The positivity rate stood at 5.62 per cent. (Express Photo)Coronavirus India News Highlights (June 28): The Centre on Tuesday stressed on continuous alertness and advised states and Union territories reporting a surge in Covid cases to strictly monitor epidemiological profile of admitted coronavirus-infected patients and report the clinical manifestations to the health ministry, rather than random or anecdotal reporting. This will help in identifying at an early stage any out-of-the-ordinary or different clinical presentation of the patients, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said during a review meeting with 14 states and union territories.
West Bengal recorded 551 fresh Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total tally to 20,25,523. However, no death was reported and the total number of deaths in West Bengal remained at 21,216, said a health department bulletin.
Re-establishing the need for vaccination, the latest genome sequencing report of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has revealed that Covid-related mortality is higher among unvaccinated patients.
The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on Tuesday approved Serum Institute's COVID-19 vaccine Covovax for restricted emergency use in children aged 7 to 11 years subject to certain conditions, official sources said.
The DCGI's nod came after the subject expert committee on COVID-19 of the CSDCO last week recommended granting emergency use authorisation to Covovax for the age group of 7 to 11 years. (PTI)
Tamil Nadu posted 1,484 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, taking the State tally to 34,71,289. The toll continued to remain at 38,026, as no fatalities were reported today also.
With the surge in new cases, the government asked secretaries and collectors to follow up on appropriate COVID-19 behaviour, including proper wearing of masks, at institutions under their control. (PTI)
Maharashtra reported 3482 Covid cases and five deaths today while Mumbai logged 1290 cases.
The city of Bengaluru recorded 887 new Covid cases today with the active cases numbering 4682.
Delhi reported 874 fresh Covid-19 cases along with 4 deaths in the last 24 hours. Active cases stood at 4,482 while the positivity rate is at 5.18%. 941 patients recovered in the capital.
The Centre on Tuesday stressed on continuous alertness and advised states and Union territories reporting a surge in Covid cases to strictly monitor epidemiological profile of admitted coronavirus-infected patients and report the clinical manifestations to the health ministry, rather than random or anecdotal reporting.
This will help in identifying at an early stage any out-of-the-ordinary or different clinical presentation of the patients, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said during a review meeting with 14 states and union territories. (PTI)
Kerala on Tuesday recorded 4,459 fresh COVID-19 infections and 17 deaths which raised the total caseload in the state to 66,34,722 and the casualties to 69,993 respectively. (PTI)
Goa on Tuesday reported 168 COVID-19 cases and three deaths, taking the coastal state's tally to 2,48,339 and the toll to 3,838, an official said. (PTI)
With over 2 lakh doses, West Delhi district has administered the highest number of precaution doses against COVID-19 till Tuesday, official data showed.
Meanwhile, north district has inoculated the least number of people with precaution doses. (PTI)
Odisha recorded over a hundred new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday for the first time in more than three months, the health department said.
With 113 people testing positive, the positivity rate rose to 1 per cent. The new cases were detected after testing 11,284 samples, it said. (PTI)
Assam reported 60 new COVID-19 cases with the positivity rate rising to 6.71 per cent, as per the National Health Mission (NHM). (PTI)
Ladakh continued to record an upward trend in new Covid-19 cases with 14 fresh infections pushing the number of active cases in the Union Territory to 59, officials said on Tuesday.
This was the highest single-day rise in the past month that took the overall infection tally in the region to 28,376, they said.
According to officials, Ladakh has recorded 228 deaths linked to the pandemic since its outbreak.
Of the total deaths, Leh accounts for the highest 168 deaths followed by 60 in Kargil, they said.
The officials said all the 14 fresh cases were reported from Leh and with this the total number of active cases in Ladakh has gone up to 59– 58 in Leh district and one in Kargil district– against a total of four cases a month ago.
Four patients were discharged after undergoing successful treatment for the infection in Leh, taking the overall recoveries to 28,089, they said. (PTI)
Amid a rise in Covid-19 cases in the city, the Koyambedu market management committee authorities mull strict measures at the market to avoid the spread of the virus. The management body plans to implement stringent measures after four people, including two traders, tested positive for the disease in Koyambedu market.
