Coronavirus HIGHLIGHTS: Haryana Govt Extends Covid Lockdown Till June 21 With Some Relaxations In State
Coronavirus HIGHLIGHTS, Sunday, June 13, 2021: The head of the World Health Organisation has welcomed the vaccine-sharing announcements coming out of the Group of Seven summit but says we need more, and we need them faster. The challenge, I said to the G-7 leaders, was that to truly end the pandemic, our goal must be to vaccinate at least 70% of the world’s population by the time the G-7 meets again in Germany next year, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.
Nirmal Kaur, former captain of Women's volleyball team & wife of former athlete Milkha Singh passed away due to COVID19 in a private hospital at Mohali "We are deeply saddened to inform you that Nirmal Milkha Singh passed away after a valiant battle against COVID," says family
CPI (ML) Red Star leader Sharmistha Choudhury, a prominent face of the Bhangar land agitation in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district, died here on Sunday due to post-COVID complications. She was 47 and is survived by her husband Alik Chakraborty, who had spearheaded the movement.
Choudhury, a central committee member of the CPI (ML) Red Star, had recovered after contracting the disease a month ago. However, she fell ill again and was rushed to state-run SSKM Hospital here on Saturday, a senior party leader said. She died on Sunday due to post-COVID complications and intestinal ulcer, he said.
CPI (ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya and several others condoled her death. An alumnus of Presidency University, Choudhury was a journalist for several years before plunging headlong into activism.
Rajasthan reports 308 new Covid-19 cases, 7 deaths, and 1260 recoveries in the last 24 hours
Case tally 9,49,684
Active cases 7,441
Amid the second wave of COVID-19, Oxygen Express trains have delivered more than 30,000 metric tonnes (MT) of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) to States and Union Territories so far across the country.
According to an official statement by the Ministry of Railways, so far, Indian Railways has delivered nearly 30,182 MT of LMO in more than 1,734 tankers to various states across the country. A total of 421 Oxygen Expresses have completed their journey.
More than 15,000 MT of liquid medical oxygen has been delivered to the southern states of the country by these special trains.
Oxygen Expresses delivered more than 3,600, 3,700, and 4900 MT of LMO in the state of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu respectively.
Andhra Pradesh reports 6,770 new Covid-19 cases, 12,492 recoveries and 58 deaths in the last 24 hours.
- Total cases 18,09,844
- Total recoveries 17,12,267
- Death toll 11,940
- Active cases 85,637
A doctor was allegedly attacked by four persons after the father of their friend died while undergoing treatment against coronavirus at a government hospital in Latur city of Maharashtra, police said on Sunday. The incident occurred at Vilasrao Deshmukh Government Medical Sciences Institute during the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday, they said.
The four accused, identified as Shubham Dilip Nakade (25), Shriniwas Govindrao Dhobe (25), Akash Pramod Shete (20), Namdev Hanumant Shinde (29), have been arrested, police sub-inspector Kiran Pathare said.
The accused used abusive language against Dr Amit Varma (24) and thrashed him alleging that he didn't treat their friend's father properly, he said, adding that the doctor did not suffer any serious injury in the incident.
Several private hospitals across the country said they have no clarity on procuring COVID-19 vaccines under the new policy announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and that it has led to the vaccination being put on hold at their centres. The hospitals have sought a proper mechanism and a single-window system to be put in place for procurement of vaccine doses. They also claimed that they had approached the vaccine manufacturers -- Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India (SII) -- and also state governments, but to no avail.
Delhi records 255 new COVID cases (positivity rate - 0.35%), 376 patient discharges, and 23 deaths in the last 24 hours.
Active cases: 3,466
Total discharges: 14,02,850
Death toll: 24,823
About 5,000 Pakistani refugees from the Hindu Sindhi community living in Madhya Pradesh's Indore will be administered COVID-19 vaccines, an official said on Sunday.
