LIVE: Bengal govt extends Covid curbs till Sep 15 with more relaxations

Coronavirus LIVE updates: Kerala records 32,801 new Covid-19 cases. Maharashtra reported 4,654 cases. India on Friday administered a record 10 million vaccine doses. Stay tuned for corona updates

8:41 PM

Bengal allows coaching centres to reopen with 50% capacity

6:56 PM

Kerala govt to impose night curfew from 10pm-6am from Monday, says CM

5:35 PM

Negative RT-PCR report must for international passengers arriving in Maharashtra

All international passengers arriving in Maharashtra will have to carry a negative RT-PCR report even though they are fully vaccinated, the state government has said.

 

“All international passengers arriving in Maharashtra, including those from the European countries, Middle Eastern countries and South Africa, will be in line with the above-mentioned guidelines issued by the Union ministry of health and family welfare,” said the order issued by Maharashtra Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte on Friday night.

4:07 PM

29 new cases in Delhi

2:38 PM

'Once kids go to school, we have to treat them as unvaccinated individuals'

1:28 PM

Ensure no large gathering during coming festival season: MHA to states

The Centre Saturday asked all states and union territories to ensure there is no large gathering during the upcoming festival season and, if necessary, impose local restrictions to check the spread of coronavirus.

 

Extending the ongoing COVID-19 guidelines for one more month till September 30, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said the overall pandemic situation now appears to be largely stable at the national level, except for the localised spread observed in a few states.

 

The total number of active cases and high case positivity in some districts continue to remain a matter of concern, he told the chief secretaries of all states and UTs in his identical letters.

1:15 PM

Confounding Covid: Higher positivity rate in higher-vaccination districts

Logic dictates that higher vaccination should translate into fewer cases and better protection against Covid-19. But a Business Standard analysis shows that the converse is true. Data from 42 districts with more than 10 per cent positivity rate (August 18-24) reveal that these districts have fared better than the rest of the country in vaccinating their population.

 

The 42 districts, which include all 14 districts of Kerala and a majority of districts from the Northeast, have administered at least one vaccine dose to 46.2 per cent of their population. And 15.2 per cent of the eligible people in these districts were fully vaccinated as on August 24. By comparison, average partial vaccination across the rest of the districts of India stood at 35 per cent. Read on...

12:55 PM

US intelligence agencies fail to reach conclusion on Covid-19 origins

The US intelligence community has failed to reach any firm conclusion on the exact origin of Covid-19 and is split on whether it leaked from a lab in China or emerged in nature, even though it does not believe the virus was developed as a biological weapon, according to results of a detailed review ordered by President Joe Biden.

 

The Director of National Intelligence in a report on Friday said SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, probably emerged and infected humans through an initial small-scale exposure that occurred no later than November 2019 with the first known cluster of Covid-19 cases arising in Wuhan, China in December 2019.

 

However, there was no unanimity among the intelligence community (IC) on the origins of the coronavirus.

12:37 PM

Odisha records 779 new Covid cases, 68 fatalities in last 24 hours

Odisha recorded 779 new Covid-19 positive cases in the last 24 hours, taking the active cases to 7,996, as per the state government data.

 

Out of 779 fresh coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, Khurda is the only district of Odisha which solely recorded 259 cases. While Gajapati and Kalahandi districts recorded only one positive case each.

 

The state has recorded 68 fatalities in the last 24 hours, the overall death toll of Odisha stands at 7,765. However, 986 people have been recovered from the infection on Saturday, taking the cumulative recoveries to 9,89,840. Read on...

10:25 AM

Number of active Covid-19 cases in India now stands at 359,775: Union Health Ministry

Number of active Covid-19 cases in India now stands at 359,775: Union Health Ministry

9:49 AM

As cases rise, questions on Kerala's Covid-19 pandemic strategy

The Kerala model on Covid management has come under severe criticism with the state reporting over 70 per cent of the fresh cases in the country. The state reported 32,801 cases on August 27 out of the 44,658 from across the country. The daily number of casualties, which has remained above 100 for most parts since May, was 179 on Friday.

