Coronavirus HIGHLIGHTS: Delhi Reports 86 New Covid Cases, 5 Deaths In Last 24 Hours
Coronavirus HIGHLIGHTS, Saturday, July 3: Bharat Biotech said that it has completed the final Phase-3 analysis for Covaxin and overall efficacy of 77.8% against Covid patients has been found.
Private bus owners in Madhya Pradesh have demanded waiver of permit tax for the period between April and June this year, saying they could not operate their business during these three months due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown.
They said they might even stop plying their buses if the state government does not accept their demand.
Talking to PTI, president of Prime Route Bus Owners Association in Madhya Pradesh, Govind Sharma, said a delegation of the private bus operators is scheduled to meet Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan Saturday evening to seek waiver of around Rs 200 crore tax amount.
If the talks with the government fail, we are going to seriously think about discontinuing our services, primarily intra-state, from July 15, he said.
We have to pay monthly permit tax for the buses. From April to June, our buses almost remained off roads due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown in the state. We have faced massive losses and don't have money to pay the tax, Sharma said.
Private operators run around 35,000 buses in the state, he said, adding that some of them own 10 to 40 buses.
Sharma said that the private bus owners owe around Rs 200 crore to the state government as in the form of permit tax for the last three months.
Bus service in the state is mostly dependent on private players after the MP Road Transport Corporation (MPSRTC) was declare defunct years ago.
Puducherry posted 147 fresh cases of COVID-19 during the last 24 hours ending 10 am on Saturday, raising the overall infection count to 1,17,787.
Only one additional death was reported from Puducherry raising the toll to 1760.
The new cases were spread over Puducherry 103, Karaikal 34, Yanam 3 and Mahe 7.
The cases were identified at the end of examination of 7,708 samples, Director of Health S Mohan Kumar said.
The total active cases stood at 2,107 of whom 306 were in hospitals and the remaining 1,801 in home isolation.
One person who succumbed to the viral infection in Puducherry was aged 54 and had co-morbidity of diabetes.
While 271 patients recovered and were discharged today alone, the total recoveries in the Union Territory were 1,13,920.
The Director said 13.32 lakh samples have been examined so far and of them 11.44 lakh turned out of the negative.
The test positivity rate was 1.91 percent.
Fatality and recovery rates were 1.49 percent and 96.72 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, 37,339 health care workers and 22,907 front line workers have been inoculated till date.
The health official said that 3.83 lakh people coming under the category of either senior citizens (60 years and above) or those belonging to 45 years and above with co morbidities have been vaccinated so far.
In all 5.12 lakh people including those administered second dose of vaccination have been covered.
The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) held a special anti-coronavirus vaccination camp for sex workers in the city, a civic official said on Saturday.
The camp was organised on Friday as part of the civic body's attempt to cover the neglected sections of the society under the vaccination programme, spokesperson of the NMMC, Mahendra Konde, said.
Seventy-eight sex workers were administered vaccines during this drive, he said.
The corporation's drive to vaccinate the homeless people has been appreciated by the central government, the official added.
NMMC Commissioner Abhijit Bangar said every effort was being made to cover every citizen in Navi Mumbai under the vaccination programme.
At present, there are 76 vaccination centres in the city and we are making arrangements to increase this figure to 100 to expedite the inoculation, he said.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday once again targeted the government over its vaccination policy, saying "mind the gap".
In a tweet, the Congress leader said, "Mind the gap."
He tweeted with the hashtag #Wherearevaccines.
He also attached a graphics of cumulative vaccination tracker to back his claims.
Earlier on Friday, Rahul Gandhi had said that July has come but vaccines have not, drawing a sharp rebuttal from the BJP.
The Congress leader has been critical of the government over its Covid vaccination policy.
India reports 44,111 new Covid cases, 57,477 recoveries, and 738 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per the Union Health Ministry.
Total cases: 3,05,02,362
Total recoveries: 2,96,05,779
Active cases: 4,95,533
Death toll: 4,01,050
Total Vaccination: 34,46,11,291
With the addition of 489 coronavirus positive cases, the infection count in Thane district of Maharashtra mounted to 5,33,536, an official said on Saturday.
These cases were reported on Friday, he said.
As the virus claimed the lives of 11 persons during the day, the death toll in the district rose to 10,720.
Thane's COVID-19 mortality rate is 2.00 per cent, he added.
In neighbouring Palghar district, the caseload has gone up to 1,17,090, while the death toll is 2,590, another official said.
