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Coronavirus in India

New Delhi: India reported 1,27,510 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, as per the Union Health Ministry data on Tuesday. This is the lowest one-day rise in fresh coronavirus infection tally in 54 days, signalling a downslide in the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic wreaking havoc in the country.

The results came from a sample of 19,25,374 tested yesterday, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said.

With the fresh cases today, the figure of active cases has reached 18,95,520. In all, total coronavirus infections rose to 2,81,75,044. Overall, 34,67,92,257 samples have been tested for the disease up to May 31.

As many as 2,795 deaths were recorded, taking the total toll to 3,31,895. On the brighter side, 2,55,287 discharges took the overall recoveries to 2,59,47,629.

As on Tuesday, 21,60,46,638 doses of vaccine have been administered in the country. Nearly 12 crore doses will be available in June 2021 enabling states and union territories to ramp up inoculation, the Centre has said.

State governments have extended lockdown with some relaxation. Bihar has extended the lockdown till June 8, Uttarakhand till June 9, Maharashtra till June 15 and Odisha till June 17.

On the other hand, the Uttar Pradesh government has extended the relaxations announced in the Covid-19 curfew in 61 districts, allowing shops and markets outside the containment zones to open for five days a week. The Madhya Pradesh government is also set to unlock the Janata curfew, release the ban on marriages and businesses.

In Kerala, the government-aided schools are set to formally reopen, marking the start of the 2021-2022 academic year.
 
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/cas...ting-covid-rules-at-daughters-wedding-2453726

A video of the BJP leader Mahesh Landge with his family and friends surfaced online that shows them dancing at a pre-wedding event.

Mumbai: A BJP leader in Maharashtra has been accused of defying Covid restrictions with a large celebration ahead of his daughter's wedding.

A case has been filed against BJP MLA Mahesh Landge, from Pimpri-Chinchwad, and 60 others, police said.

A video of the 45-year-old leader with his family and friends that surfaced online shows them dancing at a pre-wedding event.

The clip is from Sunday evening and over a huge crowd, including Mr Landge, can be seen celebrating.

Only up to 25 people are allowed to gather for weddings in Maharashtra, the state with the highest overall Covid caseload in the country.

Social distancing norms were violated, people were not wearing masks and the event was held without taking prior permission from the district administration, officials said. Pimpri-Chinchwad is about 130 km from state capital Mumbai.

On Monday, Maharashtra, which has logged 57.4 lakh Covid cases, reported the lowest daily rise in three months with 15,077 fresh infections.

Earlier this week, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had stressed that it's too soon for people to let their guard down as he expressed concern about the possibility of a third wave. Mumbai is looking at easing restrictions in a phased manner.

India has been battling a deadly second wave of the coronavirus, which many experts blame on the oversight of government-mandated norms such as wearing masks, social distancing and use of sanitisers and disinfectants. Distressing visuals captured the plight of thousands of people as the surge in the cases burdened healthcare system in the last few weeks.

Many states had brought back the restrictions on movement to check the spread of Covid. Enforcing rules has been a key challenge for officials across the country.

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/case-against-bjp-leader-mahesh-landge-for-violating-covid-rules-at-daughters-wedding-2453726
 
"Death Of Humanity", Say Locals As Dogs Feed On Bodies At Uttarakhand Riverbank

Coronavirus: Municipality president Ramesh Semwal said that after receiving complaints from locals, they had assigned a person at Kedar Ghat to cremate the half-burnt bodies, washed up on the riverbank.

Uttarkashi (Uttarakhand): Grisly videos have emerged showing stray dogs eating human bodies at Kedar Ghat on the banks of river Bhagirathi in Uttarkashi in Uttrakhand.

Local residents said parts of bodies, some of them half burnt, had drifted onto the bank after a rise in the water level of the Bhagirathi due to rainfall over the past few days.

"I was doing some painting yesterday and I saw these half-burnt bodies and stray dogs gnawing and feeding on them. The District administration and Municipal Corporation should take cognizance of this and do something immediately. It is a matter of concern and I feel that it is the death of humanity," said a local.

Another local said that there is a possibility that the bodies are of COVID-19 infected people who have been cremated and civic body authorities should take immediate action so as to avoid the spread of infection.

"I request the administration to take proper care of this," adding that despite local residents putting in complaints to the municipality and the district administration, no arrangements were made to dispose of the bodies after conducting last rites.

Meanwhile, Municipality president Ramesh Semwal said that after receiving complaints from locals, they had assigned a person at Kedar Ghat to cremate the half-burnt bodies, washed up on the riverbank.

"During the last few days, the number of deaths has been increased in our area. I also came to know that bodies are not burnt properly so I have directed the administration to arrange at Kedar Ghat for the cremation of half-burnt bodies," said Ramesh Semwal.

Previously there have been incidents reported from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where a large number of bodies were found floating in the river Ganga.

Authorities believe the relatives of those who died due to the COVID-19 virus, may not have been able to find space or afford the last rites.

The Centre had last month directed authorities in these states to prevent the disposal of bodies in the river.

Meanwhile, Uttrakhand on Monday reported 1,156 fresh cases of Covid-19, taking the overall tally to 3,29,494. The state's Covid-19 toll reached 6,452

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/coronavirus-death-of-humanity-say-locals-as-dogs-feed-on-bodies-at-uttarakhand-riverbank-2453679
 
New Delhi: Just a day it recorded the lowest case tally in 54 days, India on Tuesday reported 1,32,788 new COVID-19 cases and 3,207 deaths in last 24 hrs as per the Union Health Ministry. With this, the active cases in India stand at 17,93,645 and the total cases to 2,83,07,832.

More than 3,000 deaths in the last 24 hours took the overall death toll to 3,35,102. On the brighter side, 2,31,456 people were discharged accounting for 2,61,79,085 in total so far.

A total of 35,00,57,330 samples have been tested up to June 1, inclusive of data reconciled by the states. Of these, 20,19,773 samples were tested yesterday, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said.

So far, 21,85,46,667 doses of vaccine have been given across the country, in its steady fight against the Covid-19 disease.

The Centre on Tuesday clarified that mixing of vaccines is not the protocol yet and insisted that there is no change in the schedule of two-dose vaccines Covishield and Covaxin.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also cancelled the CBSE exams for Class 12 this year as the population below age 18 has not been inoculated yet.
 
The downward trend has been very surprising and quick. And surprisingly the positivity rate has also gone down so it’s not foshy
 
Lucknow, India – Virendra Kumar, a resident of Ajrayal Kheda village in Unnao district, about 520 kilometres (323 miles) from India’s capital New Delhi, says he had to bury the body of his dead son on the banks of the Ganges River instead of cremating him.

“My son Arun Kumar was 18 and was suffering from epilepsy since he was 10. He was sick and denied admission by a private hospital when he suffered a seizure,” the 54-year-old father told Al Jazeera, sitting outside his shanty hut in the village.

“So we were getting him treated with a local doctor and the cost of treatment even locally was about 2,000 Indian rupees ($28) a month. Yet he breathed his last on May 9 at home.”

Kumar says with a family income of less than $100 a month, he did not have any money left to meet his son’s cremation expenses.

“Our main source of income is agriculture and all the savings were used in the marriage of my daughter. We are in debt as well,” he said. “We are Dalits, so you know how poor we are.”

The Dalit community, formerly referred to as the “untouchables”, is at the bottom of India’s complex caste hierarchy and has faced systemic marginalisation and oppression for centuries.

“I could not even do my son’s “Terahvi” (customary community lunch on 13th day of death) and only invited a couple of people from the neighbourhood. It’s eating me from inside.”

Kumar says he could not borrow any money from his friends because “everyone is under some financial stress due to the coronavirus lockdown”.

Hundreds of dead bodies were seen floating in the Ganges in the northern Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar after a ferocious second wave of the coronavirus pandemic hit India in April.

Mass burial sites were also found along the riverbank in Unnao and Prayagraj districts of Uttar Pradesh, as photos of semi-buried bodies, most of them wrapped in traditional saffron cloth, emerged on social media.

At Bithoor near the main city of Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, a holy site along the Ganges River where cremations are held, priest Rakesh Kumar Upadhyay tells Al Jazeera the cost of cremations has shot up during the pandemic.

He says there has been a sudden surge in the demand for firewood and other items required for Hindu cremation rituals.

“Earlier the price of four quintal of firewood was 2,500 rupees ($35) but now the prices have doubled,” he says.

“On an average, a family has to spend 5,500 rupees ($75) for firewood. Then other materials such as shroud, sugar, incense sticks cost 1,500 rupees ($20) more. The cost of bringing the dead body either in an ambulance or a tractor is minimum 1,000 rupees ($14). So the cremation now costs an average of 8,000 rupees ($110), while in the month of March it was just 5,000 rupees ($69),” the priest added.

As images of floating and buried bodies in the Ganges triggered outrage, several districts capped the cost of ambulance services, firewood, and in some areas, even the cost of cremating people who had died from COVID-19.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ordered the state officials to hold cremations “with utmost dignity”.

“No one should be allowed to dispose of bodies in rivers due to religious traditions,” he said, adding that a fine could be imposed to prevent the dumping of dead bodies in the rivers.

But there are other cremations costs too, according to Upadhyay.

“The other costs involved in cremation are the fee of the priest, the fee of the person who sets the pyre but these have not been fixed by the government and people pay according to their paying capacity.”

Upadhyay says poor people had to resort to either burying or submerging the dead bodies in the river due to the cost.

“From Kanpur in central Uttar Pradesh to Ghazipur in eastern Uttar Pradesh, a lot of dead bodies have been buried on the banks of Ganges,” he says.

“Digging a grave in sand takes nothing but labour of an hour.”

On the Narva Ghat (river bank) on the Ganges in Ghazipur district’s Gahmar village, a banner hangs on a banyan tree.

“No one will immerse dead bodies in the river and the price of firewood has been capped at 650 rupees per quintal ($9). The administration would bear the cost of cremation in case the family is financially weak,” it says.

In the district which shares its border with Bihar state, 32-year-old Kavita Devi is mourning the death of her husband who died of “COVID-19-like complications” on April 24.

“We had to immerse my husband’s dead body in the Ganges because we were denied firewood,” the mother of three told Al Jazeera.

“We were already in financial crisis because all the money was spent on the funeral of my brother-in-law who passed away a day before.”

Kavita said her younger brother-in-law, father-in-law and other relatives decided to take the body to the riverbank and submerge it in the river. Her husband was a mason by profession and the sole bread earner for the family of five.

Durga Chaurasia, the former village council head at Gahmar, says more than two dozen people died in the village after falling sick.

“A lot of people immersed the dead bodies in the river because of their poor financial condition,” he told Al Jazeera.

‘Villagers opposed cremation’

Soni Kumar, a resident of Raniganj in Bihar state’s Araria district, says she had to bury the bodies of her parents in the field after the villagers opposed the cremation of her parents due to the fear of catching COVID-19.

Soni, 18, lost her father on May 3 and her mother four days later.

“We had take some loans for the treatment of my father because of which we had to discontinue the treatment of my mother,” she told Al Jazeera over the telephone.

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“The sad part is no one from the village helped us in the cremation and they strictly opposed the burning of the bodies.”

Soni says she was able to dig the graves with the help of a distant cousin and perform the burials because the villagers feared burning the bodies would spread the virus.

“We have received some compensation from the government. This will of course help in paying the debt but my parents are now gone. We could not give them dignity even in death. This is painful.”

Al Jazeera
 
New Delhi: India reported 1,34,154 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, as per Health Ministry data on Thursday. The total cases in the country reached 2,84,41,986 while the active currently stand at 17,13,413. With 2,887 single-day deaths, the total death total in the country to Covid-19 rose to 3,37,989.

As many as 2,11,499 people were discharged, taking the total discharges to 2,63,90,584.

In all, 35,37,82,648 samples have been tested in the country up to June 2 including 21,59,873 samples tested yesterday: Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)

Meanwhile, as many as 22,10,43,693 vaccine doses have been administered in the country.

The overall global Covid-19 caseload stands at 17,15,27,893, while the deaths have surged to 36,88,032 according to the Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

In terms of infections, India follows second place after the US that has the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 33,306,908 and 595,822, respectively.
 
Delhi Reports Less Than 500 New Covid Cases, 45 Deaths In 24 Hours

The positivity rate, number of positive cases identified per 100, stood at 0.61 per cent.

