Covid LIVE: Vaccine should be available for public by April 2021, Serum CEO

Coronavirus update: Maharashtra has 1,757,520 coronavirus cases, Karnataka 865,931, Andhra Pradesh 857,395, Tamil Nadu 763,282 and Kerala 539,919. Stay tuned for coronavirus India LIVE updates

7:07 PM

Active coronavirus cases drop to 16,000 in Andhra Pradesh

The active coronavirus cases dropped exactly to 16,000 in Andhra Pradesh on Thursday even as the gross confirmed positives touched 8,58,711 with the addition of 1,316 in 24 hours. The total recoveries increased to 8,35,801 after 1,821 patients got cured in 24 hours ending 9 am on Thursday.

 

Another 11 patients succumbed to COVID-19, taking the overall toll to 6,910, according to the latest bulletin.

 

Kurnool, which during the initial months of the pandemic was the prime hotbed for coronavirus in Andhra Pradesh, touched the 60,000 total cases mark on Thursday, becoming the eighth district in the state to cross the milestone.

6:54 PM

Ministry of Health deputed high level Central teams to Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Manipur

6:46 PM

Working on war-footing to expand ICU beds in hospitals: CM Arvind Kejriwal

6:36 PM

Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers Sadananda Gowda tests positive for Covid-19

6:35 PM

Apollo Hospitals to take Tata Medical's Covid test kit across country

Apollo Hospitals Group and Tata Medical and Diagnostics (Tata MD), the new healthcare venture of the Tata group, today announced a collaboration to launch TataMD CHECK, the world’s first CRISPR Cas-9 based diagnostic test, across the country.

 

Both the companies have entered into “commercial partnership”. The financial terms of the tie-up were not disclosed.

 

Indigenously developed kits will be manufactured at TataMD's facility at Sriperumbudr near Chennai. Initial production capacity is one million units per annum. Girish Krishnamurthy, CEO & MD, Tata Medical and Diagnostics refused to share investment figures and financials on the commercial agreement. READ ON...

6:29 PM

Night curfew in Ahmedabad from 9 pm to 6 am amid rising Covid-19 cases

6:20 PM

Imposition of fines proportionately small in areas hit by rise in Covid-19 cases: HC to AAP govt

The Delhi High Court on Thursday noted that imposition of fines, for violating COVID-19 norms like social distancing and wearing masks, was proportionately small in areas where the number of coronavirus cases are on the rise.

 

Referring to the fines imposed, FIRs lodged and arrests made for violation of national directives for COVID-19 management, a bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad questioned the Delhi government's monitoring and marshalling efforts.

 

The high court noted that only five arrests were made in the entire city between September 7 to November 16 for violating the norms and in south and south west Delhi, which were mainly hit by rise in COVID-19 infections, "the fines imposed for non-adherence was proportionately very small".

6:14 PM

NCP leader Eknath Khadse tests Covid-19 positive

NCP leader and former Maharashtra minister Eknath Khadse has tested positive for COVID-19, sources close to him said on Thursday. Khadse will be admitted to a city-based hospital.

 

"Natha bhau (as Khadse is known) tested positive on Thursday afternoon. He will be treated at a city hospital as per the doctor's advice," the sources said.

 

On November 15, Khadse's daughter Rohini had said that she had contracted the coronavirus infection. Earlier, several other key politicians in Maharashtra, including Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, over a dozen other ministers and Leader of Opposition in Assembly Devendra Fadnavis had tested positive.

5:50 PM

UK's Oxford vaccine phase-2 trial indicates strong results in older adults: Lancet study

In a major development, UK's Covid-19 vaccine has shown similar strong immune response in healthy older adults -aged 56 years and above- to those seen in people between 18 to 55 years, according to findings from a phase-2 trial. The Oxford Covid-19 vaccine has collaborated with Indian drug maker--Serum Institute of India (SII) for which phase 2 clinical trials are being conducted in India also.

 

The findings of the study have been published in the leading medical journal--Lancet in which authors have noted that their findings could be encouraging if the immune responses found in their study are associated with protection against infection with SARS-CoV-2, but this study did not assess the efficacy, which will be confirmed only after completion of the ongoing Phase-3 trials.

 

The study is the fifth published clinical trial of a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 tested in an older adult population (aged 18-55 years, 56-69 years, and those 70 years and older).

5:37 PM

Haryana Health Minister will be administered a trial dose of Covaxin tomorrow

5:28 PM

Healthcare workers, people above 65 yrs will be given Covid vaccine on priority: Harsh Vardhan

Noting that it is natural to prioritise the COVID-19 vaccine distribution process, Health minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday said healthcare workers and people aged above 65 years will be given coronavirus vaccine on priority.

 

Addressing the FICCI FLO's National Webinar on 'The Shifting Healthcare Paradigm During and Post-COVID', Vardhan said coronavirus vaccine will be available in a couple of months and it is estimated that by July-August, 400-500 million vaccine doses will be made available for 25-30 crore people.

 

"I am confident that the COVID-19 vaccine will be ready in the next three-four months," he said.

 

"It is natural that the vaccine distribution would have to be prioritised. As you know the healthcare workers who are corona warriors will be prioritised, then people who are above 65 years of age, they have been prioritised and then those from 50-65 years of age have been prioritised. Then those below 50 years who have other diseases," he said.

5:17 PM

Coronavirus LIVE: India's active Covid-19 caseload falls below 5% of total cases

In the last 24 hours, 45,576 persons were found to be infected with COVID in India. During the same period, India has registered 48,493 new recoveries ensuring a net reduction of 2,917 cases from the Active Caseload, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).

 

The new recoveries continue to overtake the daily new cases continuously since the past 47 days. India's active caseload has fallen under the 5 per cent mark today, according to an official press release.

 

This trend of more daily recoveries than the daily cases has led to a continuous contraction of India's Active Caseload. It has ensured that India's present active caseload of 4,43,303 consists of just 4.95 per cent of India's Total Positive Cases.

5:09 PM

Uttar Pradesh records 2,586 new coronavirus cases, 39 more deaths

Uttar Pradesh reported 39 more COVID-19 fatalities on Thursday, taking the death toll to 7,480, while 2,586 new cases pushed the state's infection tally to 5,19,148. The number of active cases of the disease stands at 22,757, Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Amit Mohan Prasad told reporters here.

 

"The state reported 2,586 new cases in the past 24 hours. The state has 22,757 active cases, and the number of those who recovered from the infection is 4,88,911," Prasad said.

 

The state has a recovery rate of 94.18 per cent, he said, appealing to people to remain cautious against the disease in the wake of a massive surge of cases in Delhi.

4:59 PM

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal visited Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital today

4:58 PM

Pakistan reports 2,500 new cases of coronavirus

Pakistan has reported over 2,500 new cases of coronavirus, taking the total number of infections in the country to 365,927, the health ministry said on Thursday. The Ministry of National Health Services said a total of 2,547 new infections were reported and a total of 18 people had died due to the coronavirus in the last 24 hours.

 

The new coronavirus toll stands at 7,248 while infections at 3,65,927, the health ministry said in a statement. Some 886 people recovered in the last one day and with it the number of total recuperated people reached 326,674. Another 1,535 were in critical conditions.