Covid LIVE: India's cumulative vaccination coverage at 590-mn mark

Coronavirus LIVE updates: Maharashtra recorded 4,141 fresh Covid-19 cases, 4,780 discharges, and 145 deaths in the last 24 hours. Stay tuned for corona-related news

1:47 AM

Covid watch: One more athlete tests positive before Paralympics opening

Thirteen more persons including an athlete have tested positive for Covid-19 on the eve of the opening ceremony for the Tokyo Paralympic Games on Monday. Among those that tested positive for the virus in the last 24 hours ending on Monday afternoon, there were four from among Games-related personnel and seven Tokyo 2020 contractors. One Tokyo 2020 employee too has returned a positive report.

 

Sunday's one case takes to five the total number of athletes to test positive.

 

The addition of 13 persons on Monday took the total tally of Covid positive tests here to 142 since they started testing for the Paralympic Games on August 12.

11:58 PM

Andhra Pradesh records 1K more Covid cases, 12 deaths

Andhra Pradesh on Monday recorded 1,002 new Covid cases, taking its overall tally beyond 20 lakh, even as its active caseload dropped to 14,159. As many as 1,508 more persons recovered from the disease in the past 24 hours, taking the state's total number of recoveries over 19.7 lakh. East Godavari district reported the highest number of cases at 265, followed by Kadapa 132, Nellore 118, Chittoor 113, Prakasam 86, Krishna 74, Guntur 64, Visakhapatnam 54, Vizianagaram 35, West Godavari 24, Srikakulam 19, Anantapur 11, and Kurnool seven.

 

East Godavari tops the chart with more than 2.8 lakh cases, followed by Chittoor with 2.3 lakh.

 

Meanwhile, 12 more persons succumbed to the virus in the past 24 hours, taking the state's overall Covid death toll to 13,735.

10:39 PM

USFDA gives full approval to Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine

The US health regulator on Monday gave full approval to Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine, a key milestone for public health that can instill further confidence in consumers and also spur authorities to make vaccinations mandatory.

 

The US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) had earlier in December 2020 given emergency use authorisation (EAU) for the vaccine, developed by US-based Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech. More than 200 million Pfizer doses have been administered in the US, and hundreds of millions more worldwide, since December.

 

"Today the US Food and Drug Administration approved the first COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine has been known as the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, and will now be marketed as Comirnaty, for the prevention of COVID-19 disease in individuals 16 years of age and older," the US health regulator said in a statement.

9:50 PM

Mumbai sees 226 COVID-19 cases, 4 deaths, 297 recoveries

Mumbai on Monday reported 226 COVID-19 cases and four deaths, taking the tally to 7,41,391 and the toll to 15,951, a civic official said. The number of tests conducted in the last 24 hours stood at 24,828, which was the lowest this month, the official pointed out, adding that a total of 89,47,332 tests had been conducted here so far.

 

The recovery count rose by 297 on Monday to touch 7,20,199, he said.

 

The city had, on Sunday, reported 294 cases and one death, which was the lowest since the pandemic broke out in March last year.

 

Slums and chawls remained free of containment zones, which are declared if an area has five cases, for the ninth consecutive day, while the number of sealed buildings in the metropolis was 19, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation data showed. Mumbai's case doubling time had dipped below the 2000-day mark and stood at 1,983 days, while the average growth rate of cases between August 16 and 22 rose to 0.04 per cent from 0.03 per cent, civic data revealed.

9:17 PM

Khattar to set up panel to probe hospitals' negligence in treating Covid patients

Haryana Chief Minister M L Khattar on Monday told the state assembly that his government will set up a panel to probe possible negligence by hospitals in treating Covid patients.

 

The chief minister made the announcement while seeking to assure the House that no death due to oxygen shortage had been recorded in the state.

 

Khattar sought to assure the assembly after the opposition Congress, during Zero Hour, raised the issue of deaths in parts of the state allegedly due to oxygen shortage during the peak of the second Covid wave earlier this year.

 

Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, while training guns on Khattar, alleged, Leader of the House has misled the Assembly. He said not a single death took place due to lack of oxygen.

 

He said it had been widely reported in the media earlier that deaths in hospitals in Gurgaon, Rewari and Hisar did take place due to oxygen shortage.

