Coronavirus LIVE: 5,397 new Covid-19 positive cases in Kerala today

Coronavirus LIVE Updates: The global tally of coronavirus cases stands at 79,892,047

11:36 PM

8 UK-returned people test Covid positive during Delhi govt's door-to-door drive

In the ongoing door-to-door contact drive being conducted by the Delhi government to test UK-returned persons for prevalence of Covid-19, eight have so far been found infected with the coronavirus, officials said on Friday. A total of 19 passengers out of over 13,000 who landed from the UK at the IGI airport here between November 25 and December 21 have been found positive for the virus.

Eleven were tested positive at the airport while eight others were found positive during the door to door contact and testing drive being carried out in all the districts of the city, said a top Delhi government source. "All the 19 positive patients have been admitted to the special facility set up at LNJP hospital where they will undergo genome testing to determine whether they are infected by the super spreader strain of the coronavirus that has been reported in United Kingdom," the source said.

So far, one person each in the south east and south west districts of Delhi who returned from the UK in recent weeks were reported positive for the virus. The remaining positive persons were residents of other districts.

11:35 PM

Kerala sees 5,397 new Covid cases, 16 deaths

Kerala recorded 5,397 more Covid cases out of the 48,853 samples tested on Thursday, displaying a positivity rate of 11.04 per cent, the state Health Department said. Kottayam district led with 599 cases, while Kasargod, with 56 cases, recorded the minimum.

The Health Department statement also said that the state has 64,028 active cases, while 4,506 more people have recovered, taking the total number of cured to 6,64,951. There were 16 more Covid deaths, taking the death toll to 2930. Across the state, there were 2,64,984 people under observation, including 13,685 are in hospitals. The state has 463 hotspots at the moment.

10:32 PM

Japan confirms cases of new coronavirus variant

Japan's health ministry has confirmed the country's first cases of infection with the new variant of the coronavirus that was identified in Britain. The five people arrived between December 18 and December 21, before Japan stepped up border control on Friday for entrants from Britain. A man in his 60s developed fatigue, but the other four were without symptoms.

Health Minister Norihisa Tamura said the five were sent to quarantine straight from the airports. After they tested positive for the virus, further analysis conducted at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases determined they had the British variant that is 70 per cent more transmissible, the ministry said in a statement. Shigeru Omi, head of a government taskforce, called for tighter border control to prevent new variants.

10:32 PM

Coronavirus LIVE: Four more UK returnees test positive for Covid-19

Four more returnees to Tamil Nadu from UK have tested positive for coronavirus and their samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune for genomic analysis, a senior official said here on Friday. Of the four returnees, two belonged to Thanjavur and one each from here and Madurai,Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan said.

Along with these four, the total number of people to test positive for the pathogen on arrival from the UK, has increased to five. The samples of these returnees have been dispatched to the NIV for genomic analysis, he said. The four arrived in Tamil Nadu between November 28 and December 17 were traced and tested and all the five returnees are doing well in various facilities, he said, adding their contacts have tested negative. The result of the genomic analysis of the first UK returnee, the sample for which was sent earlier to NIV, is expected soon, he said.

9:44 PM

596 new coronavirus cases recorded in Mumbai, 11 deaths

The COVID-19 caseload in Mumbai rose to 2,89,800 on Friday with 596 new cases coming to light while the death toll reached 11,056 with 11 fresh fatalities, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said. The day before the city had reported 643 new COVID-19 cases and 12 deaths. The number of recovered patients increased to 2,69,671, about 93 per cent of the tally, with 377 more patients being discharged from hospitals in the city.

The average doubling rate of COVID-19 cases in Mumbai is 358 days, while the average growth rate of cases is 0.21 per cent. Currently, the city has 8,219 active COVID-19 cases. The total of tests conducted in the city went up to 22,80,668 with 15,033 tests conducted since Thursday evening, the BMC data showed. The city now has 302 containment zones and 2,783 sealed buildings. The civic body seals buildings or declares containment zones after one or more coronavirus patients are found in the premises/ area.

8:59 PM

Coronavirus latest update: 320 new Covid-19 cases in Punjab

Coronavirus claimed nine more lives in Punjab on Friday as 320 fresh cases pushed the state's infection tally to 1,64,821 on Friday. So far, 5,269 people have died from the infection in the state, it said.

 

Mohali reported 48 new cases, followed by Ludhiana (43) and Patiala (40). The state currently has 4,707 active cases, according to the medical bulletin. Thirteen critical patients are on ventilator while 82 are on oxygen support, the bulletin said. A total of 37,86,885 samples have been collected for testing so far in the state.

