules related to Covid19 are being observed in schools Government Girls Secondary School Vice Principal Sandhya Singh told IANS I am very happy We have 147 children of class 10 present today while 107 children are yet to come There are lot of challenges for the teachers in the classes as along with offline classes now we also have to do online classes Board exams are to be held in May and now many states have decided to open schools for students of 10th and 12th classes Right now a lot of strictness has been followed in opening schools such as written permission of the parents of the students is necessary There will be no physical activity in the schools and guidelines have to be displayed everywhere The coronavirus pandemic in Delhi has now been largely controlled although the threat remains which is why people are being told to follow safety measures IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/delhi-students-excited-to-be-back-in-schools-96187.html Wed, 20 Jan 2021 07:16:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/kerala-expects-covid-cases-to-fall-only-by-july-96110.html Thiruvananthapuram Jan 19 The Kerala Health Department headed by Minister KK Shailaja is sceptical as the number of Covid patients has been on the rise everyday and a study conducted by it says that the cases were expected to come down to 1000 per day only by July Kerala has the highest number of Covid positive cases per day followed by Maharashtra While the state had 3346 positive cases on Monday Maharashtra had 3081 cases The number of positive cases per day in other states have come down below thousand since the past few weeks Karnataka had registered 745 West Bengal 589 and Tamil Nadu 589 per day once Death figures per day show the state is second only to Maharashtra As the number of recoveries were more than positive cases per day the health department is of the opinion that the medication and precautions were giving results Shailaja said that the local body polls and the festivals were the reason for the increase in cases in the state and called upon the people not to let their guards down The vaccination drive is a positive sign but it does not mean that we can relax We have to be on guard and all the security measures we are adopting have to continue she told the media Health experts are of the opinion that sticking on to Antigen tests and the population density are the main reasons for the rising Covid cases in the state Antigen tests generally dont give proper results Better results are generally obtained by RTPCR tests which other states were using However Rajeev Sadanandan IAS Chief Ministers Covid Advisor told the media No need to worry regarding the spike in cases We are the only state where the number of deaths are not increasing IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/kerala-expects-covid-cases-to-fall-only-by-july-96110.html Tue, 19 Jan 2021 20:36:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/karnataka-logs-in-435-new-covid-cases-973-recoveries-95862.html Bengaluru Jan 19 In a healthy sign only 435 new Covid19 cases were registered in a day across Karnataka while 973 patients recovered from the virus said the state health bulletin on Monday With 435 fresh cases registered on Sunday the states Covid tally increased to 932432 including 8033 active cases while 912205 patients recovered till date with 973 discharged during the day said the bulletin The infection claimed 9 lives in the last 24 hours taking the states death toll to 12175 since the pandemic broke on March 8 Bengaluru reported 193 new cases on Sunday taking its Covid tally to 395152 including 5273 active cases while 385512 patients recovered so far with 617 discharged during the day With 6 succumbing to the infection in the last 24 hours the citys death toll rose to 4366 till date Of the 177 patients in the intensive care units ICUs across the southern state 74 are in Bengaluru hospitals 11 in Kalaburagi and 9 each in Bidar and Mandya districts Out of 69265 tests conducted on Monday 2823 were through rapidantigen detection and 66442 through RTPCR method Positivity rate for the day was 062 per cent and case fatality rate was 206 per cent on Monday added the bulletin IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/karnataka-logs-in-435-new-covid-cases-973-recoveries-95862.html Tue, 19 Jan 2021 04:07:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/south-central-railways-frontline-staff-receive-covid-vaccine-95869.html Secunderabad Jan 19 The South Central Railway SCR zone has jabbed the first shots of Coronavirus vaccine on its frontline staff at the central railway hospital in Lallaguda Secunderabad on Monday The first shots were given to healthcare staff like doctors nurses and housekeeping staff said a railway zone official According to the railway zone officials the frontline staff discharged yeoman service during the Coronavirus pandemic putting their physical mental and social wellbeing at stake Due to their dedicated service the healthcare staff of the zone are the first to be given Covid vaccination doses as part of the nationwide Covid vaccine drive to the frontline healthcare personnel he said The zonal railway hospital received 593 doses of Coronavirus vaccine in coordination with the state and central governments These vaccine shots will be given to all healthcare staff belonging to the health units railway of Secunderabad Hyderabad Chilkalguda Kacheguda and MoulaAli over a period of six days said the official The railway zones General Manager Gajanan Mallya was present at the hospital on Monday when the first shots were being jabbed and expressed happiness over the development After lauding the frontline staff Mallya conducted an extensive inspection of the hospital including interacting with patients about its services IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/south-central-railways-frontline-staff-receive-covid-vaccine-95869.html Tue, 19 Jan 2021 05:07:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/at-10k-india-records-lowest-covid-numbers-since-june-95934.html New Delhi Jan 19 Continuing its low streak of fresh daily cases India on Tuesday recorded 10064 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours the lowest singleday spike in seven months With this the overall tally of Covid19 cases touched 10581837 according to the Union Health Ministry India had recorded over 10000 cases on June 6 last year for the first time and within that week it had hovered around the same number before a steady climb that took the daily figures close to a lakh cases in September The country has been recording less than 20000 daily new cases for the past 12 days Daily toll has been below the 300mark for the last 25 days The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said 137 deaths were reported in the past 24 hours taking the toll to 152556 As per the Ministrys data 10228753 people have recovered so far and currently there are 200528 active cases The recovery rate stands at 9659 per cent while the fatality rate is 144 per cent About 81 per cent of the daily new cases are being reported from eight states In a random order these are Kerala Maharashtra Tamil Nadu West Bengal Karnataka Chhattisgarh Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat Maharashtra Kerala West Bengal Punjab and Uttar Pradesh have logged 66 per cent of the total daily deaths The mostawaited mass vaccination drive kickstarted on January 16 with the approval of two Covid vaccines IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/at-10k-india-records-lowest-covid-numbers-since-june-95934.html Tue, 19 Jan 2021 12:55:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/telanganas-covid-recovery-rate-crosses-98-95981.html Hyderabad Jan 19 The Covid19 recovery rate in Telangana has crossed 98 per cent as the state continued to see more recoveries than new cases The recovery rate jumped to 9808 per cent against the national average of 966 per cent on Tuesday During the last 24 hours 298 people recovered from the virus taking the cumulative recoveries to 286542 health officials said on Tuesday The number of active cases dropped further to 4005 including 2283 who are in home or institutional isolation The state reported 256 new cases taking the tally to 292128 Two more persons succumbed to the virus taking the death toll to 1581 According to the director of public health and family welfare the fatality rate remained 054 per cent against the national average of 14 per cent While 4496 per cent of the deaths occurred due to Covid 5504 per cent had comorbidities The daily count in Greater Hyderabad continues to be below 100 The state capital saw 51 new cases during the last 24 hours Medchal Malkajgiri district recorded the second highest number at 17 followed by Rangareddy 15 Karimnagar 11 Nalgonda 11 Warangal Urban Peddapalli and Mancherial 10 each The daily count in the remaining districts was in single digit During the last 24 hours authorities conducted 31486 tests While 29385 samples were tested in the government labs 2101 tests were conducted in the private labs With this the cumulative number of tests conducted in the state rose to 7515066 Tests per million population reached 201909 According to officials 70 per cent of 292128 cases reported in the state so far were asymptomatic The data shows that 639 per cent of those tested positive so far were aged between 2150 years As many as 2291 per cent were aged above 51 years The positive cases include 1318 per cent who were below 20 years Of the total cases 6044 per cent were male and 3937 per cent female IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/telanganas-covid-recovery-rate-crosses-98-95981.html Tue, 19 Jan 2021 15:03:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/expert-claims-covid-tongue-on-the-rise-who-yet-to-confirm-95556.html New Delhi Jan 17 An epidemiologist at Kings College London has claimed that there is an increase in the number of Covid patients suffering from uncomfortable mouth symptoms like oral ulcers not yet listed by the World Health Organization WHO as one of the Covid19 symptoms Professor Tim Spector said in a tweet that he has seen an increase in such patients One in five people with Covid still present with less common symptoms that dont get on the official PHE Public Health England list such as skin rashes Spector tweeted Seeing increasing numbers of Covid tongues and strange mouth ulcers If you have a strange symptom or even just headache and fatigue stay at home he added There is no mention of oral symptoms listed either by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC or the WHO Spector is leading the ZOE COVID Symptom Study app which allows people to sign up and selfreport any of their Covid19 symptoms This is not the first time Covid19 has been linked to mouth and tongue symptoms Last year research in the Nature journal EvidenceBased Dentistry detailed three Covid19 patients who experienced oral ulceration or blistering of the mouth Another study in JAMA Dermatology looked at 21 Covid patients in Spain who had skin rashes and found six individuals 29 per cent also presented with an oral rash A recent New York Times article said that Covid survivors described oral problems theyre experiencing such as teeth falling out sensitive gums teeth turning grey and teeth cracking Studies suggest that the mouth might be a vulnerable area to coronavirus due to the abundance of the ACE2 angiotensin converting enzyme receptor in oral tissue According to the WHO the most common symptoms of Covid19 are fever dry cough and tiredness Other symptoms include loss of taste or smell aches and pains headache sore throat nasal congestion red eyes diarrhoea or a skin rash IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/expert-claims-covid-tongue-on-the-rise-who-yet-to-confirm-95556.html Mon, 18 Jan 2021 02:38:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/third-peak-of-corona-in-delhi-almost-down-now-minister-95581.html New Delhi Jan 17 Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Sunday that the third peak of coronavirus had almost come down as positivity rate had dipped to 042 per cent a day earlier Now we can say that the third peak of Covid19 infections has come down though I will still urge the people of Delhi to follow the prescribed health guidelines Pointing out that the vaccination drive against coronavirus was rolled out at 81 health centers across Delhi on Saturday the Minister confirmed that one serious adverse reaction case had been reported from All India Institute of Medical Sciences here There were 51 minor incidents but all persons were allowed to go after a few hours of medical observation except one patient who was a bit serious and admitted in AIIMS Jain added The AIIMS patient is a 22yearold security guard working at the hospital He was admitted in the Intensive Care Unit till Saturday night but was stable The Minister said that the healthcare workers of Delhi Municipal Corporations MCDs were not listed for vaccination on the first day of the drive because of their ongoing protest Excluding MCD health workers on the first day of vaccination drive was not a politically motivated decision but was done because they are holding protest for the last two weeks The Delhi government has already ensured that vaccination shots are given to all those eligible in the first phase As for lesser number of vaccinations undertaken on the first day he said It was the case throughout the country and not only in Delhi The Delhi government will not force anyone for vaccination It will be voluntary Even those whose names have been registered will not be forced to take the vaccine shots IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/third-peak-of-corona-in-delhi-almost-down-now-minister-95581.html Mon, 18 Jan 2021 06:12:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/lack-of-correct-information-on-corona-led-to-panic-initially-expert-95497.html New Delhi Jan 17 A doctor of internal medicine at a private hospital has said that uncertainty about the symptoms of coronavirus infection and lack of accurate information on the disease led to panic among the people about the virus In absence of accurate information about COVID19 symptoms communication channels could not spread the right message to the common people which resulted in panic among them Dr Shushila Kataria Director and Head of Internal Medicine Department at Medanta said at a webinar on Saturday Talking about the treatment process she said As every recipe follows a particular protocol similarly the treatment for COVID19 required a particular protocol to follow and then keep adding more to it step by step For Covid19 treatment the protocol starts with finding its symptoms at the initial stage Diagnosing the symptoms of COVID19 is a main process of treatment because the more quickly we find them the more quickly we can proceed further But the problem is that in most cases symptoms are found at least after one or two weeks And that is why common people have this tendency that they can escape COVID19 if they remain away from other people and isolate themselves Kataria said that the second aspect of treatment was to find if the symptoms were serious or not Once the coroanvirus symptoms are determined a doctor finds it easy to decide whether a particular patient requires home isolation or hospitalisation Dr Kataria added She lauded the central government for taking quick decisions on directions for home isolation and thereby allowing patients to remain confined in their homes Doing this not only reduced the burden on health centres but also helped doctors carry out treatment on patients as per beds available in their hospitals It also helped health institutions to augment the required facilities for the next course of treatment process IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/lack-of-correct-information-on-corona-led-to-panic-initially-expert-95497.html Sun, 17 Jan 2021 19:56:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/corona-pandemic-affected-people-psychologically-as-well-expert-95525.html New Delhi Jan 17 A USbased doctor has asserted that the coronavirus pandemic has affected people psychologically a lot especially those who tested positive and remained in isolation for a long period Speaking at a webinar with various renowned medical expertises Dr Sunita Jain Consultant Physician in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Baptist Hospital Mephis she also emphasised on the postCovid rehabilitation aspect of the pandemic In India the vaccination drive has begun But it will be a challenge for the medical experts to help stabilise a large number of people who have been affected psychologically In the beginning the Union government and health centres faced tough times to provide infrastructures to fight the battle due to large number of patients And now if a large number of people faced brainrelated disorders it wont be too easy for countries like India It is certainly going to be a big task for the government Sharing her experiences of treating such patients during the pandemic Dr Sunita said I have seen many patients who have faced adverse brain disorders Many who lost their loved ones and remained isolated for a long period had lost hope And therefore we need to focus on another challenge bringing such patients back to normal She also said that those affected by COVID19 and other respiratory problems may face weakness for a long period Dr Sunita also said that rehabilitation and therapy infrastructures would be needed in large numbers after the vaccination is done I am saying it because it is a fact that one round of vaccination is not enough to break the chain globally This coronavirus is going to exist in our lives for a long time A doctor of internal medicine posted at a private hospital in Medcity said that uncertainty about the symptoms of coronavirus infection and lack of accurate information on the disease led to panic among the people about the virus In absence of accurate information about COVID19 symptoms communication channels could not spread the right message to the common people which resulted in panic among them Dr Shushila Kataria Director and Head of Internal Medicine Department at Medanta said at the webinar on Saturday Talking about the treatment process she said As every recipe follows a particular protocol similarly the treatment for COVID19 required a particular protocol to follow and then keep adding more to it step by step For COVID19 treatment the protocol starts with finding its symptoms at the initial stage Diagnosing the symptoms of COVID19 is a main process of treatment because the more quickly we find them the more quickly we can proceed further But the problem is that in most cases symptoms are found at least after one or two weeks And that is why common people have this tendency that they can escape COVID19 if they remain away from other people and isolate themselves Kataria said that the second aspect of treatment was to find if the symptoms were serious or not Once the coronavirus symptoms are determined a doctor finds it easy to decide whether a particular patient requires home isolation or hospitalisation Dr Kataria added She lauded the central government for taking quick decisions on directions for home isolation and thereby allowing patients to remain confined in their homes Doing this not only reduced the burden on health centres but also helped doctors carry out treatment on patients as per beds available in their hospitals It also helped health institutions to augment the required facilities for the next course of treatment process IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/corona-pandemic-affected-people-psychologically-as-well-expert-95525.html Sun, 17 Jan 2021 23:46:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/telanganas-covid-tests-per-million-population-cross-2-lakh-mark-95451.html Hyderabad Jan 17 Telanganas tests per million population for Covid19 have crossed the 2lakh mark with 33298 more tests during the last 24 hours health officials said on Sunday Tests per million population in Telangana are 200475 which is higher than the national average of about 140 lakh Three months ago Telangana had crossed the onelakh mark for tests per million population The state had initially come in for criticism for fewer tests but later it ramped up the numbers There are 19 governmentrun and 56 private laboratories and 1076 Rapid Antigen test centres in the state where about 40000 tests are conducted daily The numbers drop on weekends and holidays According to health officials the daily testing target for the state per World Health Organisation WHO benchmark is 140 per million per day During the last 24 hours 29240 more tests were conducted in government labs while 4058 samples were tested in private labs With this the cumulative number of tests conducted in the state rose to 7461687 Meanwhile the state reported 299 new coronavirus cases taking the total tally to 291666 Two more persons succumbed to the virus taking the death toll to 1577 According to the Director of Public Health and Family Welfare the fatality rate remained 054 per cent as against the national average of 14 per cent While 4496 per cent of the deaths occurred due to Covid19 5504 per cent had comorbidities The state continues to see more recoveries than new cases A total of 379 more patients recovered during the last 24 hours taking the cumulative recoveries to 285898 The recovery rate improved to 9802 per cent as against than the national average of 966 per cent The number of active cases in the state is 4191 including 2395 patients in home or institutional isolation Greater Hyderabad reported 57 new cases during the last 24 hours Medchal Malkajgiri district recorded the second highest 26 cases followed by Karimnagar 24 Rangareddy 18 Bhadradri Kothagudem and Mancherial and Sagareddy 11 each IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/telanganas-covid-tests-per-million-population-cross-2-lakh-mark-95451.html Sun, 17 Jan 2021 17:46:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/karnataka-logs-in-708-new-covid-cases-643-recovered-95090.html Bengaluru Jan 16 In a reverse trend Karnataka registered 708 new Covid cases in a day while 643 recovered from the infection across the southern state With 708 patients testing positive on Thursday the states Covid tally rose to 930668 including 8790 active cases while recoveries increased to 909701 with 643 patients discharged during the last 24 hours said the states health bulletin on Friday Only three deaths including two in Bengaluru and one in Kalaburagi in the northern region occurred due to the virus taking the states toll to 12158 till date In Bengaluru 399 fresh cases were registered on Thursday taking the citys Covid tally to 394213 including 5710 active cases while recoveries rose to 384145 with 248 discharged during the day Of the 183 patients in the intensive care units ICUs across the state 84 are in Bengaluru hospitals and 15 in Kalaburagi Out of 84849 tests conducted in the day 1018 were through rapidantigen detection and 83831 were through RTPCR method Positivity rate for the day was 083 per cent and case fatality rate 042 per cent across the state on Thursday added the bulletin IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/karnataka-logs-in-708-new-covid-cases-643-recovered-95090.html Sat, 16 Jan 2021 04:20:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-records-15-590-new-covid-19-cases-191-deaths-94986.html New Delhi Jan 15 With 15590 new coronavirus infections reported in the last 24 hours India on Friday continued with its streak of low singleday cases increasing the overall tally to 10527683 according to the Union Health Ministry On Tuesday India had recorded 12584 new cases the lowest singleday figure in over seven months The country has been recording less than 20000 daily new cases from the last eight days The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said 191 deaths were reported in the past 24 hours taking the death toll to 151918 Since the last 21 days less than 300 new deaths per day have been recorded in the country As per the Ministry data 10162738 people have recovered so far and currently there are 213027 active cases The recovery rate stands at 9652 per cent while the fatality rate is 144 per cent The total number of samples tested up to January 14 were 184962401 including 730096 tested on Thursday the Indian Council of Medical Research said About 76 per cent of the daily new cases are reported from seven states Kerala Maharashtra Karnataka West Bengal Tamil Nadu Chhattisgarh and Gujarat Meanwhile the mostawaited mass vaccination drive is slated to begin from Saturday with approval of two vaccines The Central government has planned to vaccinate nearly three crore people in the first phase of the drive The Union Health Ministry has said that 11 crore Covishield and 55 lakh Covaxin doses have been procured at the cost of Rs 200 and Rs 206 per dose respectively IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-records-15-590-new-covid-19-cases-191-deaths-94986.html Fri, 15 Jan 2021 18:01:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/cal-hc-asks-govt-to-facilitate-e-snan-at-ganga-sagar-mela-94770.html Kolkata Jan 13 Amid the ongoing Covid19 pandemic situation the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday advised all the pilgrims to go for Esnan Ebathe during the holy Ganga Sagar Mela in West Bengal this year Concerned by the risk of spreading Covid19 infection a bench of Chief Justice Thottathil B Radhakrishnan and Justice Arijit Banerjee ordered the Mamata Banerjeeled state administration to make necessary arrangements to dissuade the pilgrims going for a holy dip in the water Instead the administration can facilitate them to opt for Esnan during the religious congregation The bench was presiding over a Public Interest Litigation PIL filed by Ajay Kumar De over the issue of public health and safety on the occasion of Makar Sankranti The pilgrimage attracts lakhs of Hindu devotees every year who throng the Sagar Island in West Bengals South 24Parganas district Devotees take the holy dip in the water at the confluence of river Ganga offering prayers at the Kapil Muni temple on the island IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/cal-hc-asks-govt-to-facilitate-e-snan-at-ganga-sagar-mela-94770.html Fri, 15 Jan 2021 05:54:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/andhra-logs-179-new-covid-cases-tally-885-lakh-94780.html Amravati Jan 14 Andhra Pradesh has registered 179 new Covid cases increasing the states tally to 885 lakh even as 219 more patients recovered from the virus to outnumber fresh cases on Thursday Chittoor accounted for the highest number of cases at 51 followed by Guntur 26 East Godavari 17 Krishna 15 Kurnool 13 Anantapur 10 Prakasam Vishakhapatnam and Vizianagaram 9 each Nellore 8 Kadapa and West Godavari 5 each and Srikakulam 2 East Godavari districts tally crossed 124 lakh highest among the districts while Andhra Pradeshs positivity rate fell to 709 per cent which is still higher than the national average of 571 per cent Though the total number of cases in the state has crossed 885 lakh active cases have plummeted to 2338 Meanwhile four more fatalities in the past 24 hours took the states Covid19 death toll to 7138 The recoveries now total more than 876 lakh in the state narrowing the gap between total cases and recoveries With 41671 more tests the total number of Covid19 tests conducted in Andhra Pradesh so far has crossed 124 crore IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/andhra-logs-179-new-covid-cases-tally-885-lakh-94780.html Fri, 15 Jan 2021 07:25:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/new-covid-cases-decline-to-408-in-karnataka-94781.html Bengaluru Jan 15 For the first time since the pandemic broke out in Karnataka on March 8 new Covid cases dipped below 500 to register 408 in a day while 564 were discharged in the last 24 hours said the state health bulletin on Thursday With 408 new cases on Wednesday the states Covid tally rose to 929960 including 8728 active cases while recoveries increased to 909058 till date with 564 patients discharged on Thursday said the bulletin Not a single death was reported across the southern state except in Bengaluru where only three patients succumbed to the infection during the day taking the citys death toll to 4355 Fresh cases in Bengaluru also dipped for the first time below 200 to 141 on Wednesday taking its Covid tally to 393814 including 5561 active cases while 383897 recovered till date with 255 discharged in the day Of 187 patients in the intensive care units ICUs across the state 84 are in Bengaluru and 15 in Kalaburagi district in the states northern region Out of 106255 tests conducted during the day 1623 were through rapidantigen detection and 104632 through RTPCR method Positivity rate for the day dipped to 038 per cent and case fatality rate was 073 per cent across the state added the bulletin IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/new-covid-cases-decline-to-408-in-karnataka-94781.html Fri, 15 Jan 2021 07:33:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/up-ready-to-start-vaccination-at-311-centres-94805.html Lucknow Jan 15 Uttar Pradesh is all set to start Covid19 vaccinations at 311 centres across 75 districts on Saturday officials said The state has received about 1075 lakh doses of the vaccine and has made all arrangements for vaccination Additional Chief Secretary Health Amit Mohan Prasad said Vaccination will be held at 311 places in all the 75 districts of the state on January 16 The drive will start at 9 am and continue till 5 pm The state has received about 1075 lakh doses of vaccine and it has been sent to all districts He said that all prescribed protocols will be followed while administering the vaccine Training of those who will administer the vaccine has been completed and cold chain arrangements are in place Prasad said people will get vaccinated as and when their turn comes as per the sequence decided Healthcare and other frontline workers will be vaccinated against Covid19 first The state government has appealed to people to remain alert and continue to take precautions against the novel coronavirus IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/up-ready-to-start-vaccination-at-311-centres-94805.html Fri, 15 Jan 2021 10:41:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/kgmu-to-start-genome-sequencing-for-new-covid-strain-94913.html Lucknow Jan 15 The King George Medical University KGMU in Lucknow is starting genome sequencing for a new strain of the novel coronavirus on a larger scale This exercise for the identification of strain will not only assist in determining the variety and severity of the strain but will also help in providing better treatment and management of Covid Amita Jain head of Department of Microbiology had said that earlier that with the help of Genome Sequencer Machine samples of 10 coronapositive patients have been examined But after the purchase of reagent kits samples on a larger scale can be examined We have tested ten samples of patients suffering from coronavirus fortunately not a single sample with new strain was detected After the purchase of the reagent kits required to analyse the genetic material of novel coronavirus we will be able to test more samples every day This sample test will only examine the new strain of coronavirus in the patient she said Jain explained that genome sequencing is mandatory to check which strain is present in the patient suffering from Covid19 For this firstly an RTPCR test of the patient will be done if the report comes positive then the sample will be examined to identify the strain present in the patient Earlier the samples were sent to Pune for the test but now after the availability of the reagent kits in Uttar Pradesh samples will be examined in the state Apart from the KGMU genome sequencing study will also start at the Bananas Hindu University CDRI and NBRI The first COVID19 test lab named BSL Level three lab in Uttar Pradesh was established in the Department of Microbiology KGMU Lucknow which has set a record in Covid testing So far over 11 lakh samples have been tested in the laboratory IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/kgmu-to-start-genome-sequencing-for-new-covid-strain-94913.html Fri, 15 Jan 2021 14:27:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/telanganas-covid-recoveries-cross-285-lakh-mark-94937.html Hyderabad Jan 15 The Covid19 recoveries in Telangana crossed 285 lakh mark on Friday as the state continues to see more recoveries than new cases Health officials said 253 people recovered from the virus during the last 24 hours taking the cumulative recoveries to 285102 The recovery rate improved to 9793 per cent against than the national average of 965 per cent The number of active cases in the state was 4442 including 2541 who are in home or institutional isolation The daily count of Covid19 cases dropped further to 202 due to fewer tests conducted on account of Sankranti holidays The states tally rose to 291118 Two more persons succumbed to the virus taking the death toll to 1574 According to director of public health and family welfare the fatality rate remained 054 per cent against the national average of 14 per cent While 4496 per cent of the deaths occurred due to Covid 5504 per cent had comorbidities Greater Hyderabad 48 new cases during the last 24 hours Rangareddy district recorded the second highest number at 15 followed by Medchal Malkajgiri 10 Warangal Urban 13 and Karimnagar 12 A total of 19898 Covid tests were conducted across the state during the last 24 hours While the governmentrun laboratories conducted 17209 tests the remaining 2689 samples were tested in private labs There are 19 governmentrun laboratories 56 private laboratories and 1076 Rapid Antigen Test centres in the state Samples tested per million population ratio rose further to 198802 The data shows that 639 per cent of those tested positive so far were aged between 2150 years As many as 2291 per cent were aged above 51 years The positive cases include 1318 per cent who were below 20 years Of the total cases 6044 per cent were male and 3937 per cent female Bed status in 62 governmentrun hospitals treating Covid19 in the state shows that out of total 8577 beds 7894 remained vacant Similarly in 219 private hospitals treating Covid 1218 beds were occupied Out of 7773 beds 6555 were vacant IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/telanganas-covid-recoveries-cross-285-lakh-mark-94937.html Fri, 15 Jan 2021 15:30:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/researchers-identify-immune-cop-that-detects-sars-cov-2-94594.html New York Jan 13 Researchers including one of Indianorigin have identified the sensor in human lungs