Coronavirus HIGHLIGHTS: Maharashtra Daily Caseload Falls Below 10,000 Mark, Recovery Rate Above 95%
Coronavirus HIGHLIGHTS, Thursday, June 17, 2021: Maharashtra's Covid-19 deaths remained in the high even as new infections also spurted to breach the 10,000 level, though the number of patients cured also increased, health officials said on Wednesday. Delhi reported 212 new Covid-19 cases while its daily test positivity rate stood at 0.27 percent Delhi presently has 2,749 active cases, of which 781 are under home isolation.
Bihar's COVID-19 tally rose to 7,18,704 on Thursday as 385 more people tested positive for the infection, while four fresh fatalities pushed the state's coronavirus death toll to 9,527.
The state now has 3,804 active cases, while 7,05,373 people have been cured of the disease so far.
Telangana on Thursday registered 1,492 fresh coronavirus cases, pushing the tally to 6.09 lakh while the toll rose to 3,534 with 13 more fatalities.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) accounted for the most number of cases with 166 followed by Khammam 129 and Nalgonda 115 districts, a state government bulletin said, providing details as of 5.30 PM on Thursday.
The Uttarakhand government on Thursday lodged a case against a company and two private labs for fudging coronavirus test reports during the Haridwar Kumbh Mela in April.
The company and both labs have been booked under the Epidemic Diseases and the Disaster Management Acts besides Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code.
Mumbai reported 666 new cases of Coronavirus in the last 24 hours with 741 recoveries & 20 deaths. Active cases remains at 14,807.
Kerala reports 12,469 new cases of Coronavirus on Thursday with 13, 614 recoveries and 88 deaths in the last 24 hours. With this, active cases in the state stands at 1,08,560. Death toll reaches 11,743.
The possible third wave of COVID-19 unlikely to affect children much, as per WHO-AIIMS survey.
The SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity rate among children was high compared to the adult population in the survey, which was conducted in five selected states with a total sample size of 10,000 by WHO-AIIMS.
Data of 4,500 participants were taken for the results of the time of midterm analysis from four states of India and more results are likely to come in the next two to three months.
Andhra Pradesh on Thursday recorded 6,151 new cases of Coronavirus along with 58 deaths and 7728 recoveries. With this, state's active cases stand at 69,831, taking the overall tally 18,32,902.
IMA is conducting a nationwide protest tomorrow in demand for a central law to protect doctors against violence. 3.5 lakh doctors of IMA will take part in the protest: Dr. J.A. Jayalal, National President, Indian Medical Association (IMA)
The AAP government has sent a file on doorstep delivery of ration to Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal, making a fresh bid to get his approval for the scheme, official sources said on Thursday.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has again sent the file to the LG and said that it was according to the law and the objections raised by the Centre earlier have been addressed.
Serum Institute of India plans to start clinical trials of the Novavax shot for children in July, sources told news agency ANI.
London: The number of people infected with the coronavirus is increasing rapidly in England, doubling every 11 days, which coincides with the Delta variant of COVID-19 becoming dominant in the country, a new study reports on Thursday.
The Imperial College London led Real-time Assessment of Community Transmission (REACT-1) analysis, based on over 100,000 home swab tests taken between May 20 and June 7, estimates that 0.15 per cent of people have the deadly virus, or roughly 1 in 670.
It found that the link between infections, hospitalisations and deaths had been weakening since February, but since late April, the trend has been reversing for hospitalisations.
We found strong evidence for exponential growth in infection from late May to early June in the REACT-1 study, with a doubling time of 11 days on average for England, said Professor Paul Elliott, director of the REACT programme from Imperial's School of Public Health.
These data coincide with the Delta variant becoming dominant and show the importance of continuing to monitor infection rates and variants of concern in the community, he said.
The findings come days after UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a month-long delay to an end to lockdown restrictions, citing the rising number of cases of the Delta variant first identified in India.
