Coronavirus LIVE: Govt asks states to step up vigil on New Year's eve

Coronavirus live updates: At 1,928,603, Maharashtra has the highest number of coronavirus cases, followed by Karnataka 917,571, Andhra Pradesh 881,599, Tamil Nadu 816,132, and Kerala 743,563

11:15 PM

Chhattisgarh: 1,069 new Covid-19 cases, 14 deaths

With 1,069 new cases, the Covid-19 tally in Chhattisgarh reached 2,78,540 on Wednesday while 14 more deaths took the toll to 3,350, a health official said. The number of recoveries mounted to 2,63,251 after 122 people were discharged from various hospitals while 1,348 patients completed their home isolation stay during the day.

The number of active cases in the state stood at 11,939, he informed. Raipur district accounted for 175 new cases, taking its overall caseload to 52,529, including 717 deaths.

11:15 PM

Tamil Nadu reports 945 new Covid-19 cases

Tamil Nadu's daily Covid-19 case count remained below the 1,000 mark for the second successive day and the tally stood at 8,17,077, while the toll increased to 12,109 with 17 more fatalities. Fourteen of the deceased had co-morbidities and three others no chronic illness, a health department bulletin said.

Barring five of the deceased, the others were aged between 62 and 79, it said. Of the 12,109 deaths, Chennai accounted for 4,004, the highest, while Chengalpattu was in the second slot with 743. Tamil Nadu reported 945 fresh cases today, the second day of less than 1,000 infections. Of the 900 plus infections, Chennai reported 275, nearby Chengalpattu and Tiruvallur 48 and 35 respectively and Coimbatore 91.

11:10 PM

Nagpur records 368 Covid-19 cases; 6 UK returnees in hospital

Nagpur district on Wednesday registered 368 new coronavirus cases, taking its tally to 1,23,374, while sixpeople who returned from the UK recently are undergoing treatment here after testing positive, said officials. A senior Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) medical officer told PTI thatsixUK returnees are under treatment in the city after testing positive for COVID-19 and swab samples of four of them were sent to Pune-based NIV to ascertain if they are infected by the new strain found in Britain.

They are admitted in a special ward of a government hospital here, he said. Separately, a District Information Office release said 368 more coronavirus cases were recorded in Nagpur, pushing its tally to 1,23,374. Eight COVID-19 patients succumbed to the infection, taking the death toll in the district to 3,922, it said.

10:06 PM

Drug regulator to meet again on Jan 1 to discuss AstraZeneca vaccine

India's drug regulator will meet again on Friday to consider approving AstraZeneca and Oxford University's Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use after Britain became the first country to do so, the government said following a meeting on Wednesday.

 

India wants to start inoculating its citizens next month. It is also considering emergency-use authorisation applications for vaccines made by Pfizer Inc with Germany's BioNTech, and by India's Bharat Biotech.

 

India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said the country's Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) was analysing trial and other data presented by the AstraZeneca vaccine's local partner and Bharat Biotech. "The analysis of the additional data and information is going on," the ministry said in a statement, adding that Pfizer had requested more time to present data. Read more

9:35 PM

Himachal Pradesh reports 149 new Covid cases

9:01 PM

Maharashtra sees 3,537 new Covid-19 cases, 4,913 recoveries; 70 fatalities

The COVID-19 tally in Maharashtra rose to 19,28,603 on Wednesday with the addition of 3,537 fresh cases, the state health department said.

 

With 70 more people succumbing to the viral disease, the overall death toll in the state went up to 49,463, it said.

 

A total of 4,913 people were discharged after treatment during the day, taking the cumulative count of recoveries in Maharashtra to 18,24,934, the department said in a release.The state is now left with 53,066 active cases, it said.

8:24 PM

Gujarat reports 799 coronavirus cases, 834 recoveries; seven deaths

Gujarat reported 799 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, taking its tally to 2,44,258, the state health department said. With seven more patients succumbing to the infection, the death toll rose to 4,302. As many as 834 patients were discharged from hospitals, pushing the number of recovered cases to 2,29,977, the department said in a release.

 

With this, the COVID-19 recovery rate furtherimproved to 94.15 per cent, it said.

 

A total of 54,708 tests were conducted for detection of the virus on Wednesday, taking the number of samples examined so far in Gujarat to 95,98,108. Gujarat COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases 2,44,258, new cases 799, deaths 4,302, active cases 9,979, people tested so far 95,98,108.

