Page 32 - Coronavirus

Investigate PM CARES Fund: Uddhav amid ED action in Covid facility 'scam'

Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday hit back at Enforcement Directorate action against some persons close to his party in an alleged jumbo COVID facility scam by seeking a probe into the PM CARES Fund. He also sought probe into the functioning of civic bodies of Nagpur, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Pune, as well as governments in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, all of which were or are led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, and Thane, which was controlled by the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. The Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund was set up in 2020 as a public charitable trust with the aim of having a dedicated national fund to deal with distress related primarily to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Prime Minister is the chairperson and members include Defence Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister. Addressing party workers, Thackeray dared the government to probe the working of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation during the pandemic, adding

India logs 55 new Covid-19 cases, active infections decrease to 1,653

India's COVID-19 infection tally rose by 55 in a day while active cases declined to 1,653 from 1,712 a day earlier, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday. The death toll was recorded at 5,31,903 with one fatality reported in Maharashtra, the data updated at 8 am stated. The tally of Covid cases was recorded at 4.49 crore. The national COVID-19 recovery rate was 98.81 per cent, according to the health ministry website. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,44,60,316, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.18 per cent. According to the ministry's website, 220.66 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.

US unable to solve mystery of Covid-19 origin, shows declassified report

"When President Biden signed the Covid-19 Origin Act, he directed the intelligence community to use every tool at its disposal to investigate the origin of Covid-19," White House NSC spokesperson

Two, including a juvenile, held over involvement in CoWIN data 'leak'

A man was arrested and a juvenile were apprehended from Bihar in connection with their involvement in the alleged data leak from CoWIN portal, officials said on Thursday. The man is alleged to have used a Telegram app to leak the data, they said. There have been claims about a breach of data of citizens registered on the CoWIN platform, and opposition parties have asked the government to take deterrent action. The government has termed such reports "mischievous" and "without any basis" while asserting that the CoWIN portal is completely safe with adequate safeguards for data privacy. The matter was sent for a review by the country's nodal cyber security agency CERT-In, which said in its initial report, that the backend database for the Telegram bot, which is at the centre of the alleged leak, was not directly accessing the APIs of the CoWIN database. In a statement, the Union Health Ministry also said that an internal exercise has been initiated to review the existing security ...

India records 95 Covid-19 cases in a day, active infections dip to 1,784

India recorded 95 coronavirus cases in a day while the number of active cases in the country has been recorded at 1,784, according to Union Health Ministry data on Thursday. The death toll was recorded at 5,31,900, the data updated at 8 am stated. India has so far logged 4.49 crore Covid cases. The national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.81 per cent, according to the health ministry website. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,44,60,082, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.18 per cent. According to the ministry's website, 220.66 crore vaccine doses have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.

Covid centre scam: What it is and why ED is conducting raids across Mumbai?

BJP leader Kirit Somaiya had registered a money laundering case in August 2022, claiming that contracts awarded to multiple field hospitals in Mumbai lacked healthcare experience

ED raids 15 places in Mumbai in relation to Covid jumbo centre scam

The ED searched the premises of Suraj Chavan, a close aide of Shiv Sena UBT leader Aaditya Thackeray and Sujit Patkar who is a close friend of MP Sanjay Raut

Possible to make new Covid strain vax in 100 days: Gennova BioPharma

Co gets nod for Omicron booster of its mRNA vaccine

Active Covid-19 cases dip to 1,910 after India recorded 63 new infections

India logged 63 new coronavirus infections, while the active cases have dipped to 1,910 from 1,925, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday. The death toll was recorded at 5,31,896, the data updated at 8 am stated. The Covid case tally stood at 4.49 crore (4,49,93,543) while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.81 per cent, the ministry said. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,44,59,737 and the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.18 per cent. According to the ministry's website, 220.66 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide vaccination drive.

OTT emerged as biggest medium, bridged geographical barriers: Anurag Thakur

Union Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur said OTT, which emerged as one of the biggest mediums during the COVID-19 time, has bridged the geographical barriers. He said with the vanishing of boundary in OTT, the possibility of content from across the world being accepted by the pan-world audience has increased and cited the example of Korean content. "Soft power doesn't have any boundary. The Covid-triggered lockdown had spurted the emergence of the OTT platform in a big way," he said at an awards programme here on Saturday night. He said Bengal, the land of a visionary and poet like Rabindranath Tagore, a film icon like Satyajit Ray, a new direction giver filmmaker like Ritwik Ghatak, a new age singing sensation like Arijit Singh can win the hearts of OTT audiences in the world with new content in near future. Thakur in this context harped on the issue of the need for any regulation on OTT content or not by the stakeholders. "The content will be seen by family. On the issu

Did Centre ignore its own red flags on Covid vaccine side-effects?