Delhi recorded 487 fresh cases of coronavirus today, lowest since March 16. The positivity rate, number of positive cases identified per 100, stood at 0.61 per cent. 45 patients died due to the disease in the last 24 hours in the capital.
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As the deadlier second wave of the infections spread across the country, Delhi began witnessing a rise in the number of daily cases and deaths from April 19. It reported the highest single-day spike of 448 deaths on May 3.

However, there is a declining trend in the number of cases and deaths over the last several days.

https://www.ndtv.com/delhi-news/delhi-reports-less-than-500-covid-cases-lowest-since-march-16-2455552
 
Is Kappa the same Indian variant or it's a new mutation? Looking like Australia is dealing with it now.
 
PM Modi Thanks US VP Kamala Harris For Assurance Of Vaccine Supply To India

On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to the US Vice President Kamala Harris and expressed his appreciation for assurance of vaccine supplies to India as part of the US Strategy for Global Vaccine Sharing, under which India is expected to get the first batch of doses by the month-end.

Modi, in a series of tweets, said he also thanked Harris for all the support and solidarity from the US government, businesses and the Indian diaspora.

"We also discussed ongoing efforts to further strengthen India-US vaccine cooperation & potential of our partnership to contribute to post-Covid global health, economic recovery," he said.

The US embassy also issued a statement from Symone Sanders, senior advisor and chief spokesperson for Harris on her calls with leaders of four countries, including Modi, on the global allocation plan for the supply of the COVID-19 vaccine doses to India and other countries by the month-end.

In the four separate calls, she said that the US will begin sharing the first 25 million (2.5 crore) doses of COVID-19 vaccines to their respective countries and others, as part of the Biden-Harris administration's framework for sharing at least 80 million (8 crore) vaccines globally by the end of June.

She reiterated that the administration's efforts are focused on achieving a broad global coverage, responding to surges and other urgent situations and public health needs, and helping as many countries as possible who requested vaccines.

The four leaders thanked the vice president, and they agreed to continue working together to address COVID-19 and advance our mutual interests around the world, the US government statement said.

Besides Modi, Harris spoke to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of Mexico, President Alejandro Giammattei of Guatemala and Prime Minister Keith Rowley, Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the statement added.

Officials here said that Modi and Harris discussed ongoing efforts to strengthen the health supply chain between the US and India, including in the area of vaccine manufacturing. They highlighted the potential of the India-US partnership as well as the QUAD vaccine initiative in addressing the long-term health impact of the pandemic.

The prime minister also said he hopes to welcome Vice President Harris in India soon after normalisation of the global health situation.

https://www.outlookindia.com/websit...us-efforts-for-vaccine-supply-to-india/384294
 
How come india is ordering 300m unapproved jabs,

India has ordered 300 million doses of an unapproved coronavirus vaccine amid a devastating second wave.

The unnamed vaccine from Indian firm Biological E is in Phase 3 trials, and had showed "promising results" in the first two phases, the federal government said in a statement.

The $206m order is the first India has signed for a jab that has not received emergency approval.

This comes as the country struggles to speed up its lagging vaccine drive.

India has administered just over 220 million jabs so far although much of its 1.4 billion population is now eligible for the vaccine. Less than 10% of the country has received at least one dose of the vaccination, largely because of a severe shortage of doses.

Although Covid case numbers have been dropping, India is still adding more than 100,000 news cases a day. It has recorded more than 340,000 deaths from the virus so far, but experts say the number is vastly underestimated.

India's federal government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been criticised for not placing huge orders ahead of time with either Indian or foreign vaccine makers.

ndia is currently giving three vaccines - Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), and Covaxin, developed by Indian firm Bharat Biotech and the government's Indian Council of Medical Research, and Sputnik V, which is developed by Moscow's Gamaleya Institute.

Compared to the single order from Biological E for 300 million doses, India brought about 350 million doses from both Covishield and Covaxin between January and May.

India's drug regulator gave Covaxin emergency approval in January before trials were completed - data on its efficacy is yet to be released.

The new vaccine from Biological E is "likely to be available in the next few months," according to the government

Mr Modi's government is racing to shore up its vaccine stocks as Covid numbers dip, hoping to be well-prepared for what experts say is an inevitable third wave.

India's vaccine drive, which had a promising start in January, began to slow down because vaccine hesitancy crept in as cases dropped. But numbers soon rose again in a deadly second wave that saw hospitals falling short of beds and crematoriums running short of space.

Hoping to stem the tide, the government threw open the drive in May to everyone above the age of 18 but India's two vaccine makers - Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech - could not guarantee supply at that scale.

But shortages persist and have also led to vast inequalities in access with rural areas, the poor and women falling behind in the line for jabs.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-57354069
 
finalfantasy7 said:
How come india is ordering 300m unapproved jabs,

India has ordered 300 million doses of an unapproved coronavirus vaccine amid a devastating second wave.

The unnamed vaccine from Indian firm Biological E is in Phase 3 trials, and had showed "promising results" in the first two phases, the federal government said in a statement.

The $206m order is the first India has signed for a jab that has not received emergency approval.

This comes as the country struggles to speed up its lagging vaccine drive.

India has administered just over 220 million jabs so far although much of its 1.4 billion population is now eligible for the vaccine. Less than 10% of the country has received at least one dose of the vaccination, largely because of a severe shortage of doses.

Although Covid case numbers have been dropping, India is still adding more than 100,000 news cases a day. It has recorded more than 340,000 deaths from the virus so far, but experts say the number is vastly underestimated.

India's federal government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been criticised for not placing huge orders ahead of time with either Indian or foreign vaccine makers.

ndia is currently giving three vaccines - Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), and Covaxin, developed by Indian firm Bharat Biotech and the government's Indian Council of Medical Research, and Sputnik V, which is developed by Moscow's Gamaleya Institute.

Compared to the single order from Biological E for 300 million doses, India brought about 350 million doses from both Covishield and Covaxin between January and May.

India's drug regulator gave Covaxin emergency approval in January before trials were completed - data on its efficacy is yet to be released.

The new vaccine from Biological E is "likely to be available in the next few months," according to the government

Mr Modi's government is racing to shore up its vaccine stocks as Covid numbers dip, hoping to be well-prepared for what experts say is an inevitable third wave.

India's vaccine drive, which had a promising start in January, began to slow down because vaccine hesitancy crept in as cases dropped. But numbers soon rose again in a deadly second wave that saw hospitals falling short of beds and crematoriums running short of space.

Hoping to stem the tide, the government threw open the drive in May to everyone above the age of 18 but India's two vaccine makers - Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech - could not guarantee supply at that scale.

But shortages persist and have also led to vast inequalities in access with rural areas, the poor and women falling behind in the line for jabs.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-57354069
Click to expand...

Another hit job by BBC. Countries pre ordered Pfizer Moderna,AZ etc vaccines. This kind of hit jobs that create panic in midst of a pandemic, needs to be dealt with strictly.
 
cricketjoshila said:
Another hit job by BBC. Countries pre ordered Pfizer Moderna,AZ etc vaccines. This kind of hit jobs that create panic in midst of a pandemic, needs to be dealt with strictly.
Click to expand...

thats because they work, they were only allowed onto the market, for the reason
 
finalfantasy7 said:
How come india is ordering 300m unapproved jabs,

India has ordered 300 million doses of an unapproved coronavirus vaccine amid a devastating second wave.

The unnamed vaccine from Indian firm Biological E is in Phase 3 trials, and had showed "promising results" in the first two phases, the federal government said in a statement.

The $206m order is the first India has signed for a jab that has not received emergency approval.

This comes as the country struggles to speed up its lagging vaccine drive.

India has administered just over 220 million jabs so far although much of its 1.4 billion population is now eligible for the vaccine. Less than 10% of the country has received at least one dose of the vaccination, largely because of a severe shortage of doses.

Although Covid case numbers have been dropping, India is still adding more than 100,000 news cases a day. It has recorded more than 340,000 deaths from the virus so far, but experts say the number is vastly underestimated.

India's federal government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been criticised for not placing huge orders ahead of time with either Indian or foreign vaccine makers.

ndia is currently giving three vaccines - Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), and Covaxin, developed by Indian firm Bharat Biotech and the government's Indian Council of Medical Research, and Sputnik V, which is developed by Moscow's Gamaleya Institute.

Compared to the single order from Biological E for 300 million doses, India brought about 350 million doses from both Covishield and Covaxin between January and May.

India's drug regulator gave Covaxin emergency approval in January before trials were completed - data on its efficacy is yet to be released.

The new vaccine from Biological E is "likely to be available in the next few months," according to the government

Mr Modi's government is racing to shore up its vaccine stocks as Covid numbers dip, hoping to be well-prepared for what experts say is an inevitable third wave.

India's vaccine drive, which had a promising start in January, began to slow down because vaccine hesitancy crept in as cases dropped. But numbers soon rose again in a deadly second wave that saw hospitals falling short of beds and crematoriums running short of space.

Hoping to stem the tide, the government threw open the drive in May to everyone above the age of 18 but India's two vaccine makers - Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech - could not guarantee supply at that scale.

But shortages persist and have also led to vast inequalities in access with rural areas, the poor and women falling behind in the line for jabs.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-57354069
Click to expand...


read the bold part - joshilla
 
finalfantasy7 said:
thats because they work, they were only allowed onto the market, for the reason
Click to expand...

They were pre booked even before their trial data was released. No one knew at that point in time if they would work.

This is a similar pre order. BBC is creating false panic and serious steps are needed against such misguidance.
 
finalfantasy7 said:
read the bold part - joshilla
Click to expand...

Again a lie.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-55748124.amp

This is a BBC article.

The vaccine has an efficacy rate of 81%, preliminary data from its phase 3 trial shows.

Bharat Biotech had said that Indian clinical trial laws allowed "accelerated" authorisation for use of drugs after the second phase of trials for "unmet medical needs of serious and life-threatening diseases in the country". It had promised to provide efficacy data for the vaccine by February, which it has now done


From the same article.
 
New Delhi: India saw yet another dip in the daily COVID-19 cases on Saturday reporting 1,20,529 new cases and 3,380 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per Health Ministry.

India now has 2,86,94,879 total cases and death toll of 3,44,082. 1,97,894 people were discharged taking the overall recovery tally to 2,67,95,549.

The number of recoveries continues to outnumber daily new cases for 23 consecutive days.

Case fatality rate stands at 1.19 per cent
As of Friday, 22,78,60,317 people have been vaccinated and the case fatality rate stands at 1.19 per cent.

According to the ministry, the daily new cases are the lowest in 58 days and the weekly positivity rate has declined to 6.89 per cent.

A total of 20,84,421 tests were conducted on Thursday taking the total cumulative tests to 36,11,74,142.
 
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/5/delhi-mumbai-ease-lockdown-as-india-covid-numbers-fall

Markets and shopping malls in New Delhi will be allowed to reopen from Monday in a further easing of the COVID-19 lockdown, the chief minister of the national capital territory said as infections fall in major Indian cities after weeks of restrictions.

Delhi Metro will also resume services at 50 percent capacity, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday. Markets and malls will operate on alternate days, with half of them open on any given day.

Offices can also reopen at half capacity but Kejriwal urged people to still try to work from home.

The easing comes after Delhi allowed construction sites and factories to reopen last week.

“They have been open for a week but the COVID-19 situation is still under control, and we have less than 500 fresh cases in the last 24 hours,” Kejriwal said. “It is important to bring the economy back on track now that the COVID-19 situation improving. We pray that the situation remains the same.”
The government of Maharashtra state, which includes India’s economic hub of Mumbai, announced a five-level plan to ease restrictions depending on infection rates and hospital bed occupancy.

In level-one areas – with infection rates below five percent and hospital bed occupancy below 25 percent – all shops, restaurants and malls will be allowed to reopen.

But level-five districts – with infection rates over 20 percent – will remain under severe movement restrictions.

Daily infections reported across India have dropped to about 120,000 from more than 400,000 in May, according to official statistics.

Deaths have also fallen, with 3,380 reported in the previous 24 hours, although this is widely seen as a major underestimate. At least 344,082 people in the country have lost their lives to the coronavirus, which is now surging in parts of rural India.