7:56 PM

Punjab govt to lift night Covid-19 curfew and restrictions from January 1

Punjab Govt decides to lift night curfew (10 pm to 5 am) and restrictions on gatherings, and on timings of hotels, restaurants, marriage halls from January 1

7:33 PM

Haryana reports seven Covid-19 deaths, 382 fresh cases

Haryana on Wednesday reported seven more Covid-19 deaths, taking the fatality toll due to the infection to 2,899 even as 382 new cases pushed the state's infection tally to 2,62,054.

 

According to the state Health Department's daily bulletin, the fatalities included one each from Hisar, Rohtak, Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar, Jhajjar, Palwal and Kaithal districts.

 

The districts where new cases were reported included Gurgaon (96) and Faridabad (44). The number of active cases in the state was 3,799, with as many as 2,55,356 having been cured and discharged, clocking a recovery rate of 97.44 per cent.

6:48 PM

US nurse tests Covid-19 positive days after receiving Pfizer vaccine

An ICU nurse in San Diego, who had received Pfizer Inc vaccine's shot against COVID-19 on December 18, has tested positive for the virus.

 

Matthew W, a 45-year-old nurse in San Diego, told ABC News San Diego affiliate KGTV that after receiving the vaccine he had only experienced arm soreness as a side-effect of the vaccine but six days later after working a shift in the COVID-19 unit, he had chills, muscle pain and fatigue. A coronavirus test confirmed him of being positive.

 

Following this incident, Dr Christian Ramers, an infectious disease specialist with Family Health Centers of San Diego, told KGTV that this was not unexpected as "We know from the vaccine clinical trials that it is going to take about 10 to 14 days for you to start to develop protection from the vaccine".

6:22 PM

Two cases of new coronavirus strain detected in Uttar Pradesh

Traces of a new strain of coronavirus were found in two people who recently returned from the United Kingdom, an Uttar Pradesh official said on Wednesday. The two cases were found in Meerut and Gautam Buddh Nagar and samples of their contacts are also being taken, Additional Chief Secretary Health Amit Mohan Prasad said.

 

Tests of those returning from the United Kingdom after December 9 are continuing and till now around 2,500 samples have been sent to the labs, he said, adding that so far 10 people who returned from the UK have tested positive. Their gene sequencing is being done to ascertain the kind of virus.

5:58 PM

Nepal seeks to procure Covid-19 vaccine from India

The Nepal government has written to the Indian government, requesting for procurement of Covid-19 vaccine to inoculate around 20 per cent of the Nepali population. The Indian government is procuring the jabs manufactured in its own country to vaccinate its people against Covid-19.

 

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently wrote to the Indian government, requesting for the supply of the vaccines that would suffice the need for the 20 per cent of the population. Last week, Nepali Ambassador to India, Nilamber Acharya also held meeting with senior officials of Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world that is also producing Covid vaccine developed by Oxford University.

 

To get the vaccines at the earliest, the Nepal government has requested India to buy vaccines for 20 per cent Nepalis, according to a news report published in Kathmandu Post on Wednesday.

5:32 PM

New Covid-19 strain: India extends ban on UK flights till Jan 7

A Chinese inactivated vaccine shows 79.34 percent efficacy against COVID-19, according to the interim results of the phase-3 clinical trials unveiled by its developer on Wednesday. The inactivated vaccine has been developed by the Beijing Biological Products Institute Co., Ltd. under the China National Biotec Group (CNBG), which is affiliated to Sinopharm, Xinhua news agency reported.

 

After a two-dose inoculation procedure, the vaccine receivers all produced high titers of antibodies, and the seroconversion rate of neutralising antibodies reached 99.52 percent.

 

The results meet the requirements of technical standards of the World Health Organization and the standards stipulated by China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA). The company has submitted an application to the Chinese regulator for conditional market approval.

5:02 PM

Air India pilots say no to pre-flight Covid tests during offs and rest period

The Air India pilots' associations have asked their members "not to accept any duty during weekly offs and rest period" including undertaking pre-flight Covid tests.

 

Indian Pilots Guild and Indian Commercial Pilots' Association, in a letter to Capt. R. S. Sandhu, Director (Operations), Air India said, "It has been brought to our notice that pilots are frequently being planned for COVID tests during their weekly offs or post-flight rest periods. As you are aware, any task that flight crew members are required by the operator to perform... is clearly defined as Duty in the DGCA FDTL CAR and the current Air India Flight Crew FDTL Scheme. This practice therefore represents a flagrant violation and must be discontinued immediately".

 

"We hereby request you to inform the concerned departments to strictly abide by the Air India FDTL Scheme and not infringe upon 'uninterrupted rest.' We are accordingly directing our members to ensure strict compliance, i.e "Not to accept any duty during weekly offs & rest period". This includes preflight Covid Testing", they said in the letter.