The anti-COVID-19 vaccines by US pharma majors Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) that are being used in South Africa are more effective against the Delta variant of the coronavirus than the Beta strain, experts have said.
The Beta variant, which was first detected in South Africa, caused a second wave at the beginning of this year whereas the Delta variant, first detected in India, is driving the current third wave in South Africa, resulting in increased lockdown restrictions as the number of infections and deaths have already surpassed those of the previous two waves.
In a media briefing led by Acting Health Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi on Friday, experts said that results in both laboratory research and field studies had shown that the vaccines were effective against the Delta virus.
What we have seen in the in vitro work is that the J&J vaccine works better against the Delta variant and gets better over time where both the Delta and Beta variants are concerned, said Professor Glenda Gray, President and CEO of the South African Medical Research Council.
The COVID-19 toll in West Bengal rose to 17,158 after 23 fatalities were registered in the state on Friday, the health department said in its bulletin.
As many as 1,422 fresh cases pushed the tally to 15,02,706, the department said.
North 24 Parganas district accounted for eight deaths and the city for five fatalities, the bulletin said.
At least 1,840 more people recuperated from the disease since Thursday, raising the total number of recoveries to 14,65,219.
The discharge rate currently stands at 97.51 per cent.
Bengal, at present, has 19,729 active cases, the bulletin said.
A total of 52,166 samples were tested in the state since Thursday, taking the number of such examinations conducted so far to 1,43,25,099.
After the final report on the investigation into the alleged oxygen mock drill is out, action would be taken against those found guilty, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma said on Friday. An enquiry was ordered by the Agra administration last month after a video clip surfaced on social media in which the owner of the city’s Shri Paras Hospital was purportedly heard saying that he conducted a ‘mock drill’ in which oxygen supply was cut off for COVID-19 patients for five minutes.
Delhi markets that were shut for flouting Covid norms have been allowed to reopen from today.
Andhra Pradesh on Friday logged 3,464 new Covid cases, pushing the state's overall tally beyond 18.9 lakh, even as its active caseload dropped to 37,323 from 38,178 a day before.
As many as 4,284 persons recovered from the disease in the past 24 hours, raising the state's total number of recoveries to over 18.4 lakh.
East Godavari district reported the highest number of cases at 667, followed by Chittoor (597), West Godavari (397), Prakasam (349), Nellore (262), Krishna (250), Guntur (222), Kadapa (187), Anantapur (130), Visakhapatnam (126), Srikakulam (109), Vizianagaram (90) and Kurnool (78).
Except for Vizianagaram, all the other districts of Andhra Pradesh have now reported more than 1 lakh Covid cases. East Godavari tops the chart with more than 2.6 lakh cases, followed by Chittoor with 2.2 lakh cases.
Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech on Friday said that it has completed the final Phase-3 analysis for Covaxin, its indigenous vaccine against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). Citing pre-print data from "India's largest efficacy trial", the pharmaceutical claimed that an overall efficacy of 77.8% against symptomatic Covid-19 patients has been found in Covaxin.
Background
Coronavirus HIGHLIGHTS, Saturday, July 3: Bharat Biotech Concludes Final Analysis for Covaxin Efficacy from Phase 3 Clinical Trials. Efficacy analysis demonstrates Covaxin️ to be 77.8% effective against symptomatic COVID-19, through evaluation of 130 confirmed cases, with 24 observed in the vaccine group versus 106 in the placebo group
Andhra Pradesh on Friday logged 3,464 new Covid cases, pushing the state's overall tally beyond 18.9 lakh, even as its active caseload dropped to 37,323 from 38,178 a day before.
As many as 4,284 persons recovered from the disease in the past 24 hours, raising the state's total number of recoveries to over 18.4 lakh.
East Godavari district reported the highest number of cases at 667, followed by Chittoor (597), West Godavari (397), Prakasam (349), Nellore (262), Krishna (250), Guntur (222), Kadapa (187), Anantapur (130), Visakhapatnam (126), Srikakulam (109), Vizianagaram (90) and Kurnool (78).
Health authorities in Thailand reported over 6,200 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, setting a record for a third straight day, as concerns mounted over shortages of treatment facilities and vaccine supplies.
Officials also reported 41 deaths, bringing the total to 2,181.
Around 90% of Thailand's over 271,000 reported coronavirus cases and 95% of the deaths have been recorded during a surge that began in early April. There were 992 deaths in June, more than 15 times Thailand’s total for all of 2020.
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