Delhi reported about 400 new infections on Saturday, down from about 25,000 daily cases when the lockdown was announced seven weeks earlier. The devastating surge was blamed on new virus variants and the government having allowed most activity to return to normal including mass religious and political gatherings.
India’s vaccination programme, meanwhile, is making slow progress due to shortages, confusion and squabbling between the central government and state authorities.

So far about 180 million people, only 14 percent of the population, have received one dose, and 45 million, or 3.4 percent, two shots.
Click to expand...
 
cricketjoshila said:
When western countries put in pre orders of vaccines under trials it was anticipation, India does it, its dangerous. The more the government orders local vaccines, lesser is the market for foreign players like Pfizer.

Its nothing to do with Pakistan, the propoganda to help some foreign vaccine makers is quite clear.
Click to expand...

Pfizer and Moderna paid the BBC to undermine vaccines made by India. I think these are all evil corporations that the BJP should protect indians from.
 
New Delhi: Continuing the downward trend, India on Sunday reported 1,14,460 fresh COVID-19 cases, the lowest single-day spike in infections in two months, taking the infection tally to 2,88,09,339.

According to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday, the death toll from COVID-19 rose to 3,46,759 with 2,677 new fatalities, while the number of active cases has been less than 2 lakh for the tenth straight day.

The active case count has reduced to 14,77,799 while 1,89,232 discharges pushed the number of people who have recuperated from the disease to 2,69,84,781

The number of recoveries continues to outnumber daily new cases for 24 consecutive days. "Daily recoveries continue to outnumber daily new cases for 24th consecutive day. A steady rise in national recovery rate maintained; recovery rate increases to 93.67%. Fall in daily positivity rate at 5.62% continues; less than 10% for 13 consecutive days," the ministry said.

A total of 20,36,311 tests were conducted on Saturday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for the detection of COVID-19 in the country to 36,47,46,522.

India is recovering from the fatal second wave of the pandemic that hit the country in April-May claiming the lives of many, and leading to several critical issues like shortage of vaccines and oxygen supply at various hospitals across the country.

With the situation improving in the country, several states that had imposed many restrictions in view of the second wave have started easing curbs in a graded manner.

So far, over 23 crore vaccine doses have been administered in India under the nationwide inoculation drive. However, some states are still facing crippling shortage of vaccine doses.
 
From a peak of 414,000 few weeks ago to 114,460 Corona cases for the last 24 hrs..

India has reduced significantly the no. of daily cases in the 2nd wave..
Time to get vaccinated and be vigilant about a possible 3rd wave..
 
This is the lowest in the last two months. The country has recorded less than 2 lakh Daily New Cases for 10 continuous days now.

cc.jpg
 
New Delhi: Continuing the downward trend, India on Sunday logged 1,00,636 fresh COVID-19 cases, the lowest single-day spike in infections in 61 days, taking the infection tally to 2,89,09,975.

According to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday, the death toll from COVID-19 rose to 3,49,186 with 2,427 new fatalities. The number of active cases has been less than 2 lakh for the eleventh straight day.

The active case count has reduced to 14,01,609, while 1,74,399 discharges pushed the number of people who have recuperated from the disease to 2,71,59,180.

The number of recoveries continues to outnumber daily new cases for 25 consecutive days.

The daily positivity stands at 6.34 per cent . It has been less than 10 per cent for 134 consecutive days while the weekly positivity rate has reduced to 6.21 per cent.

A total of 15,87,589 tests were conducted on Saturday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for the detection of COVID-19 in the country to 36,63,34,111.

India is recovering from the fatal second wave of the pandemic that hit the country in April-May claiming the lives of many, and leading to several critical issues like shortage of vaccines and oxygen supply at various hospitals across the country.

With the situation improving in the country, several states that had imposed many restrictions in view of the second wave have started easing curbs in a graded manner.

So far, over 23 crore vaccine doses have been administered in India under the nationwide inoculation drive. However, some states are still facing a crippling shortage of vaccine doses.
 
"Oxygen Mock Drill, 22 Turned Blue": Probe Into UP Hospital Owner's Audio

Agra: The Uttar Pradesh government has said it will carry out an inquiry after the owner of a prominent private hospital in Agra was allegedly caught on audio bragging about how the hospital shut off oxygen supply on April 27 for five minutes in a "mock drill" amid what the owner purportedly claimed was an acute shortage of oxygen at his hospital during a raging Covid surge in the western UP town , and elsewhere in the state.

"We were told that even the Chief Minister cannot get oxygen, so start discharging patients. Modi Nagar is dry. We started counseling families. Some were willing to listen but the others said they would not leave. I said ok let's do a mock drill. We will find out who will die and who will survive. So we did that at 7 am. A mock drill was done. No one knows. Then we identified 22 patients. We realised they would die. This was done for 5 minutes. They started turning blue," Arinjay Jain, the owner of Paras Hospital, can be purportedly heard saying in the 1.5-minute audio clip from April 28.

The hospital also has a Covid facility within its premises.

In a statement to the media, Agra District Magistrate Prabhu N Singh claimed there was no death due to lack of oxygen on that day the alleged video was recorded. However, he said a probe would be conducted.

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/utt...wners-audio-2458698?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll
 
If true this is horrible, absolutely horrible! Imagine the plight of family members of those 22 dead Covid patients as a result of this 'mock drill'.

Owner of the hospital should be tried for at least manslaughter.
 
New Delhi: Continuing the downward trend, India on Tuesday logged 86,498 fresh COVID-19 cases, the lowest single-day surge in infections in 66 days, taking the cumulative tally to 2,89,96,473.

The country has registered less than 1 lakh fresh cases of coronavirus for the first time since April 1, offering a glimmer of hope.

According to the Union Health Ministry data updated at 8 am, the death toll from COVID-19 rose to 3,51,309 with 2,123 new fatalities. The number of active cases has been less than 2 lakh for the twelfth straight day.

The active case count has reduced to 13,03,702, while 1,82,282 discharges pushed the number of people who have recuperated from the disease to 2,73,41,462.

The recovery rate has increased to 94.29 per cent. The number of recoveries continues to outnumber daily new cases for 26 consecutive days.

The daily positivity stands at 4.62 per cent. It has been less than 10 per cent for 15 consecutive days, the data stated.

A total of 18,73,485 tests were conducted on Monday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for the detection of COVID-19 in the country to 36,82,07,596.

India is recovering from the fatal second wave of the pandemic that hit the country in April-May claiming the lives of many, and leading to several critical issues like shortage of vaccines and oxygen supply at various hospitals across the country.

With the situation improving in the country, several states that had imposed many restrictions in view of the second wave have started easing curbs in a graded manner.

So far, over 23 crore vaccine doses have been administered in India under the nationwide inoculation drive. However, some states are still facing a crippling shortage of vaccine doses.
 
At 7, Mumbai sees single-digit COVID-19 deaths after March 28

For the first time after March 28 this year, the COVID-19 fatalities in Mumbai fell to a single digit at seven on Tuesday. Mumbai reported 673 new coronavirus positive cases during the day, the lowest after February 23, taking the tally to 7,13,002, as per the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

With the new additions, Mumbai's death toll mounted to 15,073. Mumbai had reported 8 fatalities on March 28.

Mumbai is now left with 15,701 active cases after 751 patients were discharged from hospitals during the day, taking the count of recoveries to 6,80,009, as per the BMC data.

Mumbai's case recovery rate now stands at 95 per cent while the case growth rate for the period between June 1 to June 7 is 0.12 per cent, it said. The case doubling rate now stands at 543 days.

Mumbai now has 27 active containment zones in slums and chawls and 98 active sealed buildings.

Mumbai had logged the highest 11,163 cases on April 4 this year. The city had seen 90 deaths on May 1, which were the highest in a day during the second wave of the pandemic.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.co...eaths-after-march-28/articleshow/83342135.cms
 
Coronavirus India Live Updates: India records 92,596 cases, 2,219 deaths in last 24 hours

Coronavirus (Covid-19) Cases and Lockdown in India Live News Updates: The Ministry of Health placed an advance order Tuesday to secure 44 crore doses from the two vaccine manufacturers in the country.


Coronavirus India Live Updates: India recorded 92,596 new cases of coronavirus infections and 2,219 deaths in the last 24 hours. With over 18,000 fresh cases, Tamil Nadu was once again the highest contributor to the country’s daily caseload. Kerala had over 15,000 cases while Maharashtra reported slightly less than 11,000. The overall caseload rose to 2.9 crore, while active cases dropped to 12.31 lakh.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to provide free vaccines to states for all citizens over 18 years from June 21 is likely to cost the exchequer an additional Rs 15,000 crore compared with the Budget allocation of Rs 35,000 crore.

“It is too early to give a correct estimate with multiple suppliers and different prices. But the rough estimate is total expenditure for vaccines for this year may be Rs 45,000-50,000 crore. In the Budget, we had provided Rs 35,000 crore, and of this, the government has paid out about Rs 5,000 crore,” a senior government official who did not wish to be named told The Indian Express.

Meanwhile, a day after the Prime Minister announced that the Centre will directly procure 75 per cent of the total doses to vaccinate every adult in the country free of cost, the Ministry of Health placed an advance order Tuesday to secure 44 crore doses from the two vaccine manufacturers in the country.

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/coronavirus-india-live-updates-lockdown-news-india-covid-vaccine-7350462/
 
New Delhi: India on Saturday reported 84,332 fresh COVID-19 cases, the lowest single-day surge in infections in 70 days, taking the cumulative tally to 2,93,59,155.

This is the fifth consecutive day when the daily COVID-19 count in the country remained below the one-lakh mark.

According to the Union Health Ministry data updated at 8 am, the death toll from COVID-19 rose to 3,67,081 with 4,002 new fatalities.

The number of active case cases further reduced to 10,80,690 accounting for 3.68 per cent of the total infections, while 1,21,311 discharges pushed the number of people who have recuperated from the disease to 2,73,41,462.

India's active caseload declined to less than 11 lakh after 63 days, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 95.07 per cent.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 4.39 per cent. It has been less than 10 per cent for 19 consecutive days, the ministry said, adding the weekly positivity rate has also declined to 4.94 per cent.

Recoveries continue to outnumber daily new cases for the 30th consecutive day, while the case fatality rate has increased to 1.25 per cent.

The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has exceeded 24 crore, the ministry said in its data.

India is recovering from the fatal second wave of the pandemic that hit the country in April-May claiming the lives of many, and leading to several critical issues like shortage of vaccines and oxygen supply at various hospitals across the country.

With the situation improving in the country, several states that had imposed many restrictions in view of the second wave have started easing curbs in a graded manner.
 
India Sees Lowest Daily Rise Since April 2 With 80,834 Fresh Covid Cases

India Covid-19 Updates: The country witnessed 3,303 virus-related deaths during the period, taking the total number of fatalities to 3.70 lakh.

India's Covid chart continued to show improvement today, with the country recording 80,834 cases, a marginal drop from yesterday's figure that was reported to be the lowest in 71 days. India, the second-worst hit country, now has 2.94 crore cases.

Here are the top 10 updates on coronavirus:

India's test positivity rate (positive cases identified for every 100 tests) continues to decline. For the fifth straight day it is below the 5 per cent-mark at 4.25 per cent.

Active cases have decreased by 54,531 in the last 24 hours to take the tally to 10,26,159. Recoveries have been outnumbering the daily new cases for the 31st consecutive day now.The country witnessed 3,303 virus-related deaths during the period, taking the total number of fatalities to 3.70 lakh.

Tamil Nadu contributed 15,108 cases to the country's daily numbers. It was followed by neighbouring Kerala (13,832 cases) and Maharashtra (10,697 cases).

The government at GST Council Meeting reduced the tax rates on major COVID-related essential items, including medicines, some hospital equipment and other items needed in the fight against COVID-19. Covid vaccines continue to be charged a GST of 5 per cent.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday sought G7's support for a proposal led by India for a TRIPS waiver on Covid-related technologies. Speaking virtually at the first Outreach Session of the G7 Summit on Saturday, he expressed appreciation for its support during the second Covid wave in India, a government release said.

Over 2 lakh people died in India of Covid between January and May, during which the country faced an unprecedented crisis of resource shortage. However, there have been reports of underreporting in some states.

A data from the Civil Registration System has indicated that the number of reported deaths in Madhya Pradesh was over three times more than the average number of deaths reported during these months in pre-Covid times. The official figures for Covid deaths are only a fraction of these excess deaths reported.

