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Coronavirus live updates: At 1,847,509, Maharashtra has the highest number of coronavirus cases, followed by Karnataka 890,360, Andhra Pradesh 870,675, Tamil Nadu 787,554, and Kerala 625,767
 "Covid-19 LIVE: Serum seeks emergency use authorisation for Covidshield")
1 min read Last Updated : Dec 07 2020 | 1:53 AM IST
1:53 AM
Bihar's COVID-19 tally rose to 2,39,125 as 585 more people tested positive for the infection, while three fresh fatalities pushed the toll to 1,295, a health department bulletin said on Sunday. At least 572 people were cured of the disease in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries in the state to 2,32,438, it said. The recovery rate among coronavirus patients in the state stands at 97.20 per cent.
Three new fatalities were recorded in Patna, Purnea and Saran. Patna reported the highest number of fresh cases at 261, followed by Muzaffarpur (27), Katihar (26), Sitamarhi and Saharsa (16 each), Purnea and Rohtas (13 each), East Champaran and Gaya (11 each). Bihar now has 5,392 active cases, the bulletin said. The state has so far tested 1.54 crore samples including 1,25,904 in the past 24 hours, it added.
1:19 AM
Indonesia's government said 1.2 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by China-based biopharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech arrived in the country late Sunday. President Joko Widodo said in a televised address that another 1.8 million doses of the vaccine are expected to arrive in early January. We are very grateful, thank God, the vaccine is now available so that we can immediately curb the spread of the COVID-19 disease, Widodo said.
The government is still waiting for millions of other doses of the Sinovac vaccine to arrive in the form of raw materials that will be further processed by state-owned pharmaceutical holding company PT Bio Farma. However, Widodo said that emergency use authorization from the country's Food and Drug Control Agency is still needed for mass vaccinations to start.
Indonesia is already cooperating with Sinovac in phase 3 clinical trials of its vaccine candidate, with tests being carried out on 1,620 volunteers in West Java's Bandung city since August. The government also looked into partnerships with two other Chinese drug manufacturers, Sinopharm and CanSino Biologics. Penny Lukito, head of the Food and Drug Control Agency, estimated that the Sinovac vaccine would obtain emergency use authorization from the agency by the third or fourth week of January, after the agency evaluates interim results from the third-stage clinical trial.
1:18 AM
Assam's COVID-19 caseload rose to 2,13,759 on Sunday as 97 more people tested positive for the disease, while four fresh fatalities pushed the toll to 993, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said. "Sad to share the demise of four #COVID patients today... Condolences & Prayers!," he said on Twitter. The new fatalities were reported from Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Sonitpur and Kamrup Metropolitan districts, he added.
The minister said, "97 cases detected out of 11,514 tests conducted with a positivity rate of 0.84 per cent." The overall positivity rate stood at 3.91 per cent against the total testing of 54,62,004 samples so far. Eighty-four people were cured of the disease and discharged from various hospitals during the day. The state currently has 3,552 active cases, while 2,09,211 people have so far recovered from the disease.
12:20 AM
Karnataka logged 1,321 new cases on a day, taking its Covid tally to 8,93,006, including 25,381 active cases till Saturday, said the state health bulletin on Sunday. "With 889 discharged in the last 24 hours, recoveries across the southern state rose to 8,55,750 so far, while 10 patients succumbed to the infection in the last 24 hours, taking the state's death toll to 11,856 since the pandemic broke out on March 8.
Accounting for about 50 per cent of the state's caseload, Bengaluru reported 733 fresh cases, taking its tally to 3,74,024, including 19,636 positive cases, while 3,50,204 recovered, with 275 discharged during the day. Of the 280 patients in the intensive care units (ICUs) across the state, 143 are in Bengaluru hospitals, 23 in Tumakuru, 14 in Chamarajanagara, 13 in Hassan and 12 in Kalaburagi district in the northern region.
Out of 99,320 tests conducted during the day, 15,622 were through the rapid-antigen detection and 83,698 through RT-PCR method."Positivity rate for the day is 1.33 per cent and the case fatality rate 0.75 per cent across the state," added the bulletin.