4:46 PM

Fight against Covid-19 kept health ministry on its toes in 2020

The Union health ministry was in the thick of action throughout 2020 in India's fight against coronavirus, ramping up testing facilities as well as health infrastructure while simultaneously issuing COVID-19 treatment and management guidelines from time and time.

 

At the same time, it put on track the development of a vaccine which is likely to be available early next year.

 

The first case of coronavirus infection in the country was recorded on January 30 in Kerala and the first death on March 10 in Karnataka. By September, India became the second worst-hit nation, after the US, in terms of COVID-19 cases. READ MORE...

4:22 PM

Odisha reports 305 new coronavirus cases, three fresh fatalities

Odisha's COVID-19 tally mounted to 3,29,306 on Wednesday as 305 more people tested positive for the infection, while three fresh fatalities pushed the state's coronavirus death toll to 1,871. As many as 174 new cases were reported in quarantine centres, while 131 infections were detected during contact tracing. Sundargarh and Sambalpur districts registered the highest number of new cases at 28 each, followed by Angul (26), the official said.

 

The fresh fatalities were reported in Bhadrak, Bolangir and Puri districts.

 

Fifty-three coronavirus patients have died due to comorbidities. Khurda district, under which Bhubaneswar falls, has reported the highest number of fatalities at 322, followed by Ganjam (246), Sundargarh (166) and Cuttack (138). The state now has 2,607 active coronavirus cases, while 3,24,775 people have been cured of the disease so far. Odisha has so far tested over 69.15 lakh samples for COVID-19, including 32,887 on Tuesday, he added.

3:57 PM

Expert committee to consider SII's emergency use approval for Covid-19 vaccine

Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of Drugs Controller of India will take a meeting to consider Serum Institute of India's application for emergency use approval of its COVID-19 vaccine, says a government official. According to the sources, only Serum Institute's application will be considered. The recommendation of SEC will be sent for drug regulator's approval, later today after the meeting.

 

Covishield is being manufactured on the Chimpanzee Adenovirus platform and by the SII in Pune. The collaborative company is Astrazeneca. "The regulator had allowed the phase 2 and 3 clubbed clinical trials of the vaccine to them and they have applied for emergency use authorisation," he said.

 

The SII is the first indigenous company that has sought emergency approval for the vaccine developed along with global pharma giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University.

3:40 PM

Have to assume pandemic is going to get worse: Fauci

Anthony Fauci, America's top expert of infectious diseases, has said people in the US, currently the world's hardest-hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, have to assume that the health crisis is going to get worse in the wake of an unabated spike in the number of fresh cases, deaths and hospitalisations.

 

Fauci's comments on Tuesday came after the US registered a record high 65,000 deaths in the past 28 days, making December the worst month for coronavirus fatalities since the start of the pandemic.

 

December's figure, roughly equivalent to over 1.6 Americans lost to the virus every minute, marked a significant surge from that in the entire month of November which registered 36,964 fatalities.

3:29 PM

Expect a strange New Year's eve

If ever a year's end seemed like cause for celebration, 2020 might be it.

 

Yet the coronavirus scourge that dominated the year is also looming over New Year's festivities and forcing officials worldwide to tone them down.

 

From New York's Times Square to Sydney Harbor, big public blowouts are being turned into TV-only shows and digital events. Fireworks displays have been canceled from the Las Vegas Strip to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Even private parties in some places are restricted.

 

The occasion stirs mixed feelings for people like Cesar Soltero, who was taking photos, and taking stock, in Times Square this week

3:20 PM

Scientists develop new method for visualising breath to evaluate face masks

A new method for visualising the air exhaled while someone is speaking or singing could shed light on how diseases such as Covid-19 spread, and help evaluate the effectiveness of face masks, according to a study.

 

The novel system, described in the journal Applied Optics, images temperature differences between exhaled breath and the surrounding air to estimate how far the breath travels before being dispersed into the surrounding air.

 

According to study author Thomas Moore from Rollins College in the US, the new technique can also be used to study the details of how breath flows from the mouth while speaking or singing, which could be useful for music instruction and speech therapy.

 

Originally developed to study the flow of air through musical instruments such as organ pipes, Moore said he began imaging the breath of people speaking and singing.

3:19 PM

World shares edge higher as hopes turn to vaccines

World shares edged higher on Wednesday as some markets wrapped up trading for 2020, anticipating a dose of fresh support for the US economy and efforts to speed up coronavirus vaccinations to help curb the pandemic.