 

The only sign of relief for the state was that the death rate was 0.51 per cent — the lowest among major states. On the other hand, Kerala’s test positivity rate is 19.22 per cent as against 17.13 per cent in the last seven days. The daily positivity rate was 2.45 per cent on August 27, it has been less than 3 per cent for the last 32 days. Read on...

9:30 AM

Coronavirus in India: Latest update by MoHFW

Summary of MoHFW data (August 28)

Active cases: 359,775 (Net increase: 14,876)

Deaths: 437,370 (Net increase: 509)

Cured: 31,852,802 (Net increase: 31,374)

Total cases: 32,649,947 (Net increase: 46,759)

Total vaccination: 622,989,134 (Increase over previous day: 10,335,290)

8:37 AM

Covid-19's Delta variant doubles hospitalisation risk, finds study

People who contract the delta variant of Covid-19 are more than twice as likely to be hospitalized as those infected with the alpha strain, according to a U.K. study, raising the prospect of a greater burden on health services this winter.

 

The review of more than 43,000 Covid-19 cases in England, most of whom were unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, was published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal Friday, and highlighted the protection shots provide against hospitalization from both variants. READ ON...

8:11 AM

Origins of Covid may never be definitively identified: US Intelligence Community assessment

The US Intelligence Community (IC) assesses that the origins of the novel coronavirus disease may never be definitively identified without additional information, the declassified summary of a report commissioned by US President Joe Biden revealed on Friday.

 

The origin of the deadly virus has been the subject of intense global scrutiny, with speculation swirling that the global pandemic may have been triggered by a leak at the Wuhan virology lab, which China has vocally denied. In May, Biden issued a directive to the 17 main US intelligence agencies, which make up the IC, to deliver a report on the origins of COVID-19 within 90 days.

 

"The IC judges said they will be unable to provide a more definitive explanation for the origin of COVID-19 unless new information allows them to determine the specific pathway for initial natural contact with an animal or to determine that a laboratory in Wuhan was handling SARS-CoV-2 or a close progenitor virus before COVID-19 emerged," the IC concluded, according to the summary.

7:38 AM

Coronavirus LIVE updates: Dr Soumya Swaminathan lauds India for achieving 10 million jabs

As India administered over 1 crore vaccine doses against Covid-19 on Friday until 10 pm, which is the highest vaccination that happened in a single day, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist, World Health Organization (WHO), congratulated the country for vaccinating 50 per cent of the adult population with the first dose.

 

Dr Soumya Swaminathan tweeted, "India achieves 50% coverage (at least one dose) of adult populn - > 620 million doses administered, 10 million in the past day! Congratulations to the thousands of personnel involved. Vaccination, along with public health & individual preventive measures will protect everyone!"

 

As 1 crore people were vaccinated in a single day on Friday, Chief of National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation in India (NTAGI) Dr NK Arora said it is a matter of pride for the Indian health system.

 

Dr Arora also said that the country hopes to vaccinate 1.25 crore in a single day soon. In order to achieve complete vaccination by the end of this year, the country has to give jabs to 1 crore daily until December 31.

7:18 AM

Covid-19: Mahabodhi Temple reopens for general public after 5 months

The world heritage Mahabodhi Temple in Bihar's Gaya reopened for the general public after nearly five months on Friday. The shrine had been closed since April this year due to the COVID-induced lockdown in the state.

 

Bodhgaya Temple Management Committee (BTMC) secretary Nangzey Dorjee said that the temple will remain open from 5 am to 9 pm on all days in the week.

 

Dorjee has asked for cooperation from the devotees visiting the shrine.

 

Only 10 people are allowed at a time to enter the sanctum sanctorum of the temple and there is no entry in the temple campus without the mask.