Coronavirus LIVE: India administers 2 million vaccine doses on Wednesday

Coronavirus live updates: Around 400 million people remain vulnerable to Covid-19 though two-thirds of India has antibodies. More than story and other updates.

11:34 PM

Andhra registers 2,527 more Covid cases, 19 deaths in a day

Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday logged 2,527 new Covid cases, taking the state's overall tally beyond 19.4 lakh, while its active caseload rose up to 23,939. As many as 2,527 more persons recovered from the disease in the past 24 hours, raising the state's total number of recoveries over 19 lakh.

 

East Godavari district reported the highest number of cases at 515, Chittoor 318, Prakasam 303, West Godavari 288, Krishna 249, Nellore 206, Guntur 182, Visakhapatnam 133, Kadapa 111, Anantapur 69, Kurnool 61, Srikakulam 49, and Vizianagaram 43.

 

Except for Vizianagaram, all the other districts of Andhra Pradesh have now reported more than 1 lakh Covid cases. East Godavari tops the chart with more than 2.7 lakh cases, followed by Chittoor with 2.2 lakh cases.

11:28 PM

West Bengal reports 869 new coronavirus cases, six more fatalities

West Bengal's COVID-19 tally rose to 15,20,468 on Wednesday as 869 more people tested positive for the disease, while six fresh fatalities pushed the state's coronavirus death toll to 18,027, a health bulletin said.

 

The recovery rate among the coronavirus patients in the state improved to 98 per cent as 981 more people were cured of the disease, it said.

 

The state now has 12,391 active cases, while 14,90,050 people have recovered from the disease to date, it said. West Bengal has thus far tested over 1.52 crore samples for COVID-19, including 54,433 in the last 24 hours. Only 87,601 people were vaccinated during the day, a health official said.

11:20 PM

Worm-infected food served to Covid patients in Palghar: BJP MLC

Maharashtra BJP legislator Niranjan Davkhare on Wednesday claimed worm-infected food is being served to patients at a COVID-19 care centre in Palghar district.

 

The MLC demanded action against the contractor supplying food to the state government-run COVID-19 care centre at Vikramgad. In an official release, Davkhare claimed food items containing worms were served to the patients at the centre in the last two days. The legislator said he has taken up the matter with district collector Manik Gursal. District administration officials were not available for comment on the issue.

11:11 PM

Coronavirus LIVE: India administers 2 million vaccine doses on Wednesday

India’s cumulative Covid Vaccination Coverage has exceeded 41.76 crore (41,76,56,752), as per the 7 pm provisional report today. The new phase of universalization of Covid-19 vaccination commenced from 21st June. More than 20.83 lakh (20,83,892) Vaccine Doses have been administered today, as per the 7 pm provisional report.

 

10,04,581 vaccine doses were administered as first dose and 95,964 vaccine doses given as second dose in the age group 18-44 years today. Cumulatively, 13,04,46,413 persons in the age group 18-44 years across 37 States/UTs have received their first dose and total 53,17,567 have received their second dose since the start of Phase-3 of the vaccination drive. READ MORE...

10:55 PM

Assam records 1,547 new Covid-19 cases, 25 fresh fatalities

Assam's COVID-19 tally rose to 5,52,425 on Wednesday as 1,547 more people tested positive for the infection, while 25 fresh fatalities pushed the state's coronavirus death toll to 5,053, a health bulletin said.

 

Kamrup Metropolitan district registered the highest number of new cases at 193, followed by Golaghat (147) and Dibrugarh (107). Three fresh fatalities each were reported in Dibrugarh, Golaghat and Sonitpur, while Jorhat, Kamrup Rural, Karimganj, Kokrajhar, Lakhimpur and Sivasagar registered two deaths each.

 

The state now has 15,346 active cases, while 5,30,678 people have recovered from the disease to date, including 2,426 during the day. The recovery rate among the coronavirus patients in the state has improved to 96.06 per cent.