8:29 PM

Coronavirus LIVE: Delhi reports 758 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours

Delhihas recorded 758 fresh COVID-19 cases, the lowest in over four months,and 30 new fatalities even as thepositivity rate dipped to 0.88 per cent, authorities said Friday. The infection tally in the city mounted to over 6.21 lakh and death toll rose to 10,414, they said, adding that over 85,000 tests were conducted the previous day.

 

This is also the lowest positive rate in over eight months. The previous low being 0.99 per cent on December 23.

 

From December 21-23, the daily case count had been below the 1000-mark. On Monday, 803 cases were reported, the lowest since August 17; on Tuesday 939 cases were reported and 871 on Wednesday. However, on Thursday 1,063 cases were recorded, dropping again on Friday.

8:02 PM

5,397 new Covid-19 cases and 4,506 recoveries reported in Kerala today

5,397 new Covid-19 cases and 4,506 recoveries reported in Kerala today

7:43 PM

Jammu and Kashmir registers 284 fresh Covid-19 infections, one more death

Jammu and Kashmir's COVID-19 tally surged to 1,19,628 on Friday with 284 fresh COVID-19 cases, while the death toll climbed to 1,861 as one more person succumbed to the disease, officials said. Of the fresh cases, 140 were from the Kashmir division and 144 from the Jammu division, they said.

 

Jammu district recorded the highest number of new cases at 96, followed by 65 in Srinagar. The number of active cases in the union territory stands at 3,414, while 1,14,353 patients have recovered so far. The latest fatality in the union territory was reported from Kashmir.

7:33 PM

Coronavirus LIVE: Delhi reports 758 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours

7:14 PM

355 new coronavirus cases in Andhra Pradesh, 354 recoveries

Andhra Pradesh reported 355 fresh cases of coronavirus on Friday, while 354 patients also got cured and discharged from various hospitals. Two fresh fatalities were also reported in the state, one each in Guntur and Krishna districts, a health department bulletin said. Chittoor reported the highest number of cases 81, followed by Guntur 53, East Godavari 49 and Krishna 43.

 

Eight districts added less than 25 new cases each, while Visakhapatnam added 28, the bulletin said. The total cases in Visakhapatnam crossed the 59,000 mark while in neighbouring Vizianagaram they shot past 41,000, the lowest in the state. Vizianagaram also has the lowest number of 71 active cases now.

6:52 PM

Brazil announces efficacy of China's CoronaVac vaccine

Brazil's state-run Butantan Institute has announced that the CoronaVac vaccine developed by the private Chinese laboratory Sinovac Life Science achieved the levels of efficacy against the coronavirus required by the World Health Organization (WHO) in trials with 13,000 Brazilian volunteers.

 

"The data corroborate that it is the safest vaccine on the market and we achieved the superiority in efficacy required by the WHO and Brazil's Health Regulatory Agency (Anvisa)," Dimas Covas, director of the institute, said at a press conference.

 

The level of efficacy required by the WHO is greater than 50 per cent, he said. Also present at the conference was Jean Gorinchteyn, secretary of Health of the Sao Paulo state government, and Joao Gabbardo, coordinator of the Contingency Committee against COVID-19.

 

"We have reached the level of effectiveness that allows us to request the registration for emergency use of the vaccine both here and in China. It is a historic day for Brazilian science because of the hope it brings to Brazilians," said Covas.

6:22 PM

First time since Covid-19 outbreak, zero positive cases reported in Mumbai's Dharavi today

6:18 PM

Tamil Nadu reports 1,027 new Covid-19 cases, 1,103 discharges, and 12 deaths in the last 24 hours

Tamil Nadu reports 1,027 new Covid-19 cases, 1,103 discharges, and 12 deaths in the last 24 hours

6:00 PM

Uttar Pradesh reports 13 more Covid-19 deaths, 1,285 new cases

Uttar Pradesh reported 13 more COVID-19 fatalities and 1,285 new cases on Friday, pushing the death toll to 8,279 and the infection tally to 5,79,982 in the state. Currently, there are 16,159 active cases in the state, and 5,55,544 people have recovered from the disease so far, Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Amit Mohan Prasad told reporters. He said the recovery rate in the state stood at 95.78 per cent.

 

Prasad said over 1.43 lakh samples were tested for the disease on Thursday, and the total number of tests conducted so far was around 2.31 crore.

 

Of the total active cases, 7,317 are in home-isolation, 1,663 in private hospitals and the rest are undergoing treatment in government hospitals. 13.35 per cent of the total cases are in the age group of 0-20 years, 46.55 per cent in the age group of 21-40 years, 29.47 per cent in the age group of 41-60 years and 10.6 per cent are above 60.

