Tag: India Coronavirus

  • COVID-19: As first consignment of vaccine reaches Delhi, India records lowest tally in seven months 

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI India recorded 12,584 new cases of coronavirus, the lowest in around seven months, taking the country’s COVID-19 caseload to 1,04,79,179, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday.

    The death toll increased to 1,51,327 with 167 daily new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.

    The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,01,11,294 pushing the national COVID-19 recovery rate to 96.49 per cent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.44 per cent.

    The COVID-19 active caseload remained below 3 lakh.

    There are 2,16,558 active coronavirus infections in the country which comprises 2.07 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

    ALSO READ | First COVID-19 vaccine consignment reaches Delhi from Pune

    India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past  60 lakh on September 28,  70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29,  90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

    According to the ICMR, 18,26,52,887 samples have been tested up to January 11 with 8,97,056 samples being tested on Monday.

  • Can Covaxin work against new strain? ICMR studies

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: As the number of people identified as carrying the UK variant of Covid-19 strain reached 82, experiments began at the ICMR’s National Institute of Virology to assess whether Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin can neutralise the new strain.

    Covaxin, which has been jointly developed by Bharat Biotech and the ICMR, had received the restricted emergency use authorisation by the apex drug regulator in India along with Oxford University-AstraZeneca’s Covishield, being manufactured in India by the Serum Institute of India. 

    The approval of Covaxin, which is still under phase 3 trial in the country, had triggered a torrent of criticism, but a key reason cited by the drug regulator had said that the REU was being granted in the wake of the mutation in Covid-19 that makes it more transmissible.

    This confidence was based on the argument by the firm which stressed that Covaxin can generate antibodies against multiple proteins instead of spikes alone which in theory suggests that it might have a better chance against the mutated variants.

    “The understanding is that for protection from the variant strains a whole virus vaccine has a better chance as compared to subunit vaccine or only spike protein-based or receptor-binding domain-based vaccines,” a senior official at the ICMR told this newspaper. 

    “To check whether that happens, we will use the vaccine using the culture of virus variants, cell lines and the vaccine,” he added. However, some experts expressed their apprehensions that such an experiment can only be in-vitro neutralisation data — comparing between the UK or South Africa strain and the Covid-19 strains that have remained dominant so far.

    “What is needed, at least, is to use say sera from RBD vaccine immunised individuals and whole virus vaccine immunised individuals and see if the former group is extremely poor in blocking the variant viruses,” said a virologist from a government institution who did not wish to be named.

    Positive signPfizer on Friday announced that the Covid-19 vaccine it has developed appeared to work against a key mutation in the transmissible new variants of the coronavirus, as per a laboratory study 

    PM Modi to meet CMs ahead of vaccine rollout

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a meeting with chief ministers of all states on Monday ahead of the roll out of Covid-19 vaccines in the country, government sources said on Friday. Two vaccines — one each by the Serum Institute of India and the Bharat Biotech — have been granted the restricted-use authorisation by the Drug Controller General of India.

    By July, the Centre is hoping to get about 30 crore population inoculated against Covid-19. Officials, meanwhile, said the second dry run on Friday had been without any major glitches and indicated that states were ready for the actual exercise. 

  • COVID-19: India reports 20,346 cases, 222 fatalities; recoveries cross 1 crore-mark 

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: India’s COVID-19 caseload rose to 1,03,95,278 with 20,346 new infections being reported in a day, while the number of recoveries surpassed one crore, according to data updated by the Union health ministry on Thursday.

    The death toll increased to 1,50,336 as 222 people succumbed to the disease in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.

    The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,00,16,859, pushing the national recovery rate to 96.36 per cent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stood at 1.45 per cent.

    The number of active COVID-19 cases remained below three lakh for the 17th consecutive day.

    There are 2,28,083 active coronavirus cases in the country, which account for 2.19 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

    India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.

    It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and the one-crore mark on December 19.

    According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 17,84,00,995 samples have been tested for COVID-19 till January 6, including 9,37,590 on Wednesday.

  • Second COVID vaccine dry run across India on January 8    

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: As a simulation of the actual execution of the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out, which is expected to begin in a few days, another round of dry run will be conducted in all districts across states and UTs, except for UP and Haryana, on January 8 to ensure efficient planning and management of the immunisation process.

    Each district will identify three types of session sites, similar to the previous dry run conducted on January 2, including a public health facility, private health facility and rural or urban outreach sites, the Union Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

    In this regard, a meeting of Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan with the health ministers of states and UTs is scheduled to take place on Thursday to guide them on conducting the dry run, the ministry said.     

    The entire planning of the vaccination drive, including beneficiary registration, micro-planning and vaccination at the planned session site, will be tested under the leadership of District collector or DM during the dry run. To facilitate the process, a software named ‘Co-WIN’ has been developed by the health ministry for real time information on vaccine stocks, their storage temperature and individualised tracking of beneficiaries for the vaccine.

  • India records lowest daily cases in over six months, caseload at 1,03,56,844

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: India recorded 16,375 new cases of coronavirus, the lowest in over six months, taking the country’s COVID-19 caseload to 1,03,56,844, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday.

    The death toll increased to 1,49,850 with 201 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed   The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 99,75,958  pushing the national recovery rate to 96.32 per cent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.45 per cent.

    The COVID-19 active caseload remained below 3 lakh for the 15th consecutive day.

    There are 2,31,036 active coronavirus infections in the country which comprises 2.23 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

    India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.

    It went past  60 lakh on September 28,  70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

    According to the ICMR, 17,65,31,997 samples have been tested up to January 4 with 8,96,236  samples being tested on Monday.