Coronavirus LIVE: Kerala reports 5,980 new Covid-19 cases in past 24 hours

Coronavirus LIVE updates: Globally, more than 107.4 million people have been infected by the virus and the death toll stands at 2,348,727

9:53 PM

Andhra Pradesh reports 50 new Covid-19 cases, 121 recoveries

9:28 PM

Manipur reports 11 new Covid-19 cases

9:26 PM

Over 13k railway health staff inoculated against Covid-19: Goyal

Around 13,117 railway health staff have so far been vaccinated against Covid-19, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal informed Parliament on Wednesday, according to PTI. In a reply to a query in the Lok Sabha, the minister said the vaccination of Railway employees is being done in a phased manner.

In the first phase Railway health care staff are being vaccinated. Till now, 13,117 Railway health care staff have been vaccinated. 3,70,316 front line Railway employees have been identified for vaccination in the next phase, he said. More than 30,000 railway employees have so far contracted COVID-19 and around 700 have died from it.

8:55 PM

Chills, appetite loss, headache may also be COVID-19 symptoms: UK study

A study of over a million people in England has revealed additional symptoms linked with having coronavirus, which could include chills, loss of appetite, headache and muscle ache.

 

While these wider symptoms were noted in addition to the known or so-called classic symptoms of loss of sense of smell and taste, fever and new persistent cough, around 60 per cent of infected people did not report any symptoms in the week leading up to their test, the Imperial College London led Real-time Assessment of Community Transmission (REACT) study revealed on Wednesday.

 

"These new findings suggest many people with COVID-19 won't be getting tested and therefore won't be self-isolating because their symptoms don't match those used in current public health guidance to help identify infected people," said Professor Paul Elliott, director of the REACT programme at Imperial.

8:25 PM

Delhi to increase the number of Covid-19 vaccination sites

Delhi to increase the number of Covid-19 vaccination sites from 183 to 265; 82 new vaccination sites to operationalised from February 11.

8:23 PM

Delhi reports 127 fresh coronavirus cases; positivity rate 0.19%

Delhi recorded 127 fresh COVID-19 cases and two new deaths on Wednesday, taking the overall toll to 10,884, a day after no coronavirus fatality was registered in the national capital. The zero single-day death was reported on Tuesday after nearly nine months. A total of 100 cases were reported on Tuesday.

 

With the latest figures, the infection tally in the city rose to 6,36,387 and the death toll mounted to 10,884, according to a health bulletin. The active cases tally on Wednesday stood at 1,046, according to the bulletin. The positivity rate on Wednesday stood at 0.19 per cent, authorities said.

8:13 PM

415 new cases in Karnataka, three deaths

Karnataka reported 415 new cases of COVID-19 and three related fatalities on Wednesday, taking the total number of infections to 9,43,627 and the death toll to 12,244, the Health department said. The day also saw 322 patients getting discharged after recovery.

 

According to a department bulletin, out of 5,875 active cases, 5,734 patients are in isolation at designated hospitals and stable, while 141 are in ICU. A total of over 1,76,91,918 samples have been tested so far, out of which 66,199 were tested on Wednesday alone, and 4,256 among them were rapid antigen tests.

8:04 PM

Coverage of healthcare workers in seven States/UTs less than 40%: Govt

8:03 PM

Total hospitalisation due to vaccination is 30 so far: Health Ministry

7:47 PM

Maharashtra sees 3,451 new coronavirus cases, 2,421 recoveries; 30 die

Maharashtra reported 3,451 fresh coronavirus positive cases on Wednesday, taking the tally of the infections to 20,52,253, the state Health department said. With 30 more people succumbing to the COVID-19 disease, the toll rose to 51,390 in the state, it said, adding 19 of these fatalities were from the past 48 hours, while nine had occurred in the last week and the remaining two earlier.

 

A total of 2,421 patients were discharged from hospitals during the day, taking the overall number of recoveries in Maharashtra to 19,63,946, the department said. The state is now left with 35,633 active cases. Maharashtra's case recovery rate now stands at 95.7 per cent, while the fatality rate is 2.50 per cent, it said.

7:15 PM

30 trainee nurses test positive for Covid-19 at private institute in Palampur

Thirty trainee nurses at a private nursing college in Himachal Pradesh's Palampur tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. All of them are under isolation as per protocol, Kangra Chief Medical Officer Dr Gurudarshan Gupta said.

 

"Apart from this, the institution and its hostels are being sanitised," he said, adding that 16 trainee nurses of the college had tested COVID-19 positive on Sunday.

 

So far, 8,290 COVID-19 cases have been reported in the district. While 7,992 patients have been cured of the disease, 91 cases are active at present, the official said.

6:36 PM

UK variant of Covid strain reported in 86 countries: WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that the Covid-19 variant B.1.1.7, which was first identified in the UK on September 20, has been reported in 86 countries.