that detects SARSCoV2 and signals that it is time to mount an antiviral response The study published in the journal Cell Reports provides insights into the molecular basis of severe disease and may enable new strategies for the treatment and prevention of Covid19 Our research has shown that MDA5 is the immune cop thats tasked to keep an eye out for SARSCoV2 and call for backup said researcher Sumit Chanda from the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in the US MDA5 recognises replicating viruses in lung cells and activates interferon the bodys own frontline defender against viral invasion Without a proper interferon response viral infections can lead to deadly outofcontrol inflammatory reactions Chanda added For the study the team surveyed 16 viral RNA binding proteins in human lung epithelial cells and identified MDA5 as the predominant sensor responsible for activating interferon MDA5 detects doublestranded viral RNAa form that the SARSCoV2 virus takes when it replicates to spread the infection Prior to this research it was known that activating interferon is key to a coordinated immune response to the virus but the sentinel switch that controls the process was unknown SARSCoV2 appears to disable the innate immune arm of our surveillance system which in the case of SARSCoV2 is controlled by MDA5 and prevents the activation of interferon Its the interferon response that drives the subsequent activation of many genes that exert antiviral activitiesand data suggests that we need this activity to control early stages of viral infection and avoid the worst outcomes of Covid19 said Chanda Whether our bodies can defeat the viruss offensive tactics and activate interferon greatly influences the severity of disease Past studies have shown that interferon responses are higher in patients with mildtomoderate cases compared to reduced levels in critically ill patients Chanda added IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/researchers-identify-immune-cop-that-detects-sars-cov-2-94594.html Thu, 14 Jan 2021 15:24:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/bhopal-receives-first-batch-of-corona-vaccine-94659.html Bhopal Jan 13 The first batch of the coronavirus vaccine has reached Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal The consignment was dispatched to Bhopal via airplane from Pune As many as 45 lakh people would be vaccinated during the first phase The vaccination is going to start from January 16 A total of five lakh doses of the vaccine would arrive for the first phase of the vaccination in the state The first batch of the vaccine containing 94000 doses has reached Bhopal and has been sent to the Vaccine Division Centre This vaccine would be sent to eight districts from Bhopal Of the first batch the vaccine would reach Indore Jabalpur and Gwalior directly from Pune Medical Education Minister Vishvas Kailash Sarang said The process of using corona vaccine is going to start in the state from January 16 In the first phase of vaccination the process of using the vaccine by 45 lakh people would start Health workers corona warriors and people above 50 years will be vaccinated in this phase This work will be undertaken keeping in mind all the Covid19 protocols as per the prescribed guidelines Sarang said that the vaccine would prove effective in the battle against coronavirus There is a plan to use 100 vaccines at a single centre The second vaccine doses would be used after 28 days The Minister said the vaccine would be effective after 15 days This is going to be the first time that vaccination of adults will be undertaken Till now only vaccination of young children has been done IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/bhopal-receives-first-batch-of-corona-vaccine-94659.html Thu, 14 Jan 2021 18:58:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/sars-cov-2-can-infect-neurons-damage-brain-tissue-study-94684.html New York Jan 13 Researchers have discovered that SARSCoV2 can directly infect the central nervous system and have begun to unravel some of the viruss effects on brain cells The study that used both mouse and human brain tissue indicates that SARSCoV2 can affect many other organs in the body including in some patients the central nervous system where infection is associated with a variety of symptoms ranging from headaches and loss of taste and smell to impaired consciousness delirium strokes and cerebral haemorrhage Understanding the full extent of viral invasion is crucial to treating patients as we begin to try to figure out the longterm consequences of Covid19 many of which are predicted to involve the central nervous system said researcher Akiko Iwasaki a professor at Yale University For the study published on Wednesday in the Journal of Experimental Medicine JEM the team analysed the ability of SARSCoV2 to invade human brain organoids miniature 3D organs grown in the lab from human stem cells The researchers found that the virus was able to infect neurons in these organoids and use the neuronal cell machinery to replicate The virus appears to facilitate its replication by boosting the metabolism of infected cells while neighbouring uninfected neurons die as their oxygen supply is reduced SARSCoV2 enters lung cells by binding to a protein called ACE2 but whether this protein is present on the surface of brain cells is unclear The team determined that the ACE2 protein is in fact produced by neurons and that blocking this protein prevents the virus from human brain organoids SARSCoV2 was also able to infect the brains of mice genetically engineered to produce human ACE2 causing dramatic alterations in the brains blood vessels that could potentially disrupt the organs oxygen supply the team said Central nervous system infection was much more lethal in mice than infections limited to the lungs they added The researchers also analysed the brains of three patients who succumbed to Covid19 SARSCoV2 was detected in the cortical neurons of one of these patients and the infected brain regions were associated with ischemic infarcts in which decreased blood supply causes localized tissue damage and cell death Microinfarcts were detected in the brain autopsy of all three patients IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/sars-cov-2-can-infect-neurons-damage-brain-tissue-study-94684.html Thu, 14 Jan 2021 20:36:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/kerala-cinema-halls-open-after-10-months-of-covid-shutdown-94444.html Thiruvananthapuram Jan 13 The movie theaters in Kerala which were shut for around ten months owing to Covid restrictions opened on Wednesday Over 500 of the total 670 theaters opened to the public South Indian Super star Vijays movie Master is the inaugural movie in all the theaters in the state However in certain theaters owing to projector equipment complaints the show was put on hold Apsara theater in Kozhikode cancelled the 9 am and 2 pm shows owing to a projector complaints thereby disappointing a huge number of fans who had gathered in the theater Mohammed Koya 34 an avid fan of Vijay while speaking to IANS over telephone from Kozhikode said We booked the tickets two days prior through an online portal and all the seats were full However Apsara theater let us down two shows have been cancelled They say they will refund the ticket charge we dont want that We want to watch the movie Theaters in the state capital Thiruvananthapuram opened with all the shows being booked However owing to Covid protocol theaters have been allowed to admit only half the capacity Every theater has put a gap of one seat and tied ribbon so as to not allow the people to sit in between two seats Murugan owner of a theater group in Thiruvananthapuram told IANS Its a great relief Even though we may get only 25 per cent of the collection owing to distribution charges of the movies we are happy that the government has allowed the theaters to open Its a grand gala opening with Vijay movie Master This makes us doubly happy and all the shows are booked for the next one week In Palakkad district which borders Tamil Nadu the movie opened with fans showering huge cutouts of Vijay with flowers and even pouring milk on them Subramanian Mani a member of the Vijay fans club while speaking to IANS over telephone said Vijay is indeed a mega star The movie will be super we are about to enter the theater and there are no tickets even for fan club members for the next one week Super stars of Malayalam movie industry Mammootty Mohanlal Prithviraj have thanked the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for having allowed the theaters to function With the theaters opening there is a long list of movies to be screened in the days to come with Jayasurya starrer Vellam to be screened in select theaters on January 22 IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/kerala-cinema-halls-open-after-10-months-of-covid-shutdown-94444.html Thu, 14 Jan 2021 01:02:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/schools-in-delhi-to-open-for-classes-10-12-from-january-18-94718.html New Delhi Jan 13 The Delhi government issued a circular on Wednesday saying that students of classes 10 and 12 would be able to attend schools in the national capital again from January 18 During this time the students of classes 10 and 12 would get help from teachers in their projects practicals and counselling regarding the upcoming board examinations According to the circular released by the Aam Aadmi Party AAP government only students of classes 10 and 12 could be asked to come to school For this written permission from the parents of the children who are due to appear for board exams this year would also be required However those schools in Delhi located in the containment zones due to the ongoing Covid19 pandemic would remain closed The students teachers and other people living in such restricted areas would not have to come to school The Delhi government has also prepared a Standard Operating Procedure SOP for all Delhi schools and it would be mandatory for schools to follow these SOPs The schools need to maintain a record of how many children are coming to schools However this record would not be used as a means of marking attendance of students Giving information on this issue Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia said In view of the upcoming Central Board of Secondary Education CBSE board examinations and practical exams in Delhi permission is being granted to open schools for practicals projects counselling etc for students of classes 10 and 12 from January 18 Children will be called to schools only with the due consent of parents without forcing them to come to schools The upcoming CBSE board examinations for classes 10 and 12 would be conducted in May this year The board exams would commence from May 4 till June 10 The results of these examinations would be declared by July 15 According to the Delhi government no student teacher or school staff found infected with symptoms of coronavirus would be allowed to enter the schools Thermal screening would be done at the entry gates of the schools Facilities such as hand sanitisation would have to be arranged at places like the schools main gates classrooms laboratories etc The practical and internal assessment exams for class 12 would be conducted from March 1 as per the exam schedule decided by the CBSE The preboard exams for class 12 could be held from March 20 to April 15 while the preboard exams for class 10 could be conducted between April 1 to 15 IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/schools-in-delhi-to-open-for-classes-10-12-from-january-18-94718.html Thu, 14 Jan 2021 22:45:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/covid-india-continues-its-streak-of-low-daily-new-cases-94393.html New Delhi Jan 13 With 15968 new coronavirus infections reported in the last 24 hours India continues its streak of low cases with overall tally mounting to 10495147 officials said on Wednesday On Tuesday India recorded 12584 new cases lowest singleday figure in over seven months Before this the lowest number was recorded on June 18 last year when India reported 12881 fresh Covid cases in a day The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said 202 deaths were reported in the past 24 hours taking the death toll to 151529 Since the last 19 days less than 300 new deaths per day have been recorded in the country As per the Ministry data till now 10129111 people have recovered Currently there are 214507 active cases About 4396 per cent of patients with active infection are in healthcare facilities while the rest are in home isolation The recovery rate stands at 9651 per cent while the fatality rate is 144 as per cent The total number of samples tested up to January 12 were 183489114 including 836227 samples tested on Tuesday the Indian Council of Medical Research said About 70 per cent of the daily new cases are reported from seven states Kerala Maharashtra Chhattisgarh Tamil Nadu Gujarat West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh Meanwhile the mostawaited mass vaccination drive is slated to begin from January 16 with approval of two vaccines The Central government plans to vaccinate nearly three crore people in the first phase of the drive The vaccine will be offered to one crore healthcare workers along with two crore frontline and essential workers 26 crore people above the age of 50 and one crore below 50 with comorbidities The Union Health Ministry has said that 11 crore Covishield and 55 lakh Covaxin doses have been procured at the cost of Rs 200 and Rs 206 per dose respectively IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/covid-india-continues-its-streak-of-low-daily-new-cases-94393.html Wed, 13 Jan 2021 20:05:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/55-lakh-corona-vaccine-doses-to-reach-patna-on-tuesday-94151.html Patna Jan 12 The first consignment of 55 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine against coronavirus will arrive in Patna by a SpiceJet flight on Tuesday a health official said Another 45 lakh doses will arrive on Wednesday The vaccine doses have been dispatched by the Serum Institute of India at Pune in Maharashtra The vaccine doses will be stored at the Bihar governments facility at the Nalanda Medical Collage and Hospital in the state capital The official said that the Centre had allotted a total of 10 lakh doses for the vaccination drive in Bihar in the first phase The vaccine doses will be first provided to corona warriors like doctors nurses ward boys police and other officials Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who has announced that the drive in Bihar will begin from January 16 participated in a virtual meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and state Health Minister Mangal Pandey Pandey said that 193 crore corona tests have been done so far in Bihar which now has only 3907 active cases IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/55-lakh-corona-vaccine-doses-to-reach-patna-on-tuesday-94151.html Wed, 13 Jan 2021 03:45:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/delhi-49-private-hospitals-to-receive-vaccine-doses-on-inoculation-day-94206.html JakartaIn this image made from a video released by Indonesian Presidential Palace a Health Ministry official shows a box of COVID19 vaccine that will be given to President Joko Widodo at Merdeka Palace in Jakarta Indonesia Wednesday Jan 13 2021 Widodo on Wednesday received the first shot of a Chinesemade COVID19 vaccine after Indonesia approved it for emergency use and began efforts to vaccine millions of people in the worlds fourth most populated country PTI By Ashish Srivastava New Delhi Jan 12 The private facilities used as Covid19 vaccination centres by the Delhi government will receive their share of doses on the day of inoculation while it will be given to the public facilities a day before officials told IANS Suneela Garg a key member of the task force handling vaccination in Delhi confirmed that the vaccines would reach the public facilities which consist of government hospitals and coldchain storage points would receive the vaccines on Friday The private hospitals will receive the vaccine doses early morning on the day of vaccination she added Garg who is also a public health expert and professor of excellence at the Maulana Azad Medical College said that the inoculation process would start with a single booth at each vaccination centre where beneficiaries will be called in a batch of 10 The number will be increased gradually A maximum of 100 people will be taken by each site she added Meanwhile the officials from the Directorate of Health and Family Welfare Delhi government will conclude the reinspection of all the coldchain points which started on Wednesday after the vaccines arrived in Delhi It is done to ensure that there is no defect in the distribution system of the vaccines a senior official said The Delhi government has finalised 89 sites for the first phase of Covid19 vaccination drive where the doses will be offered to around three lakh healthcare workers working in different medical facilities in the national capital Of the 89 vaccination points 49 are in private hospitals and the rest are public health facilities as official said The public facilities include 34 districtlevel government multisuper speciality hospitals four government subdivisional hospitals and two community health centres The vaccines will be distributed to these points from the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital RGSSH Delhis only vaccine storage facility It has received as many as 264 lakh doses of Covid vaccines which landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport IGIA earlier on Wednesday The hospital has received 22 boxes consisting of 26400 vials of Covishield the Covid vaccine developed by Punebased Serum Institute of India A total of 22 boxes of vaccines have been received here Each box contains 1200 vials and each vial has 10 doses Chhavi Gupta spokesperson of RGSSH told IANS The Central government had informed last week that the muchawaited Covid19 vaccination drive will start from January 16 In order of priority an estimated three crore healthcare and frontline workers will be administered the vaccine across the country followed by those above 50 years of age and the under50 population groups with comorbidities numbering around 27 crore The Drugs Controller General of India DCGI has approved two vaccines Covishield by Punebased SII and Covaxin by Hyderabadbased Bharat Biotech for emergency use authorisation against Covid19 in the country IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/delhi-49-private-hospitals-to-receive-vaccine-doses-on-inoculation-day-94206.html Wed, 13 Jan 2021 10:36:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/telangana-reports-301-new-corona-cases-293-recoveries-93990.html Hyderabad Jan 12 Telangana recorded a further drop in daily coronavirus cases to 301 on Tuesday even as the state registered 293 more recoveries Two more fatalities took the states COVID19 death toll to 1568 The new cases came to the fore after a test on 34431 samples Active cases in Telangana now total 4524 including 2459 in home or institutional isolation According to the Public Health and Family Welfare Director the fatality rate remained 054 per cent as against the national average of 14 per cent While 4496 per cent of the deaths were due to COVID19 5504 per cent had comorbidities The states recoveries now total 284217 with a recovery rate of 9790 per cent as against the national average of 965 per cent Greater Hyderabad logged 58 new cases during the last 24 hours Medchal Malkajgiri district recorded the second 27 cases followed by Rangareddy 16 Warangal Urban 12 and Nalgonda 12 Of the total tests conducted during the last 24 hours government laboratories conducted 32217 and private ones the remaining 2214 Samples tested per million population ratio rose further to 196465 The data shows that 639 per cent of positive cases so far were aged between 21 and 50 2291 per cent aged above 51 and 1318 per cent below 20 Of the total cases 6044 per cent were males and 3937 per cent females In 62 government hospitals treating COVID19 in the state 7858 of the 8577 beds were vacant In 219 private hospitals 6616 of the 7962 beds were vacant IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/telangana-reports-301-new-corona-cases-293-recoveries-93990.html Tue, 12 Jan 2021 16:28:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/4-more-uk-returnees-to-bengaluru-test-covid-positive-93835.html Bengaluru Jan 10 Four passengers who returned from the UK on Sunday tested Covid positive at the city airport Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar said Of the 289 passengers who took the RTPCR test on arrival from London 4 turned positive They have been quarantined he said in a statement Of the total 273 were passengers 146 men 95 women and 32 children while 16 were crew members Swab samples of the infected passengers have been sent to the National Institute of Mental Health and NeuroSciences Nimhans here to ascertain the strain of the virus said Sudhakar The returnees were the first batch of passengers who flew into the city from London after flights from the UK resumed on January 8 Flights were suspended since December 23 due to the detection of a new Covid virus strain there Of the 3965 passengers who returned to the state from the UK between December 922 40 tested positive with 11 of them having the new UK virus strain Some of their primary contacts also tested positive and have been quarantined The Minister who is a doctor himself visited the Kempegowda international airport on Saturday to inspect the screening arrangements for Covid test of passengers returning from London and San Francisco on early Monday As per the revised guidelines of the Union Home Ministry and the standard operating procedures of the Union Health Ministry all UK returnees to the state have to undergo the RTPCR test at the airport on landing even if they flew in with a negative test report which has been mandatory If passengers do not carry a negative report they will be tested on arrival at the airport through the RTPCR method and quarantined for 14 days if they are Covid positive the state Health Department has said IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/4-more-uk-returnees-to-bengaluru-test-covid-positive-93835.html Tue, 12 Jan 2021 05:02:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-reports-125k-new-covid-cases-lowest-in-7-months-93947.html New Delhi Jan 12 With 12584 new coronavirus infections reported in the last 24 hours on Tuesday India recorded the lowest singleday figure in over seven months taking Indias overall tally to 10479179 Before this the lowest number was recorded on June 17 last year when India reported 12881 fresh Covid cases in a day The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said 167 deaths were reported in the past 24 hours taking the death toll to 151327 Since the last 18 days less than 300 new deaths per day have been recorded in the country As per the ministry data till now 10111294 people have recovered Currently there are 216558 active cases The recovery rate stands at 9643 per cent while the fatality rate is 144 as per cent The total number of samples tested up to January 11 were 182652887 including 897056 samples tested on Monday the Indian Council of Medical Research said About 8225 per cent of the daily new cases were being reported from nine states Kerala Maharashtra Chhattisgarh Karnataka Uttar Pradesh West Bengal Tamil Nadu Bihar and Gujarat Meanwhile the mostawaited mass vaccination drive is slated to begin from January 16 with approval of two vaccines The Central government plans to vaccinate nearly three crore people in the first phase of the drive The vaccine will be offered to one crore healthcare workers along with two crore frontline and essential workers 26 crore people above the age of 50 and one crore below 50 with comorbidities IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-reports-125k-new-covid-cases-lowest-in-7-months-93947.html Tue, 12 Jan 2021 13:41:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-reports-18-444-new-covid-cases-93721.html New Delhi Jan 10 India on Sunday reported 18444 new cases of Covid19 while 201 people succumbed to to the deadly virus in the last 24 hours According to the data released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare a total of 10450284 people have been affected with the virus so far While the active cases stand at 223335 a total of 10075950 have recovered and have been discharged after battling Covid19 In a fresh statement the Health Ministry has said The focused efforts of Centre and StateUT governments on effective clinical management of the hospitalised cases have ensured sustained decline in Indias Fatality Rate which is 144 per cent today With effective containment strategy aggressive testing and standardised clinical management protocols based on holistic Standard of Care Protocol across government and private hospitals the number of new deaths has dipped Maharashtra remains the worst affected state with total cases mounting to 1915529 while a total of 50027 people have died so far of which 57 succumbed to the virus in the last 24 hours While the only good news is that in the last 24 hours there has been no addition in the number of people infected with the new strain of Covid which originated in the UK The total number of people infected with the new strain stands at 90 Meanwhile 181096622 samples have been tested so far of which 843307 samples were tested on Saturday IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-reports-18-444-new-covid-cases-93721.html Mon, 11 Jan 2021 17:55:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/union-minister-ashwini-choubey-recovers-from-covid-93767.html New Delhi Jan 10 Union Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey has recovered from Covid19 after contracting the virus last month He was being treated at AIIMS trauma centre In a tweet in Hindi on Sunday Choubey thanked his wellwishers saying thanks to all from the depths of my heart for wishing prompt recovery and boosting my morale from various areas of the country when I was recuperating from the disease I am completely free from infection Thanks to Dr Randeep Guleria Ji and AIIMS family for medical and counseling Pankaj Mishra media advisor to the minister informed that Choubeys corona test was done again on Saturday in which the result has come negative Choubey was declared Covid positive last month after he underwent a test when he felt initial symptoms of coronavirus infection on December 28 Later the minister urged everyone who came in contact with him to get tested for the disease Symptoms of Covid19 surfaced after the minister returned from a threeday Bihar tour in the fourth week of December The report came positive and he was later admitted to AIIMS Trauma Center on December 30 IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/union-minister-ashwini-choubey-recovers-from-covid-93767.html Mon, 11 Jan 2021 20:27:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/allahabad-hc-asks-up-to-submit-plan-to-check-covid-in-magh-mela-93545.html Prayagraj Uttar Pradesh Jan 10 The Allahabad High Court has asked the Uttar Pradesh government to submit a Foolproof Plan through which it intends to check the corona spread during the annual Magh Mela scheduled to begin on January 14 The court order came after the Uttar Pradesh chief secretary had informed the court that people will be allowed to enter the defined Magh Mela area after they produce a negative Covid19 report Reviewing the instructions submitted by the state government a division bench comprising Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Ajit Kumar said they are not convinced that the steps taken by the state will be sufficient to curb the spread of coronavirus Fixing January 12 as the next date for hearing into the PIL the High Court directed the state government to come up with a foolproof plan by which it intends to control the spread of the infection The court said They government may keep in mind that such congregations during the month of Magh are very large in numbers and if even one infected person sneaks inside the city he can create havoc The Magh Mela is an annual festival held in the month of Magh JanuaryFebruary in Prayagraj This Mela attracts a large number of tourists and pilgrims every year looking forward to washing their sins off in the holy river The Mela is spread over a period of 45 days The state government has that it will implement safety protocols in the Mela and ensure social distancing IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/allahabad-hc-asks-up-to-submit-plan-to-check-covid-in-magh-mela-93545.html Mon, 11 Jan 2021 06:40:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/embrace-green-spaces-shut-screens-to-keep-lockdown-blues-at-bay-93643.html London Jan 10 If you want to beat lockdown and social distancing blues head to green spaces and switch off TV computer and smartphone as this will dramatically improve your mental health say researchers including one of Indianorigin as several countries including the UK impose fresh restrictions amid surge in Covid numbers Being outdoors particularly in green spaces can improve mental health by promoting more positive body image and lowering levels of depression and anxiety A new study published in the Journal of Happiness Studies said that spending time outdoors and switching off our devices is associated with higher levels of happiness during a period of Covid19 restrictions Our results are important in this context because they show that being able to spend time outdoors under conditions of lockdown has a beneficial impact on psychological well being said colead author Viren Swami Professor of Social Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University ARU Being outdoors provides opportunities to escape from the stresses of being confined at home maintain social relationships with others and engage in physical activity all of which can improve mental health Jointly led by academics from Anglia Ruskin University ARU in the UK the Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences in Austria and Perdana University in Malaysia new research examined how levels of happiness during a national lockdown were affected by being outdoors the amount of daily screen time and feelings of loneliness Using an experience sampling method ESM the researchers measured levels of happiness amongst a group of 286 adults three times a day at random intervals over a 21day period This allowed the participants to provide data in realtime rather than retrospectively helping to avoid recall biases The team found that levels of happiness were higher when participants were outdoors rather than indoors In addition more daily screen time and higher levels of loneliness were both associated with lower levels of happiness The impact of loneliness on happiness was also weaker when participants were outdoors While lockdowns can help slow down the transmission of Covid19 research has also shown that prolonged periods of lockdown take their toll on mental health Swami said Our findings have practical health policy implications Given that further lockdown restrictions have now become necessary in the UK public health messages that promote getting some fresh air instead of staying indoors and staring at our screens could really help to lift peoples mood this winter Swami elaborated IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/embrace-green-spaces-shut-screens-to-keep-lockdown-blues-at-bay-93643.html Mon, 11 Jan 2021 14:00:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/pm-to-meet-cms-on-monday-on-vaccine-roll-out-corona-situation-93669.html New Delhi Jan 10 As India is poised to undertake the worlds biggest vaccination drive Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a virtual meeting with Chief Ministers on Monday afternoon wherein all states will share the details of preparations made for the planned vaccination and other issues The Prime Minister will chair the meeting slated to begin at 4 pm He will be apprised by the CMs on the rollout of coronavirus vaccine as well as the COVID19 situation in their respective states The digital meet would be significant coming ahead of the rollout of two COVID19 vaccines from January 16 It is the first interaction between Modi and the CMs after the Drug Controller General of India DCGI gave restricted emergencyuse approval to two vaccines Oxford Astrazenecas vaccine Covishield manufactured in India by Punes Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotechs Covaxin The PM has spoken at least six times with the Chief Ministers through videoconference following COVID19 outbreak in the country at the beginning of 2020 Three rounds of the dry run of the immunisation drive have so far been conducted across the country There is still a weeks time to improve on the weak areas identified during these drills Under Indias vaccination drive one crore healthcare workers and two crore frontline workers would be inoculated in the first phase The Centre plans to also vaccinate 27 crore other persons who are at a greater risk of contracting the virus PMCARES Prime Ministers Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund may be used to purchase the vaccines The government had earlier allocated Rs 100 crore from the fund for the development of vaccines Meanwhile training for the vaccination drive has been almost done in all states and doctors nurses and pharmacists are ready to vaccinate the beneficiaries As per the plan around five vaccine officers would be deployed at each vaccination centre one to check registration status of beneficiaries another to verify documents and three others to manage crowds and do other necessary works On January 3 intramuscular vaccines Covaxin and Covishield were approved for restricted emergency use in India Both are twodose vaccines IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/pm-to-meet-cms-on-monday-on-vaccine-roll-out-corona-situation-93669.html Mon, 11 Jan 2021 15:40:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/covid-19-took-india-back-to-its-original-ethos-jitendra-singh-93453.html New Delhi Jan 9 Coronavirus has enabled India to go back to our original ethos and practices such as washing hands and Namaste way of greeting and it has come into vogue with greater vigour Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Saturday Covid19 has alerted everyone to the importance of healthcare as a national priority and also made the world aware of the virtues of social distancing hygiene cleanliness yoga Ayurveda and traditional medicines the Union Minister said while addressing a session with Sadhguru on Inner