Earlier this week, Bihar's massive revision in its Covid deaths figure to over 9,000 became controversial with a 72 per cent jump, raising more questions. Because of Bihar's update, India reported 6,148 new deaths that day, the highest single-day spike.

On Saturday, the Health Ministry refuted a report that claimed that India's Covid deaths could be "five-to-seven times" higher than the official number, saying the assessment is based on extrapolation of data without any epidemiological evidence.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. India crossed the grim milestone of 2 crore on May 4.


https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/coronavirus-80-834-fresh-cases-in-india-lowest-daily-rise-since-april-2-3-303-deaths-registered-in-last-24-hours-2462700
 
New Delhi: India on Monday reported 70,421 fresh COVID-19 cases, the lowest single-day rise in infections in 75 days, taking the cumulative tally to 2,95,10,410.

The 24-hour coronavirus figure has been the lowest since April 1, when 72,330 people tested positive for the viral disease. This is the seventh consecutive day when the daily COVID-19 case count in the country remained below the one-lakh mark.

According to the Union Health Ministry data updated at 8 am, the death toll from COVID-19 rose to 3,74,305 with 3,921 more people succumbing to the disease in the last 24 hours.

The number of active case cases further reduced to 9,73,158, while 1,19,501 discharges pushed the number of people who have recuperated from the disease to 2,81,61,947.
 
Third Wave "Inevitable, Could Hit India In 6 To 8 Weeks": AIIMS Chief

A new frontier will have to be developed in India's fight against Covid to further study the mutation of the virus, AIIMS chief Dr Randeep Guleria said

A third Covid wave in India is "inevitable", and it could hit the country in the next six to eight weeks, AIIMS chief Dr Randeep Guleria told NDTV this morning amid unlocking in parts of the country after weeks of strict restrictions. The country's main challenge is vaccinating a huge population and the increase in dose gaps for Covishield "may not be a bad" approach to provide protection to cover more people, he explained.
A new frontier will have to be developed in India's fight against Covid to further study the mutation of the virus, Dr Guleria stressed as he talked about the new Delta-Plus variant, which has evolved from the Delta variant of COVID-19, triggering fresh concerns about monoclonal antibody treatment.

"As we have started unlocking, there is again a lack of Covid-appropriate behaviour. We don't seem to have learnt from what happened between the first and the second wave. Again crowds are building up... people are gathering. It will take some time for the number of cases to start rising at the national level. Third wave is inevitable and it could hit the country within the next six to eight weeks... may be a little longer," Dr Guleria said. "It all depends on how we go ahead in terms of Covid-appropriate behaviour and preventing crowds," he added.

Nearly 5 per cent of the country's population has so far been vaccinated with two doses. The government aims to vaccinate 108 crore of over 130 crore people in the country by the end of this year.

"That (vaccination) is the main challenge. A new wave can usually take up to three months but it can also take much lesser time, depending on various factors. Apart from Covid-appropriate behaviour, we need to ensure strict surveillance. Last time, we saw a new variant - which came from outside and developed here - led to the huge surge in the number of cases. We know the virus will continue to mutate. Aggressive surveillance in hotspots is required," the AIIMS chief said.

"Mini-lockdown in any part of the country, which witnesses a surge and a rise in positivity rate beyond 5 per cent, will be required. Unless we're vaccinated, we're vulnerable in the coming months," he underlined, stressing that "testing, tracking, and treating" should be the focus in hotspots.

"We have to factor in human behaviour while unlocking, which needs to be done in a graded manner," Dr Guleria stressed.

On the spread of the Delta variant in the United Kingdom, which is now facing a third wave, he said, "Virus is still mutating, we need to be careful".

The highly transmissible variant first identified in India is now making up 99 per cent of fresh COVID-19 cases in the UK, news agency PTI reported.

The gap between the new waves is shortening and it's "worrying", Dr Guleria said.

"During the first wave (in India), the virus was not spreading that rapidly... all that changed during the second wave, and the virus became much more infectious. Now the Delta variant that's spreading is much more infectious. Faster spread is likely," said the AIIMS chief.

A debilitating second wave had led to the shortage of hospital beds and medical supplies in various parts of India. SOS messages on social media had caught the world's attention with many nations coming forward to help. Several states have now eased the restrictions after weeks of strict curbs; however, preparations are on against the third wave.

In Maharashtra, experts have now warned that at its peak, the third wave of the virus could cause 8 lakh active cases in the state, which currently has around 1.4 lakh patients.

"When there is a huge increase in the number of cases, shortage of (hospital) beds follows. The strategy should be multi-pronged - we have to make sure fresh cases don't rise. Any healthcare system globally will tend to collapse with the unprecedented rise in the infections," Dr Guleria stressed today.

Does India need to rethink its 12-16 week gap decision between two doses of Covishied, a vaccine the country is largely dependent on? "Nothing is written in stone. We will have to look at new strategies. But we need to have strong data to take that decision," the AIIMS chief said.

The decision should be driven by science and not the shortage of doses, he suggested.

The United Kingdom adopted the one-shot strategy not only for Astrazenaca (which is being used as Covishield in India) but also Pfizer, Dr Guleria pointed out.

"One-shot strategy may not be a bad strategy as it can give protection to larger number of people," Dr Guleria said.

On the Delta-plus variant, the AIIMS chief explained: "We need an aggressive genome sequencing to see how the virus is behaving. Does the vaccine efficacy come down, does the monoclonal antibody treatment work? To do all of that, we need to have a large or very good network of labs to study the data. I think that's where to move in the next few weeks. And that's the new frontier we need to develop if we want to succeed in our fight against Covid."

India recorded 60,753 fresh infections this morning, taking the overall case count to 2.98 crore.


https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/coronavirus-foresee-a-third-wave-in-next-6-to-8-weeks-aiims-chief-dr-randeep-guleria-to-ndtv-2467380#News_Trending
 
New Worry? Coronavirus Found In Sabarmati River, Two Ahmedabad Lakes Water Samples
2 min read

In a development that may raise some alarm bells, traces of coronavirus were found in water samples taken from the Sabarmati river and Kankria and Chandola lakes in Ahmedabad.

According to local media, as many as 16 samples were taken in four months, out of which 5 samples from the three water bodies were found to have the virus.

Though the presence of the virus has been documented in sewage water across many countries, this is the first time it has been found in a waterbody.

Found in studies carried out by various institutions
The virus was found in studies carried out by the IIT Gandhi Nagar, School of Environmental Sciences, JNU, Delhi and others.

Another sample collected from Bharu river in Assam also had traces of the virus.

Though it is still unclear how the virus entered the water, at least in the case of Sabarmati river, the suspicion is on the many sewage lines that open into the water body.

Researchers are trying to study the implications of the presence of the virus in the river and lakes, including if the infection can spread through the water.

Recently, when hundreds of bodies of suspected COVID-19 victims were found floating in the River Ganga in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, locals had panicked fearing that they might get infected from the contaminated water.

Last month, the Union Health Ministry had said: "Virus mainly spreads through the air at times when people are standing close and droplets released that would also lead to the spread but the COVID virus doesn't spread via water as the virus gets diluted in water."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the US have also said that there is currently no evidence that coronavirus is spread through the public water supply.

https://www.indiatimes.com/news/india/coronavirus-found-in-sabarmati-river-water-samples-two-ahmedabad-lakes-543027.html
 
Covid pandemic result of degradation of natural areas, species’ loss, exploitation: UNEP India

India has taken the path of short-term economic interest over decades and this has diminished the ability of ecosystems to provide and support both humans and other life forms, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) official said while speaking to PTI.


The COVID-19 pandemic is a result of degradation of natural areas, species’ loss and exploitation, UNEP country head Atul Bagai said, underlining that countries, including India, must intensify their efforts to prevent and reverse ecosystem degradation.

He also highlighted that climate change, pollution and loss of biodiversity are three crises facing the entire planet and India, and are interconnected.

India has taken the path of short-term economic interest over decades and this has diminished the ability of ecosystems to provide and support both humans and other life forms, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) official said while speaking to PTI.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is a result of the degradation of natural areas, species’ loss and exploitation. This needs to change. India is already making a concerted effort to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and be part of the global effort to reach net-zero emissions by 2050,” he said.

Read |Will scrap all projects harmful to environment if voted to power: Congress Goa in-charge
“India must intensify these efforts and participate actively in the UN Decade for Ecosystem Restoration that was launched on the World Environment Day, 2021, to prevent, halt, and reverse the degradation of ecosystems,” Bagai said.

Several actions on this front are relevant for India, which include taking policy and legislative action, raising awareness and making smart choices, he said.

“For a better future, India must work towards creating food systems that work with nature, reduce waste, and are adaptive to change and resilient to shocks. This could also take the form of halting purchases of products that are not certified as sustainable or pledging and donating for restoration initiatives,” the UNEP official said.

Bagai said that a barrier to restoration is limited awareness of negative effects of ecosystem degradation.

This can be rectified in many ways that include discussions on the value of ecosystems, campaigns that draw attention to climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, empowering small-scale farmers and women farmers, changing patterns of consumption, challenging social norms and business practices, and capacity building and education, he said.

“We need to inculcate in India a culture that respects nature and cares for it. A healthier respect for nature will give us a healthier country and healthier people,” Bagai said.

On the role of the youth on the climate change issue, he said they are part of the larger international youth movements demanding drastic and visible action in the face of global warming and climate justice, biodiversity loss, and development at the cost of the environment.

“My best advice to young people who are concerned about environmental issues is two-fold — get informed and get involved. There is a wealth of opportunities to make a difference. Often the best place to get started is in your local community. There is much to be done, and we need everyone involved,” he added.

In recent years, he said there has been a surge in global attention on marine litter and plastic pollution.

“However, scientific knowledge on marine plastic litter and effective countermeasures remains insufficient. Keeping this in mind, the UNEP is implementing two major projects in India that focus on plastic waste management and reduction of marine plastic pollution,” Bagai said.

UNEP, with the support of the governments of Japan and Norway, is undertaking a multiyear assessment of how plastic finds its way into riverways, and ultimately the ocean through the ‘CounterMEASURE’ project and the India Norway Marine Pollution initiative.

Both projects aim to reduce marine litter and other pollutants from land-based sources and track plastic waste leakage from land into rivers.

‘CounterMEASURE’ has been working in Agra, Haridwar, Allahabad, Patna and Mumbai to address the problem of plastic waste. Technical studies have been conducted, including analysis of microplastics, macroplastics and mapping of plastic pollution hotspots in these cities and in the river Ganga, Bagai said.

The new phase of the project will look at the impact of plastic pollution on migratory species as well.

“We’ve also trained relevant stakeholders and conducted outreach for raising awareness and behaviour change. The UNEP is further supporting India by developing a national roadmap on marine plastic litter and hosting policy dialogues,” he said.

Talking about the concept of inclusive wealth, Bagai said it is a measure of the social value, not dollar price, of all its capital assets, including natural capital, human capital and produced capital.

“It can provide insights into whether current growth is sustainable or is based on over exploiting natural capital. This information can help develop policy better suited to sustaining growth while better managing human and natural capital,” he said.

On the other hand, he said the shortcomings of gross domestic product (GDP) as a measure of social well-being are now well known. GDP was introduced as an index of the size of a country’s economy — an accounting measure of all goods and services produced in a country over a given period of time, Bagai said.

“Over time, however, it began to be used not just as a measure of market activity but a measure of a country’s overall well-being. In doing so, GDP ignores the value of human capital, the non-market values of natural capital, and the economic value of environmental externalities, such as pollution,” he said.

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/covid-pandemic-result-of-degradation-of-natural-areas-species-loss-exploitation-unep-india-7367302/
 
"The COVID-19 pandemic is a result of the degradation of natural areas, species’ loss and exploitation."

medical scientist are still trying to solve the mystery but there you go, environmentalist already declared the root cause. It feels like rakhi Sawant who would incorporate herself to anything to stay relevant. Covid 19 has shifted the focus from environment which was going prior and now, they are still trying the same trick.

How can environment go worse here?

Due to curfew, the cars and buses are way less than it was. Most factories are closed. The animal industry is partial functioning. The railway is partially working. what else I missed?