11:51 PM
11:29 PM
West Bengal's Covid-19 tally rose to 4,99,697 on Sunday as 3,143 more people tested positive for the infection, a health bulletin said. Forty-six fresh fatalities pushed the state's coronavirus death toll to 8,723, it said. As many as 3,167 more people were cured of the disease, taking the recovery rate among the coronavirus patients in the state to 93.51 per cent, it said.
Kolkata registered the highest number of new cases at 765, followed by North 24 Parganas (746) and South 24 Parganas (209), it said. North 24 Parganas reported the highest number of coronavirus fatalities at 15, followed by Kolkata (10) and Hooghly (four), the bulletin said. The state now has 23,894 active coronavirus cases, it said. West Bengal has so far tested 61.35 lakh samples for COVID-19, including 44,186 in the last 24 hours, it said.
11:05 PM
Chhattisgarh on Sunday recorded 1,229 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the count of infections to 2,46,809, a health official said. With 12 more patients succumbing to the infection, the cumulative toll in the state rose to 2,989, he said. The number of recoveries mounted to 2,23,772 after 93 people were discharged from various hospitals while 623 patients completed their home isolation during the day.
The state now has 20,048 active cases, the official informed. Raipur district reported 143 new cases, taking its total count to 47,745, including 671 deaths. Bilaspur recorded 117 new cases, Korba 86, Rajnandgaon 83, Durg 82 and Balodabazar 81 among other districts, he said. "Of the latest fatalities, five each took place on Sunday and Saturday while two had taken place earlier," the official added. Chhattisgarh's coronavirus figures are as follows: positive cases 2,46,809, new cases 1,229, deaths 2,989, recovered 2,23,772, active cases 20,048, people tested so far 27,60,291.
10:50 PM
The COVID-19 death toll in Uttar Pradesh rose to 7,924 on Sunday with 24 new fatalities, while 1,950 fresh cases took the infection tally to 5,54,944, an official statement issued here said. The statement said among the 24 new deaths, five were reported from Lucknow, three from Varanasi and two each from Kanpur and Ayodhya. Of the fresh COVID-19 cases, 283 were reported from Lucknow followed by 223 from Ghaziabad, 171 from Meerut, 138 from Gautam Buddh Nagar and 108 from Varanasi.
In the past 24 hours, 1,993 patients have recovered from the disease, taking the total number of recoveries to 5,24, 860, it said. The recovery rate in the state is 94.58 per cent, it said, adding that the count of active cases is currently 22,160. Additional Chief Secretary (Medical and Health) Amit Mohan Prasad told reporters that the positivity rate in December was 1.20 per cent. In the last 24 hours, over 1.79 lakh samples were tested for COVID-19, and so far more than 2.03 crore tests have been conducted in the state.
10:24 PM
With 306 fresh COVID-19 cases on Sunday, the highest in Gujarat, Ahmedabad district's tally rose to 52,030, the state health department said. The count of fatalities in the district went up by 10 to 2,119, it said. With 310 patients getting discharged in the day, the number of recoveries outnumbered the newcases. The tally of recoveries now stands at 46,800 in the district, the release said.
Ahmedabad city reported 291 recoveries and the equal number of new infections, while rural areas added more recoveries than fresh cases. At 459, Ahmedabad's north-west zone overtook the west zone with the highest number of active cases, the civic body said in a release. The count of active cases in Ahmedabad now stands at 2,587, it said. The city municipal corporation has designated 106 private hospitals as COVID-19 hospitals.
10:23 PM
Twenty-four more fatalities related to the coronavirus infection took the death toll in Haryana to 2,588 on Sunday, while 1,498 fresh cases pushed the state's infection tally to 2,43,896. According to the state health department's bulletin, the new deaths included five each from Faridabad and Hisar and three each from Gurgaon and Karnal districts.
Among the districts which reported a big spike in cases included Gurgaon (310), Faridabad (265), Rewari (144), Panipat (105) and Sonipat (104). The number of active cases in the state stood at 12,897 while the recovery rate was 93.65 per cent, the bulletin stated.
9:32 PM
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8:32 PM
Tamil Nadu on Sunday saw 1,320 fresh coronavirus cases, taking the overall infection count to 7.90 lakh, while 16 more fatalities pushed the toll to 11,793, the health department said.