Engineering Technologies for Well Being at the Indian Institute of Public Administration IIPA Now they have come to trust this much more than earlier and there is a renewed interest in yoga and Ayurveda which have always been the thrust areas for Prime Minister Narendra Modi During the lockdown period in particular Singh opined many people resorted to Yoga not only to seek a betterment in their immunity status but also to get over the pangs of loneliness and anxiety He said one of the fallouts of the postCovid era would be that even after the coronavirus is gone those who have become habitual to yoga during the lockdown period would most likely continue to practice it for the rest of their lives thus turning it into a lifetime blessing The Union Minister said the ultimate aim of good governance is to bring ease of living for the common citizen and strongly supported Sadhguru for saying that happy and joyful administrators would spread happiness in every sphere of life Justice MN Bhandari of Allahabad High Court IIPA Vice President Shekhar Dutt IIPA Director SN Tripathi Surabhi Pandey Amitabh Ranjan Navaljit Kapoor and other senior officials and faculty of IIPA took part in the event IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/covid-19-took-india-back-to-its-original-ethos-jitendra-singh-93453.html Sun, 10 Jan 2021 19:44:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/recoveries-far-ahead-of-new-cases-in-jk-in-24-hrs-93487.html Jammu Jan 9 Recoveries were far ahead of new COVID19 cases in JK on Saturday as 267 patients were discharged after recovery while 122 new cases came to light during the last 24 hours An official bulletin said 267 patients were discharged from different hospitals after recovery while 122 tested positive including 64 from Jammu division and 58 from Kashmir division So far 122425 people have been infected with coronavirus in JK out of which 118422 have recoveredw while 1909 people have been killed by the dreaded virus so far including two patients who succumbed on Saturday The total number of active cases is 2094 out of which 990 are from Jammu division and 1104 are from Kashmir division IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/recoveries-far-ahead-of-new-cases-in-jk-in-24-hrs-93487.html Sun, 10 Jan 2021 22:39:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-records-18k-new-coronavirus-cases-228-deaths-93259.html New Delhi Jan 9 With 18222 new coronavirus cases and 228 deaths recorded in the past 24 hours Indias overall infection tally stood at 10431639 on Saturday while the death toll reached 150798 the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said India continues its streak of low daily new cases and the country has reported a total of 10056651 recoveries so far The recovery rate stands at 9641 per cent while the fatality rate is 145 as per cent Currently there are 224190 active cases The total number of samples tested up to January 8 is 180253315 including 916951 samples tested on Friday the Indian Council of Medical Research said Maharashtra continues to be the worsthit state with 1954553 total cases About per cent of the daily new cases are being reported by 10 states and union territory Kerala Maharashtra West Bengal Tamil Nadu Karnataka Uttar Pradesh Madhya Pradesh Gujarat Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan On Wednesday the government deployed a high level Central Team to Kerala to review the public health interventions in the management of the pandemic by the state government and support the health authorities in these measures Meanwhile the mostawaited mass vaccination drive is slated to begin soon with the approval of two vaccines The Centre has planned to vaccinate nearly 30 crore people in the first phase It will be offered to 1 crore healthcare workers 2 crore frontline and essential workers 26 crore people above the age of 50 and 1 crore below 50 with comorbidities IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-records-18k-new-coronavirus-cases-228-deaths-93259.html Sun, 10 Jan 2021 01:38:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-ready-with-two-made-in-india-covid-vaccines-modi-93277.html New Delhi Jan 9 As India gears up for a massive vaccination drive Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the country is ready with two Made in India coronavirus vaccines to save the humanity On January 3 two vaccines Bharat Biotechs Covaxin and OxfordAstraZenecas Covishield manufactured by Serum Institute of India were approved for restricted emergency use Several other vaccines are in the pipeline and are conducting trials This vaccination drive is slated to begin by January 13 Earlier India used to import PPE kits masks ventilators and testing kits from outside but today it is selfreliant Today India is ready with two Made in India Covid19 vaccines to save the humanity Modi said at the 16th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas convention The Central government plans to vaccinate nearly 30 crore people in the first phase of drive It will be offered to one crore healthcare workers along with 2 crore frontline and essential workers and 27 crore elderly mostly above the age of 50 years with comorbidities It will be first offered to one crore healthcare workers and two crore frontline workers for free Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had announced recently Several dryruns have been conducted prior to the commencement of the inoculation drive IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-ready-with-two-made-in-india-covid-vaccines-modi-93277.html Sun, 10 Jan 2021 03:48:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/total-90-persons-detected-with-new-uk-mutant-strain-93295.html New Delhi Jan 9 The Central government on Saturday said that a total of 90 persons have been detected with the new more transmissible UK coronavirus mutant strain They are kept in physical isolation in health facilities Total number of persons infected with the UK mutant strain of Covid19 now stands at 90 in the country the Union Health Ministry said in a statement According to the ministry all the 90 persons have been kept in a single room isolation in designated healthcare facilities by the respective state governments Their close contacts have also been put under quarantine Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for cotravellers family contacts and others Genome sequencing on other specimens is also on the ministry added On Friday a flight from United States landed in Delhi with 246 passengers on board amid concerns about the mutant strain that emerged in Britain The flights from the UK resumed on Friday after the government suspended all the services on December 23 On December 29 a total of six UK returnees were found to be positive with the new variant genome These were the first cases to be reported by the country after the United States The tracing and testing were initiated after the British government announced that a newly identified strain of the virus was found in their population which is up to 70 per cent more transmissible Notably the new UK Variant has already been reported by Denmark Netherlands Australia Italy Sweden France Spain Switzerland Germany Canada Japan Lebanon and Singapore From November 25 to December 23 midnight about 33000 passengers disembarked at various Indian airports from UK All these passengers are being tracked and subjected by States and UTs to RTPCR tests The Union Health Ministry further stated that the situation is under careful watch and regular advice is being provided to the states for enhanced surveillance containment testing and dispatch of samples to labs IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/total-90-persons-detected-with-new-uk-mutant-strain-93295.html Sun, 10 Jan 2021 06:30:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/single-dose-covid-vaccine-triggers-antibody-response-study-93312.html New York Jan 9 Researchers have developed a nanoparticle vaccine that elicits a virusneutralising antibody response after a single dose The team including Peter Kim from Stanford University in the US said that the primary target for Covid19 vaccines is the spike protein which is necessary for SARSCoV2s entry into cells Both of the vaccines are mRNA vaccines that cause human cells to temporarily produce the spike protein triggering an immune response and antibody production For the study published in the ACS Central Science journal the team wanted to try a different approach a vaccine consisting of multiple copies of the spike protein displayed on ferritin nanoparticles in a micebased experiment Ferritin is an iron storage protein found in many organisms that selfassembles into a larger nanoparticle Other proteins such as viral antigens can be fused to ferritin so that each nanoparticle displays several copies of the protein which might cause a stronger immune response than a single copy The researchers spliced spike protein and ferritin DNA together and then expressed the hybrid protein in cultured mammalian cells The ferritin selfassembled into nanoparticles each bearing eight copies of the spike protein trimer The team purified the spikeferritin particles and injected them into mice After a single immunisation mice produced neutralising antibody titers that were at least two times higher than those in convalescent plasma from Covid19 patients and significantly higher than those in mice immunized with the spike protein alone A second immunisation 21 days later produced even higher antibody levels Although these results must be confirmed in human clinical trials they suggest that the spikeferritin nanoparticles may be a viable strategy for singledose vaccination against Covid19 the researchers said IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/single-dose-covid-vaccine-triggers-antibody-response-study-93312.html Sun, 10 Jan 2021 08:52:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/telangana-logs-298-more-covid-cases-tally-289-lakh-93328.html Hyderabad Jan 9 Telangana has registered 298 new Covid19 cases increasing the states overall infection tally to 289 lakh even as 474 more patients recovered from the virus to outnumber infections on Saturday Hyderabad accounted for the highest number 61 of cases in the past 24 hours followed by Rangareddy 28 Medhcal Malkajgiri 25 Karimnagar 16 and Sangareddy 10 Among other places Warangal Urban Nizamabad and Jagityal nine each Warangal Rural Mancherial and Bhadradri Kothagudem eight each and Nalgonda and Nirmal seven each Though total cases shot up to 289 lakh with the addition of new cases active cases currently stand at 4822 higher than neighbouring Telugu state Andhra Pradesh Powered by 474 recoveries Telanganas recovery rate at 977 per cent is higher than the national average of 964 per cent Meanwhile two more people succumbed to the virus increasing the total number of Covid deaths to 1563 On adding the new deaths the southern states Covid fatality rate stands at 054 per cent lower than the national average of 14 per cent In the past 24 hours Telangana tested 31187 more samples for the virus raising the total number of tests beyond 72 lakh Per million population Telangana tested 193 lakh samples for the virus IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/telangana-logs-298-more-covid-cases-tally-289-lakh-93328.html Sun, 10 Jan 2021 10:09:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/2-kashmiris-carrying-uk-covid-19-strain-found-in-srinagar-93412.html Srinagar Jan 9 Two patients carrying the new UK COVID19 strain were admitted to a hospital in JKs Srinagar city on Saturday The discovery of two locals carrying the new UK COVID19 strain is disturbing since there has been a decline in the number of daily COVID positive cases in Kashmir Dr Bilquees Shah nodal officer for COVID19 at Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial JLNM hospital in Rainawari area of Srinagar told reporters that two male patients from Kashmir have tested positive for the new COVID19 strain that was first reported in the United Kingdom These two male patients are residents of Habak and Soura areas of Srinagar and both had travelled to UK she said Authorities have said that contacts of these two patients are being identified for isolation while the two patients have been admitted to JLNM hospital for treatment These two patients found with the new UK strain are among the 90 such cases found so far in the country IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/2-kashmiris-carrying-uk-covid-19-strain-found-in-srinagar-93412.html Sun, 10 Jan 2021 16:41:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/685-new-cases-take-gujarats-covid-tally-to-2-50-598-93188.html Gandhinagar Jan 8 Gujarat on Friday reported 685 new Covid119 cases taking its overall coronavirus tally to 250598 while 3 deaths in the past 24 hours took the states Covid death toll to 4335 The state health authorities conducted 49952 tests in the last 24 hours Ahmedabad reported the maximum number of cases on Friday at 134 followed by Surat 126 Vadodara 117 Rajkot 79 Junagadh 20 Kutch 18 Gandhinagar Jamnagar and Mahesana 16 each Anand 14 Dahod 13 Bharuch 12 Sabarkantha 10 Chotta Udepur 9 Banaskantha Panchmahals and Narmada 8 each Bhavnagar GirSomnath and Mahisagar 7 each Amreli Kheda and Morbi 6 each Surendranagar and Tapi 5 each Patan 4 Devbhoomi Dwarka and Navsari 3 each and Aravalli and Dangs 1 each Gujarat has reported 5560 cases so far in January at an average of 695 cases per day On a positive note a total of 892 patients were discharged on Thursday taking the total number of recoveries to 238114 The state presently has 8149 active cases out of which the condition of 8088 is stable whereas 61 critical patients are on ventilator support Meanwhile three people succumbed to the virus in Gujarat on Friday two in Ahmedabad and one in Tapi Gujarats mortality rate is gradually coming down and presently stands at 173 per cent Till now the health authorities have conducted 10053558 tests in Gujarat of which 9802960 have returned negative Right now 490756 people are quarantined in the state 490640 in home quarentine and 116 in government facilities IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/685-new-cases-take-gujarats-covid-tally-to-2-50-598-93188.html Sat, 09 Jan 2021 20:10:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/caution-needed-says-govt-on-covid-triggered-lethal-fungal-infection-93005.html New Delhi Dec 15 After doctors at a Delhi hospital found multiple cases of deadly fungal infection in recovering coronavirus patients which is leading to loss of eyesight the government on Tuesday said that it is a devastating disease and people must remain more cautious This is a devastating disease and the cure is not easy We need to be cautious This could be a mild disease but can also take a serious turn This was there in the absence of Covid19 as well Dr VK Paul Member Health NITI Aayog said at a press conference ENT surgeons at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital witnessed 13 cases of Covid19triggered mucormycosis or black fungus due to which nearly half of the patients lost their eyesight hospital authorities claimed on Monday Mucormycosis has been the cause of disease and death of patients in transplants and ICU and immunodeficient individuals since long However it is the rapid increase in the numbers seen in unsuspected recovering Covid19 patients that is causing the grave concern the hospital said in a statement Mortality is currently being seen in the range of 50 per cent five patients with certain deaths when there is involvement of brain the authorities said One such case is of a 32yearold Covidrecovered patient who was admitted to the emergency ward of SGRH a few days ago in a partially disoriented state An MRI revealed that the infection had already destroyed a significant part of his left side sinuses eye upper jaw bone and muscles and even had made passage into the brain He had to be subsequently put on the lifesaving antifungal medication and vital critical care support for more than 2 weeks He will soon be discharged in a survivable but a disfigured state Dr Manish Munjal senior ENT surgeon SGRH had said The frequency with which we are witnessing the occurrence of Covid triggered mucormycosis with high morbidity mortality has never been seen before and is shocking and alarming said Dr Prakash Shastri Vice Chairman of Critical Care Department SGRH IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/caution-needed-says-govt-on-covid-triggered-lethal-fungal-infection-93005.html Sat, 09 Jan 2021 03:10:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/82-in-india-detected-with-new-uk-mutant-strain-93020.html New Delhi Jan 8 The Central government on Friday said that a total of 82 persons have been detected with the new more transmissible UK coronavirus mutant strain They have been kept in physical isolation in health facilities Earlier on the day a flight from the US landed in Delhi with 246 passengers on board amid concerns about the mutant strain that emerged in Britain The flights from the UK resumed on Friday after the government suspended services between on December 23 According to the Health Ministry all 82 persons have been kept in a single room isolation in designated healthcare facilities by respective state governments Their close contacts have also been put under quarantine Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for cotravellers family contacts and others Genome sequencing on other specimens is going on the ministry said On December 29 a total of six UK returnees were found to be positive with the new variant genome These were the first cases to be reported by the country that has the second highest number of cases after the US The tracing and testing was initiated after the British Government announced that a newly identified strain of the virus was found in their population which is up to 70 per cent more transmissible Notably the new UK variant has already been reported by Denmark Netherlands Australia Italy Sweden France Spain Switzerland Germany Canada Japan Lebanon and Singapore From November 25 to December 23 midnight about 33000 passengers disembarked at various Indian airports from the UK All these passengers are being tracked and subjected by the states and UTs to RTPCR tests The Union health ministry further stated that the situation was under careful watch and regular advice was being provided to the states for enhanced surveillance containment testing and dispatch of samples to labs IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/82-in-india-detected-with-new-uk-mutant-strain-93020.html Sat, 09 Jan 2021 05:30:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/air-india-ferries-over-250-as-uk-india-flights-resume-93031.html New Delhi Jan 8 Flight services between the UK and India recommenced on Friday with national carrier Air India flying in over 250 passengers from that country An AI112 flight landed at Delhis IGI Airport from the UK The special flights would be operated under strict supervision As per the latest government guidelines all passengers arriving from the UK would have to undergo mandatory RTPCR test in the UK as well as in India In a tweet the Delhi airport said Passengers are advised to maintain a gap of minimum 10 hours between their international flights estimated time of arrival and the connecting domestic flights time of departure IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/air-india-ferries-over-250-as-uk-india-flights-resume-93031.html Sat, 09 Jan 2021 06:53:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-records-18k-fresh-covid-cases-234-deaths-92929.html New Delhi Jan 8 With 18139 new coronavirus infections and 234 deaths in the last 24 hours Indias overall tally stood at 10413417 while the death toll touched 150570 the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Friday India continued its streak of low daily new cases Till now 10037398 have recovered Currently there are 225449 active cases The recovery rate stands at 9636 per cent while the fatality rate is 145 as per cent The total number of samples tested up to January 7 is 179336364 including 935369 samples tested on Thursday the Indian Council of Medical Research said Maharashtra continues to be the worsthit state till date Over 79 per cent of the daily new cases are being reported by 10 states and union territory Kerala Maharashtra West Bengal Tamil Nadu Karnataka Uttar Pradesh Madhya Pradesh Gujarat Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan On Wednesday the government deployed a high level Central team to Kerala to review the public health interventions in management of Covid19 by the state government and support the health authorities in these measures Meanwhile the mostawaited mass vaccination drive is slated to begin soon with approval of two vaccines The Central government plans to vaccinate nearly 30 crore people in the first phase of drive It will be offered to one crore healthcare workers along with 2 crore frontline and essential workers 26 crore people above the age of 50 and one crore below 50 with comorbidities IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-records-18k-fresh-covid-cases-234-deaths-92929.html Fri, 08 Jan 2021 20:44:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/school-shut-after-principal-tests-covid-19-positive-in-bihar-92773.html Patna Jan 7 A government high school in Bihars Gaya district has suspended all its classes for an indefinite period as a precautionary measure after the headmaster of the institution tested positive for coronavirus an official said on Thursday The Gaya district administration on Wednesday announced the closure of the school situated in Saraiya village The state government on December 4 reopened all the government and private schools after a ninemonthlong hiatus in the wake of the Covid19 pandemic Sources said that over 1000 students study in the school Gayas District Education Officer DEA M Khan said The principal wrote to us complaining of fever a few days back and also cited that he was having respiratory issues He had also undergone the necessary tests He tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday We have immediately shut the school after a letter was received from the headmaster of the school We have also directed other teachers of the school to undergo Covid tests and submit their reports to the department as early as possible the DEO added The education department has also directed the Block Development Officer BDO to initiate sanitisation of the school and keep tabs on the students of the school Khan said The headmaster is currently being treated in a Patna hospital and his condition is said to be critical IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/school-shut-after-principal-tests-covid-19-positive-in-bihar-92773.html Fri, 08 Jan 2021 05:36:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/kejriwal-seeks-extension-of-ban-on-uk-flights-till-jan-31-92793.html New Delhi Jan 7 Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday requested the central government to extend the ban on UK flights till January 31 in the backdrop of new coronavirus strain Kejriwals appeal comes as the Centre earlier announced that the international flights from the UK will resume operations from January 8 The Centre has decided to lift the ban and restart UK flights In view of the extremely serious COVID19 situation in the UK I would urge the Cenre to extend the ban till January 31 Kejriwal tweeted In another tweet the Chief Minister said With great difficulty people have brought the COVID19 situation under control The UKs COVID19 situation is very serious Now why lift the ban and expose our people to risk The flights between India and the UK were suspended from December 23 to January 7 in the wake of detection of a more infectious coronavirus strain in UK population A total of 73 persons have been detected with the new corona strain in India so far As per the fresh safety guideline issued on January 4 the Centre had said that those travelling between January 8 and 31 would be mandatorily subjected to selfpaid RTPCR tests on arrival at the Indian airports Taking to Twitter Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on January 2 had said that flights from India to the UK will resume from January 6 while services from that country to India would resume from January 8 Puri had announced that only 30 flights per week will operate between India and the UK when services resume from January 8 and that this arrangement will continue till January 23 IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/kejriwal-seeks-extension-of-ban-on-uk-flights-till-jan-31-92793.html Fri, 08 Jan 2021 08:10:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/century-of-data-show-covid-19-likely-to-impact-the-brain-92819.html New York Jan 7 Making a compelling case for the expected longterm effects on the brain and nervous system by the Covid virus new research that included scientists of Indian origin and reviewed a century of data showed that Covid19 is likely to impact the brain in the long run The question is to what degree and under what form Even mild Covid19 infection may have negative effects on the brain in the long term according to researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio UT Health San Antonio in the US Since the flu pandemic of 1917 and 1918 many of the flulike diseases have been associated with brain disorders said study lead author Gabriel A de Erausquin Those respiratory viruses included H1N1 and SARSCoV The SARSCoV2 virus which causes Covid19 is also known to impact the brain and nervous system said de Erausquin a professor of neurology He said that it is becoming clear that the damage done by the pandemic will not be limited to acute effects such as delirium in the hospital but will have chronic consequences that impact many individuals quality of life and independence The coronavirus is known to enter cells via receptors called ACE2 The highest concentration of ACE2 receptors is in the olfactory bulb the brain structure involved in the sense of smell The basic idea of our study is that some of the respiratory viruses have affinity for nervous system cells said senior author Sudha Seshadri professor of neurology in the Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio Olfactory cells are very susceptible to viral invasion and are particularly targeted by SARSCoV2 and thats why one of the prominent symptoms of Covid19 is loss of smell Seshadri added The olfactory bulb connects with the hippocampus a brain structure primarily responsible for shortterm memory said the article published in Alzheimers Dementia The Journal of the Alzheimers Association The trail of the virus when it invades the brain leads almost straight to the hippocampus de Erausquin said That is believed to be one of the sources of the cognitive impairment observed in Covid19 patients We suspect it may also be part of the reason why there will be an accelerated cognitive decline over time in susceptible individuals de Erausquin said The Alzheimers Association is funding the initial work of a consortium of experts from more than 30 countries to understand how Covid19 increases the risk severity pace and progression of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers and psychiatric diseases including depression Consortium members will enrol study participants selected from a pool of millions of confirmed Covid19 cases documented in hospitals worldwide Participants will be evaluated on a host of measures at their initial appointment and again at six nine and 18 months The underrecognised medical history of these viruses over the last century suggests a strong link to brain diseases that affect memory and behavior said Maria C Carrillo Alzheimers Association chief science officer and a coauthor of the paper In this difficult time we can create a silver lining by capitalising on the Alzheimers Associations global reach and reputation to bring the research community together to illuminate Covid19s longterm impact on the brain Carrillo added IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/century-of-data-show-covid-19-likely-to-impact-the-brain-92819.html Fri, 08 Jan 2021 11:02:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/telangana-logs-379-new-covid-cases-3-deaths-92678.html Hyderabad Jan 7 Telangana reported 379 new Covid19 cases and three deaths during the last 24 hours health officials said on Thursday The fresh cases pushed the states tally to 288789 while the death toll rose to 1559 According to director of public health and family welfare the fatality rate remained 053 per cent against the national average of 14 per cent While 4496 per cent of the deaths occurred due to Covid 5504 per cent had comorbidities A total of 305 people recovered from the virus during the last 24 hours taking the cumulative number of recoveries to 282177 The recovery rate stands at 9773 per cent against than the national average of 964 per cent The number of active cases in the state was 5053 including 2776 who are in home or institutional isolation For the sixth consecutive day Greater Hyderabad recorded less than 100 new Covid cases The state capital logged 71 new cases during the last 24 hours Medchal Malkajgiri district recorded the second highest number at 37 followed by Rangareddy 36 Karimnagar 19 and Warangal Urban 14 A total of 41246 Covid tests were conducted across the state during the last 24 hours While governmentrun laboratories conducted 36723 tests the remaining 4523 samples were tested in private labs There are 19 governmentrun laboratories 56 private laboratories and 1076 Rapid Antigen test centres in the state Samples tested per million population ratio rose further to 191983 The data shows that 639 per cent of those tested positive so far were aged between 2150 years As many as 2291 per cent were aged above 51 years The positive cases include 1318 per cent who were below 20 years Of the total cases 6044 per cent were male and 3937 per cent female Bed status in 62 governmentrun hospitals treating Covid19 in the state shows that out of total 8575 besds 7807 remained vacant Similarly in 219 private hospitals treating Covid 1509 beds were occupied Out of 7769 beds 6260 were vacant IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/telangana-logs-379-new-covid-cases-3-deaths-92678.html Thu, 07 Jan 2021 19:07:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/over-50-docs-peta-sound-covid-alert-on-jallikattu-92705.html Chennai Jan 7 Over 50 doctors and people for the Ethical Treatment of Animals PETA India appealed to the Tamil Nadu government to immediately withdraw the permission for the annual bull taming event Jallikattu Jallikattu is typically celebrated in the southern state of Tamil Nadu as part of the Pongal celebrations on the Mattu Pongal day which occurs annually during this month Over 50 doctors have signed a letter to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami and Health Minister C Vijayabaskar urging them to immediately withdraw the permission which the doctors warn poses a grave risk to the general public because of the ongoing Covid19 pandemic The appeal is in response to the Tamil Nadu governments recent order allowing the conduct of Jallikattu events with hundreds of people present People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals PETA India has also asked the state government to stop Jallikattu events The letter signed by 50 doctors states To prevent the rapid spread of Covid19 and to protect public health as well as to ease the pressure on the healthcare professionals nonessential activities such as Jallikattu events which lead to unnecessary gatherings of people must not be allowed The letter also states Since the Tamil Nadu government legalised Jallikattu in 2017 at least 22 bulls and 57 humans have reportedly died while 3632 humans were injured in events organised throughout the state They also warn that even more human deaths will likely occur because of Covid19 if Jallikattu events are allowed to be organised in the state PETA India Research Associate Dr Ankita Pandey further cautions that more people are expected to die this year not only because of Jallikattu itself but also because of Covid19 If Jallikattu events are not stopped if huge crowds gather to torment bulls society will be tormented too she urges the TN government The healthcare professionals also forewarn that the measures of Covid19 negative certificates for participants and thermal screening of spectators as preconditions for allowing Jallikattu are not enough to stop the spread of the virus And their letter further says during the incubation period a contagious person may be tested too early and produce a falsenegative result and not everyone with Covid19 develops or sustains a fever This event is associated with strength and courage and honours the bull owners However it is undoubtedly cruel to animals In 2014 Jallikattu was banned by the Supreme Court But the ban on Jallikattu considered an important authentic tradition and inalienable part of rural societys culture had spurred widespread protests in Tamil Nadu After several years of continuous protests in 2017 the Tamil Nadu government passed the Jallikattu Bill bringing into effect the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Tamil Nadu Amendment Act 2017 thereby allowing the conduct of Jallikattu As early as 2010 itself an investigation led by the Animal Welfare Board of India concluded that Jallikattu is inherently cruel to animals Animal welfare organisations such as the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations FIAPO and PETA India have protested against the practice since then However proJallikattu activists countering the animal activists argue that Jallikattu had been known to be practiced during the Tamil classical period 400100 BC and inalienable part of the rural Tamil societys culture It was common among the Ayar people who lived in the Mullai geographical division of the ancient Tamil country Later it became a platform for display of bravery and prize money was introduced for participation encouragement A seal from the Indus Valley Civilization depicting the practice is preserved in the National Museum New Delhi A cave painting in white kaolin discovered near Madurai depicting a lone man trying to control a bull is estimated to be about 1500 years old Several references are found in ancient Tamil Sangams literature which described the practice as Yeru thazhuvuthal Bull embracing The modern term Jallikattu or Sallikattu is derived from Salli Coins and Kattu Package which refers to a prize of coins that are tied to the bulls horns and that participants attempt to retrieve IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/over-50-docs-peta-sound-covid-alert-on-jallikattu-92705.html Thu, 07 Jan 