These findings highlight the stark context in which we took the difficult decision to delay Step 4 of the roadmap out of lockdown, said UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
Cases are now rising, but thanks to our incredible vaccination programme and enhanced response package including surge testing, we have the tools to curb the spread of this virus. We all must hold our nerve that little bit longer as our vaccine rollout continues and I urge everyone to keep observing hands, face, space and fresh air, and make sure you receive both doses of the vaccine for the best possible protection, he said.
The Imperial study scientists estimate that the reproduction number, or R number, of the deadly virus is now well above one at 1.44, meaning 10 infected people would pass the virus on to 14 others on average, resulting in fast growth of the epidemic.
Most infections are happening in children and young adults, but they are rising in older people too, increasing at a similar rate in the over 50s and the under 50s.
Even though we are seeing the highest infection prevalence in younger people who are less susceptible to COVID-19, if this growth continues it will drive up infections in older, more vulnerable people, as the vaccines are not 100 per cent effective and not everyone has been fully vaccinated, said Professor Steven Riley, Professor of Infectious Disease Dynamics at Imperial.
This would lead to more hospitalisations and deaths, and risks straining the NHS, which is why it's vital that people take up their vaccine offer and continue to stick to the rules, he said.
The REACT-1 study is an ongoing pandemic study, led by Imperial and carried out in partnership with Ipsos MORI, tracking current coronavirus infections in the community by testing randomly selected people each month over roughly a two-week period.
For this latest round, 108,911 people swabbed themselves at home and their samples were analysed by PCR testing 135 of these were positive, of which the vast majority (around 90 per cent) were the Delta variant at the end of the study round.
This, it notes, is consistent with Public Health England (PHE) data reporting that the variant accounts for 90 per cent of infections.
In the study's previous testing round patterns of infection were fairly similar across the country, but the latest data showed substantial regional variation.
The highest prevalence was found in the North West at 0.26 per cent, up from 0.11 per cent in the previous round, while the South West had the lowest at 0.05 per cent, slightly down from 0.07 per cent.
The study has also been tracking the relationship between infections, hospital admissions and deaths across different age groups.
Since February, the link between infections, hospitalisations and deaths has weakened in people aged 65 and above, while there has been a recent reversal of these trends for those under 65, which likely reflects lower vaccination rates in this group. (PTI)
"The Sputnik V vaccine will be available in 9 more cities across India, including Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Baddi, Kolhapur, and Miryalaguda," the tweet on the official account informed.
Panaji: Goa will not open for tourism until the state fully administers the first vaccine shot to its population, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said in a major policy announcement on Thursday.
Sawant also said that the Goa government was aiming at 100 per cent coverage of the first vaccination shot by July 30.
"There is no plan to start tourism until the first vaccination dose is completed. Our target is to complete it by July 30," Sawant told reporters on the sidelines of a private function.
The Goa government's ongoing Tika Utsav 3.0 is aimed at 100 per cent coverage of the first vaccine shot for all adults in the state.
Sawant, who met tourism industry stakeholders earlier this week also said that any decision related to opening up tourism would be taken only after July 30.
The tourism industry stakeholders in their memorandum to the Chief Minister had called for strict enforcement of protocol for entry to Goa, quarantine centres for tourists and putting off high-capacity events like electronic dance music festivals till March 2022.
The Goa tourism industry stakeholders had said this is in order to "re-build the image of Goa to all tourists". (IANS)
Over 27.28 crores (27,28,31,900) vaccine doses provided to States/UTs so far. Over 2.18 crores (2,18,28,483) doses still available with them. More than 56,70,350 doses in the pipeline & will be received by States/UTs within next 3 days: Union Health Ministry
Japan to issue vaccine passport for travel abroad from next month. "Preparing to issue a certificate of vaccination for those who need one... when they visit foreign countries. The certificate will be paper-based," AFP News Agency reported quoting top government spokesman Katsunobu Kato.
Bharat Biotech and World Health Organisation's (WHO) pre-submission meeting on June 23, says a WHO document.
Dr. NK Arora, head of the Government's National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NTAGI) working group on COVID-19 has said that a single dose of Covishield shows 61% effectiveness against Delta Variant. On the debate about the interval between doses of Covishield, he said that the panel will review the decision and take appropriate steps based on the new data.