The representatives of the Pakistani refugees from the Hindu Sindhi community had recently requested the administration for anti- coronavirus inoculation, District Immunization Officer Dr Praveen Jadia told PTI.
"This demand has been accepted following the state government's approval. These Pakistani refugees will now be able to receive anti-coronavirus jabs at the city's vaccination centres by showing their passport as the identity card," he said.
Jadia estimated that about 5,000 Pakistani refugees are living in Indore and most of them are settled in the city's Sindhi Colony area.
"We are administering anti-COVID 19 doses to all adults on humanitarian grounds. Last month, we had vaccinated a Dutch citizen who had come to Indore for some work," he recalled.
Indore district, which is the worst hit by the pandemic in Madhya Pradesh, has so far recorded 1.52 lakh COVID-19 cases including 1,370 fatalities, according to officials.
About 13.53 lakh people were administered the first dose of the vaccine in the Indore district while 2.35 lakh people had received both doses.
Considering increase in demand for medical oxygen in different parts of the country during the second wave of the Covid-19, India has started 'Project O2' to augment the country's ability to meet this rise in demand of medical oxygen.
The project targeted to meet the current demand, manufacturing of medical oxygen as well as ensure that there is adequate supply of the lifesaving gas in the future.
'Project O2' being run under direct command of the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser to enable stakeholders working to augment the country's ability to meet this rise in demand for medical oxygen.
Under the project, a National Consortium of Oxygen is enabling the national level supply of critical raw materials such as zeolites, setting up of small oxygen plants, manufacturing compressors and final products like oxygen plants, concentrators, and ventilators.
The consortium is not only looking forward to providing immediate to short-term relief but also working to strengthen the manufacturing ecosystem for long-term preparedness, said a statement issued by the office of Principal Scientific Advisor.
A committee of experts has been evaluating critical equipment such as oxygen plants, concentrators, and ventilators, from a pool of India-based manufacturers, start-ups, and MSMEs (in partnership with FICCI, MESA, etc).
Ladakh has recorded 38 fresh COVID-19 cases taking the overall tally to 19,544, while the active cases in the region dropped to 746 after 88 more patients recovered from the disease, officials said on Sunday.
Ladakh has registered 197 coronavirus related deaths since last year with the worst-hit Leh accounting for 143 fatalities followed by 54 in Kargil district.
Of the new cases, 32 persons tested positive in Leh taking the infection tally in the district to 16,145, while six cases were detected in Kargil pushing the district tally of infections to 3,399, the officials said.
They said the number of cured patients has risen to 18,601 after the recovery of 72 patients in Leh and 16 in Kargil.
With this the active cases have come down to 756 with 613 in Leh and 133 in Kargil, the officials said.
AIIMS Nurses Union has written to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urging him to take immediate measures to provide vaccines for healthcare workers' family members, aged between 18 to 45 years, on a priority basis. While appreciating unified efforts of the Delhi government to provide a vaccination centre at the premier hospital, nurses union's president Harish Kumar Kajla and general secretary Fameer CK, in a letter to Kejriwal, said that most of the AIIMS healthcare workers have got both the jabs of Covaxin. However, their family members aged 18 to 45 years are facing great difficulty in scheduling their vaccination, they said.
Mizoram's COVID-19 count crossed the 15,000-mark on Sunday as 346 more people tested positive for the infection, an official said.
The fresh cases, detected from 3,866 samples tested on Saturday, took the single-day infection rate to 8.94 per cent, he said.
The state's southern-most district Lawngtlai recorded the highest 154 new infections, displacing Aizawl from the top spot.
According to the official, fresh cases were detected at the remote Karlui village in the Lawngtlai district on June 10 and June 11 and the results could be updated only on Sunday due to poor internet connectivity.
Aizawl district reported 130 new cases, followed by Lunglei (22) and Siaha (20).
More than 59 children were among the newly-infected patients, the official said.
One patient has a travel history, while the remaining 345 were found to have contracted the infection locally, he said.
Of the new patients, 142 have symptoms.