5:30 PM

Punjab's Ludhiana and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar chosen for Covid-19 vaccine dry run

Ludhiana and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar districts have been chosen for COVID vaccine dry run to be held from January 27 to 29 in Punjab and it will be done using a dummy vaccine, said an official on Friday. The dry run is aimed at testing the laid out mechanisms for COVID-19 vaccination roll-out in the health system.

 

"Ludhiana and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar have been chosen for COVID-19 vaccine dry run to be held from January 27 to 29. It will be done using a dummy vaccine. We have 805 service locations for vaccination," Varinder Sharma, Deputy Commissioner of Ludhiana told ANI.

 

The official said that 65 cold storage points have been developed in Ludhiana and the "vaccination drive will be held in accordance with COVID-19 guidelines issued by the authorities".

 

5:02 PM

UK returnee tests Covid-19 positive in Assam

A traveller from the UK, who arrived in Assam a few days ago, has tested positive for COVID-19 and the swab samples have been sent to National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune to ascertain whether the patient has contracted a new strain of coronavirus, Health and Family Welfare Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Friday.

The person returned to the state recently amid concern over the detection of a mutated and more infectious strain of COVID-19 in the European country and has been admitted to Guwahati Medical College Hospital here, he told reporters.

"The samples of the patient have been sent to NIV, Pune to ascertain whether the person has contracted the new strain of COVID-19 or not. We will provide the details only after we get the report," the minister said.

Asked whether the government will enforce fresh lockdown to contain the spread of the disease in the state, Sarma said there is no possibility of taking any such measure as the number of daily cases have come down to less than 100.

3:38 PM

Canada gets first batch of 168,000 Moderna Covid-19 vaccine doses

Canada has received the first batch of the coronavirus vaccine from Moderna just one day after the government's approval, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. On Wednesday, the national agency Health Canada authorised the use of the Moderna vaccine against the COVID-19 virus in the country's immunisation campaign.

 

"The first doses of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine have arrived in Canada. These are part of the 168,000 doses we will be getting before the end of the month, and part of the 40 million doses we are guaranteed from Moderna overall," Trudeau tweeted late on Thursday.

 

According to Public Services Minister Anita Anand, these vaccine batches would be the first to be deployed to the country's north. READ MORE...

3:06 PM

Centre gears up for roll out of cOVID-19 vaccine, dry run to be held in four states next week

The Central Government is gearing up for the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccine across the country and a two-days dry run has been planned in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat and Punjab considering the geographical locations next week, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Friday.

 

The government has already trained participants who will administer the vaccine.

 

The detailed training modules have been developed for different categories of vaccine handlers and administrators including medical officers, vaccinators, alternate vaccinators, cold chain handlers, supervisors, data managers, ASHA coordinators and all others involved in the implementation process at different levels, to strengthen the capacity of human resource for vaccine introduction and roll-out.

2:21 PM

Russia registers 29,018 Covid-19 cases in past 24 hours

Russia has registered 29,018 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, up from a record 29,935 the day before, bringing the total to 2,992,706, the federal response center said on Friday.

 

"Over the past 24 hours, 29,018 coronavirus cases were confirmed in 85 regions, including 4,543 cases (15.7 percent) without clinical symptoms," the center said, adding that the cumulative case count has now reached 2,992,706, with the rate of increase at 1 percent.

 

Moscow confirmed 7,315 new coronavirus cases over the given period, down from 8,203 the day before. The Russian capital was followed by St. Petersburg with 3,751 cases, down from 3,756 the day before, and the Moscow region with 1,576 new cases, up from 1,538 the day before. The response center reported 563 coronavirus fatalities, down from 635 the day before, raising the country's death toll to 53,659.

1:57 PM

Odisha reports 325 new Covid-19 cases, three fresh deaths

Odisha on Friday reported 325 new COVID-19 cases, pushing the coronavirus tally in the state to 3,27,867, a health department official said. The COVID-19 death toll in the rose to 1,853 with three fresh fatalities in the last 24-hours, he said. The three fatalities were reported from Balasore, Dhenkanal and Khurda districts, he said

 

The new COVID-19 cases were detected in 24 of the 30 districts of Odisha, with 187 reported from different quarantine centres, while the remaining 138 are local contact cases.

 

Khurda district of which the state capital Bhubaneswar is a part, recorded the highest number of new cases at 36, followed by Sundergarh (33) and Angul (32).

1:45 PM

Coronavirus LIVE: US to require negative Covid-19 test from UK travellers

To assess readiness of the mechanism laid out for the COVID-19 inoculation drive, a dry run has been planned by the Centre on December 28 and 29 in four states -- Punjab, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. The exercise will include necessary data entry in Co-WIN, an online platform for monitoring of vaccine delivery, testing receipt and allocation, deployment of team members, mock drill of session sites with test beneficiaries, a well as reporting and evening meeting, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday.