10:52 PM

There is no Covid case in team India: Tokyo Olympic Games official

10:41 PM

Meghalaya reports 558 new Covid cases, six more fatalities

Meghalaya's COVID-19 tally rose to 53,833 on Wednesday as 558 more people tested positive for the infection, while six fresh fatalities pushed the northeastern state's coronavirus death toll to 974, a senior health official said.

 

The state now has 4,221 active cases, while 53,638 people have recovered from the infection, Health Services director Aman War said.

 

Four fresh fatalities were reported in East Khasi Hills district and one each in Ri Bhoi and West Khasi Hills. The state has tested 7.80 lakh samples for COVID-19 to date. Till Tuesday, a total of 9.14 lakh people have been inoculated in the state, of whom over 1,26,516 have received both doses.

10:36 PM

'No deaths due to oxygen shortage': Oppn slams govt; BJP defends statement

Opposition parties on Wednesday stepped up attack on the Centre over its statement that no deaths due to oxygen shortage were reported by states and UTs during the second COVID-19 wave, alleging it was trying to hide its mistakes by "lying", but the BJP accused them of doing politics on the issue and pointed out their own governments in states did not report such fatalities.

 

Amid the row, Maharashtra, where the Congress, Shiv Sena and the NCP are in power, and BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat maintained that there were no deaths due to oxygen shortage in these states, while Delhi's Health Minister and AAP leader Satyendar Jain said there have been many such fatalities in the national capital and other places across the country. READ MORE...

10:25 PM

Tax data shows how Covid-19 crushed small companies while big ones made hay

The pandemic and the lockdowns lopped off three per cent of India’s economy in nominal terms in 2020-21, affecting the government’s tax collection. Personal income tax revenue fell commensurately by two per cent, but revenue from corporation tax, levied on company profits, fell much more, by 18 per cent.

 

This would generally give the impression that companies like Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services, Bajaj Finance and HDFC Bank, which are among the biggest corporate taxpayers, bore the brunt of the slowdown and paid less tax in FY21 as their profits were badly impacted.

 

But the reality is otherwise. READ MORE...

 

10:14 PM

50 lakh Indians died during second Covid wave due to Centre's wrong decisions: Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that around 50 lakh Indians died during the second wave of COVID-19 infection due to "wrong decisions" of the Union government.

 

India has officially reported around 4.18 lakh Covid deaths in the country so far. Gandhi shared on his Twitter handle a new study by the Centre for Global Development which reported excess mortality estimates from three different data sources from the start of the pandemic through June 2021.

 

"The truth. GOI's wrong decisions during Covid second wave killed 50 lakh of our sisters, brothers, mothers and fathers," he tweeted while sharing the study.

9:50 PM

Nashik records 165 new Covid-19 cases, 141 recoveries

The count of COVID-19 cases in Nashik district of Maharashtra rose to 4,01,600 with the addition of 165 new patients on Wednesday, health department officials said.

 

One more patient succumbed to the infection, taking the death toll in the district to 8,483, they said. So far, 3,91,671 patients have recovered from the viral illness, including 141 who were discharged from hospitals during the last 24 hours, the officials said. As many as 7,611 more samples were examined for detection of coronavirus, taking the total number of tests in the district to 21,72,219.

9:39 PM

Tokyo coronavirus cases at 6-month high ahead of Olympic Games

Tokyo's coronavirus infections have surged to a six-month high with the Olympic host city logging 1,832 new cases just two days before the Games open.

 

Tokyo is currently under its fourth state of emergency, which will last until Aug. 22, covering the entire duration of the Olympics that start Friday and end Aug. 8. Fans are banned from all venues in the Tokyo area.

 

Japan Medical Association President Toshio Nakagawa says the surge has been expected regardless of the Olympics. Experts say cases among younger, unvaccinated people are sharply rising as Japan's inoculation drive loses steam due to supply uncertainty. About 23% of Japanese are fully vaccinated. READ MORE...