Mizoram has so far reported 15,267 cases, of which 3,660 are active.
A total of 11,545 people have recovered from the infection, including 187 on Saturday.
With the addition of 432 fresh coronavirus positive cases, the infection count in Thane district of Maharashtra mounted to 5,24,704, an official said on Sunday.
These new cases were reported on Saturday, he said.
With 23 more patients succumbing to coronavirus, the death toll in the district rose to 10,221. The mortality rate now stands at 1.94 per cent, he added.
The details of the recovered and under-treatment patients were not provided by the district administration.
In neighbouring Palghar district, the COVID-19 case count has gone up to 1,13,416 while the death toll is 2,398, he said.
"The Goa government has decided to extend the state level curfew till 7 am of June 21. Shops, including panchayat and municipal markets, may open between 7 am to 3 pm. Besides, only 50 guests are allowed in a marriage function," Chief Minister PramodSawant tweeted.
The Rajasthan government on Saturday announced a financial relief package for the children who lost their parents to the Covid pandemic, fixing an amount Rs 2,500 per month for them till they turn 18.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot also announced Rs 5 lakh lump sum assistance on completion of 18 years and free higher secondary education, besides other benefits proposed under the Mukhyamantri Corona Bal Kalyan Yojna.
Under the package, an ex-gratia of Rs 1 lakh and a pension of Rs 1,500 per month will also be provided to the women who lost their husbands to the infection, according to an official statement.
Also, Rs 1,000 a month per child will be provided to the children of these widows, besides Rs 2,500 per month for purchasing their text books and school uniforms, the statement said.
The package also has a provision of Rs 1 lakh as immediate grant to the children, who lost their parents to Covid, the statement said.
As a further evidence of breaking the chain, with 21,614 patients discharged, recoveries were more than 9,785 new Covid cases in a day across Karnataka, said the state health bulletin on Saturday.
"With 21,614 patients discharged across the state during the day, recoveries shot up to 25,32,719, while 9,785 new cases registered on Friday increased the state's Covid tally to 27,57,324, including 1,91,796 active cases," said the bulletin.
As epicentre of the pandemic in the state, Bengaluru reported 2,454 fresh cases, taking its Covid tally to 11,95,340, including 88,795 active cases, while recoveries rose to 10,91,260, with 5,398 patients discharged during the day.
The infection claimed 144 lives, including 21 in Bengaluru, taking the state's death toll to 32,788 and the city's toll to 15,284 since the pandemic broke out in mid-March a year ago.
Out of 1,48,027 tests conducted across the state during the day, 26,999 were through rapid antigen detection and 1,21,028 through RT-PCR method.
Positivity rate was 6.61 per cent and case fatality rate 1.47 per cent across the state on Friday.
For the third time this week, Maharashtras daily Covid deaths remained in the higher ranges, as the fatalities in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) crossed the 30,000-mark though new infections dropped, health officials said here on Saturday.
Compared to the peak of 2,619 deaths declared on Friday, the state on Saturday reported its second highest toll of 1,966 fatalities, comprising 360 new deaths and 1,606 earlier deaths, which mounted Maharashtra's overall death toll to 108,333, the worst in the country for a single state.
The number of fresh cases continued to remain below the 15,000-level at 10,697 on Saturday, taking the state's tally to 58,98,550 till date.
In Mumbai, for the 16th consecutive day, new infections remained below the 1,000-level, but increased from 721 on Friday to 749 on Saturday, taking its overall tally to 714,965.
The daily deaths decreased from 24 a day earlier to 18 on Saturday, mounting the total fatalities in the country's commercial capital to 15,097.
Anticipating a possible third wave of COVID-19 to affect children, the Odisha government has decided to include those above six years in the ensuing fourth sero-survey to assess the presence of antibodies.
The sero-survey will be conducted from June 17 in three districts - Ganjam, Rayagadda and Koraput, said Sanghamitra Pati, director of the Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC), a unit of ICMR.