Can someone tell me how short term strategy (whatever it is) is affecting the environment? If it's short term, then why so much worry (even if it does) since it will be a temporary anyway regardless on the impact. And environment isn't an entity which you can drastically change over few years.

Can someone decipher it because I seem to not understand it at all.
 
Itachi said:
"The COVID-19 pandemic is a result of the degradation of natural areas, species’ loss and exploitation."

medical scientist are still trying to solve the mystery but there you go, environmentalist already declared the root cause. It feels like rakhi Sawant who would incorporate herself to anything to stay relevant. Covid 19 has shifted the focus from environment which was going prior and now, they are still trying the same trick.

How can environment go worse here?

Due to curfew, the cars and buses are way less than it was. Most factories are closed. The animal industry is partial functioning. The railway is partially working. what else I missed?

Can someone tell me how short term strategy (whatever it is) is affecting the environment? If it's short term, then why so much worry (even if it does) since it will be a temporary anyway regardless on the impact. And environment isn't an entity which you can drastically change over few years.

Can someone decipher it because I seem to not understand it at all.
Click to expand...

so itachi, how has the lockdown been, u said u needed a few months to decide. was it better than not having one?
 
Coronavirus India Live Updates: Lowest spike in fatalities since April 16, recovery rate at over 96%

Coronavirus (Covid-19) Cases in India Live News Updates: This is the lowest spike of daily cases in 88 days. With 1,422 new fatalities, the country recorded the lowest daily deaths since April 16. The total death toll is now over 3.88 lakh.

Bengaluru: Commuters during a traffic jam amid COVID-induced lockdown in Bengaluru (PTI)
Coronavirus India Live Updates: India recorded 53,256 new covid-19 cases in the 24 hours ending 8 am Monday, taking the country’s total infections to nearly 3 crore. This is the lowest spike of daily cases in 88 days. Out of these, active cases further declines to 7.02 lakh, while over 2.88 crore people have recovered after testing positive. With 1,422 new fatalities, the country recorded the lowest daily deaths since April 16. The total death toll is now over 3.88 lakh. Kerala, with 11,654 cases on Sunday, has now overtaken Karnataka to become the state with second highest number of total cases.

From today, the government will provide free vaccines to all above the age of 18. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the government would revert to a system of centralised procurement of Covid-19 vaccines and make jabs free for all adults. In this, the Centre will procure 75 per cent of total vaccines and distribute it among states. Private sector hospitals will be able to purchase the rest 25 per cent and charge a maximum of Rs 150 per dose.

With the peak of the second wave behind us, almost 90 per cent of over 650 districts for which data is available, are now in a phase of steady decline. West Bengal is the only major state where active cases have increased in the last one week. The other two states — Manipur and Mizoram — have seen a rise in active cases, but in both these states, the number is well within 1,000.

After a ravaging second wave, from hotels, tourism, transport and aviation to trade and small manufacturing units, sectors of the economy are beginning to report a disproportionate impact of the distress — in the form of declining incomes and rising loan repayment defaults.

Meanwhile, according to data released by the Reserve Bank of India, 159 districts in 25 states across the country saw a decline in fixed deposits from January to March. This data indicates rising cash holdings with people owing to the financial impact of covid-19.

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/coronavirus-india-live-updates-delhi-maharashtra-kerala-tamil-nadu-7368349/
 
New Delhi: Taking cognizance of the alarming situation amid a new mutated variant of the SARS-CoV-2 strain, the Union Ministry of Health has on Tuesday advised three states to take up immediate containment measures and enhance testing to preemptively prevent an adverse situation.

The Centre has advised Maharashtra, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh on the new ‘Delta Plus’ variant and asked the states to take up immediate containment measures, enhance testing and tracking, and ramp up vaccination in districts and clusters where the new variant is found.

Further, the central government has stated that adequate samples of positive persons must be promptly sent to designated laboratories of INSACOG so that the clinical epidemiological correlations can be made.

“The government of India has been proactively working towards effective Covid-19 management by sustained strengthening of multi-level health and testing infrastructure, and through focussed public health measures in active collaboration with the states. Based on the recent findings of INSACOG, the Union Health Ministry has alerted and advised Maharashtra, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh regarding the Delta Plus variant of Covid-19 being found in some districts in these States. The Ministry has communicated to these three states this variant has been found in genome sequenced samples from Ratnagiri and Jalgaon Districts of Maharashtra; Palakkad and Pathanamthitta Districts of Kerala; and Bhopal and Shivpuri Districts of Madhya Pradesh,” the Health Ministry said in an official statement on Tuesday.

Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genome Sequencing Consortia (INSACOG) – a consortium of four city clusters of Bengaluru, Hyderabad, New Delhi and Pune – has informed that the Delta Plus has the following characteristics:

Increased transmissibility
Stronger binding to receptors of lung cells
Potential reduction in monoclonal antibody response

Kerala COVID-19 cases‘Facing highly contagious delta variant’: Kerala CM asks people to be cautious amid drop in COVID infections
“INSACOG is tasked with not just the whole genome sequencing but also for giving timely inputs on appropriate public health response measures to be adopted by states and Union Territories. The state Chief Secretaries have been advised to take up immediate containment measures in the districts and clusters (as identified by INSACOG) including preventing crowds and intermingling of people, widespread testing, prompt tracing as well as vaccine coverage on a priority basis,” the Health Ministry further said.
 
Lack Of Genome Sequencing In India Led To Spread Of Delta Variant, Says Expert

India reeled under a deadly second wave of the coronavirus, which was caused by the Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus.

The lack of genome sequencing in India had a major role to play in the spread of virus across the world.
Top epidemiologist professor Eric Feigl-Ding said that India must do more genome sequencing.

"India has to do more genomic sequencing. Not doing this enough led to the spread of the Delta variant all over the world," professor Eric Feigl-Ding told India Today.

The Delta variant, which was behind the rise in COVID cases in India, the UK and Singapore, is now wreaking havoc in different parts of the world.

The Delta or B.1.617.2 variant was first identified in India. Experts say the variant drove the second wave in the country.

https://www.indiatimes.com/news/india/lack-of-genome-sequencing-in-india-led-to-spread-of-delta-variant-says-expert-543365.html
 
India has reported 46,148 new Covid-19 infections over the past 24 hours, data from the health ministry showed.

The South Asian country's total Covid-19 caseload now stands at 30.27 million, while total fatalities are at 396,730, the data showed.

India's coronavirus-related deaths rose by 979 overnight, according to Reuters.
 
King_Kohli said:
India has reported 46,148 new Covid-19 infections over the past 24 hours, data from the health ministry showed.

The South Asian country's total Covid-19 caseload now stands at 30.27 million, while total fatalities are at 396,730, the data showed.

India's coronavirus-related deaths rose by 979 overnight, according to Reuters.
Click to expand...

From 300k per day (which some say was under reported) down to 46k in a matter of weeks. Sounds like a miracle to me.
 
gazza619 said:
From 300k per day (which some say was under reported) down to 46k in a matter of weeks. Sounds like a miracle to me.
Click to expand...

You need to break it down to each states to understand why such high numbers and why it is in declining trend. This ain't magic. Just mathematics.
 
gazza619 said:
From 300k per day (which some say was under reported) down to 46k in a matter of weeks. Sounds like a miracle to me.
Click to expand...

No cause to let the guard down yet.
There is going to be a third wave and hospitals and institutes are racing to prepare beds and oxygen in advance.
We were caught unawares in the 2nd wave, hope we are ready for the 3rd wave.
Situation will be grim. The cases will keep rising and keep falling every few weeks until the vaccinations are complete.
 
India's Covishield jab is not eligible for a European Union travel pass for vaccinated tourists, reports say.

Covishield is the Indian-made version of AstraZeneca, which is eligible for the EU-wide pass or digital green certificate, set to launch on 1 July.

While the latter has been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the former doesn't appear to be under review currently.

India has so far overwhelmingly administered Covishield jabs.

BBC
 
Coronavirus India Live Updates: Cipla gets DCGI nod to import Moderna vaccine for emergency use in India

Covid-19 India Live Updates: Not a single state has reported more than 10,000 cases in the last 24 hours. Top contributor Kerala had 8,063 cases, while Maharashtra reported 6,727.

A beneficiary receives Covid-19 dose during a vaccination drive for the homeless in Mumbai.
Coronavirus India Live Updates: Pharmaceutical company Cipla has been given the approval by Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to import Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine for restricted emergency use in the country, news agency PTI reported citing sources.

Cipla had filed an application seeking permission for import of Moderna Covid-19 vaccine on Monday. It referred to DCGI notices dated April 15 and June 1, which state that if the vaccine is approved by the USFDA for Emergency Use Approval (EUA), the vaccine can be granted marketing authorization without a bridging trial.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre to allocate food grains to states and union territories for distribution among migrant workers, free of cost, till the pandemic continues. It instructed the Centre to develop a portal by July 31 for registration of unorganised sector along with providing them with benefits. The apex court also directed states to set up community kitchens and run them to serve migrant workers amid the pandemic.

India recorded 37,566 new covid-19 cases in the 24 hours ending 8 am Tuesday, taking the country’s total to 3.03 crore. This is the lowest single-day spike since March 17 and less than 40,000 daily cases after 102 days. Out of these, active cases fell to 5.52 lakh while over 2.93 crore people have recovered. With 907 new deaths, the toll is now at 3.97 lakh. Not a single state has reported more than 10,000 cases. Top contributor Kerala had 8,063 cases, while Maharashtra reported 6,727.

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/coronavirus-india-live-updates-kerala-delhi-maharashtra-tamil-nadu-delta-plus-vaccination-7380582/
 
Coronavirus India Live Updates: DGCA extends ban on international flights till July 31

Covid-19 India Live Updates: There are a total of 3,03,62,848 cases in the country while at least 2,94,27,330 people have recovered from the disease.


Coronavirus India Live Updates: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) Wednesday extended the restrictions on scheduled international passenger flights to and from India extended till July 31st, 2021. “However, international scheduled flights may be allowed on selected routes by the competent authority on a case-to-case basis,” the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) added.

Scheduled international passenger services have been suspended in India since March 23, 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

India recorded 45,951 new covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours ending 8 am on Wednesday, according to data from the Union Health Ministry. 817 deaths were reported on Tuesday, the lowest since April 9. There are a total of 3,03,62,848 cases in the country while at least 2,94,27,330 people have recovered from the disease. Active cases have dropped to 5,37,064 and the recovery rate has touched 96.92 per cent, the ministry said.

Out of the new coronavirus cases, Kerala reported 13,550 new cases, while Maharashtra had 8,085. Maharashtra reported 238 deaths in the last 24 hours. The overall death toll has reached 3,98,454. And 33,28,54,527 people have been administered at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine so far.

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/coronavirus-india-live-updates-kerala-delhi-maharashtra-tamil-nadu-delta-plus-vaccination-7380582/
 
interesting video: - pathetic decision by the EU:

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India COVID death toll crosses 400,000 – half died in second wave

Last 100,000 deaths added in just 39 days, according to a Reuters tally, though experts say India may have undercounted fatalities significantly.

India has reached the grim milestone of 400,000 deaths from the coronavirus, half of them during a second wave in the past few months that overwhelmed the healthcare system and crematoriums.

India has recorded 30.45 million cases since the outbreak of the pandemic last year and is the second-most affected country behind the United States, which has 33 million cases.

The US has at least 604,000 deaths and about 518,000 people have died in Brazil.

India, the world’s second-most populous nation, recorded 853 deaths in the past 24 hours, health ministry data showed on Friday. That took it past the 400,000 mark, with the last 100,000 being added in just 39 days, according to a Reuters news agency tally.

But health experts believe India may have undercounted deaths significantly and the actual number could have reached one million or even higher.

Scores of bodies washed up along the Ganges river in northern India in May, as people struggled to keep pace with deaths and cremations at the peak of the second wave.

“Undercounting of deaths is something that has happened across states, mostly because of lags in the system, so that means we will never have a true idea of how many people we lost in this second wave,” said Rijo M John, a professor at the Rajagiri College of Social Sciences in the southern city of Kochi.

Last month, Bihar, one of India’s poorest states, revised its total COVID-19 death toll to 9,429 from 5,424 after an order from a local court.

India recorded a total of 200,000 deaths at the end of April, but took just 28 days to get to 300,000 deaths.