 

In its weekly epidemiological update, WHO says the variant B.1.1.7 has shown an increase in transmissibility, and some evidence of increase in disease severity based on preliminary findings.

 

As of February 7, an additional six countries have reported cases of this variant. In the UK, for example, Covid-19 test samples of this strain increased from 63 per cent in the week of December 14 to 90 per cent in the week of January 18, the WHO said on Tuesday.

6:27 PM

Kerala reports 5,980 new coronavirus cases in past 24 hours

Kerala reports 5,980 new coronavirus cases, 5,745 recoveries and 18 deaths in the last 24 hours. Number of active cases are 64,346: Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan

6:18 PM

UP schools reopen for classes 6 to 8 with Covid-19 protocols in place

Schools in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad, Noida, Varanasi, and Gorakhpur reopened for classes 6 to 8 on Wednesday with COVID-19 protocols in place, after months of closure due to the pandemic.

 

Primary education officer, Moradabad, Yogendra Kumar told ANI," The government ordered reopening schools from February 10 for classes 6 and 8, including all government and private schools in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad. The government has also instructed to call different standard students on different days of the week, with students of class 6 attending school on Mondays and Thursdays, class 7 on Tuesdays and Fridays, and class 8 on Wednesdays and Saturdays."

5:50 PM

Health workers in Meghalaya reluctant to take Covid-19 jabs, says official

Health workers in Meghalaya are "reluctant" to take Covid-19 vaccine shots, with only 27 per cent of the over 33,000 beneficiaries having turned up for inoculation thus far, a senior official said on Wednesday.

 

The northeastern state has received 35,000 Covishield doses for the first phase of the vaccination process, Health Services Director Aman War told PTI.

 

"Only 9,017 of the 33,185 Covid-19 beneficiaries in the state have taken the shots, and none has reported any adverse effect following immunisation (AEFI)," he said.

5:11 PM

Delhi reports 127 new coronavirus cases

5:09 PM

Prince Charles, wife Camilla get first dose of Covid-19 vaccine

Britain's Prince Charles and his wife Camilla have received their first of two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, the royal couple's Clarence House office said on Wednesday.

 

Charles, 72, and Camilla, 73, fall within the over-70 priority group identified by the UK's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) as the most vulnerable to serious illness from the coronavirus.

 

Clarence House did not say which particular vaccine the couple received but they are likely to have received either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Oxford/AstraZeneca jabs, which are currently being administered across the UK by the National Health Service (NHS).

4:46 PM

Ghana suspends parliament amid a surge in Covid-19 cases

Ghana's parliament has been suspended for at least three weeks following a surge in Covid-19 cases among parliament members and staff.

 

Speaker Alban Bagbin announced the suspension late Tuesday, saying that at least 17 members of parliament and 151 staffers have tested positive for the coronavirus. He has urged lawmakers and other parliament staffers to get tested.

 

Meetings, however, will continue of the parliament appointments committee to nominate ministry posts for the administration of President Nana Akufo-Addo, who was re-elected in December.

 

Ghana's Health Services confirmed that there have been 73,003 cases, including 482 deaths, in the West African nation since the outbreak began last year.

4:01 PM

EU chief: Bloc was late, over-confident on vaccine rollout

As the European Union surpassed the toll of 500,000 people lost to the virus, the EU Commission chief said Wednesday that the bloc's much-criticized vaccine rollout could be partly blamed on the EU being over-optimistic, over-confident and plainly late."

 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen defended the EU's overall approach of trying to beat the pandemic with a unified vaccine plan for its 27 nations, even if she admitted mistakes in the strategy to quickly obtain sufficient vaccines for its 447 million citizens.

 

We are still not where we want to be. We were late to authorize. We were too optimistic when it came to massive production and perhaps we were too confident that, what we ordered, would actually be delivered on time," von der Leyen told EU plenary.

3:43 PM

Odisha's Covid-19 tally mounts to 335,889, over 3.4 lakh inoculated

Odisha's COVID-19 tally climbed to 3,35,889 on Wednesday after 92 more people tested positive for the virus, a health department official said. The coastal state's coronavirus death toll remained unchanged at 1,910 as no fresh fatality was reported since Tuesday, he said. Odisha now has 787 active cases, while 3,33,139 patients have recovered from the disease, the official said.

 

Fifty-four of the new cases were reported from different quarantine centres, while the remaining are local- contact infections. Bargarh district reported the highest of 14 fresh cases followed by Sundergarh (11) and Cuttack (9). Nine other districts - Bhadrak, Dhenkanal, Ganjam, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Kendrapara, Malkangiri, Nayagarh and Nabarangpur, did not register any new infection.

3:26 PM

UK announces Covid vaccination contract extension with Wockhardt

Wockhardt, the global pharmaceutical and biotechnology major headquartered in Mumbai, on Wednesday announced that it has been awarded a six-month extension of its agreement with the United Kingdom (UK) government to fill-finish Covid-19 vaccines.