2021 21:02:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/784-new-covid-cases-in-karnataka-1-238-recovered-92513.html Bengaluru Jan 7 Maintaining a healthy trend Karnataka registered only 784 new Covid cases in a day while 1238 patients recovered across the southern state on Wednesday With 784 new cases on Tuesday the states Covid tally increased to 924137 including 9177 active cases while 902817 recovered so far with 1238 discharged in the last 24 hours said the state health bulletin here The virus however claimed six more lives taking the states death toll to 12124 since the pandemic broke out on March 8 In Bengaluru 437 new cases were reported taking its Covid tally to 390789 including 5679 active cases while 380769 recovered with 902 discharged earlier in the day With just three succumbing to the infection in the day the citys death toll rose to 4336 Of the 210 patients in the intensive care units ICUs across the state 89 are in Bengaluru hospitals 15 in Kalaburagi 14 in Tumakuru and 10 in Hassan Out of 134173 tests conducted in the day across the state 11136 were through the rapid antigen detection and 123037 through the RTPCR method Positivity rate for the day was 058 per cent and case fatality rate 076 per cent across the state added the bulletin IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/784-new-covid-cases-in-karnataka-1-238-recovered-92513.html Thu, 07 Jan 2021 01:00:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/us-health-officials-report-29-cases-of-anaphylaxis-after-initial-covid-shots-92525.html By Nikhila Natarajan New York Jan 7 At least 29 people vaccinated with mRNAbased Covid19 shots in the US developed anaphylaxis a lifethreatening allergic reaction that comes on within minutes of receiving the intramuscular injection A report on the CDC website lists 21 such cases but CDC officials clarified in a call with reporters that the number has been updated to 29 as on Wednesday The median interval from vaccine receipt to symptom onset was 13 minutes according to an update by the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention Americas premier public health agency that is returning to its preeminent role in health communications after months of political interference from the Donald Trump White House The CDC is recommending that vaccine locations must screen for contraindications before the shots are given and must have supplies of epinephrine ready to treat people experiencing anaphylaxis symptoms Around 80 per cent of patients who reported anaphylaxis symptoms had a documented history of allergies or allergic reactions including to drugs or medical products foods and insect stings By December 23 2020 the CDC reported there were a total of 4393 02 per cent adverse events among 1893360 first doses of PfizerBioNTech Covid19 Vaccinations in America began on December 14 So far two vaccines have received emergency approval from the US Food and Drug Administration PfizerBioNTech and Moderna IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/us-health-officials-report-29-cases-of-anaphylaxis-after-initial-covid-shots-92525.html Thu, 07 Jan 2021 01:32:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-records-20k-fresh-covid-cases-222-deaths-92629.html New Delhi Jan 7 With 20346 new coronavirus infections and 222 deaths in the past 24 hours Indias overall tally stood at 10395278 on Thursday while the death toll touched 150336 the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said India continued its streak of low daily new cases Till now 10016859 have recovered Currently there are 228083 active cases The recovery rate stands at 9636 per cent while the fatality rate is 145 as per cent The total number of samples tested up to January 6 is 178400995 including 937590 samples tested on Wednesday the Indian Council of Medical Research said Maharashtra continues to be the worsthit state till date with 1954553 total cases Over 79 per cent of the daily new cases are being reported by 10 states and union territory Kerala Maharashtra West Bengal Tamil Nadu Karnataka Uttar Pradesh Madhya Pradesh Gujarat Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan On Wednesday the government deployed a high level Central team to Kerala to review the public health interventions in management of Covid19 by the state government and support the health authorities in these measures Meanwhile the mostawaited mass vaccination drive is slated to begin soon with approval of two vaccines The Central government plans to vaccinate nearly 30 crore people in the first phase of drive It will be offered to one crore healthcare workers along with 2 crore frontline and essential workers 26 crore people above the age of 50 and one crore below 50 with comorbidities IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-records-20k-fresh-covid-cases-222-deaths-92629.html Thu, 07 Jan 2021 15:46:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/tn-food-minister-kamaraj-to-be-discharged-soon-92668.html Chennai Jan 7 Tamil Nadu Minister for Food and Civil Supplies R Kamaraj a Covid19 patient will be discharged soon officials of a private hospital where he was admitted said on Thursday In a statement MIOT Hospitals said Kamaraj who tested RTPCR positive was admitted for observation on January 5 His CT scan is normal He is asymptomatic comfortable on room air and not needing any supplemental oxygen the hospital said He will be discharged shortly the statement added IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/tn-food-minister-kamaraj-to-be-discharged-soon-92668.html Thu, 07 Jan 2021 18:28:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/indias-records-less-than-20k-covid-cases-for-5th-consecutive-day-92464.html New Delhi Jan 6 After witnessing spike of over 16000 cases for two consecutive days India recorded 18087 fresh cases of coronavirus infections and 264 deaths in the last 24 hours taking the countrys overall tally to 10374932 while the death toll touched 150114 the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Wednesday India continued its streak of low daily new cases as the number of fresh infections remained below 20000 for the fifth consecutive day Till now 9997272 have recovered Currently there are 227546 active cases The recovery rate stands at 9636 per cent while the fatality rate is 145 as per cent Maharashtra continues to be the worsthit state till date Over 84 per cent of the daily new cases are being reported by 10 states Kerala Maharashtra West Bengal Tamil Nadu Karnataka Uttar Pradesh Madhya Pradesh Gujarat Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan Mass vaccination drive is slated to begin soon with the approval of two vaccines The Central government plans to vaccinate nearly 30 crore people in the first phase of the drive It will be offered to one crore healthcare workers along with 2 crore frontline and essential workers and 27 crore elderly mostly above the age of 50 years with comorbidities IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/indias-records-less-than-20k-covid-cases-for-5th-consecutive-day-92464.html Wed, 06 Jan 2021 19:25:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/total-71-persons-detected-with-new-uk-mutant-strain-92498.html New Delhi Jan 6 The Central government on Wednesday said that a total of 71 persons have been detected with the new more transmissible UK coronavirus mutant strain They are kept in physical isolation in health facilities According the Health Ministry all these persons have been kept in single room isolation in designated Health Care facilities by respective state governments Their close contacts have also been put under quarantine Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for cotravellers family contacts and others Genome sequencing on other specimens is going on the ministry said On December 29 a total of six UK returnees were found to be positive with the new variant genome These were the first cases to be reported by the country that has the second highest number of cases after the United States The tracing and testing was initiated after British government announced that a newly identified strain of the virus was found in their population which is up to 70 per cent more transmissible Notably the new UK variant has already been reported by Denmark Netherlands Australia Italy Sweden France Spain Switzerland Germany Canada Japan Lebanon and Singapore From November 25 to December 23 midnight about 33000 passengers disembarked at various Indian airports from UK All these passengers are being tracked and subjected by States and UTs to RTPCR tests The Union Health Ministry further stated that the situation is under careful watch and regular advice is being provided to the states for enhanced surveillance containment testing and dispatch of samples to labs IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/total-71-persons-detected-with-new-uk-mutant-strain-92498.html Wed, 06 Jan 2021 22:56:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/uk-variant-3-more-covid-patients-at-lnjp-detected-with-mutant-strain-92295.html New Delhi Jan 5 The number of Covid patients carrying the UK strain in the national capital has reached seven after three new cases were detected on Monday whereas the tally of suspected carriers has reached 49 officials told IANS Dr Suresh Kumar Medical Director of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash LNJP Hospital informed that the three new cases were detected from a laboratory in Delhi The total number of patients suspected of being infected by the UK strain has reached 49 Of them the strain is confirmed in the seven persons Three new detections were reported from the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology IGIB in Delhi he said Kumar also informed that of the total 49 seventeen are travelers while the remaining are their contacts Fifteen are those who came directly from Dubai while two other transited via Dubai to India he said He also said that the health of all the seven confirmed patients are in stable condition Most of them are asymptomatic and mild in nature of the Covid None of them have shown severe complications so far Kumar added The seven patients who are positive for the UK mutation are lodged in separate rooms of a special ward The ward has been earmarked for those who landed here from the UK With a capacity of 60 rooms the ward is spread across three floors with 20 rooms on each floor We are ensuring that these patients dont mingle with the other Covid patients All of them have been isolated separately in different rooms of a special ward designated for the patients suspected or found infected with the new variant Dr Kumar told IANS Meanwhile nine more Covid19 patients have been detected carrying the new and highly infectious strain of novel coronavirus from the UK on Monday taking the tally of cases to 38 in the country IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/uk-variant-3-more-covid-patients-at-lnjp-detected-with-mutant-strain-92295.html Wed, 06 Jan 2021 00:12:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/again-16k-india-continues-low-streak-of-daily-cases-92335.html New Delhi Jan 5 With 16375 new coronavirus infections and 201 deaths in the past 24 hours Indias overall tally stood at 10356845 on Tuesday while the toll touched 149850 the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said India continued its streak of low daily new cases as the fresh infection numbers remained below 20000 for the fourth consecutive day Till now 9975958 have recovered Currently there are 231036 active cases The recovery rate stands at 9632 per cent while the fatality rate is 145 as per cent The total number of samples tested up to January 4 is 176531997 including 896236 samples tested on Monday the Indian Council of Medical Research said Maharashtra continues to be the worsthit state till date Over 84 per cent of the daily new cases are being reported by 10 states Kerala Maharashtra West Bengal Tamil Nadu Karnataka Uttar Pradesh Madhya Pradesh Gujarat Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan Mass vaccination drive is slated to begin soon with approval of two vaccines The central government plans to vaccinate nearly 30 crore people in the first phase of drive It will be offered to one crore healthcare workers along with 2 crore frontline and essential workers and 27 crore elderly mostly above the age of 50 years with comorbidities IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/again-16k-india-continues-low-streak-of-daily-cases-92335.html Wed, 06 Jan 2021 04:50:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/pil-in-guj-hc-seeking-ban-on-kite-flying-on-uttarayan-92341.html Gandhinagar Jan 5 A PIL has been filed in the Gujarat High Court seeking direction on prohibition of kite flying in the entire state during the upcoming Uttarayan or Makarsankranti that falls around midJanuary The high court has asked the government lawyer to take instructions from the government and have scheduled the next hearing in the next week Maulik Mankad representing the Animal Welfare Foundation Gandhinagar has filed the PIL seeking prohibition on sale of kites and threads as it leads to large gatherings during Uttarayan The foundation through the PIL wants a complete ban imposed on gatherings at one place from January 9 to 17 The PIL says that people also gather to get the kite threads coated with glass from street vendors The PIL pointed out that people celebrate the festival with friends and families which raises the risk of Coronavirus infection It also warned that vendors of kites and threads could become superspreaders of COVID19 in the present situation He also argued that those involved in coating the kite thread could become superspreaders of the virus The PIL submitted before the court that enforcement of police patrolling and drone surveillance is required during Uttaryan to enforce Covid safety guidelines including masks social distancing among others It sought directions from the court to impose a ban on gatherings of more than 4 people at one place be it on terraces footpaths or onroads for kite flying It added that medical and paramedical staff have already been working hard to battle Covid for the past nine months The unrestricted celebration will further add to the workload of medical and paramedical staff Uttarayan or the Makarsankranti falls on January 14 and 15 which is a Thursday and Friday this time respectively This coupled with the weekend will see people eager to extend the celebration Gujarat has seen a huge spike in Coronavirus cases postDiwali which is now coming under control after over a month The Gujarat government has already decided to cancel its annual International Kite Festival that is held every year during Uttarayan The high court has ordered to attach the PIL with the suo moto petition on Covid19 and lockdown which is scheduled for the hearing on January 8 The high court has also sought a reply from the Gujarat government on the matter IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/pil-in-guj-hc-seeking-ban-on-kite-flying-on-uttarayan-92341.html Wed, 06 Jan 2021 05:45:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/tally-of-covid-patients-infected-with-uk-variant-reaches-9-in-delhi-92372.html New Delhi Jan 5 One more patient at a Delhi governmentrun hospital has been found infected with the UK strain of novel coronavirus taking the tally in the national capital to nine Dr Suresh Kumar medical director of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash LNJP Hospital told IANS that one Covid patient admitted there has been detected carrying the UK strain with the lab test confirming it on Tuesday IANS had reported earlier that three Covid patients were confirmed to be carrying the UK strain on Monday All such patents are admitted at the LNJP Besides 41 contacts of these patents detected carrying the UK strain are admitted in the hospital The latest count is a UK returnee who travelled the country recently Kumar said The total number of patients suspected of being infected by the UK strain has reached 49 Of them the strain is confirmed in nine persons he said Kumar also informed that of the total 49 17 are travellers while the remaining are their contacts Fifteen are those who came directly from Dubai while two others transited via Dubai to India he said He also said that the health of all the patients infected from the UK strain of novel coronavirus is stable Health of all 49 of them is stable Just one of them exhibited mild symptoms of the Covid19 disease while the rest are asymptomatic None of them have shown severe complications so far he added He also informed that each of the Covid patients suspected of carrying the UK mutation including the confirmed nine patients are lodged in separate rooms of a special ward The ward has been earmarked for those who landed here from the UK With a capacity of 60 rooms the ward is spread across three floors with 20 rooms on each floor We are ensuring that these patients dont mingle with the other Covid patients All of them have been isolated separately in different rooms of a special ward designated for the patients suspected or found infected with the new variant Kumar told IANS Meanwhile India reported nine more Covid patients have been detected carrying the new and highly infectious strain of novel coronavirus from the UK on Monday taking the tally of cases to 38 in the country IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/tally-of-covid-patients-infected-with-uk-variant-reaches-9-in-delhi-92372.html Wed, 06 Jan 2021 12:46:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/gujarat-sees-655-new-covid-cases-four-deaths-92385.html Gandhinagar Jan 6 Gujarat on Tuesday saw 655 new coronavirus cases taking its tally to 248581 while the death toll rose to 4325 with four more succumbing In January so far Gujarat has recorded 3543 cases with an average of 708 cases daily A total of 868 patients were discharged taking the total to 235426 while there are 8830 active cases Ahmedabad saw 141 cases Vadodara and Surat 124 each Rajkot 73 and Gandhinagar 24 Jamnagar and Kheda had 16 each Kutch 14 Surendranagar 12 Dahod and Mehsana 11 each Junagadh 10 GirSomnath Bharuch and Morbi eight each Banaskantha six Narmada Anand and Sabarkantha five each Navsari Panchmahals and Patan four each Valsad and Chotta Udepur three each Tapi Amreli Aravalli and Devbhoomi Dwarka two each and Botad Dangs Mahisagar and Porbandar one each Two deaths were reported from Ahmedabad and one each from Surat and Amreli A total of 9906698 tests have been conducted and 502650 people are quarantined IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/gujarat-sees-655-new-covid-cases-four-deaths-92385.html Wed, 06 Jan 2021 13:37:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/new-covid-strain-enters-maha-8-uk-returnees-test-positive-92250.html Mumbai Jan 4 The Maharashtra health department went into a tizzy as 8 passengers who recently returned from the UK were found infected with the new strain of Covid officials said here on Monday State Health Minister Rajesh Tope made the grim announcement 8 passengers returned from UK have been found positive for the new strain of Covid 5 are from Mumbai and 2 from Mira Road and Bhayander towns in Thane and 1 from Pune The minister said that the process of contact tracing of these persons is underway besides new protocols for their treatment even as Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray conducted a review meeting of the situation IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/new-covid-strain-enters-maha-8-uk-returnees-test-positive-92250.html Tue, 05 Jan 2021 19:50:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/maha-rattled-as-8-uk-returnees-test-positive-for-new-covid-strain-92255.html Mumbai Jan Jan 4 The Maharashtra health department went into a tizzy as 8 passengers who recently returned from the UK were found infected with the new strain of Covid officials said here on Monday Health Minister Rajesh Tope made the grim announcement 8 passengers returned from UK have been found positive for the new strain of Covid 5 are from Mumbai and 2 from Thane and 1 from Pune The minister added that the process of contact tracing of these patients is underway besides implementing new protocols for their treatment even as Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray conducted a review meeting of the current scenario On his part Thackeray met with the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation BMC Commissioner I S Chahal and other health department officials and directed them to be more vigilant in view of the latest situation The 8 cases with the new strain were detected out of 43 UKreturnees who tested Covid19 positive in the past over 6 weeks Tope said The development came a day after Mumbai recorded just 3 Covid19 deaths the first since March 20 even as the state swung into preparations for a massive Corona vaccination drive In a positive development the number of active cases ill patients plunged below the 50K mark to 48801 in the state besides a notching a recovery rate of 9488 per cent and a fatality rate of 255 per cent With 29 fatalities from only 7 out of the 36 districts recorded for the day the state death toll has reached 49695 and by adding 2765 new patients the total Covid19 cases touched 1947011 till date The government in tune with the Centres guidelines has already implemented stringent protocols for all passengers from UK Middle East and certain other countries in a bid to avoid the new Covid strain carriers IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/maha-rattled-as-8-uk-returnees-test-positive-for-new-covid-strain-92255.html Tue, 05 Jan 2021 20:11:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/rajasthan-reports-three-fresh-cases-of-mutant-covid-strain-92284.html Jaipur Jan 4 Three fresh cases of the new mutated Covid strain have been detected in Rajasthans Sriganganagar district on Monday officials said Three members of the same family a husband wife and their fiveyearold child have been found infected with UK strain in Hakmabad village of Sadulshahar in Sriganganagar The three had returned from the UK on December 18 and were found positive on December 28 Thereafter their samples were sent to Delhi for further testing which confirmed the new mutated strain Shriganganagar CMHO Dr Girdhari Lal Meharda said that the district medical and health department officials had isolated three of them in an isolation centre situated in district headquarters Their contact history is being traced in Hakmabad village and sampling work has started he added IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/rajasthan-reports-three-fresh-cases-of-mutant-covid-strain-92284.html Tue, 05 Jan 2021 22:36:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/gujarat-sees-698-new-covid-cases-three-more-deaths-92286.html Gandhinagar Jan 4 Gujarat on Monday saw its daily coronavirus case number come under 700 at 698 taking its tally to 247926 while the death toll rose to 4321 with three more patients succumbing In January so far the state has recorded 2888 cases with an average of 722 daily A total of 898 patients were discharged taking the total to 234558 while there are 9047 active cases Ahmedabad saw 144 new cases Vadodara 130 Surat 124 Rajkot 64 and Dahod 26 Gandhinagar saw 24 Kutch 23 Junagadh 17 Bhavnagar and Narmada 15 each Kheda 13 Bharuch and Morbi 12 each Anand and Banaskantha nine each Panchmahals eight Jamnagar and Surendranagar seven each Mehsana and Sabarkantha six each GirSomnath five Mahisagar and Tapi four each Amreli Aravalli and Navsari three each and Valsad Botad Devbhoomi Dwarka Dangs and Chotta Udepur one each Two deaths were reported from Ahmedabad and one from Surat Till now health authorities have conducted 9858659 tests while 506392 people are in quarantine IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/gujarat-sees-698-new-covid-cases-three-more-deaths-92286.html Tue, 05 Jan 2021 22:52:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/recoveries-from-covid-cross-9-lakh-mark-in-karnataka-92289.html Bengaluru Jan 4 With 1283 patients discharged in a day the number of recoveries from Covid19 crossed the 9lakh mark in Karnataka on Monday Recoveries rose to 900202 till date with 1283 discharged during the day while 600 new cases on Sunday increased the states Covid tally to 922538 including 10207 active cases said the state health bulletin here on Monday With just three patients succumbing to the infection in the last 24 hours the states death toll rose to 12110 till date In Bengaluru 298 fresh cases were registered on Sunday taking its Covid tally to 389955 including 6691 active cases while recoveries increased to 378936 with 728 discharged during the day Only one death was reported in the day taking the citys death toll to 4327 since the pandemic broke in the state on March 8 Out of 196 patients in the intensive care units ICUs across the state 81 are in Bengaluru hospitals 14 in Tumakuru 13 in Kalaburagi and 10 in Hassan Of the 99166 tests conducted during the day 3651 were through rapidantigen detection and 95515 through RTPCR method Of the 2176 UK returnees tested so far only 37 were positive and 2101 were negative while results of 38 are awaited Out of 120 primary contacts of UK returnees tested 17 were positive and 103 were negative Positivity rate for the day was 060 per cent and case fatality rate 050 per cent across the southern state added the bulletin IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/recoveries-from-covid-cross-9-lakh-mark-in-karnataka-92289.html Tue, 05 Jan 2021 23:20:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/19-persons-arriving-from-uk-missing-in-patna-92291.html Patna Jan 4 At least 19 persons who arrived from the United Kingdom recently are missing in Patna officials said on Monday Patna Civil Surgeon Dr Vibha Kumari said that the matter has been handed over to the police The Patna airport has given the list of passengers who came from the UK from November 23 to December 31 and their addresses When health officials went to their houses to put them under quarantine they found they were missing Since their mobile numbers are untraceable it is extremely difficult to trace them out and put under quarantine Vibha Kumari told IANS The UK is witnessing surge in corona cases after detection of a new variation which causes a higher infection rate Hence Indias Health Ministry had issued fresh guidelines for passengers returning from the UK these days New versions of coronavirus are considered as more transmissible Hence we have to find them to prevent transmission of the deadly virus to others The acts of these passengers are extremely irresponsible and are a threat to other persons They could face legal action under the Disaster Management and Epidemic Acts We will also recommend authorities for cancellation of their passports as well she said IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/19-persons-arriving-from-uk-missing-in-patna-92291.html Tue, 05 Jan 2021 23:32:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/tn-govt-allows-100-occupancy-in-cinema-halls-92041.html Chennai Jan 4 Lending its ears to the demand of the owners the Tamil Nadu government on Monday permitted 100 per cent occupancy in cinema halls in the state According to the government the decision was taken as the number of Covid19 infections was coming down in the state The government had earlier permitted theatres to screen movies with 50 per cent occupancy The decision comes ahead of the Pongal festival when new movies are slated for release and also new coronavirus clusters star hotels IITMadras are cropping up The governments decision comes in the wake of actor Vijay meeting Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami who made a request to allow 100 per cent occupancy in the theatres Vijays movie Master is set for release during Pongal IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/tn-govt-allows-100-occupancy-in-cinema-halls-92041.html Tue, 05 Jan 2021 03:25:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/9-more-detected-with-uk-covid-strain-all-from-delhi-lab-92045.html New Delhi Jan 4 Nine more Covid patients have been detected carrying the new and highly infectious strain of novel coronavirus from the UK taking the total number of such cases to 38 in the country the Union Health Ministry said on Monday All the nine latest additions have been reported from a single laboratory in the national capital which accounts for nearly half of the total cases of new mutant coronavirus strain The Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology IGIB have reported all the new nine cases detected on Monday The National Centre for Disease Control NCDC have also reported 8 cases till date Together NCDC and IGIB have detected 18 of the total 38 cases Earlier 4 new cases of the UK strain were detected on January 1 when the total count had reached 29 A government official said all the 38 persons have been kept in singleroom isolation in designated health care facilities while their close contacts have also been put under quarantine Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for cotravellers family contacts and others Genome sequencing on other specimens is underway the official added The health ministry stated that the situation is under watch and regular advice is being provided to the states for enhanced surveillance containment testing and dispatch of samples to INSACOG labs The samples have so far been sequenced in six of the 10 designated labs across the country Of the total 38 the mutated UK strain was detected in the samples of eight persons at the NCDC 11 in the IGIB one in the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics NIBMG Kalyani near Kolkata five in the National Institute of Virology in Pune three in the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology CCMB in Hyderabad and 10 were sequenced at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences NIMHANS Bengaluru IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/9-more-detected-with-uk-covid-strain-all-from-delhi-lab-92045.html Tue, 05 Jan 2021 03:59:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/declare-legal-fraternity-priority-group-for-vaccination-tn-advocates-assn-92051.html Chennai Jan 4 Expressing shock at the omission of the members of the legal fraternity from the priority group to be vaccinated against coronavirus the Tamil Nadu Advocates Association on Monday demanded their inclusion in the first stage of vaccination It also threatened the central and state governments of legal action if their demand is not met In a statement issued here the associations S Prabhakaran said the Central and state governments should immediately declare legal fraternity as essential service personnel and include them in the list of priority groups eligible for Covid19 vaccination in the first phase itself Prabhakaran also said the Association will approach competent judicial forums and obtain necessary judicial orders and directives if lawyers and judicial officers are not declared priority professionals eligible for inoculation in the first phase IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/declare-legal-fraternity-priority-group-for-vaccination-tn-advocates-assn-92051.html Tue, 05 Jan 2021 04:50:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/75-uk-returnees-yet-to-be-traced-in-karnataka-health-minister-92068.html Bengaluru Jan 4 Karnataka health minister K Sudhakar on Monday said that the Home department and Bengaluru Civic Body are yet to track 75 passengers who returned from England after the new strain of Covid virus was detected two weeks ago Sudhakar told reporters that he was in touch with the home department and Bengaluru Civic Body authorities concerned to keep track of those 75 UK returnees who are missing since the campaign to detect trace and treat was launched 10 days ago This needs meticulous investigation and detection They Home and Bengaluru Civic Body authorities need more time The Government was trying to help these 75 returnees they need to understand this he explained Answering to a question the minister said that of these 75 returnees three returnees have submitted addresses of their country of origin while remaining 72 returnees have given their overseas cell number as a result of this the authorities are finding it difficult to locate them We have approached immigration authorities and they too have given details whatever we had sought But most of these details furnished by these missing passengers are incomplete We cannot term this as immigration authorities mistake but our people are working hard to track all of those missing he said The minister claimed that only 10 are infected with a new variant virus so far in the state It is not big number given the number of people who disembarked in the last one month he said He added that so far the total number of Covid positive among UK returnees reached 48 and of these 34 are those who returned from the UK while 14 are their primary or secondary contacts who tested Covid positive But the new strain of virus is found only in 10 among these 48 cases he said All of them are undergoing treatment and are without any serious health condition They will recover soon he said in response to a question Their swab samples are sent to the National Institute of Mental Health and NeuroSciences Nimhans for carrying out genome sequencing tests and 10 among them were confirmed to be infected by the new variant of the virus he explained It may be worth noting here a total of 5068 passengers returned to the state from England since November 25 to December 31 in two flightsAir India and British Airways Of these 5068 passengers 4238 passengers landed in Bengaluru from December 9 to December 31 and among those landed 810 are from other states Karnataka health and home departments took steps to inform their counterparts concerned of those states the minister had stated on Friday IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/75-uk-returnees-yet-to-be-traced-in-karnataka-health-minister-92068.html Tue, 05 Jan 2021 07:15:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/recoveries-stay-far-ahead-of-new-cases-in-jk-in-24-hours-92101.html Jammu Jan 4 Recoveries stayed far ahead of new Covid19 cases in JK on Monday as 419 patients recovered while 133 new Covid cases were reported in the last 24 hours According to the official bulletin out of 133 new cases 58 were from Jammu division and 75 from Kashmir division So far 121786 people have been infected with coronavirus in JK out it which 117211 have recovered while 1891 people have succumbed including five on Monday The number of active cases is 2684 outing which 134 are from Jammu division and 1450 are from Kashmir division IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/recoveries-stay-far-ahead-of-new-cases-in-jk-in-24-hours-92101.html Tue, 05 Jan 2021 10:45:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/covid-fallout-maha-pushes-hsc-ssc-boards-to-april-may-91909.html Mumbai Jan 4 The Maharashtra government is planning to hold the current Academic Year AY 20202021 HSC and SSC Board examinations in midApril and early May Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad said here on Monday We are considering holding HSC exams after April 15 and SSC exams after May 1 Gaikwad tweeted late on Sunday The Minister added that the government is consulting the health officials on the possibility of reopening schools for classes 5 to 8 and decision would soon be taken on this Normally the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education MSBSHSE conducts the crucial HSC exams in February followed by SSC in March This year owing to the Covid19 pandemic and lockdown the state schools are shut since the past 10 months and students have been attending online classes While endorsing the Ministers announcement the Mumbai Principals Association MPA has said that the exams should be pushed back even more since students will not get sufficient time to prepare for these critical exams The online classes are just okay and not very efficient There is no decision on reopening the schools for regular classes so far JanuaryFebebruary 2021 may be a washout That leaves only MarchApril for the students to prepare for the exams which is not sufficient MPA Secretary Principal Prashant Redij told IANS Moreover many people from urban areas are still stuck in their native villages and there could be further delays hampering their efforts to prepare for exams Redij expressed concerns that given the feedback received on the online education there could be a drop in academic standards students performance and the overall Board results this year According to MPAs estimates there are a little more than 150000 schools in the state attended by over 10 million students who are taught by around one million teachers in the public and private sector Parents and students also apprehend that they stand to lose a second consecutive year of the muchawaited annual summer vacations and they would be compelled to cancel their holiday plans even this year IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/covid-fallout-maha-pushes-hsc-ssc-boards-to-april-may-91909.html Mon, 04 Jan 2021 16:46:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/colleges-varsities-reopen-for-students-in-kerala-91983.html Thiruvananthapuram Jan 4 After a gap of nearly nine months colleges and universities in Kerala reopened for students on Monday with strict Covid safety norms However the classes will be conducted between 830 am and 5 pm on all days except Sundays Around 1350 higher educational institutions including arts and science colleges engineering colleges law colleges as well as all the state universities and the lone central university in the state located in Kasaragod have commenced their classes Only 50 per cent of students will be allowed in each class based on the strength in compliance with strict Covid19 norms Parvathi Babu a third year BA political science student of a college in Thiruvananthapuram told IANS Its an excitement to be among the classmates and teachers in physical form after such a long gap We were in virtual world for the past nine months However some teachers have expressed their discontent over the education departments decision to extend the timings of the classes Thomas Sebastian a teacher with a government arts college in the state capital said Workload is very high and with classes between 830 am and 5 pm teachers are overburdened Besides conducting classes on Saturdays is also not a good idea Higher Education Department Principal Secretary Usha Titus said that the new arrangement has been made to compensate for the gap and to ensure that the academic session continues normally Titus said The working pattern will adhere to the University Grants Commissions UGC guidelines which mandate 40 working hours a week of which 16 hours had to be dedicated to the classes of assistant professors and 14 hours for associate professors and professors Transport Minister AK Saseendran told media that he has already directed the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation KSRTC to immediately take action regarding the rollout of travel concession to students IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/colleges-varsities-reopen-for-students-in-kerala-91983.html Mon, 04 Jan 2021 23:09:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/telanganas-covid-tally-touches-287-lakh-with-238-new-cases-92002.html Hyderabad Jan 4 Telangana has added 238 fresh Covid19 cases taking the states cumulative tally to 287 lakh even as 518 more patients have recovered from the virus to outnumber the infections health officials said on Monday Hyderabad accounted for the highest number of infections in the past 24 hours 60 followed by Rangareddy district 26 Warangal Urban 20 Karimnagar and Medchal Malkajgiri 15 each Among other places Mancherial 8 Sangareddy 7 Nalgonda 6 Nizamabad Peddapalli and Jayashankar Bhupalapally 5 each Bhadradri Kothagudem Jogulamba Gadwal Khammam Mehboobnagar Medak Nagarkurnool Nirmal Suryapet and Warangal Rural 4 each Meanwhile two more patients succumbed to the virus in the past 24 hours pushing the toll to 1551 Telanganas Covid fatality rate stood at 053 per cent as compared to the national average of 14 per cent Active Covid cases currently stand at 5106 even as the state recorded a higher recovery rate of 9768 per cent as compared to the national average of 962 per cent IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/telanganas-covid-tally-touches-287-lakh-with-238-new-cases-92002.html Mon, 04 Jan 2021 23:45:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/ktr-congratulates-bharat-biotech-on-covaxin-approval-91799.html Hyderabad Jan 3 Telangana Minister for Industry and Information Technology KT Rama Rao on Sunday congratulated Bharat Biotech after its Covid19 vaccine Covaxin received emergency use approval from the drug regulator Rama Rao congratulated the Hyderabadbased companys Chairman and Managing Director Dr Krishna Ella Joint Managing Director Suchitra Ella and the entire team of scientists on getting DCGI approval for Covaxin Hyderabad continues to shine on as the vaccine capital because of the pursuit of excellence of scientists and innovative entrepreneurs tweeted KTR as the minister is popularly known Truly grateful for your belief in an indigenous technology and your persistent support replied Bharat Biotech The Drug Controller General of India DCGI on Sunday granted permission for emergency use of Covaxin This came a day after the emergency use authorisation EUA approval recommendation by the subject expert committee SEC of Central Drugs Standards Control Organization CDSCO Covaxin Indias indigenous Covid vaccine has been developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research ICMR National Institute of Virology NIV According to the company Covaxin is a highly purified and inactivated twodose SARSCoV2 vaccine manufactured in a Vero cell manufacturing platform with an excellent safety track record of more than 300 million doses The phase III human clinical trials of Covaxin began in November It is targeted for 26000 volunteers across India The company on Saturday announced that it enrolled 23000 volunteers This is Indias first and only Phase III efficacy study for a Covid19 vaccine and the largest phase III efficacy trial ever conducted for any vaccine in India Covaxin has been evaluated in approximately 1000 subjects in Phase I and Phase II clinical trials with promising safety and immunogenicity results with acceptance in international peer reviewed scientific journals This indigenous inactivated vaccine is developed and manufactured in Bharat Biotechs BSL3 BioSafety Level 3 biocontainment facility a oneofitskind in the world IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/ktr-congratulates-bharat-biotech-on-covaxin-approval-91799.html Mon, 04 Jan 2021 02:42:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/agra-records-covid-recovery-rate-of-9672-91852.html Agra Jan 4 The Agra district has reported a fall in the daily number of Covid19 cases Fourteen fresh cases were reported in the past 24 hours taking the tally to 10286 and the overall recovery rate improved to 9672 per cent In the past one week the numbers have been falling bringing some respite to the health administration in the district The daily numbers have now come down to below 25 from an alarming 100 plus in November and December The number of active cases now is 167 Since March 2020 there have been 170 deaths Meanwhile the state health department has completed the training for the vaccination A total of 68 vaccination centres have been set up in the district The dry run would be held on Tuesday according to RC Pandey Chief Medical Officer of Agra In the first phase 18901 health workers would receive the vaccine In the second phase frontline workers and the senior citizens are likely to be vaccinated IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/agra-records-covid-recovery-rate-of-9672-91852.html Mon, 04 Jan 2021 11:42:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/indias-daily-covid-numbers-dip-to-16-504-91887.html New Delhi Jan 4 India on Monday recorded 16504 fresh cases while 214 more people succumbed to the virus in 24 hours pushing the overall tally to 10340469 and toll to 149649 since the outbreak in January said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare This is the third time that daily count has remained within the 16000 bracket after June 23 and December 28 The total active cases in the country is 243953 The total recovery stands at 9946867 While the fatality rate stands at 145 as per cent the recovery rate stands at 9616 per cent Maharashtra continues to be the worsthit state till date The maximum mnumber of cases are from Kerala West Bengal Chhattisgarh Tamil Nadu Karnataka Uttar Pradesh among others Five states Kerala Maharashtra Uttar Pradesh West Bengal and Chhattisgarh contribute 62 per cent of the total active cases On Sunday the Central Licensing Authority granted permission to Hyderabadbased Bharat Biotech to manufacture Covaxin for sale and distribution after the indigenous coronavirus vaccine received regulatory approval for emergency use On Sunday Drug Controller General of India DCGI VG Somani announced that Bharat Biotechs Covaxin has been approved for restricted use in emergency situation The approval has also been given to Serum Institute of Indias Covishield vaccine The Centre plans to vaccinate nearly 30 crore people in the first phase of drive The vaccine will be offered to one crore healthcare workers along with two crore frontline and essential workers and 27 crore elderly mostly above the age of 50 years with comorbidities IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/indias-daily-covid-numbers-dip-to-16-504-91887.html Mon, 04 Jan 2021 15:04:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/dcgi-approves-serum-bharat-biotech-vaccine-for-emergency-use-91649.html New Delhi Drugs Controller General of India DCGI Dr V G Somani along with Principal Director General of Press Information Bureau K S Dhatwalia R during a press conference to announce the approval of Oxford COVID19 vaccine Covishield manufactured by the Serum Institute and indigenously developed Covaxin of Bharat Biotech for restricted emergency use in the country in New Delhi Sunday Jan 03 2021 PTI New Delhi Jan 3 Eleven months after the first case of deadly coronavirus was detected in India Drug Controller General of India DCGI VG Somani on Sunday approved Serum Institute of Indias Covishield vaccine and Bharat Biotechs Covaxin for emergency use paving way for its rollout and administration to millions After adequate examination the CDSCO has decided to accept the recommendations of the Subject Expert Committee and accordingly vaccine of Serum and Bharat Biotech are being approved for restricted use in emergency situation the Drugs Controller General of India Dr VG Somani said Covishield and Covaxin have to be administered in two doses and can be stored at 28 degree Celsius The Drugs Controller General of India has also granted permission to Cadila healthcare for phase 3 clinical trial in India This is a major relief for India which has the second highest number of infections in the world after the US The Central government plans to vaccinate nearly 30 crore people in the first phase of drive in the next six to eight months The vaccine will be first offered to one crore healthcare workers along with two crore frontline and essential workers and 27 crore elderly mostly above the age of 50 years with comorbidities On Saturday Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had announced that one crore healthcare workers along with two crore frontline workers will get the vaccine for free The Subject Expert Committee tasked with vetting the vaccine proposals had recommended OxfordAstra Zenecas Covishield and Bharat Biotechs indigenous Covaxin for emergency use approval on January 1 and 2 respectively The final call was to be taken by the DCGI The expert panel recommended granting permission for restricted emergency use of Covaxin in public interest as an abundant precaution in clinical trial mode specially in the context of infection by mutant strains The Subject Expert Committee consists of domain knowledge experts from the fields of pulmonology immunology microbiology pharmacology paediatrics internal medicine etc Punebased Serum Institute of India has partnered with OxfordAstraZeneca for conducting clinical trials and manufacturing Covishield while Bharat Biotech has collaborated with the Indian Council of Medical Research ICMR for Covaxin Serum and Bharat Biotech Pfizer had applied for the accelerated approval on December 6 and 7 respectively Serum Institute of India had submitted safety immunogenicity and efficacy data generated on 23745 participants aged more or equal to 18 years or older from overseas clinical studies The overall vaccine efficacy was found to be 7042 per cent Further Serum was granted permission to conduct PhaseIIIII clinical trials on 1600 participants within the country The firm also submitted the interim safety and immunogenicity data generated from this trial and the data was found comparable with the data from the overseas clinical studies The UK and Argentina have already approved the OxfordAstraZeneca vaccine More than five crore doses of the vaccine have already been stockpiled by its manufacturer Serum Institute of India OxfordAstraZeneca vaccine will play a major role in Indias plan to vaccinate its population against Covid19 due to several factors lowcost ease of storage and transport Serum Institute of India this week said that it has a stockpiled 4050 million doses of its Covid19 vaccine India is likely to receive a majority of these 50 million doses As far as Bharat Biotechs Covaxin is concerned it is Indias first indigenous vaccine for coronavirus The inactivated virus vaccine is being developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research ICMR and the National Institute of Virology NIV The firm had generated safety and immunogenicity data in various animal species such as mice rats rabbits Syrian hamster and also conducted challenge studies on nonhuman primates Rhesus macaques and hamsters All this data was shared by the firm with CDSCO Phase I and Phase II clinical trials were conducted in 800 subjects and the results demonstrated that the vaccine is safe and provides a robust immune response The Phase III efficacy trial was initiated in India in 25800 volunteers and till date 22500 participants have been vaccinated across the country and the vaccine has been found to be safe as per the data available till date IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/dcgi-approves-serum-bharat-biotech-vaccine-for-emergency-use-91649.html Sun, 03 Jan 2021 13:04:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-logs-18k-new-covid-cases-taking-tally-to-103cr-91656.html New Delhi Jan 3 With 18177 new coronavirus infections and 217 deaths in the past 24 hours Indias overall tally stood at 10323965 on Sunday while the death toll touched 149435 the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said Till now 9927310 have recovered Currently there are 247220 active cases The recovery rate stands at 9616 per cent while the fatality rate is 145 as per cent Maharashtra continues to be the worsthit state till date Over 70 per cent of the daily new cases are being reported by 10 states and union territory Kerala Maharashtra West Bengal Chattisgarh Tamil Nadu Karnataka Uttar Pradesh Madhya Pradesh Gujarat and Rajasthan Five States Kerala Maharashtra Uttar Pradesh West Bengal and Chhattisgarh contribute 62 per cent of the total active cases India has recorded one of the lowest new cases per million population in the last seven days 101 Brazil Russia France Italy the US and the UK have much higher cases per million population reported in the last 7 days Amid the rising cases the availability of vaccine has raised hopes OxfordAstraZenaca vaccine Covishield manufactured by Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotechs Covaxin have been recommended by the expert panel tasked with vetting covid19 vaccine proposals and has been forwarded to the Drug Controller General of India for approval The Central government plans to vaccinate nearly 30 crore people in the first phase of drive The vaccine will be offered to one crore healthcare workers along with two crore frontline and essential workers and 27 crore elderly mostly above the age of 50 years with comorbidities IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-logs-18k-new-covid-cases-taking-tally-to-103cr-91656.html Sun, 03 Jan 2021 13:28:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/corona-recoveries-cross-280-lakh-mark-in-telangana-91676.html Hyderabad Jan 3 Covid19 recoveries in Telangana crossed the 280lakh mark on Sunday as 574 more patients recovered during the last 24 hours even as the state reported 394 new cases Even as the total tally increased to 287502 the active cases dropped further to 5388 including 3210 in home or institutional isolation The recoveries now total 280565 in Telangana which has a recovery rate of 9758 per cent as against a national average of 961 per cent Three more Covid19 fatalities during the last 24 hours took the states death toll to 1549 The fatality rate remained 053 per cent as against a national average of 14 per cent According to Director of Public Health and Family Welfare 4496 per cent deaths were due to Covid19 and 5504 per cent had comorbidities As many as 40190 samples were tested 36875 in government and 3315 in private labs There are 18 government and 56 private laboratories and 1076 Rapid Antigen test centres in the state Samples tested per million population ratio rose further to 187842 Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation reported 81 new cases the fifth time in a week when it has registered less than 100 new cases Rangareddy district followed with 36 new cases Medchal Malkajgiri 29 Karimnagar 29 Warangal Urban 16 and Bhadradri Kothagudem 15 Over 90 per cent beds in government and private hospitals treating Covid19 patients in Telangana remained vacant Out of 8577 beds available in 61 government hospitals treating Covid19 patients 7779 beds are vacant A total of 798 patients were undergoing treatment in these hospitals Similarly in 219 private hospitals treating Covid19 patients only 1380 of the 7790 beds are occupied The data shows that 639 per cent of positive cases so far were aged between 21 and 50 2291 per cent aged above 51 and 1318 per cent below 20 Of the total cases 6044 per cent were males and 3937 per cent females IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/corona-recoveries-cross-280-lakh-mark-in-telangana-91676.html Sun, 03 Jan 2021 15:17:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-approves-2-covid-vaccines-for-emergency-use-91689.html New Delhi Jan 3 Eleven months after the first case of deadly coronavirus was detected in India Drug Controller General of India DCGI VG Somani on Sunday approved Serum Institute of Indias Covishield vaccine and Bharat Biotechs Covaxin for emergency use paving the way for their rollout and administration to millions This is a major relief for India which has the second highest number of infections in the world after the US The Central government plans to vaccinate nearly 30 crore people in the first phase of drive in the next six to eight months The vaccine will be first offered to one crore healthcare workers along with two crore frontline and essential workers and 27 crore elderly mostly above the age of 50 years with comorbidities The Subject Expert Committee tasked with vetting the vaccine proposals had recommended OxfordAstra Zenecas Covishield and Bharat Biotechs indigenous Covaxin for emergency use approval on January 1 and 2 respectively The final call was to be taken by the DCGI The expert panel recommended granting permission for restricted emergency use of Covaxin in public interest as an abundant precaution in clinical trial mode specially in the context of infection by mutant strains Punebased Serum Institute of India has partnered with OxfordAstraZeneca for conducting clinical trials and manufacturing Covishield while Bharat Biotech has collaborated with the Indian Council of Medical Research ICMR for Covaxin Serum and Bharat Biotech Pfizer had applied for the accelerated approval on December 6 and 7 respectively The UK and Argentina have already approved the OxfordAstraZeneca vaccine More than five crore doses of the vaccine have already been stockpiled by its manufacturer Serum Institute of India OxfordAstraZeneca vaccine will play a major role in Indias plan to vaccinate its population against Covid19 due to several factors lowcost ease of storage and transport Serum Institute of India this week said it has a stockpiled 4050 million doses of its Covid19 vaccine India is likely to receive a majority of these 50 million doses As far as Bharat Biotechs Covaxin is concerned it is Indias first indigenous vaccine for coronavirus The inactivated virus vaccine is being developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research ICMR and the National Institute of Virology NIV IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-approves-2-covid-vaccines-for-emergency-use-91689.html Sun, 03 Jan 2021 15:57:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/pandemic-winter-cardiac-issues-including-heart-attack-rise-by-50-91622.html New Delhi Jan 3 As the mercury continues to fall in bonechilling winter a contrasting scenario is being reported in hospitals of DelhiNCR The fastdipping temperature and the postCOVID trauma has led to a rise in cases of heartrelated issues Hospitals are witnessing at least 50 per cent rise in such cases in comparison to last winter The cases including heart attacks and strokes have significantly increased doctors told IANS Medanta Hospital in Gurugram said that it has seen 50 per cent rise in patients coming with heart issues since the start of December Aakash Healthcare in Delhi said that since the last two months the average patient count coming with cardiac issues has increased in the hospital It is now receiving an average 500 patients since November which was around 300 patients in previous years during winters Indraprastha Apollo Hospital is also witnessing a spike in cases of heart attacks and angina in the past 3 weeks Doctors said that extremely low temperature and postCOVID complications are the key contributors behind the reported rise in cardiac issues among the public Frigid temperatures constrict blood vessels that increase blood pressure which makes it suffer heart attack or stroke Besides Covid19 is also playing a major factor since it affects the circulatory system of the body If you catch the virus you are at an increased risk of having a heart attack or stroke COVID makes blood thicker and hence blocks arteries Dr Praveen Chandra Chairman Interventional Cardiology at Medanta explained Dr Anil Saxena Director Cardiology Fortis Escorts Heart Institute Delhi said that the risk of rise in heartrelated cases is a common phenomena during winters However Covid19 is aggravating the issue further this year Many patients with COVID infection are getting complications due to inflammation in the arteries and heart muscle itself This may complicate matters for heart patients he added Dr Ashish Agarwal Head Department of Cardiology at Aakash said that the COVID19 has substantially affected the hearts of its patients especially to those with preexisting heart problems or other comorbidities Having an incurable viral infection like COVID19 during winters can increase the risk of heart failure or heart attack This is because blood vessels in the body become more constricted due to exposure to extremely cold temperatures in winters that can restrict blood flow to the body and to the heart he informed A study published in JAMA Cardiology medical journal claimed that 78 per cent of Covid recovered patients have abnormalities in the heart while 60 per cent have an ongoing myocardial inflammation It also found higher levels of Troponins the blood enzyme which indicates heart damage among the study subjects Meanwhile Indraprastha Apollo Hospital said that the numbers are also increasing since the patients with existing heart ailments who have been delaying regular checkups amid the pandemic are now coming with aggrieved condition While dip in temperature is the major cause here the pandemic has made this situation even grimmer The patients with existing heart ailments who have been delaying regular checkups are the worsthit They are turning in with aggravated condition of their disease said Dr Mukesh Goel senior consultant Cardio Thoracic Surgery at the hospital told IANS Doctors advised that people with heart conditions and those who have recovered from COVID19 in the past few months need to remain watchful and take extra care to prevent any fatal heart condition during winters It is important to note that many patients with COVID infection have minimal symptoms but can still have sudden and severe complications Therefore one has to be especially watchful for any symptoms of heart disease Any chest discomfort or sudden difficulty in breathing should not be neglected One should seek medical care whenever such symptoms occur Prompt treatment of heart disease can minimise damage to the heart and save lives Dr Saxena cautioned Patients should undergo regular screening tests to check their heart health Besides standard of care practices should be applied such as avoiding fried food and alcohol layering of warm clothes and regular exercise Dr Agarwal advised IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/pandemic-winter-cardiac-issues-including-heart-attack-rise-by-50-91622.html Sun, 03 Jan 2021 10:21:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/4-new-uk-covid-variant-cases-detected-in-india-tally-29-91400.html New Delhi Jan 1 The central government on Friday said that four more cases of the mutant Covid UK strain have been detected in the country taking the total tally of such cases to 29 so far They are kept in physical isolation in health facilities Out of these 29 cases eight have been registered at National Centre for Disease Control in Delhi two at CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in Delhi 10 at National Institute of Mental Health and NeuroSciences in Bangalore Three such cases have been detected at Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad five at National Institute of Mental Health and NeuroSciences in Bangalore and one at National Institute of Biomedical Genomics in West Bengal On Tuesday a total of six UK returnees were found to be positive with the new variant genome These were the first cases to be reported by the country that has the second highest number of cases after the United States The British Government had recently announced that the newly identified strain of the virus found in their population is up to 70 per cent more transmissible Notably the new UK variant has already been reported by Denmark Netherlands Australia Italy Sweden France Spain Switzerland Germany Canada Japan Lebanon and Singapore From November 25 to December 23 midnight about 33000 passengers disembarked at various Indian airports from UK All these passengers are being tracked and subjected by states and UTs to RTPCR tests IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/4-new-uk-covid-variant-cases-detected-in-india-tally-29-91400.html Sat, 02 Jan 2021 11:24:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/karnataka-logs-877-fresh-covid-cases-1-084-recoveries-91461.html Bengaluru Jan 1 Karnataka has registered 877 new Covid19 cases even as 1084 patients recovered on a single day said the state health bulletin on Friday Of the 115451 tests conducted on Thursday 877 were positive taking the states Covid tally to 920373 including 11058 active cases while 897200 recovered so far with 1084 in the last 24 hours said the bulletin With only six succumbing to the infection in the day the states death toll rose to 12096 till date since the pandemic broke on March 8 Bengaluru reported 464 new cases taking its tally to 388850 including 7085 active cases while recoveries increased to 377443 with 608 patients discharged earlier in the day The virus claimed 4 lives in the day taking the citys death toll to 4321 Of the 189 patients in the intensive care units ICUs across the state 82 are in Bengaluru 13 in Kalaburagi 11 each in Gadag and Tumakuru and 10 in Hassan district Out of 117907 tests conducted on Friday 8951 were through rapidantigen detection and 108956 through RTPCR method Positivity rate for the day was 074 per cent and case fatality rate 068 per cent across the southern state added the bulletin IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/karnataka-logs-877-fresh-covid-cases-1-084-recoveries-91461.html Sat, 02 Jan 2021 15:21:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/22-members-of-telangana-family-test-positive-for-covid-91512.html Hyderabad Jan 2 Just when the Covid19 cases in Telangana appeared to be on a downward trend as many as 22 members of a family in Suryapet town have tested positive Health officials said on Saturday that the family members were found infected after they attended the last rites of a relative a few days ago Those tested positive are residents of a gated community in the town According to District Medical and Health Officer K Harshvardhan none of them has any symptoms They are under home isolation We are monitoring their condition he said The official also clarified that none of the family members has history of air travel and ruled out their being infected by the new mutant strain of the virus recently found in the UK One of the family members a Tuberculosis patient tested positive during regular checkups Since he had attended the funeral of a relative others who were present were also alerted The health department got Covid test conducted on a group of 38 people and of them 22 were found infected This is the first incident after nearly four months in which such a large number of people from one family has tested positive Officials said the family members who had gathered for the last rites were related to a 70yearold man who did not follow measures such as wearing face mask and physical distancing Authorities sounded an alert and collected samples of the neighbours They also took up sanitsation in the township The officials said there was no community transmission IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/22-members-of-telangana-family-test-positive-for-covid-91512.html Sat, 02 Jan 2021 19:05:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-logs-19k-new-covid-cases-224-deaths-91524.html New Delhi Jan 2 With 19078 new coronavirus infections and 224 deaths in the past 24 hours Indias overall tally stood at 10305788 on Saturday while the death toll touched 149218 the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said Till now 9906387 have recovered Currently there are 250183 active cases The recovery rate stands at 9608 per cent while the fatality rate is 145 per cent Maharashtra continues to be the worsthit state till date Over 70 per cent of the daily new cases are being reported by 10 states and union territories Kerala Maharashtra West Bengal Chhattisgarh Uttar Pradesh Karnataka Tamil Nadu Madhya Pradesh Gujarat and Rajasthan in random order The OxfordAstraZenaca vaccine has been recommended by the expert panel tasked with vetting Covid19 vaccine proposals and has been forwarded to the Drug Controller General of India for approval Once formalized the vaccine globally known as AZD1222 will be the first silver bullet for the country which has witnessed over one crore cases and nearly 15 lakh deaths till now The central government plans to vaccinate nearly 30 crore people in the first phase of the drive On Saturday a nationwide dry run of the vaccination process is underway after a mini drill was successful in four states in December end IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-logs-19k-new-covid-cases-224-deaths-91524.html Sat, 02 Jan 2021 20:33:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/telanganas-covid-recovery-rate-jumps-to-9752-91526.html Hyderabad Jan 2 The Covid19 recovery rate in Telangana rose to 9752 per cent on Saturday as 535 recoveries were reported during the last 24 hours The new figure took the cumulative number of recoveries to 279991 health officials said The states recovery rate is higher than the national average of 961 per cent The number of active cases in the state dropped further to 5571 including 3418 who are in home or institutional isolation Two persons succumbed to the virus in the last 24 hours taking the states death toll to 1546 The fatality rate remained 053 per cent against the national average of 14 per cent According to director of public health and family welfare 4496 per cent of the deaths occurred due to Covid19 while 5504 per cent had comorbidities The state reported only 293 new cases as the authorities conducted fewer tests The labs tested 26590 samples against 4000045000 While governmentrun laboratories conducted 22998 tests the remaining 3952 samples were tested in private labs There are 18 governmentrun laboratories 56 private laboratories and 1076 Rapid Antigen test centres in the state Samples tested per million population ratio rose further to 186762 Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation GHMC reported 72 new cases during last 24 hours Rangareddy