9:31 PM

Tamil Nadu reports 1,891 new Covid cases, 27 fatalities

Tamil Nadu reported 1,891 new COVID-19 cases, including those of 16 returnees from outside the State, the Health Department said on Monday. The new cases took the tally so far to 25,41,168, the department said. The number of fatalities in the last 24 hours was 27 and that added to the total of 33,809 till date, it said.

 

Recoveries eclipsed new infections with 2,423 people getting discharged, aggregating to 24,81,201 leaving 26,158 active cases, a bulletin said. As many as 33 districts reported new infections in double-digits while 21 districts saw nil deaths.

9:21 PM

Over 41.76 crore vaccine doses administered in India so far: Health Ministry

The total COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has exceeded 41.76 crore, the Union Health Ministry said on Wednesday. More than 20.83 lakh vaccine doses have been administered on Wednesday, according to a 7 pm provisional report.

 

The ministry said that on Wednesday, beneficiaries in the age group of 18 to 44 years got 10,04,581 vaccine jabs as first dose and 95,964 as second dose.

 

Cumulatively, 13,04,46,413 people in the age group of 18 to 44 years across all states and Union Territories have received their first dose and 53,17,567 their second dose since the start of phase three of the vaccination drive.

9:16 PM

India’s Covid-19 vaccination coverage exceeds 41.76 crore: Govt

9:10 PM

Over 16 lakh people in Gurugram administered Covid-19 jab

A total of 16,84,524 people in Gurugram have been administered the Covid-19 vaccine so far, health officials said. They said the vaccination is being done in government and private health facilities across the district.

 

"The Health Department is continuing to organise vaccination camps at multiple locations in Gurugram to vaccinate maximum people and avoid further Covid infection. A team of the department is covering slum areas to protect poor people from the virus," Chief Medical Officer, Dr Virender Yadav, told IANS.

 

Meanwhile, amid a dip in cases in the second wave, the department has also issued an alert about the Delta plus variant of the virus in Gurugram.

8:49 PM

No Covid-19 patient died due to oxygen shortage in Gujarat: CM Rupani

No coronavirus patient died in Gujarat on account of shortage of medical oxygen during the second wave of the pandemic, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani claimed on Wednesday. The Union government told the Rajya Sabha the day before that no deaths due to lack of oxygen were "specifically reported" by the states and Union Territories during the second wave this year. 

"Not a single coronavirus patient died due to lack of oxygen in Gujarat. Hospitals in the state treated over 8.5 lakh patients during the second wave. Of these, 8.25 lakh patients went home after recovering," the chief minister told reporters in Junagadh when asked about the controversy.

"We had designated several hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients. Not a single hospital reported any death due to shortage of oxygen. We had made adequate arrangements for oxygen supply. Opposition parties are misleading people with false allegations," Rupani added. 

8:40 PM

Mumbai reports 435 new Covid cases and 13 deaths in past 24 hours

8:23 PM

Tamil Nadu reports 1,891 new Covid cases

Tamil Nadu reports 1,891 new Covid cases, 2,423 recoveries, and 27 deaths in a day

 

Active cases: 26,158

Total recoveries: 24,81,201

Death toll: 33,809

 

8:08 PM

India's Covid toll could be 5 mn, worst human tragedy since 1947: US study

India's excess deaths during the Covid pandemic could be between 3.4 to 4.9 million, according to a new report which suggests millions more may have died from the SARS-CoV-2 virus than the official count.

 

The report, which was released on Tuesday, is co-authored by India's former chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian, Justin Sandefur from the US-based think-tank Center for Global Development and Abhishek Anand from Harvard University.

 

Estimating COVID-deaths with statistical confidence may prove elusive. But all estimates suggest that the death toll from the pandemic is likely to be an order of magnitude greater than the official count of 400,000, the authors said. READ MORE...

