10:57 (IST)
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Variant accelerating India's COVID explosion, says Soumya Swaminathan
A COVID-19 variant spreading in India is more contagious and maybe dodging vaccine protections, contributing to the country's explosive outbreak, the World Health Organization's chief scientist said Saturday. In an interview with news agency AFP, Soumya Swaminathan warned that "the epidemiological features that we see in India today do indicate that it's an extremely rapidly spreading variant".
Swaminathan, an Indian paediatrician and clinical scientist, said the B.1.617 variant, which was first detected in India last October, was clearly a contributing factor to the catastrophe unfolding in the country. "There have been many accelerators that are fed into this," the 62-year-old said, stressing that "a more rapidly spreading virus is one of them".
10:50 (IST)
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South Africa reports four cases of India virus variant
South Africa's health ministry on Saturday said four cases of a coronavirus variant fuelling a devastating surge of Covid-19 in India had been recorded in the country. "The four cases of B.1.617.2 have been detected in (the provinces of) Gauteng (2) and KwaZulu-Natal (2) and all have a history of recent arrival from India," Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said in a statement late Saturday.
Eleven cases of another variant first detected in the United Kingdom and known as B.1.1.7 have also been found, the statement added, noting that community transmission of that variant had "already set in".
South Africa is at least the fourth country on the continent to pick up the B.1.617.2 variant, alongside Kenya, Uganda and Morocco.
AFP
10:42 (IST)
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Karnataka received 3.5 lakh Covishield doses on Saturday night, says health minister
Karnataka health minister K Sudhakar said that of the order for two crore Covishield doses placed the state government, it received 3.5 lakh doses on Saturday night taking the total delivery to 6.5 lakh doses. "So far the Government of India has supplied 1,10,49,470 doses including 99,58,190 doses of Covishield and 10,91,280 doses of Covaxin," he said.
In the order placed by Karnataka Govt to procure 2 crore doses of Covishield, we received 3.5 lakh doses on Saturday night taking the total delivery to 6.5 lakh doses.
— Dr Sudhakar K (@mla_sudhakar) May 9, 2021
So far GoI has supplied 1,10,49,470 doses including 99,58,190 doses of Covishield & 10,91,280 doses of Covaxin.
10:34 (IST)
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Modi govt's attempts to stifle criticism 'inexcusable', says Lancet editorial
Medical journal The Lancet on Saturday severely criticised the Narendra Modi government's handling of the COVID-19 crisis, saying that its actions in attempting to stifle criticism and open discussions are 'inexcusable'.
Referring to the large number of people seeking emergency assistance on social media, the editorial said, "...Before the second wave of cases of COVID-19 began to mount in early March, Indian minister of health Harsh Vardhan declared that India was in the “endgame” of the epidemic. The impression from the government was that India had beaten COVID-19 after several months of low case counts, despite repeated warnings of the dangers of a second wave and the emergence of new strains."
10:24 (IST)
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#OxygenExpress from Angul has reached Nagpur for providing a steady supply of Oxygen for COVID-19 patients in Maharashtra. pic.twitter.com/6f3ztjGy45
— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) May 9, 2021
10:03 (IST)
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India records 4,03,738 new cases, 4,092 deaths
Single day rise of 4,03,738 COVID-19 infections, 4,092 fatalities push India's tally of cases to 2,22,96,414 and toll to 2,42,362, reports news agency PTI quoting the Union health ministry. According to the health ministry data, active COVID-19 cases in country stand at 37,36,648. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,83,17,404 with 3,86,444 patients recovering in a day.
09:36 (IST)
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ICMR says 30.22 cr samples tested till 8 May
COVID-19 Testing Update. For more details visit: https://t.co/dI1pqvXAsZ @MoHFW_INDIA @DeptHealthRes #ICMRFIGHTSCOVID19 #IndiaFightsCOVID19 #CoronaUpdatesInIndia #COVID19 #Unite2FightCorona pic.twitter.com/x4AGtbINeW
— ICMR (@ICMRDELHI) May 9, 2021
09:35 (IST)
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Mizoram records 169 new cases
09:31 (IST)
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No new cases in 180 districts in last seven days, says Harsha Vardhan
Coronavirus Latest News LIVE Updates: India recorded 4,03,738 fresh COVID-19 cases in a day, which pushed the tally to 2,22,96,414, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Sunday. The toll climbed to 2,42,362 with 4,092 daily deaths, the data updated at 8 am showed.