Hospitals ran out of beds and life-saving oxygen during the second wave in April and May and people died in parking lots outside hospitals and at their homes.

Cases have declined steadily since hitting a peak in May, but government officials and experts have warned that a third wave looms, as the country slowly reopens and a new variant, locally called the Delta Plus, rears its head.

‘Black fungus’ robs some of eyesight
Saheb Rao Shinde’s family thought the worst was over when the 65-year-old recovered from COVID-19 last month at his home in western India. But a few weeks later, the revenue-stamp vendor lost sight in one eye.

During the catastrophic second wave of COVID-19, thousands who contracted the virus also suffered from a rare fungal disease called mucormycosis, or “black fungus”.

India has so far reported more than 40,845 cases of mucormycosis.

Many like Shinde may never be able to regain their sight after the fungal disease which causes blackening or discolouration over the nose, blurred or double vision, chest pain, breathing difficulties and coughing blood.
“Father was fit and healthy, now he doesn’t feel like eating …” said his daughter, who did not want to be named. “His teeth have also been removed, it’s very sad.”

Shinde, from the arid western Indian region of Marathwada in Maharashtra state, will resume work after he recovers from this, his daughter told Reuters in Mumbai.

Adesh Kumar, a 39-year-old farmer in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, lost sight in his left eye. He had to borrow money to pay for medicine, secured against some of his land.

India ordered tighter surveillance of mucormycosis in May as it compounded the challenge for COVID-19 patients, especially those on steroid therapy and with diabetes.

Experts say an overuse of certain drugs which suppress the immune system could be causing the surge of the fungal infection.

“We are seeing a lot of mucormycosis cases post COVID infections, since COVID itself is known to decrease the immunity,” said Charuta Mandke of the ophthalmology department at Dr R N Cooper Municipal General Hospital in Mumbai.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/2/india-covid-death-toll-400000-black-fungus
 
India Records 43,071 New Covid Cases In 24 Hours, 955 Deaths

India Coronavirus Update: States have been easing restrictions in phases as Covid cases drop with Karnataka announcing the lifting of weekend curfew starting tomorrow.


India reported 43,071 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, slightly lower than Saturday, and added 955 deaths. The country crossed a grim milestone of 4 lakh Covid deaths on Friday - the third after US and Brazil.

Here are the top 10 updates on coronavirus in India:

Active Covid cases have declined to 4.85 lakh in India - the number is below 5 lakh after 97 days. Active cases constitute 1.59 per cent of total infections.

Over 52,000 patients recovered in the last 24 hours taking total recoveries so far to over 2.96 crore. Daily recoveries continue to outnumber the new infections for the 52nd consecutive day.

The recovery rate has now increased to 97.09 per cent. The daily positivity rate is at 2.34 per cent - less than 5 per cent for 27 straight days. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared Covid positivity rate below 5 per cent to be within the safe zone.

Over 63.87 lakh vaccine doses were administered in the last 24 hours. The total doses administered in the country has exceeded 35.12 crore so far, the health ministry said.

Over eight lakh vaccine doses were administered on Saturday in worst-affected Maharashtra till 9 pm, the highest in a single day so far in the state, Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray tweeted. Maharashtra is the first state in the country to cross the three crore mark in vaccinating people.

States have been easing restrictions in phases as Covid cases drop with Karnataka announcing the lifting of weekend curfew starting tomorrow. The night curfew will continue to be in place from 9 pm to 5 am across the state, a government order said.

Pregnant women can now register on the CoWIN platform or visit vaccination centres for COVID-19 shots, the government said on Friday, adding that it had shared rules and procedures with states to roll out the programme.

Bharat Biotech's Covaxin is overall 77.8 per cent effective "against symptomatic COVID-19", the vaccine maker said in a statement on Saturday, citing the data from the third phase of clinical trials. The data, however, is yet to be peer-reviewed. The vaccine offers "65.2 per cent protection against" the new Delta variant, said to be highly infectious, it said.

While India is seeing a downward curve in Covid cases, reports of Delta Plus variant in at least 12 states has led to fresh concerns among health officials. Delta strain was classified as a "variant of concern" by the government last month as it warned states to be on guard.

The third wave of coronavirus could hit the peak between October-November if Covid appropriate behaviour is not followed, but may see half the daily cases recorded during the second surge, a scientist of a government panel tasked with modelling of COVID-19 cases has said.

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/india-records-43-071-fresh-covid-cases-in-last-24-hours-2-per-cent-fewer-than-yesterday-2478774
 
India has reported 43,733 fresh cases of Covid-19 and 930 deaths in the last 24 hours. Recovery rate has seen a rise again and reached 97.18%.
Screenshot 2021-07-07 152355.jpg
 

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'Poor Dr Harsh Vardhan': Jairam Ramesh on health minister's resignation

Amid speculations ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Cabinet reshuffle, health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan's resignation came as a surprise to many as PM Modi had praised the health ministry for its quick decisions regarding the management of the pandemic. While the resignation was being interpreted by observers as an admission that the pandemic could have been managed well.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh took to Twitter and said he has been made a scapegoat for "monumental failures at the highest level -- nowhere else". The Congress leader also said the former health minister is a good man.

The Covid-19 pandemic was the biggest challenge for Dr Harsh Vardhan as the health minister. Apart from health, he also had two ministries -- science and technology and earth sciences.

The Covid-19 pandemic has proved to be tumultuous for health ministers of several countries. For example, Brazil has seen four health ministers since the beginning of the pandemic. The Czech Republic has got five health ministers since the beginning of Covid-19. The United Kingdom too saw its health minister resigning after being embroiled in a controversy where he flouted social distancing norms.

While these have been direct casualties of the pandemic, Dr Hrsh Vardhan's role in managing the pandemic has always been highly praised by PM Modi. In his second stint as the health minister, Dr Harsh Vardhan, who is an ENT surgeon, also became a member of the World Health Organization executive board.

The pandemic brought Dr Harsh Vardhan to prominence as he was at the frontline shielding teh government's Covid-19 management and Covid-19 vaccination policy. "History shall be kinder to you Dr Manmohan Singh ji if your offer of ‘constructive cooperation and valuable advice was followed by your leaders as well in such extraordinary times," Dr Harsh Vardhan wrote to former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/poor-dr-harsh-vardhan-jairam-ramesh-on-health-minister-s-resignation-101625656026150.html
 
Active Covid-19 cases in India goes up after 55 days; 8 states follow suit

This comes days after India recorded the lowest single-day spike in Covid-19 cases in 111 days on July 6


India’s count of active cases increased slightly to 460,704, after 45,892 new Covid-19 cases were recorded in the previous 24 hours, taking its infection tally to 30,709,557. Thursday’s record breaks with the consistent downward trend exhibited in the past 55 days, according to the data released by the Union health and family welfare ministry.

This comes days after India recorded the lowest single-day spike in Covid-19 cases in 111 days on July 6, after a total of 34,703 cases were recorded.

India recorded its first grim milestone in its Covid-19 tally on August 7 of last year, after the total number of cases crossed the 20-lakh mark, this was followed by the country crossing the 30 lakh on August 23, on September 5 the cumulative tally was breached multiple times all throughout the month of September, surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. India crossed two crore-mark on May 4 and three crore on June 23.

The states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Kerala, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Sikkim, and Odisha have been reporting a similar jump in daily cases. Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan wrote to chief secretaries of different states urging caution.

In his letter to the chief secretary of Odisha Bhushan said, "It is a point of concern that presently, three districts of Odisha are reporting weekly positivity of more than 10 per cent (28th June to 4th July). Though the State positivity is consistently decreasing and has reported positivity of 5.36 per cent for the week ending 4th July. The district of Nuapada has shown a significant increase in positivity over the last week,".

Bhushan also urged the chief secretaries to speed up vaccination drives, insisting that “Vaccination must be used as an aid to the infection containment strategy. Ramping up vaccination sites, improving the efficiency and utilization of vaccination, deploying strategic vaccination centres near the containment zones, and now. ensuring speedier vaccination of all citizens aged 18 should be undertaken on a priority,"

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/active-covid-19-cases-in-india-goes-up-after-55-days-8-states-follow-suit-101625734645601.html
 
What is Covid's Kappa variant found in Uttar Pradesh? All you need to know

Uttar Pradesh has confirmed that it has two cases of Kappa variant and 107 cases of Delta Plus.

Uttar Pradesh has reported two cases of the Kappa variant of Covid-19, which has been confirmed by the King Geroge's Medical College where the genome sequencing of 109 samples took place. Out of these 109 samples, 107 Delta Plus variant cases have been found. Some reports claimed that there have been three cases of Kappa variant in Uttar Pradesh and the first patient, a 66-year-old resident of Sant Kabir Nagar, has succumbed to the disease.

According to the Union health ministry's June data, there were 3,969 Alpha, 149 Beta, 1 Gamma, and 16,238 Delta and Kappa variant cases in India. the B.1.617 lineage was first observed in Maharashtra and was "associated with an unusual rise in several districts of the state", the ministry had said about the lineage, not specifying Delta or Kappa.

What is Kappa? Is it a new variant?

This is not a new variant. According to the World Health Organizations's site on tracking SARS-Cov-2, the Kappa variant was first detected in India in October 2020. The variant is identified as B.1.617.1, while Delta is represented as B.1.617.2.

Is it a variant of concern?

WHO at present has not classified this variant as a variant of concern. Like Lambda, which has already spread in 30 countries across the world, Kappa is a variant of interest.

Is it a double mutant?

Yes, like Delta, Kappa is referred to as a double mutant because of two mutations -- EE484Q and L452R.

Is this variant immune escape?

It was believed that the L452R mutation may help the variant to escape the body's natural immune response.

Are these the first Kappa cases in India?

No, as the Kappa variant was found in India in October 2020, it is evident that these are not the first instances of the variant. This variant has been found in many states.

Difference between Delta and Kappa

Both the variants, belonging to the same lineage of B.1.617, have been found first in India in October 2020. Delta, which was a variant of interest in April 2021, became a variant of concern in May 2021. Kappa on the other hand remained a variant of interest, as designated last on April 4. Delta has emerged as a threat across the world as most of the present Covid-19 cases in the world are that of Delta variant. The second wave of the pandemic in India was also because of the dominance of the Delta variant. A further mutation of Delta called Delta Plus has now emerged in many countries, including India.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/what-is-covid-s-kappa-variant-found-in-uttar-pradesh-all-you-need-to-know-101625823940538.html
 
Third Wave Staring At Us? India's COVID-19 Case Trajectory Shows Worrying Trend

India faced a severe second wave of Covid-19 infections starting February. The seven-day average of daily new infections rose 36 times between February 11 and May 9, which is when the second wave peaked. Daily new cases have since fallen sharply, however, the recent trajectory has shown some worrying signs.

As per the data shared by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), there has been been a slowdown in the downward trend of daily COVID infections and a slight increase in the positivity rate.

Why is it worrisome?
This is worrisome and all the more important given the anecdotal accounts of Covid-inappropriate behaviour from many places, especially tourist destinations.

The Central government has expressed grave concerns over crowds thronging markets and hill stations over the past few days. It has now warned of reimposing lockdown-like restrictions in places where people are found to be blatantly breaking the rules put in place to contain coronavirus outbreaks.

Firstly, new infections are not rising, but they also are not falling fast enough. Secondly, the positivity rate has already reversed its falling trajectory. The seven-day average of daily positivity rates hit a high of 22.76% on May 9.

Third, the all-India numbers hide the divergence across states. The 7-day average of new cases has been rising in six small north-eastern states and Kerala. Positivity rates have risen in 11 states and UTs over the last week. Lastly, districts in other states are affected too.

Out of 707 districts for which data is compiled by How India Lives (Delhi’s districts are merged as one), the 7-day average of cases has increased in 63 districts between June 20 and July 6; 36 of them are from the eight north-eastern states, and 18 from Kerala, Maharashtra, and Odisha. But cases have increased in a few districts even in other states in the past two weeks.

What do the recent numbers say?
On June 24, the 7-day-average of daily and active cases in India was 53,123 and 683,544 respectively. Two weeks later, on July 7, these numbers were 42,547 and 486,415, the lowest since the peak of the second wave.

This shows that we are still on the downward path of the second wave. To be sure, the latest numbers are much higher than the lowest number of daily new cases (10,988) and total active cases (138,837) seen after the peak of the first wave.