 

This expands the original agreement from 18 to 24 months that is, until August 2022 and the manufacturing would continue to be undertaken at CP Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Wockhardt based in Wrexham, North Wales.

 

UK International Trade Secretary Liz Truss, on a visit to Mumbai as part of a drive to improve business links between the UK and India, announced the extension and said, "This is a brilliant bit of news for the UK and the people of Wrexham. It brings important investment to the local area, jobs and security to the community as we battle this awful pandemic. Wockhardt's investment shows the strength of our trading ties with India which is a further boost to our already strong vaccine supply as we bounce back stronger from coronavirus."

3:10 PM

No mandatory Covid-19 testing at railway stations, airports in Assam from March 1

The Assam government has decided to discontinue mandatory COVID-19 testing at railway stations, land routes and airports from March 1, in light of the decline in coronavirus cases and ongoing vaccination drive.

 

"In view of rapidly declining cases of COVID-19 and given that vaccination is in full swing, GoA has decided to discontinue mandatory testing at railway stations, land routes and airports from March 1, 2021," Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted. "It is expected however that people would adhere to COVID appropriate behaviour," he added.

 

There are currently 1,680 active cases in Assam, while the state has reported 2,14,490 recoveries and 1,086 deaths so far.

2:25 PM

Japan will begin giving coronavirus vaccine next week

Japan will begin administering the COVID-19 vaccine next week, with medical experts at the pandemic's frontlines the first recipients. We will make every effort to prepare for everything, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said at a meeting of ruling party officials Wednesday where he confirmed the timing of the first inoculations.

 

He called for cooperation by doctors, nurses and local municipalities to smoothly carry out the massive inoculations.

 

A health ministry panel is expected to give its first greenlight for a COVID-19 vaccine one developed by Pfizer Inc. within days.

2:12 PM

India's Covid-19 recovery rate improves to 97.27%: Health Ministry

1:59 PM

Less than 5,000 active cases in 33 states, UTs of India

Active COVID-19 cases in the country have dropped to1.41 lakh comprisingjust 1.30 per centof the total infections, while33 states and UTs have reported less than 5000 active cases ina span of 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said on Wednesday

 

Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli currently have zero active cases.

 

A total of 11,067 new daily cases have been recorded in a span of 24 hours whereas 13,087 patients have recovered during the same period.It has led to a net decline of 2,114 cases from the total active caseload, the ministry highlighted. Kerala and Maharashtra account for 71 per cent of the total active cases of the country, the ministry said.

12:31 PM

157 new coronavirus cases, 1 death in Telangana

Telangana recorded 157 fresh Covid-19 cases, taking the total positives to nearly 2.96 lakh while one related fatality pushed the toll to 1,613.

 

Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) accounted for the most number of cases with 27, followed by Medchal Malkajgiri and Rangareddy with 11 and 10 respectively, a government bulletin said on Wednesday providing details as of 8 pm on February 9.

 

The total number of cases stood at2,95,988 while recoveries were at 292,578.

12:17 PM

Covid-19 death toll in France surpasses 80,000

The death toll from the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in France has topped 80,000, the country's national public health agency, Sante Publique, said in a statement.

 

A total of 439 people with Covid-19 have died in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall death count to 80,147.

 

The coronavirus case tally since the pandemic started in France amounts to 3,360,235, including more than 18,870 in the past day alone.

12:00 PM

Brazil sees 1,350 Covid-19 deaths, over 50,000 cases in a day

Brazil on Tuesday said it registered 1,350 deaths due to the novel coronavirus disease in the past 24 hours, raising the country's death toll to 233,520.

 

According to the Ministry of Health, tests detected 51,486 new cases of Covid-19 infection in the same period, bringing the accumulated number of cases to 9,599,565.

 

The government said more than four million people have been vaccinated following the emergency approval of the CoronaVac vaccine developed by Chinese firm Sinovac Life Sciences and a vaccine by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca.

11:31 AM

More than 100,000 Assam health workers get Covid-19 vaccine so far

Altogether 1,08,512 health workers in Assam have received the Covid-19 vaccine so far after 8,998 were inoculated on Tuesday, according to a bulletin issued by the National Health Mission.

 

Covishield vaccine was administered to 8,301 beneficiaries at 211 session sites while 697 beneficiaries were given Covaxin at 29 sites. Read on...

 

10:41 AM

WHO dismisses 'lab leak' theory of coronavirus origin in Wuhan, China

Following a 12-day visit to China to probe the origins of Covid-19 in Wuhan, a team of World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday dismissed the theory of a 'lab leak' of the virus.

 

According to Washington Post, Peter Ben Embarek, the Danish WHO food safety expert leading the international team, said his group will not recommend further investigation into the theory that the virus accidentally leaked from labs conducting coronavirus research.

 

Embarek told reporters that the judgment was based on "long, frank, open discussions with researchers and management" at institutions including the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). Read on...