08:54 (IST)

Coronavirus in India LATEST Updates

India’s COVID-19 testing rate lower than other countries: WHO chief scientist

Noting that lockdown was a temporary measure to contain the spread of coronavirus, a senior official of the World Health Organisation on Tuesday said India has a low testing rate when compared to some of the countries that are successfully trying to curb it.

The Chief Scientist of WHO, Soumya Swaminathan, in an interactive session through video conference said,as of now about 28 vaccine candidates for COVID-19 are under clinical trial, of which five are entering Phase-II and over 150 candidates are in pre-clinical trials across the globe.

"India as a whole, the testing rates are much lower compared to some of the countries, who have done well like Germany, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan.

08:14 (IST)

Coronavirus LATEST Updates

Global toll rose to 6.9 lakh as US reports 1,302 new deaths 

The global toll rose to 6,99,134 on Wednesday with the United States adding 1,302 more fatalities to the tally, according to the Johns Hopkins University. The global coronavirus count crossed 1.84 crore. As many as 1.10 crore people have recovered.

08:11 (IST)

Coronavirus LATEST Updates

Novavax Covid-19 vaccine induces immune response in early study

Novavax Inc said on Tuesday its experimental Covid-19 vaccine produced high levels of antibodies against the novel coronavirus, according to initial data from a small, early-stage clinical trial, sending the company’s shares up 10%, reports Reuters.

The company said it could start a large pivotal Phase III trial as soon as late September, and on a conference call added that it could produce 1 billion to 2 billion doses of the vaccine in 2021.

08:09 (IST)

Coronavirus in Delhi LATEST Updates

Delhi’s active cases fall below 10,000-mark, toll at 4,033

The number of active cases in Delhi went below the 10,000-mark. The Capital’s coronavirus tally stood at 1,39,156, including 1,25,226 recoveries and 4,033 deaths.

Maharashtra’s case count rose to 4,57,956 after 7,760 new infections, and the toll went up by 300 to 16,142. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu has 2,68,285 cases and the toll stood at 4,349.

08:01 (IST)

Coronavirus in Assam LATEST Updates

Assam reports highest spike in cases yesterday

Assam on Tuesday reported its highest single-day spike of 2,886 new COVID-19 cases, taking the state's tally to 48,161, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said. Six more patients died in the state, following which the toll rose to 115.

07:55 (IST)

Coronavirus in US LATEST Updates

'Too many are selfish': US nears 5 million virus cases

Fourth of July gatherings, graduation parties, no-mask weddings, crowded bars there are reasons the US has racked up more than 155,000 coronavirus deaths, by far the most of any country, and is fast approaching an off-the-charts 5 million confirmed infections, easily the highest in the world, reports AP.

Many Americans have resisted wearing masks and social distancing, calling such precautions an overreaction or an infringement on their liberty.

Public health experts say the problem has been compounded by confusing and inconsistent guidance from politicians and a patchwork quilt of approaches to containing the scourge by county, state and federal governments.

07:52 (IST)

Coronavirus in Maharashtra LATEST Updates

2,098 new COVID-19 cases reported in Pune yesterday

Pune district reported 2098 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking its COVID-19 count to 94,978 on Tuesday, a health department official said. He said the death toll rose to 2,185 with 56 more patients succumbing to the infection during the same period in the western Maharashtra district, reports PTI.

07:52 (IST)

Coronavirus in Meghalaya LATEST Updates

Meghalaya reports highest single-day spike in cases yesterday

Meghalaya on Tuesday recorded the highest single-day recovery of 66 COVID-19 patients, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said. Fifteen more people also tested positive for coronavirus, increasing the state's tally to 917.

While 330 patients have recovered from the disease so far in the state, five have died due to the virus.

07:42 (IST)

Coronavirus in India LATEST Updates

Rapid Antigen tests comprise about 25-30% of total Covid-19 tests, says ICMR

Rapid antigen tests comprise nearly 25-30 per cent of the total daily tests conducted for the detection of COVID-19 in the country at present, ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava said on Tuesday.