8:47 PM

India's cumulative vaccination coverage at 590-mn mark

India’s Covid-19 vaccination coverage has crossed 58.82 Crore (58,82,21,623) as per the 7 pm provisional report today. More than 56 lakh (56,10,116) Vaccine Doses have been administered today, as per the 7 pm provisional report.

 

 

8:33 PM

Maharashtra reports 3,643 fresh Covid-19 cases

8:33 PM

Mumbai reports 226 new coronavirus cases

8:16 PM

Containment zones reduced to 228 in Delhi; none in central, northeast districts

There are 228 "actual containment zones" in the national capital while the central and northeast districts have none, according to Covid data of the Delhi government.

 

Containment zones are divided into two categories - "scaled down but not de-contained" and "active containment zones", the sum of which is termed "actual containment zones".

8:10 PM

No RT-PCR test report for fully jabbed air travellers arriving in Chhattisgarh

The Chhattisgarh government on Monday exempted fully vaccinated air passengers arriving in the state from carrying a negative RT-PCR coronavirus test report, officials said.

 

7:43 PM

No new Covid-19 case found in Dharavi for eighth time in August

For the eighth time this month, the Dharavi slum colony in Mumbai didn't report any new Covid-19 case in a day on Monday, a civic official said.

 

The last time Dharavi didn't record any new case in a day was on August 20.

 

Currently, Dharavi has only 11 active cases. Of the 7,005 infections recorded, 6,596 patients have already recovered and been discharged, the official said.

7:34 PM

Nepal receives over 500,000 AstraZeneca vaccines from Japan: Official

Nepal has received over 5 lakh doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from Japan to help the Himalayan nation boost its vaccination drive to contain the contagious coronavirus spread, a senior official said on Monday.

 

This is the last batch of the total 1.6 million doses the government of Japan had pledged to the Nepal government through COVAX, a United Nations-backed international vaccine-distribution scheme.

7:24 PM

USFDA grants full approval to Pfizer vaccine

The US Food and Drug Administration said on Monday it has given full approval to the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech SE.

6:52 PM

Centre making efforts to boost Covid-19 vaccination: Kishan Reddy

The Centre is making various efforts to boost COVID-19 vaccination in the country, including trying to enhance procurement of raw material from other countries to increase production, Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy said on Monday.

 

Stressing that vaccination and following COVID-19 protocols like wearing masks are the ways to check the spread of the virus, he told reporters here that some people wondered why vaccines are not easily available.

 

A vaccine (ready for use) comes out of a factory more than 100 days after the raw material concerned enters its premises, he said.

6:51 PM

Goa reports 57 new Covid-19 cases, one death, 80 recoveries

Goa's coronavirus caseload went up by 57 and reached 1,73,221 on Monday, while 80 patients recovered from the infection, a state health department official said.

 

The death toll rose to 3,186 after one more patient succumbed to the disease during the day, he said.

6:50 PM

AP adds 1,002 Covid-19 cases

Andhra Pradesh's Covid-19 tally increased to 20,03,342 as 1,002 new cases were added afresh in 24 hours ending 9 am on Monday.

 

The total recoveries went up to 19,75,448 as 1,508 more people got cured during this period, a health department bulletin said.

 

With 12 fresh deaths, the gross toll climbed to 13,735, it said.

6:30 PM

UP's steepest Covid decline, cases below ten

Uttar Pradesh on Monday witnessed the steepest decline in the number of fresh Covid cases as the state logged new infections below 10 for the first time since the second wave.

 

Uttar Pradesh limited the number of fresh infections to 7, making it the lowest daily-case count for the state so far. The state had recorded 19 new cases on Sunday.

6:29 PM

Delhi reports 17 Covid-19 cases; positivity rate 0.04%

Delhi reported zero daily deaths due to Covid-19 for the fourth day on the trot on Monday and 17 new cases of the infection, while the positivity rate stood at 0.04 per cent, according to the health department here.

 

This is the 14th time since the beginning of the second wave of the pandemic that the national capital has logged zero fatality due to the disease in a day.

6:28 PM

13,383 Covid-19 cases, 90 deaths in Kerala

5:12 PM

Covid situation under control, EC must announce by-elections: Mamata

4:55 PM

Explain process of vaccine procurement, allotment: Bombay HC to Centre

The Bombay High Court on Monday directed the Union government to file an affidavit explaining the process of procuring Covid-19 vaccines and allotting them to states.