As many as 1,398 people were discharged from health care facilities across the state after getting cured, taking the aggregate to 7,67,659, a bulletin said.
The number of active cases stood at 10,788.
The state capital and Coimbatore logged 346 and 139 cases respectively, while the rest were scattered across other districts.
8:26 PM
Twenty more fatalities related to the coronavirus infection took the death toll in Rajasthan to 2,429 on Sunday, while 2,089 new cases pushed the infection tally to 2.80 lakh, according to a health department bulletin.
Of the total caseload, 22,427 are under treatment while 2,55,729 people have been discharged after treatment till now, it stated.
In Jaipur, the death toll stood at 455, followed by 253 in Jodhpur, 198 in Ajmer, 163 in Bikaner, 147 in Kota, 113 in Bharatpur, 104 in Udaipur and 95 in Pali.
8:10 PM
7:47 PM
Madhya Pradesh on Sunday reported1,455 fresh Covid-19 cases, taking the count of infections to 2,14,505, health officials said.
With 11 more patients succumbing to the viral infection- including three deaths in Indore, two each in Bhopal and Jabalpur and one each in Khargone, Rewa, Mandsaur and Singrauli- the tally of fatalities rose to 3,337, they said.
At the same time, 1,585 patients were discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours, taking the number of recoveries to 1,97,777.
Of the 1,455 new cases, Indore accounted for 533 and Bhopal 324.
7:40 PM
The Union Health Ministry has said in response to an RTI application that it does not know where records related to agenda circulated in meetings of the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 are held.
Venkatesh Nayak of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative had approached the ministry seeking details of the constitution and working of the expert group such as dates of meetings, a copy of the detailed agenda circulated in relation to every meeting, presentations made before its members, and material it had shared with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
Nayak had also sought to know the amount of sitting fees and every other remuneration or allowances payable to the chairperson and every member of the expert group and the amount of sitting fees and every other remuneration or allowances actually paid to them.
The National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC) was constituted under the chairmanship of Member (Health) of Niti Aayog V K Paul on August 7 to prepare a strategy for the roll-out of Covid-19 vaccine.
7:09 PM
Meghalaya reported fresh 73 Covid-19 cases, pushing the state's tally to 12,237, a senior health official said on Sunday.
The death toll rose to 120 after two patients succumbed to the virus on Sunday, Health Services director Aman War said.
The northeastern state now has 664 active cases, including 404 in East Khasi Hills district, followed by 138 in West Garo Hills District.
6:55 PM
The AAP government has told the Delhi High Court that guidelines issued by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) are in place for handling and disposal of waste generated during treatment, diagnosis and quarantine of Covid-19 patients.
The 'Guidelines for Handling, Treatment, and Disposal of Waste Generated during Treatment/Diagnosis/Quarantine of COVID-19 Patients' issued by the CPCB in July has been filed the Delhi government in response to the court's query regarding any protocol being in place for disposal of test kits and swabs.
The query by the court came on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a lawyer alleging improper disposal of used swabs from rapid antigen tests for COVID-19 at the office of the southeast Delhi district magistrate at Lajpat Nagar.
6:52 PM
Kerala's Covid-19 recoveries on Sunday crossed 5.72 lakh as 5,217 people recuperated from the disease and 4,777 new cases were reported, Health Minister K K Shailaja said.
The total virus caseload mounted to 6,36,392 and 60,924 are presently under treatment.
In the last 24 hours, 51,893 samples were tested and the test positivity rate touched 9.21 per cent.
So far, 66,08,606 samples have been sent for testing.
6:40 PM
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking priority allocation of Covid-19 vaccine to the state, on account of its higher mortality rate resulting from the population age profile and high levels of co-morbidities.
Pointing out that the vaccines currently under consideration would not perhaps reduce transmission so much as prevent serious disease, Amarinder Singh said the best use of these vaccines would therefore be in preventing serious illness in the most susceptible groups, including elderly and persons with high morbidity.
In his letter, the Chief Minister said despite its relatively low case load, the higher fatality rate due to the virus in Punjab, which thus needs special dispensation in the allocation of the vaccine.
