LIVE: Bengal govt extends Covid curbs till Sep 15 with more relaxations
Coronavirus LIVE updates: Kerala records 32,801 new Covid-19 cases. Maharashtra reported 4,654 cases. India on Friday administered a record 10 million vaccine doses. Stay tuned for corona updates
 "Mamata Banerjee")
Mamata Banerjee, CM of West Bengal. Photo: ANI
Coronavirus updates: India recorded a spike of 46,759 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours out of which, over 32,000 were from Kerala. The country also witnessed 509 deaths, taking the death toll to 437,370. So far, India has recorded 32,649,947 corona cases in total. Delhi reported 46 Covid-19 cases and no fatality. Kerala continued to report over 30,000 cases for the third consecutive day on Friday and showed an increased Test Positivity Rate, while 179 deaths took the death count to 20,313. The state logged 32,801 cases today, up from 30,007 on Thursday. Meanwhile, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday defended his government's handling of Covid situation and said that no one had died in the state due to lack of oxygen during the deadly second wave of pandemic.
“If Kerala model is wrong in Covid containment, then which model should we follow? No one had died in Kerala due to a lack of oxygen. No person was deprived of medical aid or medical bed," Vijayan wrote in CPI(M) party magazine 'Chintha'.
India on Friday administered a record 10 million vaccine doses against coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
World coronavirus update: Covid-19 is continuing to spread around the world, with 216,204,183 confirmed cases and 4,498,864 deaths across nearly 200 countries recorded since China reported its first cases in December 2019. The US remains the worst-hit country with 39,540,401 cases, followed by India, Brazil, Russia and France.
To read updates from our yesterday's blog, click here
8:41 PM
Bengal allows coaching centres to reopen with 50% capacity
6:56 PM
Kerala govt to impose night curfew from 10pm-6am from Monday, says CM
5:35 PM
Negative RT-PCR report must for international passengers arriving in Maharashtra
All international passengers arriving in Maharashtra will have to carry a negative RT-PCR report even though they are fully vaccinated, the state government has said.
“All international passengers arriving in Maharashtra, including those from the European countries, Middle Eastern countries and South Africa, will be in line with the above-mentioned guidelines issued by the Union ministry of health and family welfare,” said the order issued by Maharashtra Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte on Friday night.
4:07 PM
29 new cases in Delhi
2:38 PM
'Once kids go to school, we have to treat them as unvaccinated individuals'
1:28 PM
Ensure no large gathering during coming festival season: MHA to states
The Centre Saturday asked all states and union territories to ensure there is no large gathering during the upcoming festival season and, if necessary, impose local restrictions to check the spread of coronavirus.
Extending the ongoing COVID-19 guidelines for one more month till September 30, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said the overall pandemic situation now appears to be largely stable at the national level, except for the localised spread observed in a few states.
The total number of active cases and high case positivity in some districts continue to remain a matter of concern, he told the chief secretaries of all states and UTs in his identical letters.
1:15 PM
Confounding Covid: Higher positivity rate in higher-vaccination districts
Logic dictates that higher vaccination should translate into fewer cases and better protection against Covid-19. But a Business Standard analysis shows that the converse is true. Data from 42 districts with more than 10 per cent positivity rate (August 18-24) reveal that these districts have fared better than the rest of the country in vaccinating their population.
The 42 districts, which include all 14 districts of Kerala and a majority of districts from the Northeast, have administered at least one vaccine dose to 46.2 per cent of their population. And 15.2 per cent of the eligible people in these districts were fully vaccinated as on August 24. By comparison, average partial vaccination across the rest of the districts of India stood at 35 per cent. Read on...
12:55 PM
US intelligence agencies fail to reach conclusion on Covid-19 origins
The US intelligence community has failed to reach any firm conclusion on the exact origin of Covid-19 and is split on whether it leaked from a lab in China or emerged in nature, even though it does not believe the virus was developed as a biological weapon, according to results of a detailed review ordered by President Joe Biden.
The Director of National Intelligence in a report on Friday said SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, probably emerged and infected humans through an initial small-scale exposure that occurred no later than November 2019 with the first known cluster of Covid-19 cases arising in Wuhan, China in December 2019.
However, there was no unanimity among the intelligence community (IC) on the origins of the coronavirus.
12:37 PM
Odisha records 779 new Covid cases, 68 fatalities in last 24 hours
Odisha recorded 779 new Covid-19 positive cases in the last 24 hours, taking the active cases to 7,996, as per the state government data.
Out of 779 fresh coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, Khurda is the only district of Odisha which solely recorded 259 cases. While Gajapati and Kalahandi districts recorded only one positive case each.
The state has recorded 68 fatalities in the last 24 hours, the overall death toll of Odisha stands at 7,765. However, 986 people have been recovered from the infection on Saturday, taking the cumulative recoveries to 9,89,840. Read on...
10:25 AM
Number of active Covid-19 cases in India now stands at 359,775: Union Health Ministry
Number of active Covid-19 cases in India now stands at 359,775: Union Health Ministry
Topics : Coronavirus Delta variant of coronavirus World Health Organization Coronavirus Vaccine Health Ministry
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First Published: Aug 28 2021 | 6:40 AM IST