On June 16, a woman who visited the flower market in Koyambedu tested positive for Covid-19. Another person who accompanied her also developed symptoms later. When officials from the civic body asked her about the places she visited recently, she told them about her trip to the flower market in Koyambedu.
Officials of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) through contact tracing, collected 200 samples from traders at the flower market. Officials said they closed down the two shops and disinfected the market. Among the 200 samples, two were positive. Read the full report here
A notice, attributed to a high-ranking Chinese Communist Party official, created a flutter among Beijing’s residents as it claimed that China’s straining and unpopular zero-Covid curbs — mass testing, targeted lockdowns, and travel restrictions — might extend for another five years.
According to The Guardian, the original text of the notice, attributed to Communist Party’s Beijing secretary, said: “In the next five years, Beijing will unremittingly grasp the normalisation of epidemic prevention and control.”
The notice was first put out by Beijing Daily and later by several state media outlets. After some time, the “five year” reference was taken off by most publications. But by then, it had triggered a wave of anger and confusion online among residents of Beijing, with a hashtag linked to the five-year notice getting 1 million hits before being removed. Read our explainer here
197.31 crore vaccine doses have ben administered till June 28 in India under the Nationwide Vaccination Drive, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Meanwhile, 86.14 crore tests have been conducted so far in total, with over 4 lakh having been conducted in the last 24 hours.
A total of 69 Covid-19 patients – 57 in general beds, two in oxygen-supported beds and 10 in ICU wards – are currently admitted in government hospitals in Karnataka.
Health commissioner Randeep D said, “We will ensure there is more broad-based testing of the contacts… All primary contacts irrespective of whether they are asymptomatic or symptomatic have to be tested. The hospitals have been told to test those with influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) symptoms. High-risk groups should not be left out since they are vulnerable. These have been reiterated to the state appointed Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) last week.”
In a recently held meeting, the TAC had suggested the government penalise those not wearing masks in public places. Read the full report here
The state recorded 551 fresh Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total tally to 20,25,523. However, no death was reported and the total number of deaths in West Bengal remained at 21,216, said a health department bulletin.
The state saw 248 Covid-19 recoveries in the past 24 hours, with this the number of people cured of the infection went up to 20,00,227, the health department bulletin said. Read more
Re-establishing the need for vaccination, the latest genome sequencing report of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has revealed that Covid-related mortality is higher among unvaccinated patients.
Out of the 269 patients whose samples were taken for sequencing, 107 or 39.7 per cent were unvaccinated. Of these, five required admission in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and three lost their lives. On the other hand, among the eight patients who had taken one dose and 154 patients who were fully vaccinated, no death was recorded.
The requirement of treatment in ICU was also found to be less among partially and fully-vaccinated patients. Only one patient who had taken both the doses of the vaccines needed admission in the ICU. Read the full report here
As many as 582 new cases of coronavirus have been detected in Maharashtra's Thane district, taking the tally of infections to 7,26,053, a health official said on Tuesday.
With the addition of these cases on Monday, the district currently has 5,629 active COVID-19 cases, he said.
According to him, one death was also reported on Monday, raising the COVID-19 toll in the district to 11,903.
The recovery count has reached 7,07,480, the official added. (PTI)
Telangana on Monday recorded 477 fresh COVID-19 cases, pushing the total number of those infected by the virus to 7,99,532. Hyderabad district registered the highest number of infections at 258, while its neighbouring Ranga Reddy and Medchal Malkajgiri reported 107 and 56 respectively. A health department bulletin said 279 people recuperated from the disease and the cumulative number of recoveries till date was 7,91,461. The recovery rate slipped to 98.99 per cent. (PTI)
Tamil Nadu registered 1,461 fresh Coronavirus cases on Monday, taking the State tally to 34,69,805. The toll continued to remain at 38,026, as no fatalities were reported today too. Including 697 people who were discharged after treatment in the last 24 hours, the total recoveries rose to 34,23,557 till date.
Three passengers - one from Indonesia, 1 from Kuwait and another from Karnataka - who returned to TN were among the 1,461 who were infected, a medical bulletin said. The active cases in Tamil Nadu increased to 8,222 from 7,458 a day ago. Among those who tested positive today were 746 men and 715 women, it said. (PTI)
The BA.5 sub-variant of Omicron has been found in some samples collected from central, south and southeast Delhi between May and June 16, official sources said on Monday.