With the global panic over the Covid-19 pandemic finally waning, the focus is again on preventive and curative measures, mainly the 'life-saver vaccines'

India records 108 new Covid-19 cases, active infections dip to 1,983

India recorded 108 new coronavirus cases, raising the tally to 4.49 crore, while the active cases decreased to 1,983, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday. The death toll due to the viral disease stood at 5,31,893, according to data updated by the ministry at 8 am. The national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.81 per cent, it stated. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,44,59,514, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.18 per cent, it said. So far, the country has recorded a total of 4.49 crore (4,49,93,390) coronavirus cases. According to the ministry's website, 220.66 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide inoculation drive.

China withholds indicator of Covid deaths as cremation data not released

China has dropped the number of cremations held last winter from a quarterly report, withholding a key indicator of the pandemic death toll during the countrys largest Covid wave, the media reported

India records 69 fresh Covid-19 infections, active cases decline to 2,017

India has recorded 96 fresh coronavirus cases while the number of active cases has decreased to 2,017, the Union health ministry said on Friday. The death toll due to the viral disease stands at 5,31,893, according to the ministry's data updated at 8 am. With the fresh cases, the country's COVID-19 tally has climbed to 4,49,93,282, the ministry said. The national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.81 per cent, it added. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has gone up to 4,44,59,372 while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.18 per cent. According to the ministry's website, 220.66 crore doses of anti-Covid vaccines have so far been administered in the country.

Covid-19 virus first infected 3 scientists at China's Wuhan lab: Report

The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which caused the deadly Covid-19 pandemic, first infected three scientists working at China's infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), according to a new report

Boris Johnson deliberately misled Parliament over Covid lockdown breaches

Former British prime minister Boris Johnson deliberately and repeatedly misled Parliament when he denied knowledge of Covid-19 law-breaching parties in Downing Street, a cross-party parliamentary panel said on Thursday in its damning report into the Partygate scandal. The Commons Privileges Committee released its final report into the Partygate scandal days after Johnson, 58, resigned from Parliament as a MP, accusing the members of the committee of a "witch hunt" against him. Finding him in breach of the Commons rules, the committee was also highly critical of his attacks on its integrity and recommended a suspension of 90 days from Parliament had he not resigned. We have concluded above that in deliberately misleading the House Mr Johnson committed a serious contempt. The contempt was all the more serious because it was committed by the Prime Minister, the most senior member of the government, the Privileges Committee report said, in a historic admonishment of a former ...

New MRI technique reveals changes in brain post Covid-19 infection

The new imaging technique, known as correlated diffusion imaging (CDI), was developed by systems design engineering professor Alexander Wong at University of Waterloo

Johnson deliberately misled Parliament over Covid lockdown breaches: Report

An inquiry report by a UK Parliamentary committee revealed on Thursday that former Prime Minister Boris Johnson deliberately misled the House of Commons over breaches during the Covid-19 lockdown

India reports 106 new Covid-19 infections, active cases decline to 2,067

India has recorded 106 new coronavirus infections, while the active cases have dipped to 2,067, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday. The death toll was recorded at 5,31,893 with one death being reported from Chhattisgarh in the last 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am stated. The Covid case tally was recorded at 4.49 crore (4,49,93,186). The national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.81 per cent, the ministry said, The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,44,59,226 and the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.18 per cent. According to the ministry's website, 220.66 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide vaccination drive.

Govt reinforcing public health infra to deal with emergency like Covid: KCR

The Telangana government is bolstering the health care facilities by increasing budget allocations to improve public health and to effectively deal with emergencies like Covid-19 should they arise, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said on Wednesday. In his address after laying the foundation for a new block in state-run Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) here, he said the allocation for health sector in the budget was Rs 2,100 crore in 2014 (when the state was formed), while it was over Rs 12,360 crore in 2023-24. Recalling his interaction with a group of entomologists a few years ago, he quoted them as having said that infectious diseases like COVID-19 may surface again in the future. "They told me that losses would be minimal where health systems are strong. Many people would die and the losses would be heavy where the health system is weak. We can understand the importance of the health department from this," he said. "Since then, we have been strengthening this ...