district saw the second highest number of new cases at 34 followed by Medchal Malkajgiri 26 Karimnagar 22 Warangal Urban 14 and Sangareddy 12 Remaining districts recorded new cases in single digit Over 90 per cent of beds in governmentrun and private hospitals treating Covid19 in the state remained vacant Out of 8585 beds available in 61 government hospitals treating Covid 7807 beds were vacant A total of 778 people were undergoing treatment in these hospitals Similarly in 219 private hospitals treating Covid only 1375 beds were occupied Out of 7790 beds 6415 were vacant The data shows that 639 per cent of those tested positive so far were aged between 2150 years As many as 2291 per cent were aged above 51 years The positive cases include 1318 per cent who were below 20 years Of the total cases 6044 per cent were male and 3937 per cent female IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/telanganas-covid-recovery-rate-jumps-to-9752-91526.html Sat, 02 Jan 2021 20:50:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/lymphoma-drug-outperforms-remdesivir-against-covid-virus-91532.html Beijing Jan 2 A chemotherapy medication originally developed to treat lymphoma has outperformed the popular remdesivir drug against SARSCoV2 in lab settings and could potentially be repurposed to treat Covid19 say researchers A novel computational drug screening strategy combined with lab experiments suggest that pralatrexate drug is a promising candidate for Covid19 patients The novel screening approach identified four promising drugs which were then tested against SARSCoV2 in lab experiments Two of the drugs pralatrexate and azithromycin successfully inhibited replication of the virus Further lab experiments showed that pralatrexate more strongly inhibited viral replication than did remdesivir a drug that is currently used to treat some Covid19 patients said Haiping Zhang of the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology in Shenzhen China Zhanh and team screened 1906 existing drugs for their potential ability to inhibit replication of SARSCoV2 by targeting a viral protein called RNAdependent RNA polymerase RdRP The findings published in openaccess journal PLOS Computational Biology suggest that pralatrexate could potentially be repurposed to treat Covid19 However this chemotherapy drug can prompt significant side effects and is used for people with terminal lymphoma so immediate use for Covid19 patients is not guaranteed Still the findings support the use of the new screening strategy to identify drugs that could be repurposed the researchers noted With the Covid19 pandemic causing illness and death worldwide better treatments are urgently needed One shortcut could be to repurpose existing drugs that were originally developed to treat other conditions We have demonstrated the value of our novel hybrid approach that combines deeplearning technologies with more traditional simulations of molecular dynamics Zhang said He and his colleagues are now developing additional computational methods for generating novel molecular structures that could be developed into new drugs to treat Covid19 IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/lymphoma-drug-outperforms-remdesivir-against-covid-virus-91532.html Sat, 02 Jan 2021 21:36:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/kerala-schools-reopen-for-students-of-classes-10-and-12-91318.html Thiruvananthapuram Jan 1 As the new year was ushered in students of Classes 10 and 12 in state syllabus schools in Kerala returned to their classrooms on Friday after a hiatus of seven months The state board exams are scheduled for March 17 Authorities have taken all health precautions in the midst of coronavirus pandemic ordering classroom teaching in morning and afternoon batches in most schools from 9 am to 1 pm and 115pm to 515 pm Seating arrangements for students too have been made as per the social distance norm Almost all schools have made sanitisers available to students and staff as well as facilities to take care of health issues if needed Students have also been counselled on the pandemic and how to maintain social distance Class 10 student Anna Mariam Joy of Cottonhill High School here told IANS After seven months I am meeting my friends physically It is a great feeling However we are sitting at a distance in classroom and not interacting much Teachers are providing us all the necessary guidelines Krishnakumar a teacher at the Government High School at Pettah in Thiruvannathapuram told IANS Schools are extending all support to students whose presence in schools has increased our responsibility manifold Schools have made councillors available to provide emotional support to children in case needed I think things are getting back to normal IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/kerala-schools-reopen-for-students-of-classes-10-and-12-91318.html Sat, 02 Jan 2021 00:36:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/global-challenge-of-covid-has-given-scope-to-innovate-modi-91349.html New Delhi Jan 1 Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday laid the foundation stone of the Light House Projects LHP under the Global Housing Technology Challenge GHTCIndia and said the worldwide challenge of Covid19 has given the scope to innovate and incubate with new technology The six LHP has been conceptualised by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs The project aims to identify and mainstream several innovative technologies from across the world which are sustainable and disasterresilient Speaking on the occasion Modi said This global challenge of Covid19 has given us the scope to innovate and incubate with new technology From today work is starting on six Light House Projects at different locations These projects will be completed by modern technology and innovative processes The Prime Minister said at one time housing schemes were not the priority for the Central governments as much as it should have been However we know that transformation is impossible without allaround development The country has adopted a new approach and a different road ahead he said He also said that these six projects are really like lighthouses These six projects will show a new direction to the housing construction in the country These projects are incubation centres for our planners engineers architects and students to learn from They will also be able to experiment on new technology Modi said The Prime MInister said to promote research and innovation were running the ASHA India project Through this were developing new and cheap technology to build houses for the 21st century Citing examples of the use of new technology in construction Modi said that in Ranchi we are using 3D construction system from Germany In this pattern every room will be built separately and then the entire structure will be connected like lego blocks In Agartala we are building homes using steel frame technology from New Zealand This is to prevent the houses from the perpetual risk of earthquakes he said adding In Lucknow we are using technology from Canada Plaster and paint would not be needed in this and prebuilt walls will be used Earlier in the day Modi tweeted On the first day of 2021 will be taking part in a programme aimed at transforming Indias urban landscape Will lay the foundation stone of Light House Projects and distribute PMAY Urban and ASHAIndia Awards Under the project LHPs will be constructed in Agartala Lucknow Indore Rajkot Chennai and Ranchi with each location getting more than 1000 houses for the Economically Weaker Sections EWS The period of construction is maximum 12 months from the date these sites are handed over to the construction agency after all statutory approvals Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri and Chief Ministers of Tripura Uttar Pradesh Madhya Pradesh Gujarat Tamil Nadu Andhra Pradesh respectively also addressed the gathering IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/global-challenge-of-covid-has-given-scope-to-innovate-modi-91349.html Sat, 02 Jan 2021 04:13:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/75-uk-returnees-to-bengaluru-will-be-tracked-soon-ktaka-minister-91373.html Bengaluru Jan 1 Karnataka health minister K Sudhakar on Friday said the home department was yet to track 75 people who returned to the state from England since November 25 The minister told reporters that of the 75 people 70 are within the limits of Bengaluru civic body Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike and five are from other districts The home department had assured me that all 75 passengers will be tracked by Friday night as they are already in touch with the immigration department to cull data from them Among 75 patients many are from Karnataka and only a few are foreigners he said In response to a question the minister claimed that most of these passengers had not furnished their addresses and phone numbers properly hence the state government is finding it difficult to track them The home department is already in touch with the immigration department to gather every bit of information about these missing passengers he said According to him a total of 5068 passengers have returned to the state from England since November 25 to December 31 on Air India and British Airways flights Of these 5068 passengers 4238 passengers landed in Bengaluru from December 9 to December 31 and among them 810 are from other states Karnataka health and home departments have taken steps to inform their counterparts in those states he informed The minister added that about 38 people including five who came in contact as primary or secondary contacts with the Covid positive patients have been admitted to government hospitals Their swabs have been sent to the National Institute of Mental Health and NeuroSciences Nimhans for carrying out genome sequencing test Among these 38 patients only seven three are from Bengaluru and four are from Shivamogga have tested positive for the mutant virus he said IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/75-uk-returnees-to-bengaluru-will-be-tracked-soon-ktaka-minister-91373.html Sat, 02 Jan 2021 07:41:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/karnataka-logs-in-952-new-covid-cases-91197.html Bengaluru Dec 31 Karnataka registered 952 new cases in a day taking its Covid tally to 919496 including 11271 active cases said the state health bulletin on Thursday With 1282 patients discharged earlier in the day recoveries rose to 896116 across the state so far while 9 succumbed to the infection in the last 24 hours taking the death toll to 12090 said the bulletin Bengaluru reported 554 fresh cases on Wednesday taking its Covid tally rose to 388386 including 7233 active cases while 376835 recovered with 849 in the last 24 hours With the virus claiming six lives during the day the citys death toll rose to 4317 since the pandemic broke on March 8 across the southern state Out of 194 patients in the intensive care units ICUs across the state 87 are in Bengaluru hospitals 13 in Kalaburagi and 10 in Tumakuru district Of the 115451 tests conducted during the day 9088 were through rapidantigen detection and 106363 through RTPCR method Of the 63 UK returnees tested in the day two were positive while results of the remaining 61 are awaited Of the total 2028 UK returnees tested till date 33 were positive and 1887 were negative while results of 108 are awaited Positivity rate for the day is 082 per cent and case fatality rate is 094 per cent across the southern state added the bulletin IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/karnataka-logs-in-952-new-covid-cases-91197.html Fri, 01 Jan 2021 17:23:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-logs-over-20k-new-corona-cases-256-more-deaths-91288.html New Delhi Jan 1 With 20036 new coronavirus infections and 256 deaths in the past 24 hours Indias overall tally climbed up to 10286709 and the death toll 148994 on Friday the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said Till now 9883461 patients have recovered Currently there are 254254 active cases The recovery rate stands at 9608 per cent and the fatality rate 145 per cent A total of 173111694 samples have been tested for Covid19 till now Of these 1062420 samples were tested on Thursday the Indian Council of Medical Research ICMR said Maharashtra continues to be the worsthit state Over 70 per cent of the daily new cases are getting reported from Kerala Maharashtra West Bengal Chhattisgarh Uttar Pradesh Karnataka Tamil Nadu Madhya Pradesh Gujarat and Rajasthan The Drug Controller General of India DCGI is currently analysing data submitted by the Serum Institute of India which is manufacturing OxfordAstraZeneca vaccine and Bharat Biotech which is making indigenous vaccine in collaboration with ICMR The expert panel will convene a meeting on this on Friday The central government plans to vaccinate nearly 30 crore persons in the first phase It will be offered to one crore healthcare workers along with 2 crore frontline and essential workers and 27 crore elderly mostly above the age of 50 with comorbidities IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-logs-over-20k-new-corona-cases-256-more-deaths-91288.html Fri, 01 Jan 2021 20:57:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/be-on-guard-despite-decline-in-corona-cases-haryana-cm-91300.html Chandigarh Jan 1 Extending New Years greetings to the public Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday warned people to remain on guard despite a declining trend in coronavirus cases in the state It is a matter of relief that coronavirus cases in the state are now gradually reducing but we still have to take precautions Khattar tweeted May this New Year pave the way for happiness prosperity and progress in your lives he added IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/be-on-guard-despite-decline-in-corona-cases-haryana-cm-91300.html Fri, 01 Jan 2021 22:26:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/goa-considering-night-curfew-in-view-of-tourist-surge-91139.html Panaji Dec 31 Anticipating a surge in tourists during and after New Year the Goa government is considering imposing a night curfew on the lines of the one imposed in the national capital and in Karnataka Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said on Thursday Spoke to the Honble CM on imposing night curfew in the state on lines of the state of Delhi Karnataka The file is already in process Strict SOPs is the need of the hour as Goa is a tourist state Rane said via his official Facebook account Goa has witnessed a surge in the tourist arrivals over the last few weeks which peaked during the festive season of Christmas celebrations in the state Tourist authorities in the state are expecting another surge in the arrivals during the New Celebrations which stretch into the upcoming weekend IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/goa-considering-night-curfew-in-view-of-tourist-surge-91139.html Thu, 31 Dec 2020 20:36:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/night-curfew-across-odisha-on-new-year-eve-91141.html Bhubaneswar Dec 31 In order to prevent further spread of Covid19 the Odisha government has imposed night curfew across the state from 10 pm on Thursday to 5 am on Friday to restrict New Year eve celebrations However all essential services and movements would be allowed during the curfew hours The government of Odisha is imposing night curfew from 10 pm tonight to 5 am tomorrow morning across the state The general public is requested to cooperate All essential services and movements are allowed to continue during the curfew hours Special Relief Commissioner SRC Pradeep Kumar Jena tweeted on Thursday Jena said that even though Covid19 cases were witnessing a decreasing trend in Odisha the people needed to be cautious as congregations would aggravate the situation Besides there was a threat of new mutant coronavirus strain which is significantly more infectious he added CuttackBhubaneswar Police Commissioner Sudhanshu Sarangi said all hotels and shops will remain closed during the night curfew in the twin cities He said that around 40 platoons of police will be deployed to enforce the curfew The state had ordered on Wednesday to prohibit congregations in public places for zeronight celebrations and similar other functions on December 31 and January 1 across the state It said that congregations in public places including hotels restaurants clubs parks convention centres and Kalyan Mandap to welcome the New Year and similar other revelleries was prohibited IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/night-curfew-across-odisha-on-new-year-eve-91141.html Thu, 31 Dec 2020 20:44:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/recoveries-continue-to-outnumber-new-covid-cases-in-karnataka-90962.html Bengaluru Dec 30 With 1217 patients discharged in a day recoveries continued to outnumber 973 new Covid cases in Karnataka according to the states health bulletin on Wednesday With 1217 patients discharged in the day recoveries rose to 894834 till date while 973 new cases on Tuesday increased the states Covid tally to 918544 so far including 11610 active cases said the bulletin here With 7 succumbing to the infection in the last 24 hours the states death toll rose to 12081 since the pandemic broke on March 8 Bengaluru registered 554 fresh cases taking its tally to 387832 including 7534 active cases while recoveries rose to 375986 with 765 discharged in the last 24 hours The virus claimed 5 lives in the day taking the citys death toll to 4311 Of the 202 patients in the intensive care units ICUs across the southern state 89 are in Bengaluru hospitals 12 in Kalaburagi and 10 in Tumakuru district Out of 103857 tests conducted in the day 11137 were through rapidantigen detection and 92720 through RTPCR method Of the 62 UK returnees tested in the day 2 were positive and 60 were negative Of the total 1965 UK returnees tested till date 31 were positive and 1680 were negative while results of 248 are awaited added the bulletin Positivity rate for the day was 093 per cent and case fatality rate 071 per cent across the state IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/recoveries-continue-to-outnumber-new-covid-cases-in-karnataka-90962.html Thu, 31 Dec 2020 01:32:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/covid-restrictions-in-jk-extended-90998.html Jammu Dec 31 The Jammu and Kashmir government on Thursday extended restrictions under the Covid protocol up to January 31 2021 Keeping in view the apprehensions expressed after the arrival of a Covid19 positive patient in Jammu city who recently travelled into the country from abroad authorities have decided to continue the ongoing restrictions under the Covid protocol up to January 31 According to the new guidelines all schools colleges and other educational institutions will remain closed up to the end of January Online classes will however be held for the students of all such educational institutions All the 20 districts of JK have been categorised as Orange and everybody has been advised to strictly follow the precautions detailed for such areas District level officials have been directed to ensure that no large gatherings are allowed in connection with the new year eve celebrations on Thursday People are advised to welcome the new year while keeping their personal safety in view an official of the provincial administration said Meanwhile authorities have decided to undertake genome sequencing of the Covid positive patient who arrived in Jammu city from abroad a few days ago Experts fear the patient might be infected with the new variant of the virus All the family members of the patient have been shifted to official quarantine and reports said many of them have tested positive IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/covid-restrictions-in-jk-extended-90998.html Thu, 31 Dec 2020 10:03:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/almost-22k-new-covid-cases-take-india-tally-to-102-cr-91026.html New Delhi Dec 31 With 21821 new Coronavirus infections and 299 deaths in the past 24 hours Indias overall tally stood at 10266674 on Thursday while the death toll touched 148738 the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said Till now 9860280 have recovered Currently there are 257656 active cases The recovery rate stands at 9604 per cent while the fatality rate is at 145 per cent A total of 172049274 samples have been tested for Covid19 till now Of these 1127244 samples were tested on Wednesday the Indian Council of Medical Research ICMR said Maharashtra continues to be the worsthit state till date Over 70 per cent of the daily new cases are being reported by 10 states and union territory Kerala Maharashtra West Bengal Chhattisgarh Uttar Pradesh Karnataka Delhi Tamil Nadu Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh in random order IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/almost-22k-new-covid-cases-take-india-tally-to-102-cr-91026.html Thu, 31 Dec 2020 11:50:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/telanganas-daily-covid-count-dips-further-to-415-91040.html Hyderabad Dec 31 In a further drop in new Covid cases in Telangana the health authorities on Thursday reported 415 new infections during the last 24 hours The new cases detected out of a sample size of over 43000 pushed the states tally to 286354 Three more persons succumbed to the virus during the last 24 hours taking the death toll to 1541 The fatality rate remained 53 per cent against the national average of 14 per cent According to director of public health and family welfare 4496 per cent of the deaths occurred due to COVID while 5504 per cent had comorbidities Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation GHMC reported 91 new cases during last 24 hours This is the fifth time in a week that the daily count of cases dropped to below 100 Rangareddy district saw the second highest number of new cases at 43 followed by Medchal Malkajgiri 39 Karimnagar 33 Warangal Urban 31 and Mancherial 17 The state saw 316 recoveries during the last 24 hours taking the cumulative numbers to 278839 The recovery rate stands at 9737 per cent as against the national average of 96 per cent The number of active cases in the state has also dropped to below 6000 The number now stands at 5974including 3823 who are in home or institutional isolation Over 90 per cent of beds in governmentrun and private hospitals treating COVID19 in the state remained vacant Out of 8584 beds available in 61 government hospitals treating COVID 7834 beds were vacant A total of 750 people were undergoing treatment in these hospitals Similarly in 219 private hospitals treating COVID only 1401 beds were occupied Out of 7790 beds 6389 were vacant Of the 43413 tests conducted during the last 24 hours governmentrun laboratories accounted for 39210 while remaining 4203 samples were tested in private labs Samples tested per million population ratio rose further to 184919 The daily testing target for the state is 5600 per day as per the World Health Organisation WHO benchmark of 140 per million per day officials said Eighteen governmentrun laboratories 56 private laboratories and 1076 Rapid Antigen test centres are conducting the tests in the state The data shows that 639 per cent of those tested positive so far were aged between 2150 years As many as 2291 per cent were aged above 51 years The positive cases include 1318 per cent who were below 20 years Of the total cases 6044 per cent were male and 3937 per cent female IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/telanganas-daily-covid-count-dips-further-to-415-91040.html Thu, 31 Dec 2020 13:09:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/5-new-cases-of-mutant-uk-virus-found-total-25-cases-91064.html New Delhi Dec 31 The Centre on Thursday said that five more cases of the mutant Coronavirus from the UK have been detected in the country taking the total tally of such cases to 25 so far Out of the five new cases four have been found by the National Institute of Virology in Pune and one by CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in Delhi All 25 persons are in physical isolation in health facilities the Health Ministry said in a statement Of the 20 other cases eight have been registered at National Centre for Disease Control in Delhi 7 at National Institute of Mental Health and NeuroSciences in Bangalore two at Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad Besides one each has been logged at National Institute of Biomedical Genomics near Kolkata National Institute of Virology in Pune and CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in Delhi On Tuesday a total of six UK returnees were found to be positive with the new variant genome the central government had announced and added that all these people have been kept in a single room isolation in designated health care facilities These were the first cases to be reported by the country that has the second highest number of cases after the United States The British Government had recently announced that the newly identified strain of the virus found in their population is up to 70 per cent more transmissible It is important to note that the presence of the new UK variant has already been reported by Denmark Netherlands Australia Italy Sweden France Spain Switzerland Germany Canada Japan Lebanon and Singapore Pursuant to announcement by British Government Indian government had taken cognisance of the reports of mutant variant and put in place a proactive and preventive strategy to detect and contain the mutant variant It included temporary suspension of all flights coming from UK with effect from the midnight of December 23 till 31 It was later extended to January 7 The coronavirusinduced suspension of scheduled international passenger flights other than air bubble ones has been extended till January 31 From November 25 to December 23 midnight about 33000 passengers disembarked at various Indian airports from the UK All these passengers are being tracked and subjected by states and UTs to RTPCR tests IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/5-new-cases-of-mutant-uk-virus-found-total-25-cases-91064.html Thu, 31 Dec 2020 15:25:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/night-curfew-in-delhi-on-dec-31-jan-1-91088.html New Delhi Dec 31 The Delhi Disaster Management Authority on Thursday ordered the imposition of night curfew in the national capital on December 31 and January 1 from 11 pm to 6 am The decision has been taken to contain the spread of the coronavirus spread Delhiites visiting markets malls and other places to celebrate New Year evening and the first day of the year will have to return home before 11 pm However the restriction will not be applicable on interstate travel People will be allowed to enter the city from other states It has been decided to impose a night curfew in the national capital to avoid congestion on the streets of Delhi on December 31 The Delhi Disaster Management Authority said in its order This order has been issued due to the crowds celebrating the New Year There is a danger of coronavirus infection further spreading due to increased crowd According to this more than five people at one time cannot assemble at a public place New Year celebrations will not be allowed in any public place in Delhi Places like restaurants etc which have a licence will not come under the purview of a public place Delhi is witnessing a record decline in the corona cases As per the latest figures Delhi had 677 new cases of coronavirus The overall tally so far has reached 624795 Out of these more than 608 lakh have been discharged while 10523 have died There are still 5838 active corona patients in Delhi According to the Delhi government arrangements are being made to provide vaccines to the people of Delhi Three types of people will be given vaccine on a priority basis The first among these are the health workers frontline workers and those above 50 years of age or have comorbidities Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has given the information about the corona vaccine and its storage According to the Chief Minister there are about 51 lakh people in Delhi who will be vaccinated on priority For this 102 crore doses are needed At present the Delhi government has the capacity to store 74 lakh doses The storage capacity of the corona vaccine will also be increased to make it available to all the Delhiites at the earliest According to the Chief Minister in the next few days the storage capacity of the vaccine will be increased to 15 million doses IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/night-curfew-in-delhi-on-dec-31-jan-1-91088.html Thu, 31 Dec 2020 16:47:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/new-research-explains-severe-virus-attacks-on-lungs-91093.html London Dec 31 A team of Swedish researchers has revealed how different kinds of immune cells called macrophages develop in the lungs and which of them may be behind severe lung diseases a discovery that may contribute to future treatments for Covid19 among other diseases To date research on the development of human lung macrophages has been limited In a new study published in Immunity researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden used a model to study the development of lung macrophages directly in a living lung This has been combined with a method to study gene activity in individual cells RNA sequencing and thereby discovered how blood monocytes become human lung macrophages In our study we show that classical monocytes migrate into airways and lung tissue and are converted into macrophages that protect the health and function of the lungs said Tim Willinger Associate Professor at the Department of Medicine who led the study We have also identified a special kind of monocyte HLADRhi which is an intermediate immune cell between a blood monocyte and an airway macrophage These HLADRhi monocytes can leave the blood circulation and migrate into the lung tissue Macrophages are immune cells that among other things protect the lungs from such attacks But under certain conditions lung macrophages can also contribute to severe lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease COPD and Covid19 The nonclassical monocytes however develop into macrophages in the many blood vessels of the lungs and do not migrate into the lung tissue In an infection with the novel coronavirus SARSCOV2 which causes Covid19 researchers believe that protective antiinflammatory macrophages are replaced by proinflammatory lung macrophages from blood monocytes Given their important role in rapid inflammatory responses our results indicate that future treatments should focus on inflammatory macrophages and monocytes to reduce lung damage and mortality from severe Covid19 said Willinger IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/new-research-explains-severe-virus-attacks-on-lungs-91093.html Thu, 31 Dec 2020 17:27:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/no-contacts-of-uk-strain-infectees-tested-positive-satyendar-91123.html New Delhi A view outside the LNJP hospital where seven UK returnees who tested positive for the new strain of the coronavirus have been isolated in a special ward in New Delhi Thursday Dec 31 2020 PTI New Delhi Dec 31 No contact of coronavirus patients detected with UK strain has tested positive in a surveillance drive undertaken by the Delhi government Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Thursday Jain told IANS that all contacts of Covid19 patients infected with the mutant strain of novel coronavirus had been tested by the government but none was found infected We have tested all contacts of the patients with UK strain infection Noone has been found infected apart from those 38 admitted in the LNJP he said IANS had reported that the number of persons suspected to be infected with the new strain had risen to 38 in Delhi after three more persons including returnees from the UK and a contact were found corona positive during a surveillance drive on Wednesday All 38 patients are kept in isolation at the Lok Nayak Jaiprakash LNJP Hospital Of them 17 are UK returnees while remaining are their contacts All the patients found infected with the new variant have been isolated in different rooms of a special ward designated for suspected patients or those found infected with the new variant Dr Suresh Kumar Medical Director of Delhi governmentrun hospital had said Besides the AAP government has quarantined around 200 people who either returned from the UK within a month or are in contact with those travellers found positive at two facilities in Aerocity and Chattarpur The UT government has found over 14000 passengers who arrived at the Indira Gandhi International Airport IGIA since November 25 Of them around 4000 were found to be residing in Delhi The Delhi government has designated 2000bed LNJP as the nodal centre for isolation of persons suspected to carry the new variant of Covid19 Meanwhile the Centre said on Thursday that five more cases of mutant coronavirus strain from the UK have been detected in the country taking the total tally of such cases to 25 based on genome sequencing of positive samples released by the Indian SarsCoV2 Genomics Consortium INSACOG labs The samples have so far been sequenced in seven of the 10 designated labs across the country with seven samples testing positive in NIMHANS Bengaluru two in CCMB Hyderabad five in NIV Pune eight in NCDC Delhi two in IGIB Delhi and one in NIBG Kalyani West Bengal IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/no-contacts-of-uk-strain-infectees-tested-positive-satyendar-91123.html Thu, 31 Dec 2020 19:28:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/474-new-corona-cases-in-telangana-only-three-more-deaths-90891.html Hyderabad Dec 30 Coronavirus cases in Telangana continued to decline as the state reported 474 new cases on Wednesday and deaths of only three more patients While the states case tally went up to 285939 the death toll increased to 1538 The states active cases now total 6878 including 3735 in home or institutional isolation The fatality rate remained 053 per cent as against the national average of 14 per cent According to Public Health and Family Welfare Director 4496 per cent of the deaths occurred due to COVID19 while 5504 per cent had comorbidities Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation GHMC reported 102 new cases during the last 24 hours followed by Rangareddy district 49 Medchal Malkajgiri 45 Karimnagar 29 Warangal Urban 25 and Bhadradri Kothagudem 18 The state also recorded 592 recoveries during the last 24 hours taking the cumulative numbers to 278523 and the recovery rate to 9740 per cent as against the national average of 96 per cent Over 90 per cent of the beds