A record 6,61,892 samples were tested for COVID-19 on Monday, taking the total number of tests conducted so far in the country to 2,08,64,750 and the Tests per Million (TPM) to 15,119.

Of the total 2.08 crore tests conducted so far, around 26.5 lakh are antigen tests, an ICMR official said.

Coronavirus LATEST Updates: The global toll rose to 6,99,134 on Wednesday with the United States adding 1,302 more fatalities to the tally, according to the Johns Hopkins University. The global count crossed 1.84 crores.

India's COVID-19 tally rose by over 50,000 for the sixth consecutive day on Tuesday, taking the total cases to 18,55,745. In the past 24 hours, 52,050 new cases were reported. Meanwhile, the recoveries crossed the 12-lakh mark, according to the Union Health Ministry's data.

The toll due to COVID-19 climbed to 38,938 with 803 new fatalities being reported in 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.

A total of 12,30,509 people have recovered, while there are 5,86,298 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country presently.

The recovery rate among COVID-19 patients has risen to 66.31 percent, while the fatality rate has further dropped to 2.10 percent, the data stated.

The health ministry also said that the number of recovered patients is now double than the number of active cases.

According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 2,08,64,750 samples have been tested up to 2 August with 6,61,892 samples being tested on Monday, the highest done in a day so far, scientist and media coordinator at ICMR, Dr Lokesh Sharma, said.

"A total of 1,05,32,074 tests for detection of coronavirus infection have been performed with per day average of 3,39,744 tests in July, the highest number of tests conducted in a month so far," Sharma said.

There are 917 labs in the government sector and 439 labs in the private sector for conducting COVID-19 tests.

Dharmenda Pradhan, Siddaramaiah tests COVID-19 positive

Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan informed that he has tested positive for COVID-19. Taking to Twitter, Pradhan said that he has been hospitalised as per doctor's advice and is in a healthy condition.

"I decided to get myself tested after noticing some symptoms of COVID-19 and my report came back positive. As per the doctor's advice, I have admitted myself in a hospital and I am in healthy condition," his tweet read.

Union Minister Amit Shah also tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday.

Other politicians testing positive for COVID-19 include Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa.

Earlier on Tuesday, former Karnataka chief minister and Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, Siddaramaiah said that he has tested positive for COVID-19 and admitted himself to a hospital.

"I have been tested positive for COVID-19 and also been admitted to the hospital on the advice of doctors as a precaution. I request all those who had come in contact with me to check out for symptoms and to quarantine themselves," Siddaramaiah tweeted.

Centre says 68% men, 32% women make up COVID-19 casualties

The Union Health Ministry said that of the people who died due to coronavirus in the country, 68 percent are men and 32 percent are women.

Union Health secretary Rajesh Bhushan gave mortality analysis for COVID-19 — gender and age-wise respectively.

"These are cumulative figures. If you see the mortality analysis i.e. the deaths caused by the coronavirus, you will find that 68 percent deaths are reported among male patients. And 32 percent of deaths are among female patients. This is broadly in line with the global scenario also, although the percentages may differ," he said.

"If you look at age-wise mortality analysis, 50 percent of deaths were reported in patients above 60 years and above; 37 percent deaths were seen in among patients with the age group of 45 to 60 years. This means that on one side — we have to save lives of our senior citizens, they should not go out unnecessary — and, on the other hand, we have to see that people between 45 to 60 years age group are also vulnerable too. Most importantly, those who are co-morbid should follow guidelines and everyone should wear mask, maintain distance and hand hygiene," Bhushan said.

According to the health ministry, about 11 percent mortality was seen in patients with 26 to 44 years of age. Only one percent fatality was observed in patients in the age group between 18 to 25 years and below 17 years of age.

Centre says 96% of 60,000 ventilators being procured are indigenous

In a briefing on the coronavirus situation in the country, the Union health ministry on Tuesday said that 96 percent of the 60,000 ventilators being procured by the government are indigenous and most of them have been sponsored by the PM-CARES fund.