 

A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni, which is hearing PILs seeking redressal of issues faced by citizens while booking vaccination slots on the CoWin portal, asked the Centre to file the affidavit by August 27.

2:41 PM

Bus service between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka resumed from midnight

2:37 PM

India's own mRNA candidate likely to move into Phase 3 trial soon, says official

1:31 PM

Australians warned of Covid disaster payment scams

The Australian government on Monday warned of scams targeting people relying on Covid-19 disaster payments.

 

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) recently revealed that along with major banks, it has identified a slew of scams related to coronavirus support payments, reports Xinhua news agency.

 

According to the ACCC, 69 scams have been reported and in four cases more than A$37,000 ($26,401) were stolen.

 

Linda Reynolds, the Minister for Government Services, described scammers targeting vulnerable Australians amid widespread outbreaks of Covid-19 as a "low act".

 

"The agency is acutely aware of the unfortunate risk of scams and provides secure ways of claiming online," she was quoted as saying by The Canberra Times on Monday.

1:05 PM

Coronavirus LIVE updates: Recovery rate increases to 97.63%; highest since March 2020

India's recovery rate increases to 97.63%; highest since March 2020

 

1:03 PM

Coronavirus third wave peak likely in October: NIDM report

The National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), under the Ministry of Home Affairs, has warned of a third Covid-19 wave peak in October in its recent report to the Prime Minister's Office.

 

The NIDM's report quoted the Reuters' opinion survey of 40 experts that forecasted that the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to hit India between July 15 and October 13, 2021.

 

On whether the Delta-Plus Variant will be the driver of the third wave, NIDM said the Delta-Plus variant formed due to the mutation in the B.1.617.2 (Delta variant) that drove the fatal second surge in India. This new variant of concern is a sub-lineage of the Delta variant that has acquired a spike protein mutation 'K417N' which is alsofound in the Beta variant (first detected in South Africa).

12:06 PM

Coronavirus live updates: Cannot enforce guidelines at gunpoint, say experts on rising Kerala infections

Relaxations in movement during the festival season coupled with people not following Covid guidelines are behind Kerala's rising TPR and the state accounting for more than half of the country's virus caseload, medical experts said on Sunday and added that people cannot be made to follow the norms at gunpoint, rather they need to modify their behaviour on their own.

 

As the festival season has not yet ended, the effect of the relaxations and non-Covid appropriate behaviour by people who ventured out for celebrations and shopping would be seen in the test positivity rate (TPR) which, according to the experts like Dr Amar Fettle and Dr Kannan, is expected to rise further from Saturday's 17.73 per cent.

11:09 AM

Coronavirus LIVE updates: IBM provides health facilities to 3 states to fight potential third wave

Technology firm IBM India has provided healthcare facilities like pediatric ICU beds and oxygen concentrators to Karnataka, Haryana and Uttarakhand which would help them tackle a potential third wave of COVID-19, according to senior company official.

 

The healthcare facilities have been provided as part of IBM India's corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative in partnership with the Nasscom Foundation.

 

Speaking to PTI, IBM India and South Asia Head-CSR Manoj Balachandran said, "While a lot of relief like oxygen cylinders was coming in to address the immediate short term need, we decided to work on mid to long term requirements with the state governments." Read on...

10:39 AM

UAE to issue tourist visas, with a 14-day rider, to Indian passport holders

Indian passport holders, who have not been to the country in the last 14 days, can get tourist visas to the UAE, according to a media report on Sunday.

 

The facility has been exteded to Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Uganda, other than India, the Gulf News reported.

 

Presently, only UAE citizens and transit passengers are allowed to fly to the UAE, due to the coronavirus outbreak.

 

Approval of tourist visas for Indian passport holders, who have not been in the country in the last fortnight, comes as the UAE is slowly opening up its arrivals. Read on...

10:26 AM

Coronavirus in India: Latest update by MoHFW

Summary of MoHFW data (August 23)

Active cases: 333,924 (Net decrease: 19,474)

Deaths: 434,756 (Net increase: 389)

Cured: 31,680,626 (Net increase: 44,157)

Total cases: 32,449,306 (Net increase: 25,072)

Total vaccination: 582,549,595 (Increase over previous day: 795,543)