No fresh COVID-19 cases have been detected in 180 districts in the country in the last seven days, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Saturday.
In his virtual address at the 25th meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) to discuss the pandemic situation, the minister said that as on date, 1.34 percent of COVID-19 patients were in ICU, 0.39 percent on ventilator support and 3.70 percent on oxygen support.
Vardhan, who chaired the meeting through video conference, said, "180 districts have showed no fresh cases in the last seven days, 18 districts in 14 days, 54 districts in 21 days and 32 districts were bereft of any fresh cases in the last 28 days."
He said that across the country, the number of patients in ICU beds so far is 4,88,861 while 1,70,841 patients were on ventilators and 9,02,291 patients were on oxygen support.
The meeting was attended by Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar, Minister of Civil Aviation Hardeep S Puri, Minister of State for Ports, Shipping and Waterways and Chemical and Fertilisers Mansukh Mandaviya and Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai.
Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State, Health and Family Welfare, and Dr Vinod K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog were also present in the meeting.
Harsh Vardhan informed the GoM that the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 16.73 crore on Saturday which includes nearly 23 lakh doses given on Friday.
"A total of 17,49,57,770 doses have been delivered to the states, out of which 16,65,49,583 doses have been consumed and 84,08,187 doses are still available with the states. A total of 53,25,000 doses are on the pipeline and will be supplied to the states soon," he said.
Reiterating the importance of full protection through two COVID vaccine doses, he urged all citizens to get the second dose saying it boosts the immunity against COVID-19 manifold.
He requested the states to set aside 70 percent of the vaccines received through the Central government channel for the administration of the second dose.
On the tests being conducted in India, the minister noted that the country has reached a testing capacity of 25,00,000 tests per day. He informed that a total of 30,60,18,044 tests have been conducted so far in India, which includes 18,08,344 tests in the last 24 hours. He said the country is presently served by 2,514 labs.
Dr Sujeet Kumar Singh, Director, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) highlighted the COVID trajectory of India and underscored the need and importance of significantly ramping up testing and hospital infrastructure in Tier-II/III cities in view of the surge in cases that has seen a shift to these regions/areas too.
States of Maharashtra (1.27 percent), Karnataka (3.05 percent), Kerala (2.35), Uttar Pradesh (2.44), Tamil Nadu (1.86), Delhi (1.92), Andhra Pradesh (1.90), West Bengal (2.19), Chhattisgarh (2.06), Rajasthan (2.99), Gujarat (2.40), Madhya Pradesh (2.24 percent) were highlighted because of their high seven-day growth rate in cases, according to an official statement from the ministry.
The districts/metropolis of Bengaluru (Urban), Ganjam, Pune, Delhi, Nagpur, Mumbai, Ernakulam, Lucknow, Kozhikode (Calicut), Thane, Nashik, Malappuram, Thrissur, Jaipur, Gurgaon, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Chandrapur, Kolkata, Palakkad are the top 20 contributors of active cases in the country, the ministry said.
"Emphasis on timely provision of clinical care in high transmission areas to reduce morbidity and mortality, advance preparedness in anticipation of a rise in cases, increase in testing using RAT and tracing of those who might have contracted the infection, emphasis on clinic-epidemiological linkage of genomic surveillance with transmission dynamics, clinical severity and age profile of new cases were highlighted as important steps ahead in the meeting," it said.
Dr VK Paul, as chairman, gave a detailed report on the work of the Empowered Group-1 and highlighted the various efforts made towards ramping up hospital infrastructure for effective clinical management of hospitalized patients.
The ministry said that urgent steps to halt transmission by intensified containment through community-led effort and restrictions, improvement of messaging breadth and reach to curb panic and free flow of misinformation, promotion of home care in Covid and demystification of treatment to reduce load on hospitals, rational use of Remdesivir, oxygen and other drugs, the augmentation of railway coaches as isolation beds, enhanced focus on rural COVID care were presented at the meeting.
The progress on epidemiological evidence, new technical advisories for dynamic guidance and handholding of states/UTs etc., through various stakeholders was also enumerated, it said.
Giridhar Aramane, Secretary, Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways (Chair, EG-2) presented the current scenario of liquid medical oxygen production, allocation and supply.
Aramane stated that the production of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) has been maximised to meet the present demand of COVID-19 patients.
The domestic production has increased to more than 9400 MT/day, the ministry quoted him as saying.
from Firstpost India Latest News https://ift.tt/3b8zbFl
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