Arora said that the decision to increase the interval between two doses of Covishield from 4-6 weeks to 12-16 weeks was taken on scientific grounds and there were no differences among the NTAGI members in this regard. He said, "If tomorrow in vaccine manufacturing technology it is said that reducing the interval between vaccine doses is beneficial for the people, even if it is only giving five or ten percent more benefit, the committee will be on the merits and will take a decision on this on the basis of understanding".
Background
Coronavirus HIGHLIGHTS, Thursday, June 17, 2021: Maharashtra's Covid-19 deaths remained in the higher ranges even as new infections also spurted to breach the 10,000 level, though the number of patients cured also increased, health officials said on Wednesday.
Against 1,458 deaths declared on Monday, the state now revealed a lower figure of 1,236 fatalities (237 new, and 999 earlier deaths), taking the toll to 115,390.
The number of fresh cases increased from 9,350 on Tuesday to 10,107, taking the tally to 59,34,880.
In Mumbai, for the 20th consecutive day, the new infections remained below the 1,000 level, but shot up from 572 a day earlier to 821, sending the city tally to 717,172. Deaths dropped from 14 a day earlier to 11, to take total fatalities to 15,227.
The national capital on Wednesday reported 212 new Covid-19 cases while its daily test positivity rate stood at 0.27 percent, according to the health bulletin issued by the Delhi government.
A total of 25 persons succumbed to Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, taking the national capital's overall death toll to 24,876.
Continuing the trend, daily recoveries again outnumbered the tally of new cases by a fair margin, as 516 people recovered from the disease on Wednesday, taking the national capital's total number of recoveries to 14, 04,085.
Delhi presently has 2,749 active cases, of which 781 are under home isolation.
A total of 77,891 Covid samples were tested in the last 24 hours, including 55,417 through RT-PCR and 28,585 through Rapid Antigen tests.
As epi-centre of the pandemic in Karnataka, the Covid tally of Bengaluru crossed the 12-lakh mark, with 1,611 new cases in a day, said the state health bulletin on Wednesday.
"With 1,611 new cases registered on Tuesday, the city's Covid tally shot up to 12,00,754, including 79,261 active cases, while 11,06,138 recovered so far, with 5,526 patients discharged during the day," said the bulletin.
Across the state, 7,345 positive cases were reported on Tuesday, taking its Covid tally to 27,84,355, including 1,51,566 active cases, while recoveries increased to 25,99,472, with a record 17,913 patients discharged in the last 24 hours.
The infection claimed 148 lives, including 28 in Mysuru, 19 in Bengaluru, 14 in Belagavi and 10 in Dakshina Kannada districts, taking the state's death tally to 33,296 since the pandemic broke out in mid-March a year ago.
Out of 1,68,712 tests conducted across the state during the day, 47,730 were through rapid antigen detection and 1,20,982 through RT-PCR method.
Positivity rate was 4.35 percent and case fatality rate 2.01 percent across the state on Tuesday.
A day before easing of lockdown norms, Kerala on Wednesday saw its Covid test positivity rate (TPR) dip to 11.79 percent as 13,270 people turned positive from 1,12,521 samples sent for testing in the past 24 hours, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said.
In a statement, Vijayan also said there were 1,09,794 active cases, while 15,689 people turned negative, taking the total cured to 26,39,593.
Starting from midnight after 39 days of lockdown, there is going to be a graded relaxation of norms in the lockdown.
In 147 local bodies where the TPR is below 8 percent, all shops will be allowed to open and private establishments like offices can function too, but with 50 percent staff.
In 916 local bodies where the TPR is between 8 to 20 percent, shops selling essential items can open on all days, but private offices and other shops can function only on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
In 146 local bodies where the TPR is between 20 and 30 percent, only essential shops can open, while other shops can open only on Friday.
In 25 local bodies where the TPR is above 30 percent, there would be a triple lockdown, with only essential shops can open.
Malls, cinema halls, public indoor activities, and eating inside restaurants are all banned till further notice anywhere in the state.
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