 

It will also include testing of cold storage and transportation arrangements for COVID-19 vaccine, management of crowd at session sites with proper physical distancing, the ministry said. Each state will plan it in two districts and preferably in five different session-type settings -- district hospital, community health centre (CHC) or primary health care centre (PHC), urban site, private health facility and rural outreach.

 

"This exercise will enable end-to-end mobilisation and testing of COVID-19 vaccination process (except the vaccine) and check the usage of Co-WIN in field environment, linkages between planning, implementation and reporting mechanisms, identify challenges and guide the way forward prior to actual implementation including improvements that may be required in the envisaged process," the health ministry said.

1:04 PM

Dry run for Covid vaccine admin in 4 states next week

The central government on Friday said that it has planned a dry run for administration of the COVID-19 vaccine in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat and Punjab next week as a step to prep up before the actual thing takes off. According to the Health Ministry, each state will plan the dry run in two districts and preferably in different session type settings, for example, district hospital, urban site, private health facility, rural outreach etc. "This exercise will enable end-to-end mobilisation and testing of COVID-19 vaccination process and check the usage of Co-WIN in field environment," the ministry said in a statement.

12:07 PM

Puducherry logs 29 new coronavirus cases, overall tally rises

The union territory of Puducherry registered 29 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours while no fresh fatality was reported, a top Health department official said on Friday. The 29 new infections took the overall tally in the union territory to 37,914, Director of Health and Family Welfare S Mohan Kumar said in a release. The new cases were identified at the end of testing of 2,973 samples and 44 patients were treated and discharged during the last 24 hours ending 10 AM Friday.

 

11:55 AM

Govt is gearing up for roll-out of Covid-19 vaccine

Govt is gearing up for roll-out of COVID19 vaccine across the country. Till today, the State level trainings completed in all States/UTs with the participation of more than 7000 district level trainees, except Lakshadweep which will conduct it soon on 29th Dec. Dry run for vaccine administration will be conducted in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat & Punjab next week. This will exercise enable end-to-end mobilisation and testing of COVID-19 vaccination process (except the vaccine) and check the usage of Co-WIN: Govt

11:37 AM

China tests millions in port over virus cluster

Authorities in China's northeastern port city of Dalian are testing millions of residents after seven new coronavirus cases were reported there in the last 24 hours. The cluster that has emerged in recent days has grown to 12 cases. In five neighbourhood divisions, authorities have shut schools and public spaces and are restricting anyone but essential workers from leaving their residential compounds. Beijing is also on high alert after two asymptomatic cases were reported on Thursday, in addition to two confirmed cases last week.

11:22 AM

Israel to speed up Covid-19 vaccination due to new strain

The Covid-19 vaccination campaign in Israel will speed up to a 24/7 format after the country registered fresh confirmed cases with a new strain of the novel coronavirus, the Ministry of Health has announced. In a statement on Thursday night, the Ministry said that Health Minister Yuli Edelstein has decided to dramatically speed up the campaign, which began on Sunday, aiming to reach more than 100,000 vaccines a day, reports Xinhua news agency. "In recent days, mutations have been detected in Israel. They are contagious at a rapid and unusual pace, which we have not yet met. We are in a chase against time," the statement added.

10:30 AM

23,068 new cases recorded in 24 hrs: Health Minister

With 23,068 new Covid-19 infections, India's total cases rose to 1,01,46,846 on Friday.  The death toll mounted to 1,47,092 with 336 new fatalities.  Total discharged cases is at 97,17,834.

10:16 AM

Telangana adds 518 new COVID-19 cases, 3 deaths take toll to

Telangana reported 518 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to over 2.84 lakh while three fatalities pushed the toll to 1,527, the state government said on Friday. Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) accounted for the most number of cases with 91, followed by Rangareddy (41) and Medchal Malkajgiri (39), it said in a bulletin, providing details as of 8 PM on December 24. Over 2.75 lakh people have recovered from the disease so far. As many as6,839 patients are under treatment and 44,869 samples were tested on Thursday.

 

10:11 AM

Italy enters 'red zone' amid Covid-19 spike

Italy has entered a nationwide 'red zone' of very high risks in the wake of a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, which is set to remain in place through Christmas and New Year's Day to January 6, 2021. Red zone rules include a ban on travel between regions, a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, closure of shops, bars and restaurants, as well as an urge for keeping holiday gatherings at home to a minimum of two adult visitors, reports Xinhua news agency. To contain the second wave, the government has categorized Italy as three colour-coded areas, namely yellow, orange and red, with different levels of restrictions corresponding to the severity of virus transmission.