What is worrying about the current situation is that the nature of the infection's curve changed a month ago. The 7-day average of new cases was declining at the rate of 6.7% per day on June 2. New cases are declining at a much slower rate now.

Third wave prediction
A research report has predicted that India may witness the third wave of COVID-19 in mid-August 2021, raising the alarm bells for policymakers and citizens. The report, COVID-19: The race to finishing line, prepared by SBI Research, claims that the COVID third wave peak will arrive in the month of September 2021.

According to the SBI report, the global data shows that on average, peak COVID-19 cases reached during the third wave are nearly twice or 1.7 times those from the second wave of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, India has witnessed 43,393 new COVID-19 cases, 44,459 recoveries, and 911 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per the latest update by the Health Ministry on Friday morning.

https://www.indiatimes.com/news/india/third-wave-staring-at-us-india-covid-19-case-trajectory-shows-worrying-trend-544610.html
 
"Crowds Without Masks In Hill Stations, Markets Cause For Concern": PM Modi

Prime Minister Modi's warning came as a flood of videos and images are shared on social media showing massive crowds at hill stations like Manali in Himachal Pradesh

Recent images from hill stations and city markets - of large crowds without face masks and zero social distancing - are a "cause for concern", Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Tuesday, as he underlined the need to follow Covid protocols to ward off a potential third wave of infections.
Addressing a virtual meeting of chief ministers from the eight northeastern states, the Prime Minister stressed the importance of adhering to basic rules - wearing of face masks when in public, avoiding large gatherings, and ensuring vaccination - to prevent a third wave of COVID-19 cases.

"It is true that tourism, business and business have been greatly affected due to coronavirus... but today I will say very emphatically that it is not okay to have huge crowds in hill stations and markets without wearing masks," Prime Minister Modi said.

"The virus does not come and go on its own... we bring it with us when we disobey the rules. Experts are warning us repeatedly that careless behaviour - like overcrowding - will lead to an increase in Covid cases," he said.

"Steps should be taken to prevent crowds... We all need to work together to stop the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic," he added.

The Prime Minister also stressed on the need to ensure rapid and widespread vaccination - a subject that has made headlines with rows over vaccine prices and states complaining of a lack of doses.

He also red-flagged the increase in cases in the northeastern states; last week central government data showed 47 of India's 73 districts with a positivity rate of over 10 per cent were from the northeast.

He said stricter "micro-level" steps were needed to check the spread of the virus in those districts, and called for greater emphasis on micro-containment zones. The Assam model - Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma plans to create around 6,000 of these instead of a lockdown - was highlighted.

The Prime Minister's comments come as a flood of videos and images have emerged on social media showing massive crowds at hill stations like Manali in Himachal Pradesh.

The posts led to experts and medical professionals ringing the alarm bells and slamming tourists' behaviour as "reckless", and the Health Ministry issued a strong appeal to the public to wear face masks and follow social distancing at all times.

"We want to request the public to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour under all circumstances. You are not just exposing yourselves, but also near and dear ones and it can result in us losing the battle against Covid," Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said.

Over the past few weeks a steady increase in the virus' 'R' factor has worried scientists and experts.

An 'R' value of 1 means one person will, on average, infect one other person.

In a pandemic the 'R' target is less than 1.0, which ensures the virus will eventually stop spreading because it can't infect enough people to sustain the outbreak.

As of this morning the national 'R' factor is 0.95 - up from 0.87 two weeks ago and 0.74 a month ago.

Also this morning India reported 31,443 new cases in the past 24 hours and recorded over 2,000 deaths in the same period, although over 1,400 of these were updated tallies from Madhya Pradesh.

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/pm-narendra-modi-says-big-crowds-without-masks-in-hill-stations-markets-cause-for-concern-2485431
 
UP's Handling Of 2nd Covid Wave Unparalleled", Says PM Modi In Varanasi

New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh's handling of the second wave of COVID-19 cases was "unparalleled", Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared Thursday morning during a visit to his constituency of Varanasi.
The Prime Minister also said UP - which recorded over 30,000 new cases daily at the peak of the second wave, up from a record single-day high of 7,016 cases in the first - had "stood up and battled the virus efficiently", and that its management of the pandemic was "worthy of praise".

"UP stood up and battled the virus efficiently... is India's most populous state but the manner in which Uttar Pradesh handled and controlled the pandemic is worthy of praise. UP's handling of the second wave of COVID-19 has been unparalleled," the Prime Minister said.

Expressing his admiration for healthcare and frontline workers of the state, the Prime Minister also hailed UP for "the maximum number of vaccinations in the country".

Data from the centre's CoWIN platform says UP had administered 3.89 crore doses so far.

A report by Oxford Economics last month suggested that unlike other (smaller) states, UP has yet to reach a "safe level" - that is, at least 30 per cent of the population has received both doses.

"I am immensely thankful and grateful for all the 'corona warriors' and all those who have come and helped in these trying times. Today, UP has done the maximum vaccinations in the country. A vaccine for all... a free vaccine... is the aim of the government and it is being done," the PM said.

The praise for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his administration comes a day after the Supreme Court issued a notice over the decision to allow the Kanwar Yatra, despite warnings from medical experts about large gatherings allowing the coronavirus to spread further and faster.

On Wednesday, top court said Indian citizens were left "perplexed" by the state's decision, particularly as it came after the Prime Minister's call to avoid large gatherings to ward off a third wave of cases.

The praise also comes on the heels of dissent within the BJP's UP ranks over Adityanath's management of the pandemic, with the party's own leaders going public with their complaints.

The biggest among these was Lok Sabha MP Santosh Gangwar, who complained about the situation in UP's Bareilly. Mr Gangwar was removed as Labour Minister in this month's cabinet reshuffle.

The Prime Minister's praise aside, the UP government has faced widespread criticism - from medical experts and opposition leaders - over its handling of the pandemic, including when bodies of suspected Covid patients were found floating on the Ganga, and buried along its banks, in May and June.

The UP government refuted reports that the deaths were linked to the pandemic.

The state has also been questioned over reporting of Covid-linked deaths, with former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav referring to reports of teachers assigned to panchayat poll duties dying of the virus.

A teachers' body claimed that 90 per cent of over 1,600 who had died since the first week of April due to COVID-19 were on poll duties. The state has insisted that only three deaths are linked to the virus.

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/pm-...nparalleled-2487029?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll
 
Lying abilities of this creature are unparalleled! Shameless to the core!
 
Rising Delta variant cases make Covid-19 third wave real risk for India: Report

A foreign brokerage firm said that although the number of daily Covid-19 cases seems to have plateaued, the same still remains much above the 2021 trough.

Amid fears of looming third wave of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) remains, rising cases of the Delta variant and the subsequent mutations of the virus have now made the probability look a real risk for India, a foreign brokerage firm has cautioned.

According to a PTI report, Tanvee Gupta-Jain, chief economist of UBS Securities India, said the third wave risks are real even more now as economic activity has improved sequentially for the seventh successive week to July 12, with several states gradually easing curbs on movement. The UBS report further said the pace of vaccination has also slowed down to under 3.4 million doses per day as against four million jabs earlier along with 45 per cent of the daily Covid-19 case count being reported from the rural regions of India.

In a note on Wednesday, Jain said that although the number of daily Covid-19 cases seems to have plateaued, the same still remains much above the 2021 trough and the drop in active caseload has also started to narrow down.

The report added that in more than 20 per cent of the top districts accounting for most of the daily cases and where the second wave of Covid-19 has not yet dialled down, the third wave has already set firmly in. The figure was only 5 per cent even a month before, it said.

Gupta-Jain added that while economic pointers are coming back to normalcy, they are still mixed. They stated that railway and domestic airline passenger traffic has improved further in the country, but toll collections have plateaued for the latest reporting week, as per the UBS-India activity indicator. Additionally, while power demand rose by 11 per cent partly due to summer, railway freight has dropped by 1.9 per cent week-on-week.

The report came at a time when India witnessed a consistent upward swing in the daily Covid-19 cases with the caseload climbing up to 41,806 infections in the last 24 hours as opposed to Wednesday’s 38,792. The daily case count on Tuesday was down to 31,443, the Union ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) data showed.

As far as vaccination is concerned, 39,13,40,491 doses against Covid-19 have so far been administered in the country, with 34,97,058 people receiving the jabs in the previous 24 hours.

Meanwhile, World Health Organization (WHO) director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday said the Covid-19 pandemic is now in the “early stages” of the third wave. “The Delta variant is now in more than 111 countries and we expect it to soon be the dominant Covid-19 strain circulating worldwide, if it isn’t already,” an UN report quoted Ghebreyesus as saying.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/rising-delta-variant-cases-make-covid-19-third-wave-real-risk-for-india-report-101626341217779.html
 
India records 41,157 fresh COVID infections, 518 fatalities in last 24 hours

The number of people who have recovered from the disease has risen to 30269796, while the case fatality rate has increased to 1.33 per cent, the data stated.

India logged 41,157 new coronavirus cases, which took the infection tally to 3,11,06,065, while the death toll climbed to 4,13,609 with 518 more fatalities, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday.

The active cases have declined to 4,22,660 and comprise 1.36 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate stands at 97.31 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.

It said that active COVID-19 cases have decreased by 1,365 in a span of 24 hours.

The ministry said that 19,36,709 tests were conducted on Saturday, taking the total cumulative tests conducted for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 44,39,58,663.

The number of people who have recovered from the disease has risen to 30269796, while the case fatality rate has increased to 1.33 per cent, the data stated.

The total vaccine doses administered has reached 40.49 crore under the nationwide vaccination drive.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.13 per cent and the weekly positivity rate stands at 2.08 per cent, according to the health ministry.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20 lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16 last year.

It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one crore mark on December 19 last year. India crossed two crore cases on May 4 and three crore cases on June 23.

The 518 new fatalities included 124 deaths from Maharashtra and 114 from Kerala, the ministry said.

In total, 413609 deaths have been reported in the country, including 126851 from Maharashtra, 36121 from Karnataka, 33695 from Tamil Nadu, 25027 from Delhi, 22715 from Uttar Pradesh, 17988 from West Bengal and 16224 from Punjab.

The ministry said that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

"Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research," the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.

https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/india-records-41157-fresh-covid-infections-518-fatalities-in-last-24-hours/786605
 
New Delhi: India on Wednesday reported 42,015 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the overall caseload to 3,12,16,337, the Union Ministry for Health and Family Welfare announced in its daily bulletin.

However, the country’s death toll has witnessed a mammoth spike of 3,998 after the state of Maharashtra revised its fatality count. This has taken India’s total casualty count to 4,18,480.

The Maharashtra government on Tuesday added 3,509 backdated deaths to their tally, resulting in the sudden bump in the toll.

The active caseload in the country now stands at 4,07,170.

As many as 36,977 people recovered from the infection in the past one day, taking the total recoveries to 3,03,90,687.

The daily positivity rate of India is currently at 2.27%, staying below 3% for 30 consecutive days.

India’s caseload had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7 last year, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It crossed 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the 1-crore mark on December 19.
 
In a written reply to Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, Junior Health Minister Bharati Praveen Pawar stated that health is a state subject and states and Union Territories regularly report the number of cases and deaths to the centre. "However, no deaths due to lack of oxygen have been specifically reported," she said.

Blaming the states, the country's new Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya told parliament: "Prime Minister repeatedly told the states...deaths have to be registered, there's no reason to hide. It's the responsibility of the states. We keep a record of data provided by the states. That's all the central government has to do."
 
What a bunch of lying devils these creatures are! So record keeping is the only job of central government during a pandemic!

Then why did the bigot announce unilateral lockdown last year for 140 crore Indians?
 
These guys also said there is no data on deaths of migrants so that means no migrant died! This is so like North Korea style of governance!
 
More than 4,300 people have died of the deadly "black fungus" in India in a growing epidemic that mainly affects Covid-19 patients.

India has reported 45,374 cases of this rare and dangerous infection, called mucormycosis, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has said.

It affects the nose, eyes and sometimes the brain, and usually strikes 12-18 days after recovery from Covid.

Nearly half of those infected are still receiving treatment.

Doctors say the fungus has a link with the steroids used to treat Covid, and diabetics are at particular risk.

Steroids reduce inflammation in the lungs for Covid-19 and appear to help stop some of the damage that can happen when the body's immune system goes into overdrive to fight off the coronavirus.