 

Shares rose in London, Paris, Hong Kong and Shanghai. Tokyos benchmark fell back after surging to a 30-year high on Tuesday.

 

Gains were modest after a lackluster day on Wall Street, as the boost from President Donald Trumps signing of a $900 billion coronavirus relief package faded.

 

On Wednesday, Britain authorised use of a second Covid-19 vaccine, becoming the first country to greenlight an easy-to-handle shot that its developers hope will become the vaccine for the world.

3:18 PM

Govt extends suspension of commercial international flights till Jan 31

3:10 PM

Fight against Covid kept health ministry on its toes in 2020

The Union health ministry was in the thick of action throughout 2020 in India's fight against coronavirus, ramping up testing facilities as well as health infrastructure while simultaneously issuing Covid-19 treatment and management guidelines from time and time.

 

At the same time, it put on track the development of a vaccine which is likely to be available early next year.

 

The first case of coronavirus infection in the country was recorded on January 30 in Kerala and the first death on March 10 in Karnataka. By September, India became the second worst-hit nation, after the US, in terms of Covid-19 cases.

 

As the country eased the lockdown norms through a graded and pre-emptive approach, the health ministry started issuing standard operating procedures for opening up of religious places, shopping malls, restaurants, hotel and offices and most recently for educational institutions to prevent the spread of the virus.

2:57 PM

Govt asks states to step up surveillance on New Year's eve

Union Health Ministry asks all states, UTs to keep strict vigil on New Year celebrations that could be potential Covid-19 super-spreader events and also to curb crowding as precautionary measure during winter season

2:37 PM

Covid-19 LIVE: Health Ministry asks states to keep vigil on New Year celebration events

The Union Health Ministry has asked all states to keep a strict vigil on New Year celebrations that could be potential COVID-19 super-spreader events and also to curb crowding as a precautionary measure during the winter season, PTI reported. In a letter to states and Union Territories, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan stated that the number of active COVID-19 cases has been declining steadily in the country for the last three-and-half months.

 

Keeping in view the fresh surge of coronavirus cases in Europe and the Americas, there was still a need for maintaining comprehensive precaution and strict surveillance within India, he underlined.

 

"You will appreciate that in the wake of New Year and various celebratory events associated with it as well as ongoing winter season, strict vigil is required to be maintained to curb all potential 'super spreader' events and places where crowds may gather," Bhushan said in the letter.

2:15 PM

India's Covid-19 recovery rate improves to 95.99%: Health Ministry

1:47 PM

Coronavirus LIVE: West Bengal reports first case of new Covid-19 strain

West Bengal has reported its first case of a mutant coronavirus strain that surfaced in the United Kingdom. The patient, son of a senior official of the state Health Department, tested positive for the Variant of Concern 202012/01 (VOC-202012/01) mutant coronavirus strain after returning from London 10 days ago, the official said.

 

"The youth is undergoing treatment at the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital's super-specialty section. He is under observation. We have advised all those who have come in contact with him to isolate themselves," the official told PTI.

 

He had tested positive for COVID-19 at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport on the day of his return to Kolkata, he said. "As he had returned from the UK, we had sent his samples to Kalyani's National Institute of Biomedical Genomics for genetic analysis as per the protocol set by the Centre.

12:38 PM

Covid-19: Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine approved for use in UK

The coronavirus vaccine designed by scientists at the University of Oxford has been approved for use in the UK.

12:27 PM

7 in Karnataka found positive for new coronavirus strain: Health Minister

Thousands of farmers agitating against the three new central agriculture laws stayed put at their agitation venues near Delhi, which is going through a harsh spell of winter, unrelenting in their demand of withdrawal of the legislations.

 

On Wednesday, a cold wave swept Delhi as the minimum temperature dipped to 3.5 degrees Celsius. It is likely to get even colder on New Year's Eve, the India Meteorological Department predicted, as dry and icy winds barrelled through the plains.

 

The farmers protesting against the new agri laws had reached Singhu border over a month ago.

 

The Centre and the protesting farmer unions will resume stalled talks on Wednesday with the latter sticking to their hardline position that the parleys will only be on the modalities of repealing the three new agri laws and giving a legal guarantee on the MSP among other issues.

11:26 AM

Total of 20 persons have been found with the mutant variant of SARS- CoV-2 virus reported from UK

Total of 20 persons have been found with the mutant variant of SARS- CoV-2 virus reported from the United Kingdom. These include the six persons reported earlier (3 in NIMHANS, Bengaluru, 2 in CCMB, Hyderabad and 1 in NIV, Pune): Ministry of Health and Family Welfare