"For the first time, children above 6 years will be brought under the ambit of this survey," Pati said, adding, the exercise will be completed in four days.
The sero-survey will be carried out in 70 districts across India, she said.
All the procedures will be similar to the previous such surveys.
Official sources said as many as 43,573 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported among children in the age group of 0-14 years in Odisha so far.
Nagaland for the seventh consecutive day on Saturday reported more COVID-19 recoveries than fresh cases as 235 patients recuperated from the disease and 96 new infections pushed the tally to 23,562, a health department official said.
The recovery rate among the COVID-19 patients in the state has gone up to 79.88 per cent from 79.20 per cent on Friday.
As many as 18,822 people have recovered from the infection in the northeastern state.
"At least 96 positive cases detected today - 38 Kohima, 26 Dimapur, 20 Mokokchung, 4 each in Tuensang and Zunheboto, 2 each in Mon and Phek districts," State Nodal Officer for Integrated Disease Surveillance Project Dr Nyanthung Kikon said in the daily COVID-19 bulletin.
Nagaland now has 3,633 active COVID-19 cases, he said.
Demise of three COVID-19 patients in Dimapur district increased the death toll in the state to 448, of which 14 are related to other diseases, he said.
Altogether, 659 COVID-19 patients have migrated to other states, he said.
At least 167 more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Sikkim, taking the tally in the state to 18,257, a health department bulletin said on Saturday.
The death toll remained at 281 as no new fatality due to the infection was reported in the last 24 hours, it said.
Of the fresh cases, 83 were reported from South Sikkim, 71 from East Sikkim, nine from West Sikkim and four from North Sikkim.
The Himalayan state now has 3,783 active cases, and 13,947 people have recovered from the disease, the bulletin said.
The recovery rate among coronavirus patients in the state currently stands at 76.4 per cent.
At least 246 COVID patients have migrated to other states.
The state has conducted 1,46,755 sample tests for COVID-19, including 1,401 in the last 24 hours, and the positivity ratio stands at 11.9 per cent.
West Bengal's COVID-19 toll rose to 16,812 after 81 more people succumbed to the virus on Saturday, a bulletin released by the state's health department said.
The tally mounted to 14,57,273 with 4,286 fresh cases, it said.
The eastern state now has 16,248 active cases, while 14,24,213 people have recovered from the disease, including 3,149 since Friday.
In the last 24 hours, 62,276 samples have been tested in West Bengal, taking the total number of such clinical examinations to 1,32,35,743.
Background
Coronavirus HIGHLIGHTS, Sunday, June 13, 2021: Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech shared complete data of all research studies conducted for Covaxin so far, adding that the final Phase III analysis data will be released soon. As per a company statement, it has shared complete data for Phase I pre-clinical trials and Phase II clinical trials, along with partial data for Phase III clinical trials.
Meanwhile, the head of the World Health Organisation has welcomed the vaccine-sharing announcements coming out of the Group of Seven summit but says we need more, and we need them faster. The challenge, I said to the G-7 leaders, was that to truly end the pandemic, our goal must be to vaccinate at least 70% of the world’s population by the time the G-7 meets again in Germany next year, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.
Anticipating a possible third wave of COVID-19 to affect children, the Odisha government has decided to include those above six years in the ensuing fourth sero-survey to assess the presence of antibodies.
The sero-survey will be conducted from June 17 in three districts - Ganjam, Rayagadda and Koraput, said Sanghamitra Pati, director of the Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC), a unit of ICMR.
"For the first time, children above 6 years will be brought under the ambit of this survey," Pati said, adding, the exercise will be completed in four days.
The sero-survey will be carried out in 70 districts across India, she said.
All the procedures will be similar to the previous such surveys.
Official sources said as many as 43,573 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported among children in the age group of 0-14 years in Odisha so far.
Health experts said the outcome of the sero-survey will help the state government prepare strategies to face another wave of the pandemic.
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