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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

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Coronavirus

A health worker collects swab sample from COVID suspected man at Anand Vihar bus terminal, in New Delhi

Coronavirus LIVE UPDATES: With 23,068 new Covid-19 infections, India's total cases rose to 10,157,903 on Friday. The death toll mounted to 147,241 with 336 new fatalities. Total discharged cases is at 9,728,747.

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.
World coronavirus update: The global tally of coronavirus cases stands at 79,892,047. While 56,290,674 have recovered, 1,752,163 have lost their lives. Meanwhile, the US continues to be the worst-hit country with 19,117,212 cases.

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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.

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First Published: Dec 25 2020 | 7:07 AM IST