in government and private hospitals treating COVID19 in the state remained vacant Out of 8559 beds available in 61 government hospitals treating COVID19 patients 7792 beds were vacant A total of 767 patients were undergoing treatment in these hospitals Similarly in 219 private hospitals treating COVID19 patients only 1376 beds were occupied Out of 7791 beds 6415 were vacant Of the 45590 tests conducted during the last 24 hours governmentrun laboratories accounted for 41123 and private labs the remaining 4467 Samples tested per million population ratio rose further to 183752 The daily testing target for the state is 5600 per day as against the World Health Organisation WHO benchmark of 140 per million per day officials said Eighteen government and 56 private laboratories and 1076 Rapid Antigen test centres are conducting the tests in the state Official data showed that 639 per cent of positive cases were aged between 21 and 50 2291 per cent above 51 and 1318 per cent below 20 Of the total cases 6044 per cent were males and 3937 per cent females IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/474-new-corona-cases-in-telangana-only-three-more-deaths-90891.html Wed, 30 Dec 2020 19:59:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/uk-approves-oxford-covid-19-vaccines-for-use-90947.html London Dec 30 The UK on Wednesday approved the Oxford UniversityAstraZenecas Covid19 vaccine for use after authorisation by the countrys medicines regulator The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency MHRA concluded that the vaccine has met its strict standards of safety quality and effectiveness The UK has already vaccinated hundreds of thousands of patients with the PfizerBioNTech vaccine and its roll out will continue The National Health Service NHS in the UK will begin putting their extensive preparations into action to roll out the Oxford UniversityAstraZeneca vaccine the goverment said The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation JCVI has advised the priority should be to give as many people in atrisk groups their first dose rather than providing the required two doses in as short a time as possible Everyone will still receive their second dose and this will be within 12 weeks of their first The second dose completes the course and is important for longer term protection the government said From today the NHS across the UK will prioritise giving the first dose of the vaccine to those in the most highrisk groups With two vaccines now approved we will be able to vaccinate a greater number of people who are at highest risk protecting them from the disease and reducing mortality and hospitalisation IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/uk-approves-oxford-covid-19-vaccines-for-use-90947.html Wed, 30 Dec 2020 23:43:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/new-mutant-has-not-entered-state-maharashtra-govt-90724.html By Quaid Najmi Mumbai Dec 29 The new Covid19 mutant strain found in the UK has not yet been detected in Maharashtra till date but the state is keeping its fingers crossed and is fully geared to tackle it whenever necessary a top state medical officer said here on Tuesday So far from among all UK returnees in the past few days 30 have tested positive for Covid19 Theres nobody detected so far with the new strain Maharashtra Surveillance Officer Epidemiology Department ED Dr Pradip Awate told IANS However assured that the state has not let its guard down and all Covid19 protocols and guidelines are being implemented stringently across the state besides people being advised to follow all dos and donts scrupulously Theres absolutely no cause for worry although the new strain of virus is said to spread rapidly All must follow the relevant SOPs of the government said Dr Awate in a cautionary note Heading the critical ED in the state which compiles the daily Covid19 data from all the 36 districts and 27 municipal corporation authorities Dr Awate is usually the first who learns of the states Covid19 status the infection rate deaths or discharges As far as Mumbai is concerned where most flights in the state from the UK and MiddleEast land till Sunday December 27 a total of 17 flights were monitored with 1469 passengers Of these 762 passengers have been quarantined in Mumbai 700 arrivals sent to other states and seben travellers were exempted from quarantine as per rules said a civic official declining to be identified We have an elaborate system in place to detect people who are either coming from the UK or Middle East or who may be coming from some other country but have travelled to the UK or Middle East in the past one month All their details are available with us and theres no cause for any panic said the official Since December 23 Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope has already ordered an extensive survey of all people who have returned from the UKMiddle East after November 25 They include all travelers who have flown in from these two regions to Mumbai Pune and Nagpur international airports with comprehensive measures to detect if any are Covid19 positive with the necessary followup measures for a month even if they test negative Maharashtra remains the cradle of the coronavirus with a total of 1922048 cases recorded since March 9 and 49305 deaths till date Pune district is the countrys top Covid19 hotbed with a total 370962 cases and 7726 deaths followed by the other hotspots like Mumbai district with 291471 cases and 11088 fatalities and Thane district with 253308 cases and 5556 deaths till date Nagpur comes next with 124278 infections and 3194 deaths besides Nashik with 114416 cases and 1886 fatalities till now In terms of deaths the list is led by Mumbai with Pune Thane Nagpur and Nashik in tow but with respect of the total cases recorded till date the list is topped by Pune and followed by Mumbai Thane Nagpur and Nashik The state has also notched an impressive 9404 per cent recovery rate and a 257 per cent mortality death rate with the number of active cases standing at 57159 IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/new-mutant-has-not-entered-state-maharashtra-govt-90724.html Wed, 30 Dec 2020 00:59:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/recoveries-more-than-double-new-covid-cases-in-karnataka-90741.html Bengaluru Dec 30 With 1344 discharged recoveries were more than double the new 662 Covid19 cases in a single day across Karnataka Recoveries shot up to 893617 with 1344 patients discharged in the day while 662 fresh cases on Monday increased the states Covid tally to 917571 including 11861 positive cases said the state health bulletin on Tuesday With only 4 succumbing to the infection in the last 24 hours the states death toll rose to 12074 since the pandemic broke out on March 8 Bengaluru registered 370 fresh cases taking its tally to 387278 including 7750 active cases while recoveries rose to 375 221 with 843 discharged earlier in the day Two patients died of the virus taking the citys death toll to 4306 till date Of the 206 patients in the intensive care units ICUs across the southern state 92 are in Bengaluru hospitals 12 in Kalaburagi and 10 in Tumakuru Out of 86399 tests conducted on Monday 10155 were through rapidantigen detection and 76244 through RTPCR method Of the 137 UK returnees tested 2 are positive 85 negative and results of 50 are awaited Of the 1903 UK returnees till date 29 tested positive 1599 negative while results of 275 are awaited added the bulletin Positivity rate for the day was 076 per cent and case fatality rate 060 per cent IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/recoveries-more-than-double-new-covid-cases-in-karnataka-90741.html Wed, 30 Dec 2020 03:09:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/2-year-old-in-up-tests-positive-for-new-covid-strain-90771.html Meerut Uttar Pradesh Dec 30 A twoyearold girl who recently returned to Meerut with her parents from the UK has been found to be infected with the new Covid19 strain This is the first such case in Uttar Pradesh of the new variant of Covid 19 virus which is said to be 70 per cent more transmissible than its previous form The parents of the twoyearold however have been found to be infected with the old Covid19 variant the health officials in Meerut said The child is in an isolation ward with her parents at Meeruts Subharti Medical College A girl who recently returned from the UK has tested positive for the new Covid19 strain in Meerut as per the reports received on Tuesday evening Her parents have tested positive for Covid19 too but it is not the new strain She has been kept in isolation said Meeruts Chief Medical Officer Akhilesh Mohan Four members of the family had tested positive for Coronavirus earlier after which their samples were sent to Delhi to confirm the new strain Out of the four samples the twoyearold girls sample has tested positive for the new Coronavirus strain The family belongs to Sant Vihar of TP Nagar Police Station area Their locality has been sealed while locals in the area are being monitored There has been several cases of the new strain including people who had recently returned from the UK to India and tested positive three in Karnataka one each in Pune and Tamil Nadu and two in Hyderabad The new strain reportedly spreads at a much faster pace and has sent alarm bells ringing across the world Like many countries India has suspended flights from Britain where cases have soared because of the variant People arriving from Britain before the ban came into force are being tested Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed officials to upgrade testing systems and prepare to check the spread of the new virus variant IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/2-year-old-in-up-tests-positive-for-new-covid-strain-90771.html Wed, 30 Dec 2020 10:32:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-reports-less-than-20k-new-covid-19-cases-90796.html New Delhi Dec 30 With 20550 new coronavirus infections and 286 deaths in the past 24 hours Indias overall tally stood at 10244853 on Wednesday while the death toll touched 148439 the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said Till now 9834141 have recovered Currently there are 262272 active cases The recovery rate stands at 9599 per cent while the fatality rate is 145 as per cent Covid19 has hit men harder than women in India where 70 per cent of the approximately 147 lakh people who died since the national outbreak in January were male the ministry has announced A total of 170922030 samples have been tested for Covid19 till now Of these 1120281 samples were tested on Tuesday the Indian Council of Medical Research ICMR said Maharashtra continues to be the worsthit state till date Over 70 per cent of the daily new cases are being reported by 10 states and union territory Kerala Maharashtra West Bengal Chattisgarh Uttar Pradesh Karnataka Delhi Tamil Nadu Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh in random order India has recorded 15 more cases of the new UK coronavirus mutant strain taking total number of such cases to 21 data from the Union Health Ministry and state departments showed on Wednesday Of the 20 cases eight have been registered at National Centre for Disease Control in Delhi 7 at National Institute of Mental Health and NeuroSciences in Bangalore two at Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad A twoyearold in Meerut who just returned with her parents from the UK The child is in an isolation ward with her parents at Meeruts Subharti Medical College The parents have tested positive for Covid but not the new strain Then there is one each who has been logged at National Institute of Biomedical Genomics near Kolkata National Institute of Virology in Pune and CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in Delhi IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-reports-less-than-20k-new-covid-19-cases-90796.html Wed, 30 Dec 2020 12:45:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-reports-less-than-21k-new-covid-19-cases-90807.html New Delhi Dec 30 With 20550 new coronavirus infections and 286 deaths in the past 24 hours Indias overall tally stood at 10244853 on Wednesday while the death toll touched 148439 the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said Till now 9834141 have recovered Currently there are 262272 active cases The recovery rate stands at 9599 per cent while the fatality rate is 145 as per cent Covid19 has hit men harder than women in India where 70 per cent of the approximately 147 lakh people who died since the national outbreak in January were male the ministry has announced A total of 170922030 samples have been tested for Covid19 till now Of these 1120281 samples were tested on Tuesday the Indian Council of Medical Research ICMR said Maharashtra continues to be the worsthit state till date Over 70 per cent of the daily new cases are being reported by 10 states and union territory Kerala Maharashtra West Bengal Chattisgarh Uttar Pradesh Karnataka Delhi Tamil Nadu Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh in random order India has recorded 15 more cases of the new UK coronavirus mutant strain taking total number of such cases to 21 data from the Union Health Ministry and state departments showed on Wednesday Of the 20 cases eight have been registered at National Centre for Disease Control in Delhi 7 at National Institute of Mental Health and NeuroSciences in Bangalore two at Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad A twoyearold in Meerut who just returned with her parents from the UK The child is in an isolation ward with her parents at Meeruts Subharti Medical College The parents have tested positive for Covid but not the new strain Then there is one each who has been logged at National Institute of Biomedical Genomics near Kolkata National Institute of Virology in Pune and CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in Delhi IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-reports-less-than-21k-new-covid-19-cases-90807.html Wed, 30 Dec 2020 13:41:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/550-uk-returnees-traced-in-raj-14-samples-sent-for-mutant-testing-90840.html Jaipur Dec 30 A total of 550 UK returnees have been traced in Rajasthan so far health officials said here on Wednesday Of these the samples of 521 have been collected 11 have been sent to Pune for further testing for the mutant virus and three more samples are being sent to Delhi on Wednesday confirmed the officials Earlier the figure of the UK returnees was confirmed as 821 However it was found that there was duplication in the list furnished by the Centre and after removing all errors the number of the UK returnees who returned within a month was found to be 550 The exact figure cant be ascertained as people at the mentioned address are telling us that they never visited the UK or their relatives have not yet returned Such errors are creating challenges for us the officials said The sampling of 521 of them have been done Eleven samples have been sent to Pune and three shall be sent to Delhi for further testing The report is expected in three to four days The remaining visitors had got their testing done after landing here and hence their samples were not collected again said the officials They further said four zones have been created in the country to identify new strain As per this arrangement Rajasthan samples shall now be sent to Delhi on the directions of the ICMR Medical and health department secretary Siddharth Mahajan has been monitoring this arrangement they said However out of the 333 UK returnees reported in Jaipur 12 remained untraced till Monday It was then that the state police department was roped in and four people were traced on Tuesday morning said Narottam Sharma CMHO Jaipur The efforts to trace the remaining are continuing said officials Rajasthan has been the victim of tourists spreading the virus The first Covid19 case in Rajasthan was an Italian tourist who had come on a tour to India when his country was in the throes of the pandemic This first case was reported on March 2 when a 69yearold Italian tourist who was part of a group of 23 tourists tested positive for Covid19 Till Tuesday evening the total positive numbers in the state was 306784 while the death toll was 2683 A total of 626 new cases were found on Tuesday Since the last many days the daily corona numbers reported under 1000 which till a few days back were going above 3000mark IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/550-uk-returnees-traced-in-raj-14-samples-sent-for-mutant-testing-90840.html Wed, 30 Dec 2020 16:23:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/curb-crowding-on-new-year-check-superspreader-events-centre-90868.html New Delhi Dec 30 Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has written to all the states and union territories asking them to curb crowding in the wake New Year celebration and keep a strict vigil on all events that could be a potential superspreader the ministry said on Wednesday A total of 107 samples have undergone genome sequencing till now and as many as 20 people who have returned from the UK to India have tested positive for the new more infectious coronavirus strain On Tuesday six patients were found to be infected with the mutant virus These were the first cases to be reported by the country The Union Health Secretary has written to all the states to keep a strict vigil on all events that could be potential superspreader events and to curb crowding in the wake of the New Year celebrations and various events associated with it as well as ongoing winter season the ministry said in a statement The Ministry of Home Affairs has mandated that States and UTs based on their assessment of the situation may impose local restrictions with a view to contain the spread of Covid19 such as night curfew Drawing attention to this the Health Secretary has urged the States to promptly assess the local situation and consider imposition of appropriate restrictions on December 30 and 31 2020 as well as on January 1 2021 Earlier today the Centre extended the suspension of flights to and from the United Kingdom till January 7 amid alarm over the new highly contagious strain of the coronavirus The decision was taken on the recommendations of a Joint Monitoring Group JMG headed by the Director General of Health Services DGHS and the National Task Force jointly headed by DG ICMR and Member Health NITI Aayog It has also been suggested to Ministry of Civil Aviation that after January 7 2021 strictly regulated resumption of limited number of flights originating from UK into India may be considered the statement by the health ministry read The British Government had recently announced that the newly identified strain of the virus found in their population is up to 70 per cent more transmissible Pursuant to announcement by British government Indian government had taken cognisance of the reports of mutant variant and put in place a proactive and preventive strategy to detect and contain the mutant variant It included temporary suspension of all flights coming from UK with effect from the midnight of December 23 till 31 From November 25 to December 23 midnight about 33000 passengers disembarked at various Indian airports from UK All these passengers are being tracked and subjected by States and UTs to RTPCR tests Notably the presence of the new UK Variant has already been reported by Denmark Netherlands Australia Italy Sweden France Spain Switzerland Germany Canada Japan Lebanon and Singapore IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/curb-crowding-on-new-year-check-superspreader-events-centre-90868.html Wed, 30 Dec 2020 19:02:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/one-in-tn-found-infected-with-uk-covid-variant-90677.html Chennai Dec 29 One person in Tamil Nadu who had returned from the UK has tested positive for the mutant variant of the Coronavirus said Health Secretary JRadhakrishnan on Tuesday Radhakrishnan was speaking to the media here when he shared the information about the UK returnee who has tested positive for the mutant virus variant of coronavirus He said the patient is being treated separately Radhakrishnan also said among others who tested positive for novel Coronavirus 17 were UK returnees and 16 of their contacts have also tested positive for coronavirus IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/one-in-tn-found-infected-with-uk-covid-variant-90677.html Tue, 29 Dec 2020 19:52:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/2-cases-of-mutant-virus-detected-in-telugu-states-90706.html Hyderabad Dec 29 Health authorities in the Telugu states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh went on alert on Tuesday after two cases of mutant variant of the SARSCoV2 virus were reported While one case was found in Telangana capital Hyderabad the other was detected in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh health officials said on Tuesday They were among the 32 returnees who were found positive in both the states so far Their reports were sent to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology CCMB for genome sequencing Two of them were found to be infected by the new strain of the virus recently detected in the UK and is reported to be more infections Health officials said both the persons have been kept in singleroomisolation in designated healthcare facilities Their close contacts have also been put under quarantine Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for cotravellers family contacts and others In all 21 returnees from the UK to Telangana had tested coronavirus positive while such flyers in Andhra Pradesh number 11 So far three contacts of the UK returnees to Telangana have tested positive for Covid19 In Andhra Pradesh 12 contacts of the UK returnees were found infected Officials said the health condition of all the UK returnees is stable Majority of the returnees were asymptomatic The health department of Telangana has so far tracked down 1060 Details of another 58 returnees who left to their home states after landing in Hyderabad were forwarded to the respective states Six others have returned to their countries So far 996 returnees were tested and out of them 21 turned out to be positive Results of another nine people are expected said Dr GSrinivasa Rao director public health Telangana A total of 1363 people from the UK returned to Andhra Pradesh and of them 1346 were traced Efforts were on to trace the remaining 17 Authorities also traced 5784 contacts of the UK returnees and sent them for testing IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/2-cases-of-mutant-virus-detected-in-telugu-states-90706.html Tue, 29 Dec 2020 22:30:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/covid-positive-uttarakhand-cm-rawat-admitted-to-aiims-90454.html New Delhi Dec 28 Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat who tested positive for Covid19 on December 18 was on Monday admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences AIIMS Delhi following a chest infection he developed during his home isolation in Dehradun sources informed IANS Rawat has been kept in the AIIMS trauma centre and a team of doctors led by the hospital director is checking on his health Sources told IANS that he has developed Pneumonia and was admitted to Delhi after his condition worsened Earlier Rawat was admitted to a hospital in Dehradun on Sunday after he complained of fever The investigations by the doctors there revealed that Rawat has developed an infection in the chest Later on Monday Rawat was flown to Delhi after consulting doctors at the AIIMS The Chief Minister had been in home isolation after he tested positive for Covid19 on December 18 Rawat has been cautious regarding the Covid spread and had quarantined himself whenever he found that his staffers and people working closely with him have contracted the infection He had isolated himself in September after his Officer on Special Duty OSD had tested positive for Covid19 Earlier on August 26 he had gone into home isolation after three of his staffers tested positive for Covid19 On June 1 too Rawat and two of his cabinet ministers had decided to quarantine themselves after Cabinet Minister Satpal Maharaj tested positive for the virus IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/covid-positive-uttarakhand-cm-rawat-admitted-to-aiims-90454.html Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:40:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/genomic-surveillance-consortium-charts-out-action-plan-to-detect-mutant-covid-19-90458.html New Delhi Dec 28 The Union Health Ministry on Monday issued a detailed action plan which the genomic surveillance consortium would follow if the new coronavirus variant which is more infectious is detected in the samples of returnees from the United kingdom The British Government had recently announced that the newly identified strain of the virus found in their population is up to 70 per cent more transmissible This had prompted Indian authorities to suspend flights to and from the UK till December 31 Genome sequencing of those who tested positive after coming to India from United kingdom is underway to see if they are carrying the mutant strain The Indian SARSCoV2 Genomics Consortium INSACOG has been formed to expand whole genome sequencing across the nation According to consortiums action plan in case the UK variant or any other variant mutation is detected in any sample the virus will be sent to any of the two notified COVID Virus Repositories at RCB Faridabad or NIV Pune for isolating the virus and further culturing This can then be shared as per notified guidelines for development of assays which will help in validation of diagnostics and also testing of the vaccines under development The molecular surveillance will be closely linked with the epidemiological surveillance and clinical specimens will also be collected for relevant clinical correlations the INSACOG said Further the relevant case details travel details of any sample detected with the new UK variant or any other found to be of significant from public health perspective will be communicated to NCDC Director Nodal Unit No details shall be revealed before due approval by the competent authority NCDC Nodal Unit will maintain a database of all samples of the new variants of public health significance The data will be epidemiologically analysed interpreted and shared with state or district for investigation contact tracing and planning response strategies All the genomic sequencing data will be maintained in a National database at two sites NIBMG Kalyani and IGIB New Delhi it added Ten regional genome sequencing labs are CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in Delhi CSIR Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad DBT National Institute of Biomedical Genomics near Kolkata DBT Institute of Life Sciences in Bhubaneswar DBT InSTEMNCBS in Bengaluru DBTCentre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics in Hyderabad It also includes National Institute of Virology and DBT National Centre for Cell Science in Pune National Centre for Disease Control in Delhi and NIMHANS National Institute of Mental Health and NeuroSciences in Bangalore According to the experts India needs to increase viral Genomic surveillance in order to understand the spread of the virus in a rapid and robust manner In that context the Indian SARSCoV2 Genomics Consortium will help to expand whole genome sequencing of SARSCoV2 virus across the nation aiding understanding of how the virus spreads and evolves Ten regional genome sequencing laboratories spread across the country will cater to the nearest states which will send five per cent of the positive samples to these labs for genome sequencing The viral genome sequencing data generated by regional genome sequencing laboratories will be sent to the National Centre for Disease Control NCDC Delhi for collation and integration Over the last few weeks the United Kingdom has faced a rapid increase in COVID19 cases in South East England leading to enhanced epidemiological and virological investigations Analysis of viral genome sequence data identified that a large proportion of cases belonged to a new single phylogenetic cluster The new variant is defined by multiple spike protein mutations as well as mutations in the other genomic regions Preliminary analysis in the UK suggests that this variant is significantly more transmissible than previously circulating variants with an estimated potential to increase the reproductive number R by 04 or greater with an estimated increased transmissibility of up to 70 However there is no experimental evidence or indication at this point of increased infection severity associated with the aforementioned new variant Further few cases with the new variant have to date been also reported by Denmark Netherlands Australia and Belgium IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/genomic-surveillance-consortium-charts-out-action-plan-to-detect-mutant-covid-19-90458.html Tue, 29 Dec 2020 01:11:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/uk-returnees-in-raj-difficult-to-track-courtesy-wrong-info-90714.html By Archana Sharma Jaipur Dec 29 Over 800 tourists from the UK have entered Rajasthan in the past one week and their tracking and tracing remains a huge challenge for both the health officials as well as the police who have pitched in to help track them Many of the visitors addresses and phone numbers furnished in their contact details are wrong Official orders may be put in to ascertain that those hiding their contact details shall be penalised said health officials Even the mobile numbers furnished in the list provided by the central government comprise nine digits due to which it has become difficult for us to trace them The other numbers are of their UK address which when contacted failed to give their addresses in India said Narottam Sharma CMHO Jaipur Sharma confirmed to IANS that out of 333 people who came to Jaipur from the UK 17 were untraceable till Monday However with the help of police four people were traced on Tuesday morning We are confident of finding the remaining people by evening as the police team is on its toes to collect detailed inflation in the matter Other senior officials have remained tightlipped over the entire episode and refuse to furnish details when asked as to how many people have been traced across Rajasthan Earlier health officials had confirmed that a big chunk of British visitors apart from the 333 to Jaipur there were 73 who reached Jodhpur 70 to Ajmer 48 to Alwar 43 to Udaipur 39 to Kota 24 to Jhunjhunu 38 to Ganganagar 35 to Rajsamand and many more said health officials Rajasthan has been a victim of tourists spreading the virus The first COVID19 case in Rajasthan was an Italian tourist who had come on a tour to India when his country was in the throes of the pandemic This first case was reported on March 2 when this 69yearold Italian tourist who was part of a group of 23 tourists tested positive for Covid19 In 10 months the COVID19 numbers have reached 306158 in the state Till Monday the active cases were 10742 while the toll stood at 2677 The medical department has put all district officials on alert mode and hunt is on to trace all UK visitors in different parts of the state IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/uk-returnees-in-raj-difficult-to-track-courtesy-wrong-info-90714.html Tue, 29 Dec 2020 23:31:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/will-review-delhis-covid-situation-by-jan-15-aap-govt-to-hc-90465.html New Delhi Dec 28 The Delhi government on Monday informed the Delhi High Court that a meeting of the expert committee which is reviewing the Covid19 condition in the national capital will take place on January 5 The submissions were made before the vacation bench of the high court presided by Justice S Prasad who was hearing a petition challenging the order of the Delhi government reserving 80 ICU beds in 33 private hospitals in the national capital for the Covid19 patients Following these submissions the bench directed the Delhi government to file its status report regarding the outcome of the expert committee meeting before the roster bench and the placed the matter for further hearing on January 8 In a status report filed before the court the Delhi government said that it endorses the recommendation made by the deescalation committee with regards to deescalation of reservation of 80 per cent Covid ICU beds to 60 freeing up 20 per cent Covid ICU beds for nonCovid patients We are also ready to review the situation by Jan 15 by the same time the situation in respect to UK strain will be better understood impact of new year celebration would have played out an overall pandemic condition in the NCT of Delhi may have settled the status report read Earlier on December 23 The Delhi government informed the Delhi High Court that it has decided to reduce the reservation of ICU beds in 33 private hospitals of Covid19 patients to 60 The submissions were made before a single judge bench of the high court presided over by Justice Navin Chawla while it was hearing a plea filed by Association of Healthcare providers challenging the daily governments order reserving 80 ICU beds for covid19 patients in 33 private hospitals in the national capital It was unanimously agreed that in the back drop of the current declining trend of occupancy among all categories of Beds Oxygenated ICU Ventilator COVID Beds the deescalation may be carried out in a graded manner preferably in Delhi Government Hospitals and Private sector Hospitals said the minutes of meeting of the expert committee which was submitted before the court The committee decided not to recommend any change in the status of the Covid beds for the Central Govt Hospitals the minutes said further It was said that the committee was cognizant of the fact that the critical care for nonCovid patients is also very important especially in the winter season At present the occupancy of Covid ICU beds is 1319 out of total Covid 5100 beds approx 26 IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/will-review-delhis-covid-situation-by-jan-15-aap-govt-to-hc-90465.html Tue, 29 Dec 2020 02:18:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/parliamentary-panel-discusses-covids-global-response-90476.html New Delhi Dec 28 Parliamentary Committee on External Affairs on Monday held a meeting to discuss global response on Covid19 pandemic Indias contribution during the crisis and the way forward to deal with the disease which has infected a total of 10207871 people in India taking the tally of fatalities to 147901 so far Concluding evidence presented by the representatives of the Ministries of External Affairs Health and Family Welfare and Civil Aviation