The findings were discussed at a meeting on June 17 by the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), which reviewed the COVID-19 data to check the possibility of any new emerging variant or sub-variant and ascertain the reasons behind the breakthrough infections.
Almost five per cent of the samples genome sequenced from central and south east Delhi tested positive for the BA.5 sub-variant and nearly two per cent samples from south Delhi showed its presence. Most of the samples were found to have the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron. According to experts, BA.5 is highly transmissible but does not lead to severe infection.
Sources said a few samples from Delhi that were sent to the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) for genome sequencing tested positive for the BA.4 and BA.5 sub-strains of Omicron, which had triggered the surge in the number of cases in January. (PTI/Saloni Bhatia)
Delhi on Monday reported 628 new Covid-19 cases, three deaths with a positivity rate of 8.06%.
The COVID-19 tally in Madhya Pradesh reached 10,44,081 on Monday after the detection of 74 cases, while the death toll increased by one to reach 10,741, an official said.
The positivity rate is 1.1 per cent, while recovery count increased by 70 to touch 10,32,875, leaving the state with 465 active cases, the official informed. With 6,236 samples examined during the day, the number of tests in MP went up to 2,94,83,570, he said. A government release said 12,02,55,506 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far in the state, including 62,151 on Monday. (PTI)
Himachal Pradesh on Monday reported 94 fresh cases of COVID-19, pushing the state's infection tally to 2,85,836, an official said. The active cases in the hilly state stood at 367. With 46 patients being recovered in the last 24 hrs, the total number of recoveries have increased to 2,81,328, the official said. The state's death toll due to Covid currently stands at 4,122, the offical added. (PTI)
Maharashtra reported 2,369 fresh Covid-19 cases, five deaths on Monday. The active caseload currently is at 25,570.
Goa on Monday reported 130 COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to 2,48,171, while the death toll remained unchanged at 3,835, a health official said. So far, 2,43,413 persons have been discharged post recovery, including 135 during the day, leaving the state with an active caseload of 923, he said. (PTI)
Jammu and Kashmir on Monday reported 67 fresh COVID-19 cases that pushed its infection tally to 4,54,865, officials here said. Of the fresh cases, 47 were reported from the Jammu division of the union territory and 20 from the Kashmir Valley, they said. The death toll due to COVID-19 remained unchanged at 4,756, they added.
The number of active cases in Jammu and Kashmir stands at 359. So far, 4,49,750 people have recovered from the viral disease, the officials said. (PTI)
Ladakh has recorded nine new cases of coronavirus on Monday, thereby increasing the COVID-19 tally to 28,362, while no fatality was reported, officials said. All positive cases were received in Leh. So far, 228 people have succumbed to COVID-19 in Ladakh. Of these, 168 deaths were reported from Leh and 60 from Kargil, according to the officials. The number of active covid cases has gone up to 49 -- 48 in Leh and one in Kargil, they said. (PTI)
Digital censors quickly deleted a hashtag “the next five years” Monday as online discussion swirled in response to reported remarks of Beijing's Communist Party secretary saying that the capital city will normalize pandemic prevention controls over the course of the next five years.
Beijing's Communist Party chief, Cai Qi, made the remarks Monday morning as part of a report on the Party's management of the city. The citywide party congress is held once every five years, ahead of the national level party congress, which is slated for this fall. At the congresses, members generally review the work of the past five years while also announcing goals for the next five years.
“In the next five years, Beijing will resolutely, unremittingly, do a good job in normalizing pandemic prevention controls," according to a cached version of the remarks in Beijing Daily, the main Communist Party mouthpiece in the capital city. The city “will implement high quality regular PCR tests, and screening at key points, strictly inspect entries in residential communities, work units and public institutions,” it said. (AP)
The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) is studying long-term memory of COVID-19 vaccines, a senior official said on Monday. The study is aimed at ascertaining the long-tern impact of the vaccines and will help modulate the schedule of doses, the official said.