But they also reduce immunity and push up blood sugar levels in both diabetics and non-diabetic Covid-19 patients.

It's thought that this drop in immunity could be triggering cases of mucormycosis in diabetics or severely immunocompromised individuals, such as cancer patients or people with HIV/Aids.

An anti-fungal injection is the only drug effective against the disease, doctors say.

The two worst-affected states are Maharashtra and Gujarat, where 1,785 people have died from mucormycosis.

Dr Raghuraj Hegde, a Bangalore-based eye surgeon who has treated a number of mucormycosis patients, told the BBC that there had been "massive undercounting of both cases and deaths" from the disease.

"Typically, deaths in mucormycosis occur weeks to months after getting the disease. Our present systems are not good to capture that data," he said.

Cases were being also undercounted because diagnosis was difficult in smaller hospitals and in rural areas and only a fraction of the cases reached hospitals in big cities, he added.

Doctors said that many patients had died from the disease even before reaching a hospital and a number of treated and recovered patients appeared to be suffering from a relapse.

"We are seeing patients who were treated aggressively for the disease and discharged from hospitals returning with a recurrent infection which is manifesting in wider spread of the disease in the eye or brain," Dr Akshay Nair, a Mumbai-based eye surgeon, told the BBC.
 
cricketjoshila said:
I wonder how BBC picks up random doctors who seem to parrot what BBC wants to hear.
Click to expand...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-57888460
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused excess deaths in India to cross more than four million, a new study has found.

Excess deaths are a measure of how many more people are dying than would be expected compared to the previous few years.

Although it is difficult to say how many of these deaths have been caused by Covid-19, they are a measure of the overall impact of the pandemic.

India has officially recorded more than 414,000 Covid-19 deaths so far.

The country is one of the few major economies without an estimate of excess deaths during the pandemic.

Researchers from the US-based Center for Global Development used three different data sources to estimate India's excess all-cause mortality during the pandemic until 21 June.

They extrapolated death registrations from seven states, accounting for half of India's population. India conducts yearly mortality surveys but has only published numbers up to 2019.

Second, the researchers applied international estimates of age-specific infection fatality rates - the number of people that die from the virus - to data from two countrywide antibody tests, also called sero surveys.

Third, they looked at India's consumer survey of 868,000 individuals across 177,000 households which also records whether any member of the family had died in the past four months.

Taken together, the researchers found that excess deaths were estimated to be in the range of 3.4 million to 4.7 million - about 10 times higher than India's official Covid-19 death toll.

This was also considerably higher than other estimates by epidemiologists, who believed India's excess deaths were five-to-seven times higher.

Not all these deaths were caused by Covid-19 and an estimation of the actual death toll by the disease would be difficult to give, said Arvind Subramanian, India's former chief economic adviser and one of the authors of the study.

Although data on how many people died in the pandemic was patchy, researchers looked at the data on infection rates, based on many sero surveys to get a ballpark estimate of deaths.

They took India's infection numbers and applied estimates from international studies of the probability of death after a Covid-19 infection.

They did this with each different age group, applying international estimates of the Covid-19 infection fatality rate at a given age to the number of infections among Indians in that age group.

The data implied that four million people had died in the pandemic in India, according to Dr Subramanian.

"Two of our three estimates measure all-cause mortality and not Covid-19 deaths. Our second measure is a bit closer to a number of [actual] Covid-19 deaths, but it is only one of three estimates," Dr Subramanian told me.

The researchers - including Justin Sandefur of the Center for Global Development and Abhishek Anand of Harvard University - also said that the first wave last year appeared to have been more lethal than what was popularly believed. Mortality appeared to be moderate because it was "spread out in time and space".

Dr Subramanian said one of the conclusions might be that "India has not been an outlier" and has had "mortality not dissimilar from countries of comparable size and infections".

The researchers said the most "critical take-away, regardless of the sources and estimates", was that actual deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic were "likely to be far greater than the official count".

"The true deaths are likely to be in several millions, not hundreds of thousands, making this arguably India's worst human tragedy since the partition and independence."
Click to expand...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Australian PM Says "Sorry" For Slow Vaccine Rollout As Covid Cases Rise

Sydney, Australia: Australia's prime minister on Thursday apologised for the country's glacial vaccine rollout, as Sydney recorded a record jump in new coronavirus infections.
Scott Morrison is under fierce public pressure to improve a vaccination rate currently languishing around 11 percent, among the lowest rate of any rich nation.

After months of boasting about his "gold standard" pandemic response and insisting vaccine rollout was "not a race", Morrison bowed to critics.

"I'm sorry that we haven't been able to achieve the marks that we had hoped for at the beginning of this year. Of course I am," he said.

"I take responsibility for the vaccination programme. I also take responsibility for the challenges we've had. Obviously, some things are within our control, some things that are not."

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/aus...sorry-that-2492036?pfrom=home-ndtv_topstories
 
Whiff of fresh air this Morrison guy is!

While here we have someone who only knows how to take credit of successes, not failures! For the latter, he sacks his health minister instead.
 
O2 deaths: Congress moves breach of privilege motion against minister

Minister of state for health Bharati Pravin Pawar told Parliament on Tuesday that no state reported such fatalities and triggered a war of words between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Opposition parties

The Congress on Thursday moved a breach of privilege motion against the minister of state for health Bharati Pravin Pawar for allegedly misleading Parliament over deaths due to oxygen shortage during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

She told Parliament on Tuesday that no state reported such fatalities and triggered a war of words between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Opposition parties. Her submission brought back the focus on a crisis that in part defined the devastation of the second wave. HT on Thursday cited a database of media reports from the time and reported it has identified at least 619 deaths that likely occurred because of lack of oxygen. Many more deaths may have taken place outside of inundated hospitals.

Congress accused Pawar of distorting facts with the “intention to mislead and deceive the August House” over the actual number of death due to lack of oxygen during the second wave.

“This amounts to a breach of privilege and contempt of the House and the minister is guilty of contempt,” said Congress lawmaker K C Venugopal said. Pawar made the submission in response to Venugopal’s question in Rajya Sabha.

Venugopal said everyone saw how people died due to a shortage of oxygen including in the national capital. In a letter to Rajya Sabha chairperson M Venkaiah Naidu, Venugopal cited examples of deaths reported due to oxygen shortage. He referred to a newspaper report and added between May 11 and 15, 83 deaths due to acute oxygen shortage were reported at the Goa Medical College. He also cited similar instances in places such as Karnataka and Haryana, where the government ordered an investigation into at least 19 deaths due to oxygen shortage between April 5 and May 1.

The BJP has maintained health is a state subject and that it just collects the data, and it does not generate it.

According to Parliamentary rules, if individuals or authority violate or disregard any of the privileges, powers and immunities of the House or members or committees thereof, they are liable for punishment for breach of privilege or contempt of the House. The House has the power to determine what constitutes the breach of privilege and contempt. The penal jurisdiction of the House in this regard covers its members as well as strangers and every act of violation of privileges, whether committed in the immediate presence of the House or outside of it. A person found guilty of breach of privilege or contempt of the House “may be punished either by imprisonment, or by admonition (warning), or reprimand”. Two other punishments may also be awarded to the members for contempt--suspension and expulsion from the House.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/o2-deaths-cong-moves-breach-of-privilege-motion-against-minister-for-statement-101626952019151.html
 
MP2011 said:
Whiff of fresh air this Morrison guy is!

While here we have someone who only knows how to take credit of successes, not failures! For the latter, he sacks his health minister instead.
Click to expand...

You have no idea how much Morrison has failed and being attacked for this. His popularity has gone down drain and he is number #1 enemy for many Australians atm
 
Maharashtra govt considering relaxations for fully-vaccinated people: Deputy CM

The government is considering granting exemptions from coronavirus-induced restrictions to the fully-vaccinated people, deputy chief minister Ajit said on Saturday.

Speaking to reporters, Pawar also said the government was mulling an extension of the timings of shops and restaurants from the current deadline of 4 pm. He said a decision on granting relaxations on the weekends is likely next week.

"The state is thinking of granting relaxations to those people who have got both doses of Covid-19 vaccine. This will encourage citizens to get inoculated," he said. Pawar said demands are raised to extend the timings of shops and restaurants from 4 pm to 7 pm.

read complete article here : https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/maharashtra-govt-considering-relaxations-for-fully-vaccinated-people-deputy-cm/articleshow/84704507.cms
 
Coronavirus News LIVE Updates: Maharashtra to Relax Curbs; Fully Vaccinated to be Allowed on Trains, Cinema Halls May Open

In the past 24 hours, India reported 43,509 cases, as per the health ministry's statement.

Kerala has reported 22,064 Covid cases and 128 deaths. As many as 1,63,098 samples were tested in the past 24 hours. The state’s total death count now stand at 16,585, while 16,649 patients have recovered.

Amid a steep rise in fresh Covid-19 cases, a complete lockdown has been imposed in Kerala on July 31 and August 1, while the Centre has rushed an expert team to the state for crisis management. In the past 24 hours, India reported 43,509 cases, as per the health ministry.

After a slew of complaints about the inconsistency of timings to book online slots for vaccination, the BMC said on Wednesday that the announcement of slots would be made at 5.30 pm on social media.

https://www.news18.com/news/india/coronavirus-news-live-updates-us-extends-expiration-dates-on-j-within-7-days-bhutan-fully-vaccinates-90-adult-population-4019843.html
 
India records 35,499 new Covid-19 cases, 447 deaths in a day

The national Covid-19 recovery rate has improved to 97.40 per cent.

India on Monday reported 35,499 fresh cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) over the last 24 hours, according to the data released by the Union health ministry at 8am. The number is slightly lower than yesterday's 39,070 cases.
After Monday's fresh cases, the overall tally has reached 31,969,954. The death toll saw a rise of 447 fatalities and now stands at 428,309, according to the ministry's data.

The number of active cases declined to 402,188, according to the health ministry. The national Covid-19 recovery rate has improved to 97.40 per cent. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 31,139,457.

As many as 1,371,871 tests were conducted on Saturday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of Covid-19 in the country to 481,767,232.

On the vaccination front, 568 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered under the nationwide vaccination drive till Sunday morning.

On Saturday, the health ministry granted Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose Covid-19 vaccine emergency use authorisation, making it the fifth vaccine and the second foreign-made shot to be cleared for use in the country. The vaccine will be brought to India through a supply agreement with homegrown vaccine maker Biological E Ltd.

Apart from the J&J vaccine, the four other Covid-19 shots approved for emergency use in India are Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, Serum Institute of India’s Covishield, the Russian-made Sputnik V, and the Moderna vaccine.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/india-records-35-499-new-covid-19-cases-447-deaths-in-a-day-101628478940726.html
 
"Awareness Message": Centre Defends PM Photo On Vaccination Certificates

New Delhi: The photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his statement on Covid vaccination certificates are meant to reinforce the message to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour even after inoculation, the government told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. The written response of junior health minister Bharati Pravin Pawar came amid huge opposition criticism that started before a string of assembly elections held earlier this year.

The Opposition had alleged that the move to PM's photo was self-promotion and projection ahead of the elections and was just a political move. Several opposition-ruled states including Punjab, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh even removed the photo from the certificates they issued.

At a time when the states were in charge of procuring vaccines some leaders even said the Centre was taking credit for the states' efforts.

The Centre has since taken charge of procuring the vaccines across the country, barring in private hospitals. States, though, are still in charge of administering the vaccines.

On Tuesday, the health ministry was asked whether it was necessary and compulsory to print photographs of the Prime Minister on the Covid vaccination certificate.

"Given the context of the pandemic, its evolving nature and the fact that following of Covid-appropriate behaviours has emerged as one of the most critical measures for preventing the spread of disease. The photograph along with the message of the Prime Minister in the vaccination certificates reinforces the message for creating awareness about the importance of following COVID-19 appropriate behaviour even after vaccination, in the larger public interest," Ms Pawar said in her written reply.

She said it is the "moral and ethical responsibility" of the government to ensure that such critical messages reach the people and remain effective.

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/awa...-pm-photo-on-vaccination-certificates-2507423
 
What logic from a braindead regime!

How does his pic ensure that people follow Covid appropriate behaviour? Matlab kuch bhi to give megalomaniac a chance to earn free PR.
 
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