7:49 PM

Maharashtra reports 8,159 new Covid cases and 165 deaths in past 24 hours

7:39 PM

175 Covid recoveries, 144 new cases, one death in Jammu and Kashmir

Recoveries remained ahead of new cases in J&K on Wednesday as 175 patients recovered while 144 new cases and one death were reported during the last 24 hours.

 

Officials said that 78 recoveries, 32 cases and one death were reported from the Jammu division and 97 recoveries and 112 cases from the Kashmir division.

 

J&K has reported 35 cases of black fungus so far. A total of 320,256 people have been infected with coronavirus out of which 314,282 have recovered, while 4,372 have succumbed. There are 1,602 active cases in J&K, out of which 644 are from the Jammu division, and 958 from the Kashmir division.

7:37 PM

No scientific evidences suggesting Covid vaccination causing infertility: Govt

7:30 PM

1,639 new Covid cases, 36 deaths in Karnataka

Karnataka on Wednesday reported 1,639 new cases of COVID-19 and 36 deaths, taking the total number of infections to 28,88,341 and death toll to 36,262, the health department said.

 

The day also saw 2,214 discharges, pushing the total number of recoveries to 28,26,411.

 

Bengaluru Urban recorded 419 new cases, as the city saw 963 discharges and 7 deaths. Active cases in the state stood at 25,645. Dakshina Kannada recorded 6 deaths, Hassan and Kolar (3), Chamarajanagara, Dharwad, Shivamogga (2), followed by others.

7:21 PM

Uttarakhand reports 37 new Covid cases, 14 recoveries in a day

Uttarakhand reports 37 new Covid cases, 14 recoveries, and zero deaths in a day

 

Active cases: 643

Death toll: 7,357

7:07 PM

Over 95 lakh Covid vaccine doses administered in Delhi till now: Bulletin

Over 95 lakh Covid vaccine doses were administered in the national capital till Wednesday, according to a bulletin issued here.

 

The bulletin said Delhi had less than a day's stock of vaccine doses left on Wednesday morning after administering over 71,000 doses on Tuesday.

 

The national capital received 85,810 doses of Covishield on Tuesday, taking the total number of doses available in Delhi to 1,08,300. The total number of Covaxin doses available stands at 1,84,390. Only 20 per cent of Covaxin stock can be used for the first dose, since its stock is limited and has irregular delivery cycles.

7:01 PM

Covid vaccine stock will reach Mumbai tonight and distributed to all vaccination centres tomorrow: BMC

7:00 PM

Karnataka reports 1,639 fresh Covid cases, 2,214 discharges, and 36 deaths in a day

Karnataka reports 1,639 fresh Covid cases, 2,214 discharges, and 36 deaths in the past 24 hours.

 

Active cases: 25,645

Total discharges: 28,26,411

Death toll: 36,262

6:45 PM

China begins mass testing for Covid-19 cases in Nanjing city after new virus cluster

China has begun mass testing of people in Nanjing in Jiangsu Province after 17 airport workers in the city tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday causing massive flight cancellations and delays.

 

Nine of the workers were diagnosed as confirmed cases and five as asymptomatic carriers, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

 

The remaining three are awaiting further diagnosis, it quoted local officials as saying. A total of 521 flights have been cancelled at the Nanjing Lukou International Airport. The airport was earlier scheduled to handle 663 inbound and outbound flights on Wednesday.

6:23 PM

Covid curfew in Andhra Pradesh extended till July 30

The Covid Curfew in Andhra Pradesh has been extended till July 30.

 

"After a thorough review of the Covid-19 situation and keeping in view the decline in the number of positive cases, the government decided to extend the curfew upto July 30, from 10 pm to 6 am daily," Principal Secretary (Health) Anil Kumar Singhal said in an order on Wednesday.

 

Prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC, preventing the gathering of more than five persons, will be imposed during non-curfew hours from 6 am to 10 pm, he said.