Amarinder Singh also sought clarity as to whether the Covid-19 vaccination would be entirely funded by the Central government, including the cost of vaccines and vaccination supplies.
6:38 PM
South Korea reported 631 more cases of the Covid-19 as of midnight Saturday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 37,546.
The daily caseload was the highest in over nine months since March 2 when the reading recorded 686. The highest-ever figure was 909 tallied on Feb 29.
The daily number of confirmed cases rose in triple figures for 29 straight days since Nov. 8 owing to small cluster infections in Seoul and its surrounding Gyeonggi province as well as imported cases. Of the new cases, 253 were Seoul residents and 176 were people residing in Gyeonggi province.
6:26 PM
Active coronavirus cases in Andhra Pradesh dropped below the 6,000 mark to 5,910 on Sunday even as 667 were added fresh, taking the gross to 8.71 lakh.
In 24 hours ending 9 am on Sunday, 914 patients also recovered while nine others succumbed to COVID-19, the latest bulletin said.
The total recoveries in the state now reached 8,59,029 and deaths 7,033, the bulletin said.
6:07 PM
Britain's Leader of the Opposition, Labour leader Keir Starmer, has gone into self-isolation for a second time after a member of his staff tested positive for Covid-19.
In line with the current government rules, even though Starmer was said to be well and not displaying any symptoms of Covid-19, he will now have to stay at home for 14 days since his last contact with the affected person, which his spokesperson said ends on December 16.
"I'm pleased to say my colleague is feeling ok. I'm not showing any symptoms. But will now be working from home. Keep safe and follow the public health advice, said Starmer.
The Opposition leader has previously had to self-isolate in mid-September when a member of his household showed possible symptoms of the deadly virus. He did not experience any symptoms at the time.
6:00 PM
A total of 17 volunteers have been administered Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine at a Pune hospital as part of the human clinical trials, doctors said on Sunday.
Sputnik V vaccine has been developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology and Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). As per reports, India has purchased 100 million doses of the candidate from Russia.
"Seventeen healthy volunteers were administered Sputnik V vaccine in the last three days as part of human trials," Dr S K Raut, Head of Clinical Research Department of Noble Hospital here, said.
5:30 PM
Four Indian shuttlers, including Parupalli Kashyap, HS Prannoy and RMV Guru Sai Dutt, have tested positive for novel coronavirus. Doubles specialist Pranaav Jerry Chopra is the fourth badminton player to have been diagnosed with Covid-19.
According to a source in the Sports Authority of India (SAI), the three shuttlers -- Kashyap, Prannoy and Chopra -- recently attended Guru Sai Dutt's wedding which took place on November 25 in Hyderabad.
They got themselves tested upon reaching the Pullela Gopichand Academy for the ongoing badminton national camp where their results returned positive. However, Saina Nehwal, who also attended the wedding, has tested negative.
5:21 PM
A day after Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij tested positive for coronavirus, he said on Sunday that the doctors had informed him that a second dose of Covaxin vaccine would be administered to him 28 days after the first one and he would develop antibodies 14 days after the second one.
In a series of tweets on Sunday, he said despite taking precautions, he got infected with coronavirus.
"I am undergoing treatment in Civil Hospital in Ambala and feeling better now," Vij said.
On November 20, he was given a shot of Bharat Biotech's Covaxin for which he had volunteered.
5:06 PM
Gujarat has started preparations for the Covid-19 vaccination, which would start with around 396,000 healthcare workers, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said on Saturday.
"The Gujarat government has put together a cold chain infrastructure to store and transport the Covid-19 vaccine and made lists of priority beneficiaries. The first priority will be given to healthcare workers," he said while addressing the convocation ceremony at Marwadi University on Saturday.
"Around 3.96 lakh healthcare workers, including 2.71 lakh government doctors, nurses, and lab technicians as well as 1.25 lakh doctors, nurses, lab technicians and employees of private hospitals engaged in the COVID-19 duty will be given the first priority. People who will be vaccinated will be notified in advance through SMS about the date, time, and place," he added.
4:32 PM
Topics :CoronavirusCommunity TransmissionContainment ZoneContact TracingCoronavirus VaccineWorld Health Organization
First Published: Dec 06 2020 | 6:51 AM IST