Health Ministry secretary Rajesh Bhushan said 60,000 ventilators are being procured and 18,000 have already been supplied to states and union territories.

"Of the 60,000 ventilators, 50,000 are being funded by PM-CARES fund which comes to about Rs 2,000 crore in monetary terms," Bhushan said during the briefing.

He further said all the ventilators that are being procured under PM-CARES and those by the budgetary allocation of the Health Ministry have GPS chips embedded that can be tracked.

"The 'Make in India' (indigenous) ventilators have a share of more than 96 percent by volume and more than 90 percent by value," he said.

Delhi's LNJP records 'zero deaths' on two days in a week

The LNJP Hospital, the Delhi government's biggest COVID-19 treatment facility, did not report any death due to the disease on two days in a week, signalling improvement in the pandemic situation.

The 2,000-bed hospital's medical director Suresh Kumar said on Tuesday the number of people on ventilator at the facility has come down by nearly 25 percent, compared to the figure a month ago.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted on 28 July that LNJP Hospital had not reported any death on 27 July, a feat, doctors said, recorded for the first time in the last couple of months.

"After that day, on two more days, our hospital saw no death from COVID-19.... It is definitely a good sign for all of us who are fighting this situation," Kumar told PTI.

WHO chief scientist says India's COVID-19 testing rate is low

Noting that lockdown was a temporary measure to contain the spread of coronavirus, a senior official of the World Health Organisation on Tuesday said India has a low testing rate when compared to some of the countries that are successfully trying to curb it.

WHO chief scientist, Soumya Swaminathan, in an interactive session through video conference said, as of now about 28 vaccine candidates for COVID-19 are under clinical trial, of which five are entering Phase-II and over 150 candidates are in pre-clinical trials across the globe.

"(In) India as a whole, the testing rates are much lower compared to some of the countries, who have done well like Germany, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan. Even the United States is testing a huge number of people. So we need to have some benchmark and every public health department needs to have benchmarks on what is the rate of testing per lakh or per million, what is the test positivity rate," she said.

Without adequate number of tests, fighting the virus is like "fighting fire blindfolded," she pointed out. According to Swaminathan, the number of tests being conducted is not adequate if the COVID-19 test positivity rate is above five percent.

State-wise cases and deaths

Maharashtra continues to be the worst-affected state as it has a total of 1,47,324 active cases and 15,842 deaths. A total of 4,50,196 coronavirus cases have been recorded in the state up to Monday, according to Union Ministry of Health.

Tamil Nadu reported 5,063 COVID-19 cases, 6,501 discharged and 108 deaths on Tuesday. Total number of cases in the state is now at 2,68,285, including 2,08,784 discharged, 55,152 active cases and 4,349 deaths.

Delhi reported 674 COVID-19 cases, 972 recovered/discharged/migrated cases and 12 death. The total positive cases here rises to 1,39,156 including 1,25,226 recovered/discharged/migrated cases and 4033 deaths.

4,108 RTPCR/CBNAAT/TrueNat tests and 5,187 Rapid antigen tests conducted.

As many as 390 cases, 824 recovered and 10 deaths were reported in Jammu and Kashmir, taking the total number of cases in the Union Territory to 22,396, including 7,123 active cases, 14,856 recovered and 417 deaths.

Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday reported 9,747 new COVID-19 cases with 67 deaths. The state government said that the total count of cases has gone up to 1,76,333 with 79,104 are active cases, 95,625 recovered patients and 1,604 deaths due to the disease.

A total of 1,124 new COVID-19 cases and 13 deaths were reported from Rajasthan till 8.30 pm on Tuesday.

State Health Department said the count of cases in the state stands at 46,679 including 13,115 active cases and 732 deaths. A total of 32,832 persons have recovered from the viral infection in the state so far.

Gujarat reported 1,020 new COVID-19 cases and 25 deaths in the last 24 hours, informed the state health department on Tuesday.

"With this, state tally has risen to 65,704 including 14,811 active cases, 48,359 cured/discharges and 2,534 deaths," the State Health Department said.

With inputs from agencies



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