on Covid19 or coronavirus were also discussed in the over halfanhour meeting here inside Parliament premises Bharatiya Janata Party BJP leader and an MP from Pali in Rajasthan PP Chaudhary who is the chairman of the committee held the meeting here amid expectations that Covid19 vaccines will be available in India hopefully this weekend The 30member committee including 21 members of Lok Sabha and nine from Rajya Sabha met in the afternoon The committee members from the Lok Sabha include Harsimrat Kaur Badal Abhishek Banerjee Kalyan Banerjee Kunwar Pushpendra Singh Chandel Dileshwar Kamait Suresh Kumar Kashyap Preneet Kaur Meenakashi Lekhi Goddeti Madhavi Srinivas Reddy Manne PC Mohan Chandrani Murmu Ritesh Pandey KC Patel NK Premachandran Navneet Ravi Rana Soyam Babu Rao Ram Swaroop Sharma Rebati Tripura and Poonam Mahajan Vajendla Rao Abdul Wahab KJ Alphons Jaya Bachchan Misha Bharti P Chidambaram Swapan Dasgupta Ranjan Gogoi Shamsher Singh Manhas and Kapil Sibal are from Rajya Sabha IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/parliamentary-panel-discusses-covids-global-response-90476.html Tue, 29 Dec 2020 03:56:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/recoveries-remain-more-than-new-covid-cases-in-karnataka-90491.html Bengaluru Dec 29 Maintaining the healthy trend with 1178 patients discharged on Monday recoveries remained more than 653 new Covid cases on Sunday across Karnataka said the state health bulletin on Monday With 1178 discharged in the southern state during the day recoveries rose to 892273 till date while 653 new cases on Sunday increased the states Covid tally to 916909 including 12547 active cases said the bulletin here The virus claimed 8 more lives during the day taking the states death toll to 12070 since the pandemic broke out on March 8 Bengaluru registered 309 fresh cases taking its Covid tally to 386908 cases including 8225 active cases while recoveries rose to 374378 with 654 discharged in the last 24 hours With 5 succumbing to the infection the citys death toll rose to 4304 Of the 205 patients in the intensive care units ICUs across the state 93 are in Bengaluru hospitals 11 in Kalaburagi 10 in Tumakuru 9 each in Hassan and Kolar and 8 in Mandya district Out of 67742 tests conducted on Sunday in the state 3437 were through rapidantigen detection and 64305 through the RTPCR method Of the 179 returnees from the UK tested on Monday 1 was positive 120 negative and results of 58 are awaited Out of 1766 returnees from the UK tested till date 27 were positive 1384 negative and reports of 355 are awaited added the bulletin Positivity rate for the day is 096 per cent and case fatality rate 122 per cent for the state IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/recoveries-remain-more-than-new-covid-cases-in-karnataka-90491.html Tue, 29 Dec 2020 06:04:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/at-16k-india-records-lowest-new-cases-since-june-end-90555.html New Delhi Dec 29 India on Monday logged 16432 fresh Covid19 infections which is 500 less than what it recorded in the past six months and 8000 less than the number of recoveries in the past 24 hours This comes amid Centress statement that a total of six samples of 6 UK returnees have been found positive with the new UK variant genome a rising concern just when things had started to appear to be recovering With the latest new cases the total number of cases in the country reached 10224303 along with 252 deaths in the last 24 hours taking the toll to 148153 the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said On June 23 India recorded 15968 new cases and on June 24 it was 16922 In the last 24 hours 24900 people have recovered taking the total number of the recovered people to 9807569 There are 268581 active cases The recovery rate stands at 9583 per cent while the fatality rate is 145 as per cent A total of 169801749 samples have been tested for Covid19 till now Of these 983695 samples were tested on Monday the Indian Council of Medical Research ICMR said Maharashtra continues to be the worsthit state to the date Over 70 per cent of the daily new cases are being reported by 10 states and union territory Kerala Maharashtra West Bengal Chhattisgarh Karnataka Delhi Madhya Pradesh Tamil Nadu Rajasthan and Gujarat in a random order Over 75 per cent of the deaths are being reported from Maharashtra Delhi West Bengal Kerala Chhattisgarh Uttar Pradesh Tamil Nadu Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh A new strain of the Covid19 virus has appeared in the UK The mutant is said to be 70 per cent more aggressive according to reports Flights and other forms of transport to and from the UK are being shut down IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/at-16k-india-records-lowest-new-cases-since-june-end-90555.html Tue, 29 Dec 2020 12:44:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/6-uk-returnees-samples-carry-mutant-covid-19-variant-90562.html New Delhi Dec 29 The samples of six UK returnees in Bengaluru Hyderabad and Pune have been found to be positive with the new variant genome the central government said on Tuesday adding that they have been kept in a singleroomisolation in designated healthcare facilities The British government had recently announced that the newly identified strain of the virus found in their population is up to 70 per cent more transmissible This had prompted the Indian authorities to suspend flights to and from the UK till December 31 Pursuant to this the government found that about 33000 passengers had disembarked at various Indian airports from the UK from November 25 to December 23 midnight All these passengers were tracked and subjected by the states and UTs to the RTPCR tests So far only 114 have been found positive These positive samples were then sent to 10 labs A total of six samples of six UK returnee persons have been found to be positive with the new UK variant genome Three in NIMHANS Bengaluru two in CCMB Hyderabad and one in NIV Pune All these persons have been kept in single room isolation in designated Healthcare facilities by the respective state governments Their close contacts have also been put under quarantine the health ministry said Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for cotravellers family contacts and others Genome sequencing on other specimens is going on The situation is under careful watch and regular advice is being provided to the states for enhanced surveillance containment testing and dispatch of samples to the INSACOG labs the ministry added It is important to note that the presence of the new UK Variant has already been reported by Denmark Netherlands Australia Italy Sweden France Spain Switzerland Germany Canada Japan Lebanon and Singapore Few days back the Indian government had taken cognizance of the reports of mutant variant of SARSCoV2 virus reported from the UK and put in place a proactive and preventive strategy to detect and contain the mutant variant It included temporary suspension of all flights coming from the UK with effect from the midnight of December 23 till 31 Testing of all UK returnee air passengers through RTPCR test was made mandatory The samples of all UK returnees found positive in RTPCR test to be genome sequenced by a consortium of ten government labs The strategy also included a meeting of the National Task Force NTF on Covid19 on December 26 to consider and recommend Testing Treatment Surveillance and Containment Strategy Standard Operating Protocol for states and UTs to tackle the mutant variant of SARSCoV2 were also issued on December 22 Over the last few weeks the UK has faced a rapid increase in Covid19 cases in South East England leading to enhanced epidemiological and virological investigations Analysis of viral genome sequence data identified that a large proportion of cases belonged to a new single phylogenetic cluster The new variant is defined by multiple spike protein mutations as well as mutations in the other genomic regions Preliminary analysis in the UK suggests that this variant is significantly more transmissible than previously circulating variants with an estimated potential to increase the reproductive number R by 04 or greater with an estimated increased transmissibility of up to 70 per cent IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/6-uk-returnees-samples-carry-mutant-covid-19-variant-90562.html Tue, 29 Dec 2020 13:12:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/common-diabetic-drug-can-trigger-rare-covid-complications-90578.html New York Dec 29 Diabetes patients on glucoselowering drugs are at risk of rare Covid19 complications especially those who use a popular class of diabetes drugs called sodiumglucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors SGLT2i which function by releasing excess glucose in the urine In diabetes patients rare but severe complications like the potentially lethal condition diabetic ketoacidosis DKA can arise when illness or certain conditions prevent cells from receiving enough glucose to fuel their functioning The researchers at Brigham and Womens Hospital observed an uptick in a particular type of DKA called euDKA during the pandemic EuDKA is a subset of the diabetes complication known as DKA which occurs when the bodys cells fail to absorb enough glucose and compensate by metabolizing fats instead creating a buildup of acids called ketones EuDKA differs from DKA in that it is characterised by lower blood sugar levels making it more difficult to diagnose Underlying nearly all euDKA cases is a state of starvation that can be triggered by illnesses that cause vomiting diarrhea and loss of appetite and can be compounded by the diuretic effect of SGLT2i drugs noted the study published in The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists Clinical Case Reports We have the background knowledge of recognising that SGLT2 inhibitors can cause DKA and euDKA said corresponding author Naomi Fisher of the Division of Endocrinology Diabetes and Hypertension Our report reinforces that if patients are ill or have loss of appetite or are fasting they should pause their medication and not resume until they are well and eating properly Brigham researchers studied five unusual euDKA cases brought to the diabetes inpatient services within the span of two months three of which occurred in one week at the height of the pandemic in Boston in the spring of 2020 The authors also suspect that Covid19 may particularly exacerbate euDKA risks When the virus infects a patient it binds to cells on the pancreas that produce insulin and may exert a toxic effect on them Studies of the earlier SARSCoV1 virus found that many infected patients had increased blood sugar Its been posited through other models that the virus may be preferentially destroying insulinproducing cells Fisher said The authors encourage patients and physicians to halt SGLT2iuse in the event of illness which is already standard practice for the most common diabetes drug metformin IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/common-diabetic-drug-can-trigger-rare-covid-complications-90578.html Tue, 29 Dec 2020 14:14:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/2-cases-of-mutant-variant-detected-in-telugu-states-90609.html Hyderabadad Dec 29 Two cases of mutant variant of SARSCoV2 virus have been reported in the Telugu states While one case was found in Hyderabad the other was detected in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh health officials said on Tuesday They were among the 24 returnees who were found positive last week Their reports were sent to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology CCMB for genome sequencing Two of them were found to be infected by the new strain of the virus recently detected in the UK and is reported to be more infections Health officials said both the persons have been kept in singleroomisolation in designated healthcare facilities Their close contacts have also been put under quarantine Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for cotravellers family contacts and others In all 18 returnees from the UK to Telangana had tested coronavirus positive while such flyers in Andhra Pradesh number 6 Four of the contacts were also tested positive for Covid19 in Andhra Pradesh A total of 1216 people from the UK returned to Andhra Pradesh and of them 1187 were traced Efforts were on to trace the remaining 29 According to officials 1200 persons travelled to Telangana from the UK since December 9 Of them 926 were identified and Covid tests conducted on them IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/2-cases-of-mutant-variant-detected-in-telugu-states-90609.html Tue, 29 Dec 2020 16:05:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/kerala-reports-3-527-new-corona-cases-90207.html Thiruvananthapuram Dec 26 Kerala reported 3527 new coronavirus cases on Saturday after testing 35586 samples even as 3782 more patients were cured a statement from Health Minister KK Shailajas office said There are now 63752 active cases and 668733 cured patients in Kerala The test positivity rate is 991 per cent Kozhikode led the districts with 522 new cases while Kasargod with 52 cases was at the bottom Twentyone more Covid deaths took the states death toll to 2951 As many as 259083 persons are under observation including 13260 in hospitals and 245823 in home quarantine A total of 34 health workers are infected with the disease 14 in Thrissur eight in Ernakulam five in Kannur three in Thiruananthapuram and one each in Palakkad Malappuram Kozhikode and Wayanad Of the 3527 new cases 63 had come from outside the state whereas 3106 were infected through contacts The hotspots in Kerala remain unchanged at 463 IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/kerala-reports-3-527-new-corona-cases-90207.html Mon, 28 Dec 2020 00:27:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/mutant-covid-19-over-50-samples-of-uk-returnees-undergoing-genome-sequencing-90210.html New Delhi Dec 26 The Central government said on Saturday that more than 50 samples of returnees from the United Kingdom which recently found a potentially more infectious variant of novel coronavirus in its population are currently undergoing genome sequencing at the designated laboratories across the country The genome sequencing study would determine if the Covid19 positive patients were carrying the existing strain of SARSCoV2 or the mutant strain which was discovered in the UK A genomic surveillance consortium INSACOG has been formed under the leadership of NCDC New Delhi for laboratory and epidemiological surveillance of circulating strains of SARSCoV2 in the country Further more than 50 samples of UK returnees are currently under sequencing at the designated laboratories said the government in a statement Other laboratories in the consortium are National Centre for Disease Control NCDC CSIRInstitute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in Delhi CSIRCentre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad DBTInstitute of Life Sciences in Bhubaneshwar DBTNational Institute of Biomedical Genomics in Kalyani DBTInStemNational Centre for Biological Sciences in Bengaluru National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bengaluru and ICMRNational Institute of Virology in Pune It has been proposed to continue enhanced genomic surveillance for early detection and containment of the UK variant of SARSCoV2 strains However it is important to understand that like all other RNA viruses SARSCoV2 will continue to mutate The mutated virus can also be contained by measures like social distancing hand hygiene wearing masks and also by an effective vaccine as and when available the statement further read The British government had recently announced that the newly identified strain of the virus found in its population is up to 70 per cent more transmissible and is out of control This prompted Indian authorities to suspend flights to and from the UK between December 23 and December 31 Several people who came to India from the UK in the past few days have tested positive According to the governments strategy 5 per cent of the positive cases from all states and Union Territories will also be tested for whole genome sequencing Meanwhile a meeting of the National Task Force NTF on Covid19 was convened on Saturday by the ICMR under the cochairpersonship of Vinod Paul Member Niti Aayog and Balram Bhargava Secretary Department of Health Research and Director General ICMR The meeting was also attended by AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria among others The main objective of the National Task Force is to discuss evidencebased modifications in testing treatment and surveillance strategies for SARSCoV2 in view of the recent reports of emergence of a new variant strain of the virus from the UK The variant strain has 14 nonsynonymous amino acid altering mutations 6 synonymous non aminoacid altering and 3 deletions Eight mutations are present in the Spike S gene which carries the binding site Receptor Binding Domain of the ACE2 receptors which are the point of entry of the virus into the human respiratory cells The National Task Force deliberated in detail the aspects related to the current National Treatment Protocol testing strategy and surveillance of SARSCoV2 visavis the UK variant strain It was emphasised that since the UK variant strain is implicated to cause increased transmissibility of the virus it is critical to identify individuals infected with this strain and adequately contain them to prevent its transmission in India The task force concluded that there is no need to change the existing treatment protocol in view of the mutations emerging in the strain Further since the ICMR has always advocated the use of two or more gene assays for testing SARSCoV2 it is unlikely to miss infected cases using the current testing strategy The NTF recommended that in addition to the existing surveillance strategies it is critical to conduct enhanced genomic surveillance for SARSCoV2 especially in incoming passengers from the UK Besides it will also be critical to conduct genome sequencing in samples where there is dropout of the S gene in lab diagnosis proven cases of reinfections etc The National Centre for Disease Control informed that the government of India has taken cognisance of the reports of the mutant variant of SARSCoV2 reported from the UK and the response of other countries to these reports The situation is being monitored proactively A strategy has been put in place to detect and contain the mutant variant IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/mutant-covid-19-over-50-samples-of-uk-returnees-undergoing-genome-sequencing-90210.html Mon, 28 Dec 2020 01:01:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/gurugram-warns-uk-returnees-of-action-for-flouting-covid-norms-90213.html Gurugram Dec 26 The Gurugram health authorities on Saturday made Covid19 tests mandatory for residents who have arrived here from the United Kingdom UK after December 8 and also warned of strict action against violators The officials took this decision following the detection of a mutated and more infectious strain of Covid19 in the European country The health department has appealed to all the UK returnees to follow necessary Covid19 guidelines and undergo mandatory coronavirus tests in the district said an official statement It further said that many of the returnees are not coming forward for the test despite several requests by the health officials Those who are not coming forward for the Covid test will have to face an action under section 188 of the IPC besides patients with the travel history who flout mandatory quarantine norm will also face the music According to the health authorities out of the 407 residents who have returned from the UK recently samples of 191 people have been collected so far We have directed all the hospitals in the district to share contact details of such residents if they have visited the facilities Apart from this the department will soon launch their contact tracing to contain the spread of coronavirus said Virender Yadav Civil Surgeon Gurugram IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/gurugram-warns-uk-returnees-of-action-for-flouting-covid-norms-90213.html Mon, 28 Dec 2020 01:31:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/24-uk-returnees-to-two-telugu-states-test-corona-positive-90226.html AmaravatiHyderabad Dec 26 Six returnees from the United Kingdom to Andhra Pradesh have tested coronavirus positive so far while such flyers in neighbouring Telangana number 18 health officials said on Saturday Authorities in Andhra Pradesh have identified 1214 people who returned to the state from the UK so far The Health Department has traced 1158 while efforts are on to trace the remaining 56 In all 1101 UK returnees were shifted to quarantine centres of which six tested positive The samples of positive cases have now been sent to the National Institute of Virology at Pune and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology CCMB for genome sequencing to find out if hey are infected by the new strain of the virus found in the UK Of the positive cases two are from Guntur district while one each was reported from East Godavari Krishna Anantapur and Nellore districts Meanwhile in Telangana two more UK returnees tested positive taking the total such cases to 18 Samples of the infected persons have been sent to CCMB for genome sequencing Out of 18 positive patients four are from Hyderabad six from Medchal Malkajgiri district two from Jagtial district and one each from Mancherial Nalgonda Rangareddy Sangareddy Siddipet and Warangal Urban districts Public Health Department Director Dr G Srinivas Rao said that those found infected were kept in special wards in different hospitals According to officials 1200 persons have travelled to Telangana from the UK since December 9 Of them 926 were identified and COVID tests conducted on them A total of 92 returnees were from other states After landing in Hyderabad they left for their respective states The Health Department of Telangana informed the states concerned The health authorities also traced 76 contacts of those who tested positive They have been quarantined and their health condition under close observation The Health Department is on high alert in the wake of new coronavirus strain in some countries It is tracing testing and treatment method to prevent the spread of the virus The department has requested all those who have came directly to the state from the UK after December 9 or have travelled through the UK to provide details by calling on 04024651119 or by texting on WhatsApp to 9154170960 Staff from Health Department will visit their homes for health checkups IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/24-uk-returnees-to-two-telugu-states-test-corona-positive-90226.html Mon, 28 Dec 2020 03:31:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/positivity-rate-in-delhi-plummets-to-1-fatalities-below-20-90250.html New Delhi Dec 28 The national capital reported 757 new cases of COVID19 on Sunday as the positivity rate of the infections has reduced to 1 per cent in the last 24 hours while the deaths due to Covid also saw a significant drop as the city reported 16 fatalities in the same duration the health bulletin by Delhi government stated Meanwhile 939 patients recovered from the disease and 75210 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours the bulletin showed The latest figures of the case tally now stands at 622851 while the death toll has reached 10453 Of the tests conducted in the last 24 hours 40742 were done through RTPCR and 34468 were Rapid Antigen Tests RAT The capital city has conducted 8351048 tests so far according to the bulletin by the Delhi health department Currently 2528 out of 18774 beds are occupied in the hospitals 72 out of 7792 beds in the dedicated Covid Care Centres and 21 out of 562 beds in the dedicated Covid Health Centres Meanwhile 3335 people are in home isolation as per the data shared by the Delhi government Delhis Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had earlier stated that third wave of Covid19 seems to have been brought under control in Delhi The highest singleday spike till date 8593 cases was reported on November 11 IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/positivity-rate-in-delhi-plummets-to-1-fatalities-below-20-90250.html Mon, 28 Dec 2020 06:46:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-logs-20k-covid-cases-279-deaths-in-24-hours-90311.html New Delhi Dec 28 India on Monday logged 20021 fresh Covid19 infections taking the total number of cases to 10207871 along with 279 deaths in the last 24 hours taking the tally of fatalities to 147901 the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said In the last 24 hours 21131 people have recovered taking the total number of the recovered people to 9782669 There are 277301 active cases The recovery rate stands at 9583 per cent while the fatality rate is 145 as per cent A total of 168818054 samples have been tested for Covid19 till now Of these 715397 samples were tested on Sunday the Indian Council of Medical Research ICMR said Maharashtra continues to be the worsthit state to the date with 1913382 cases Over 70 per cent of the daily new cases are being reported by 10 states and union territory Kerala Maharashtra West Bengal Chhattisgarh Karnataka Delhi Madhya Pradesh Tamil Nadu Rajasthan and Gujarat Over 75 per cent of the deaths are being reported from Maharashtra Delhi West Bengal Kerala Chhattisgarh Uttar Pradesh Tamil Nadu Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh A new strain of the Covid19 virus has appeared in the UK The mutant is said to be 70 per cent more aggressive according to reports Flights and other forms of transport to and from the UK are being shut down IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/india-logs-20k-covid-cases-279-deaths-in-24-hours-90311.html Mon, 28 Dec 2020 13:52:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/assams-covid-management-exceptionally-good-amit-shah-90198.html Guwahati Dec 26 Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah on Saturday appreciated the Assam government and the Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for exceptional Covid19 management in the state Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarmas performance in Covid19 performance is exceptionally good Shah said while addressing a public meeting at Amingaon Parade Ground here The 047 per cent mortality rate due to Covid19 in Assam is lowest in the world It is also exceptional that over 98 per cent people have returned to their homes after recoveries the visiting Home Minister said Assam has so far reported 215836 Covid19 cases while 1033 people have succumbed to the dreaded disease On Friday night the number of active cases stood at 3422 while 211378 people have recovered IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/assams-covid-management-exceptionally-good-amit-shah-90198.html Sun, 27 Dec 2020 23:20:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/14-uk-returnees-ive-undergoing-genome-sequencing-ktaka-minister-90199.html Bengaluru Dec 26 Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar on Saturday said that 14 of the 2500 passengers who returned from the UK since November 25 had tested coronavirus positive and their samples sent for genome sequencing tests to find if anyone was infected with a mutant strain Sudhakar told reporters that the Health Department had so far conducted tests on 1638 of the 2500 passengers till December 22 Of the 1638 14 were positive Their samples have been sent to the National Institute of Mental Health and NeuroSciences Nimhans for genome sequencing test Nimhans is one of the 10 institutes selected by the Health Ministry to conduct these tests Along with Nimhans the National Centre for Biological Sciences NCBS at Bengaluru can also carry out the tests he explained Sudhakar said that genome sequencing was a time consuming process of at least three to four days The new strain of the virus found in the UK has 14 mutations so genome sequencing tests are taking some time he said According to the Minister the state will not have direct access to these reports The Nimhans or NCBS is supposed to send the reports to the Indian Council of Medical Research ICMR which in turn will disclose these to the respective states He said that the union government has barred the state government from sharing any details about the new variants of coronavirus The Minister clarified that the state government has neither directed nor helped any VIP to secure Covaxin at this stage Covaxin is still in the trial stage Inaugurating the third round of trials of this vaccine I had appealed to frontline health workers to get shots for their own safety he said IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/14-uk-returnees-ive-undergoing-genome-sequencing-ktaka-minister-90199.html Sun, 27 Dec 2020 23:31:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/mutant-strain-over-800-tourists-from-uk-land-in-raj-in-a-week-90001.html Jaipur Dec 26 The new corona strain in the UK is keeping the Rajasthan government on edge as over 800 British tourists have entered the 28 districts of the state in the last one week Tracking them will be a nightmare A bulk of these British 333 visitors have arrived in Jaipur which is followed by Jodhpur 73 Ajmer 70 Alwar 48 Udaipur 43 Kota 39 Jhunjhunu 24 Ganganagar 38 Rajsamand 35 and many more said health officials Rajasthan has been victim of tourists spreading the virus The first Covid case in Rajasthan was an Italian tourist who had come on a tour to India when his country was in the throes of the pandemic This first case was reported on March 2 when this 69yearold Italian tourist who was part of a group of 23 tourists tested positive for Covid19 The screening and sampling work of these UK tourists have started We are monitoring all those who have arrived from the UK In threefour days we shall be able to reach out to every single tourist from the UK who entered the Pink City said Jaipurs Chief Medical Health Officer Narottam Sharma Additional Director Health Raviprakash Sharma said they have forwarded the details to district collectors and directed them to ensure isolation and testing of the tourists The department is on its toes and there is no need to panic he added All CMHOs have been instructed to make rapid response teams and survey the British tourists by tracking them to hotels and houses where there is bed and breakfast options or even house guests The idea is to quarantine them at the earliest the official said In 10 months the Covid numbers have reached 303732 in the state Till Friday the toll stood at 2657 The active cases are 11700 while the recovered number is 289375 IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/mutant-strain-over-800-tourists-from-uk-land-in-raj-in-a-week-90001.html Sun, 27 Dec 2020 03:59:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/covid-virus-will-stay-with-us-for-next-10-years-biontech-ceo-90029.html London Dec 26 As the world grapples with the pandemic amid the origin of newer and potentially lethal strains BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin has said that the deadly virus is going to stay with us for the next decade at least In a virtual press conference this week Sahin spoke about the potential virus deadline when asked when life could return to normal We need a new definition of normal The virus will stay with us for the next 10 years he told mediapersons BioNTechs vaccine developed with the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has been authorised for use in more than 45 countries including Britain and the US Sahin also said that the vaccine can be adjusted for the new UK variant in about six weeks In principle the beauty of the messenger technology is that we can directly start to engineer a vaccine which completely mimics this new mutation we could be able to provide a new vaccine technically within six weeks he was quoted as saying in media reports Sahin said he was confident that the new variant of the Covid19 strain in the UK would not impact the efficacy of the vaccine The new strain of Covid is causing worry all around the world including in India and it remains to be seen what effect it could have After the discovery of a second new variant of the novel coronavirus in Britain the UK has reported the highest number of Covid19 fatalities this week since late April Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that the second new variant was reportedly related to travellers from South Africa and two cases have been reported so far This new variant is highly concerning because it is yet more transmissible and it appears to have mutated further than the new variant that has been discovered in the UK he said this week On December 19 Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced the discovery of a first mutant Covid19 strain which is said to be about 70 per cent more transmissible As a result Johnson imposed Tier Four restrictions om London and other parts of England IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/covid-virus-will-stay-with-us-for-next-10-years-biontech-ceo-90029.html Sun, 27 Dec 2020 08:28:00 +0530 https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/recoveries-new-cases-neck-and-neck-in-24-hours-in-india-90036.html New Delhi Dec 26 India on Saturday logged 22272 fresh Covid19 infections in the last 24 hours when 22274 people also recovered from the virus the data from Ministry of Health and Family Welfare showed It took the total number of cases to 10169118 along with 251 deaths in the past one day The overall toll is 147343 Total recovered people are 9740108 There are 281667 active cases The recovery rate stands at 9578 per cent while the fatality rate is 145 as per cent A total of 167159289 samples have been tested for Covid19 till now Of these 853527 samples were tested on Friday the Indian Council of Medical Research ICMR said Maharashtra continues to be the worsthit state to the date with 1913382 cases Over 70 per cent of the daily new cases are being reported by 10 states and union territory Kerala Maharashtra West Bengal Chhattisgarh Karnataka Delhi Madhya Pradesh Tamil Nadu Rajasthan and Gujarat Over 75 per cent of the deaths are being reported from Maharashtra Delhi West Bengal Kerala Chhattisgarh Uttar Pradesh Tamil Nadu Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh A new strain of the Covid19 virus has appeared in the UK The mutant is said to be 70 per cent more aggressive according to reports Flights and other forms of transport to and from the UK are being shut down IANS https://dailyworld.in/coronavirus/recoveries-new-cases-neck-and-neck-in-24-hours-in-india-90036.html Sun, 27 Dec 2020 09:40:00 +0530