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Coronavirus HIGHLIGHTS, Sunday, July 4: For the second time in one week, Maharashtra broke its own national record in daily Covid vaccinations by notching 796,738 jabs.
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Coronavirus HIGHLIGHTS, Sunday, July 4: For the second time in one week, Maharashtra broke its own national record in daily Covid vaccinations by notching 796,738 jabs, a top official said here...More
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, and considering the enhanced production of Covid vaccines, the government of India has set up two laboratories to facilitate expedited testing/pre-release certification of the vaccines, informed the Union ministry of science and technology on Sunday. According to the ministry, the government of India has set up two vaccine testing facilities including one at Autonomous Research Institutes National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune, and another at National Institute of Animal Biotechnology (NIAB) Hyderabad as Central Drug Laboratory (CDL), for batch testing and quality control of vaccines.
America's top infectious disease expert says about 99.2% of recent COVID-19 deaths in the United States involved unvaccinated people.
Dr Anthony Fauci says "it's really sad and tragic that most all of these are avoidable and preventable."
He tells NBC's 'Meet the Press' it's frustrating "where you have a formidable enemy" in the coronavirus and "yet we do have a countermeasure that's highly, highly effective. And that's the reason why it's all the more sad and all the more tragic why it isn't being completely implemented in this country."
Fauci cites the reasons for opposition to the vaccine by some Americans, whether it's "ideological" or whether some "are just fundamentally anti-vax or anti-science." He says the country does "have the tools to counter" the pandemic and he's asking people to "put aside all of those differences and realize that the common enemy is the virus."
Maharashtra reports 9,336 new COVID cases, 3,378 patient discharges, and 123 deaths in the past 24 hours.
Active cases: 1,23,225
Total discharges: 58,48,693
Death toll: 1,23,030
Mumbai reports 548 new Covid-19 cases, 705 discharges, and 24 deaths today.
Active cases: 8,114
Total recoveries: 6,98,696
Death toll: 15,544
Delhi vaccinated 1.61 lakh people against coronavirus on July 3, of which around 40,000 beneficiaries received the second dose, according to the data provided by the city government on Sunday.
The city has provided 83.73 lakh vaccine jabs since the inoculation exercise started on January 16. Over 19 lakh people have received both the doses. On Saturday, 1,61,901 people were vaccinated in the capital. Of this, 1,21,203 got the first dose of the vaccine, according to the latest vaccination bulletin.
The city had 3.43 lakh vaccine doses left till Sunday morning, which are likely to last just one day. According to Delhi government estimates, 2.26 lakh people can be vaccinated in a day at 1,374 vaccination centres in the city.
Andhra Pradesh reports 3,175 fresh COVID cases, 3,692 recoveries, and 29 deaths in the past 24 hours.
Active cases: 35,325
Total recoveries: 18,54,754
Death toll: 12,844
Delhi reports 94 new Covid 19 cases, 111 recoveries and 7 deaths in the last 24 hours.
Total cases 14,34,554
Total recoveries 14,08,567
Death toll 24,995
Odisha on Sunday reported 2,870 fresh COVID-19 cases, raising the tally to 9,21,896, while the death toll climbed to 4,196 with 42 more fatalities, a health department official said.
The state now has 30,227 active cases and 8,87,420 people have recovered from the disease so far, including 3,158 since Saturday, he said.
Only three districts logged active cases above 2,500 and have been categorized as 'Red Zone' - Khurda (5,144), Cuttack (4,387) and Balasore (3,000). Deogarh in the western part registered the lowest at 41.
Of the fresh infections detected in all the 30 districts, 1,652 are from quarantine centres and the remaining are local-contact cases, he said.
Cuttack district reported the highest of 440 new cases, followed by Khurda (384), Balasore (240), Jajpur (191), Mayurbhanj (164), Kendrapara (157), Bhadrak (128), Jagatsinghpur (112) and Nayagarh (105).
Districts registering cases above 100 are in the coastal region, while the pandemic situation has improved in the western and southern parts of Odisha, the official said.
Taking to Twitter, the Health and Family Welfare Department said: "Regret to inform the demise of forty-two Covid positive patients while under treatment in hospital."
The single-day deaths include eight from Khurda district, five in Bargarh and four in Sundargarh.
The state has thus far conducted over 1,39 crore sample tests for COVID-19, taking into account 71,122 on Saturday. The positivity rate stands at 6.56 per cent.
The union territory of Puducherry reported 172 new coronavirus cases during the last 24 hours taking the overall tally to 1,17,959, a senior official of the Department of Health and Family Welfare Services said on Sunday.
A 60-year old male patient succumbed to the infection at Puducherry government hospital, taking the toll to 1,761, Director of Health S Mohan Kumar said.
The 172 new cases were spread over Puducherry (137), Karaikal(23), Yanam (5) and Mahe (7), he said.
The number of active cases stood at 2,006 (305 in hospitals and the remaining 1,701 in home isolation).
As many as 272 patients recovered and were discharged in the last 24 hours alone, he said, adding the cumulative recoveries stood at 1,14,192.
Mohan Kumar said 13,40,668 samples have been examined so far and 11,51,363 of them turned out to be negative.
The test positivity rate was 2.55 per cent while fatality and recovery rates were 1.49 per cent and 96.81 per cent respectively.
The Health department Director said that 37,382 healthcare workers and 22,917 frontline workers have been inoculated so far.