"Earlier, the vaccines which were used were tried and studied for a longer period of time," the official said. A senior scientist said Covid vaccine data is being collected from several laboratories and studied by the DBT. A total of 197 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the country so far. (PTI)
Wearing masks was made mandatory for devotees coming to see the annual Ratha Jatra festival in Puri on July 1 amid rising COVID-19 cases in Odisha, a senior official said on Monday. Around 10 lakh people are expected to gather for the festival in the temple town from across the country, and some foreign nations, Director of Health Service Bijay Mohapatra said.
The festival of Lord Jagannath this time will see the participation of devotees after two years. In 2020 and 2021, only servitors took part in rituals due to the pandemic. "We are expecting a large congregation during the festival this year. Mask is mandatory in Puri during the festival. Health camps will be set up at the railway station, bus stand and Grand Road (Bada Danda)," Mohapatra said.
Asking people with symptoms to avoid visiting the town, he said caution should be maintained to check the spread of the virus. The state government has set up Covid Care Centres in Puri, and arranged for oxygen and ICU beds to meet with any eventuality, officials said. (PTI)
European Medicines Agency (EMA) the European Commission authorised the Covid-19 vaccine Valneva on Monday. (Reuters)
Covid-19 positive outpatients are at a far increased risk of neurodegenerative disorders compared with those who tested negative for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, according to a study.
The researchers found that those who had tested positive for Covid-19 were at a much higher risk of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and ischaemic stroke.
The study, presented on Sunday at the 8th European Academy of Neurology (EAN) Congress in Vienna, Austria, analysed the health records of over half of the Danish population.
Out of 919,731 individuals that were tested for Covid-19 within the study, researchers found that the 43,375 people who tested positive had a 3.5 times increased risk of being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. (PTI)
Pakistan's aviation regulator has made masks mandatory on domestic flights given a gradual rise in the number of COVID-19 cases across the country, it said a statement.The order comes a day after Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi, reported that its COVID-19 positivity ratio, or the rate of positive cases out of all tests conducted, rose to 21% compared with a national rate of 2.8%."With immediate effect, mask wearing will be mandatory onboard domestic flights,” the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) said in the statement late on Sunday.Pakistan has had very few COVID cases over recent months and had done away with almost all precautions.But over the past 24 hours, the national COVID positivity ratio had risen to 2.85% with 382 positive cases and two deaths, according to data released on Monday by the National Institute of Health, Islamabad (NIH). (Reuters)
Andaman and Nicobar Islands on Monday reported five new COVID-19 cases, two less than the previous day, pushing the tally to 10,131, a health department official said.
Of the five new cases, three patients have travel history, while two infections were detected during contact tracing, he said.
The Union territory now has 37 active cases, while 9,965 people have recovered from the disease so far, including five in the last 24 hours.
A total of 129 patients have succumbed to the infection to date.
The administration has thus far tested over 7.50 lakh samples for COVID-19, and fully vaccinated 3.40 lakh people. (PTI)
China stocks rose on Monday, with tourism and consumer sectors leading the gains, as Shanghai's top party boss declared victory over COVID-19 after the city reported zero new local cases for the first time in two months.
Hong Kong equities surged the most in nearly six weeks, with tech giants climbing to their highest level since March 1. (Reuters)
All Blacks head coach Ian Foster, two assistant coaches and two leading players have tested positive for COVID-19, severely disrupting the team's preparation for Saturday's first rugby test against Ireland.
Foster, Plumtree and Scott McLeod are isolating at home and midfielders Jack Goodhue and David Havili haven't joined the team in Auckland where the test will be played in front of a sellout crowd at Eden Park.
Goodhue and Havili both had strong chances of being named in the New Zealand lineup for the first test of a three-test series.
Assistant coaches Brad Mooar and Greg Feek will take charge of the team in the lead-up to the match while Crusaders center Braydon Ennor has joined the squad to provide midfield cover. (AP)
Places including US states that have legalized cannabis appear to have increased its regular use, while Covid lockdowns had a similar effect, raising the risk of depression and suicide, a UN report said on Monday. Cannabis has long been the world's most widely used drug and that use is increasing while the cannabis on the market is getting stronger in terms of its tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in its annual World Drug Report. (Reuters)