He said that 3.92 lakh people coming under the category of either senior citizens (60 years and above) or those above 45 years with comorbidities have been vaccinated so far.
Further, he said in all 5,25,179 people including those who received second dose of vaccination have been covered in the Union Territory.
Thane has added 475 new cases of coronavirus, taking the infection count in the Maharashtra district to 5,34,011, an official said on Sunday.
Besides these new cases reported on Saturday, the virus also claimed the lives of 13 more people, pushing the death toll in the district to 10,733, he said.
The COVID-19 mortality rate in Thane stood at two per cent, he added.
Details of 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 1,17,222, while the death toll has reached 2,603, another official said.
COVID19 | Mizoram reported 243 new positive cases on Saturday, taking the total cases to 21,246 in the State; death toll at 95. Active cases at 3,897.
The Punjabi Basti and Janata market in Nangloi area of the national capital have been closed till July 6 for gross violation of Covid-appropriate behaviour, an official order said on Saturday.
The order issued by Sub Divisional Magistrate (Punjabi Bagh) Shalesh Kumar said general public/shopkeepers of these markets were not following the health protocol.
"Amid the possibility of a third wave of COVID-19 pandemic and considering gross violation of existing health protocol under Covid appropriate behaviour in these markets, the Sub Divisional Magistrate, Punjabi Bagh under DDMA Act, 2005, do hereby order for shutting down the entire market of Punjabi Basti and Janta Market, Nangloi from July 4 to 6, it stated.
In the event of any shopkeeper found violating this order or any act which may spread COVID-19, necessary action as per law would be taken against him/her, it warned.
In another order issued by Sub Divisional Magistrate (Vivek Vihar) Devendra Sharma, shop number 9/6434, Mukherji Gali, Sardari Lal Market, in Gandhi Nagar has been asked to close its operations for seven days till July 12 for non-adherence of Covid-19 appropriate behaviour .
Delhi was under a complete lockdown from April 19 to May 30 following which the national capital saw a phased unlock process.
Nagaland registered 69 new COVID-19 infections on Saturday, pushing the states caseload to 25,451, a health official said.
Altogether 94 coronavirus patients also got cured during the day.
"69 positive cases detected today are Kohima: 19, Dimapur: 14, Mokokchung: 12, Zunheboto: 6, Mon, Phek and Wokha: 5 each, Tuensang: 2 and Kiphire: 1," the State Nodal Officer for Integrated Disease Surveillance Project, Dr Nyanthung Kikon, said in a bulletin.
The death of a patient in Dimapur district took the toll to 499, of which 14 patients had comorbidities, he said.
The state now has 1,253 active patients, he said, adding that 708 COVID-19 patients have migrated to other states.
The recovery rate slightly improved to 90.33 per cent from Fridays 90.20 per cent. The highest recovery rate was 97.98 per cent on March 19.
So far, a total of 2,29,924 suspected COVID-19 samples have been tested.
Nagaland, as on Friday, administered a total of 5.37 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccines to 4.60 lakh people, said State Immunization Officer Dr Ritu Thurr.
A total of 66,710 beneficiaries have received the second dose of the vaccine completing the course of vaccination.
Punjab recorded 172 fresh COVID-19 cases and 16 more fatalities on Saturday, taking the state's infection tally to 5,96,265 and the death toll to 16,103, according to a medical bulletin.
The number of active cases stand at 2,538 in the state.
The fresh deaths due to the disease were reported from several districts, including Amritsar, Bathinda, Fazilka and Ferozepur.
Out of the new cases, Ludhiana reported 26 infections, followed by 24 in Jalandhar and 15 in Patiala, among others.
The state's positivity rate stands at 0.39 per cent.
With 368 more recoveries, the number of cured people reached 5,77,624, the bulletin said.
There are 101 critical patients who are on ventilator support, 320 other critical patients and 1,457 are on oxygen support, it said.
A total of 1,10,40,759 samples have been collected for testing so far in the state, it said.
According to the bulletin, over six lakh people were administered anti-COVID-19 vaccines on Saturday in Punjab.
Meanwhile, the Union Territory of Chandigarh reported 18 fresh COVID-19 cases on Saturday.
The UT's infection tally stands at 61,718, according to the medical bulletin.
With no fresh death, the death toll remained at 808.
The number of active cases came down to 149, it said.
With 16 patients being discharged after they recovered from the infection, the number of cured reached 60,761 in Chandigarh, the bulletin said.
A possible third wave of coronavirus infection can hit its peak between October-November if Covid-appropriate behaviour is not followed, but it may see half the daily cases recorded during the second surge, said a scientist of a government panel tasked with modelling of COVID-19 cases.
However, Covid infection can spread faster during the third wave if any new virulent variant of SARS-CoV-2 emerges, said Manindra Agarwal who is working with the Sutra Model-- the mathematical projection of the COVID-19 trajectory.
The panel was formed by the Department of Science and Technology last year to forecast the surge of coronavirus cases using mathematical models.
Besides Agarwal, who is a scientist with IIT-Kanpur, the panel also has M Vidyasagar, another scientist with IIT-Hyderabad, and Lt. Gen Madhuri Kanitkar, Deputy Chief (Medical) of Integrated Defence Staff, as members.
The panel had earlier received flak for not predicting the ferocity of the second wave of COVID-19 in the country.
About the predictions for the third wave, Agarwal said the loss of immunity, effects of vaccination and the possibility of a more virulent variant have been factored in this time, which was not done while modelling the second wave.
He said a detailed report will be published soon.