Coronavirus LIVE: WHO warns vaccines no magic bullet to contain virus

Coronavirus live updates: At 1,842,587, Maharashtra has the highest number of coronavirus cases, followed by Karnataka 890,360, Andhra Pradesh 870,675, Tamil Nadu 787,554, and Kerala 625,767

9:43 PM

Ahmedabad registers 332 new coronavirus cases; nine more deaths reported

At least 332 persons tested positive for coronavirus, while nine died of the infection in Gujarat's Ahmedabad district on Saturday, an official from the state health department said.

 

With the addition of new cases, the district's COVID- 19 caseload has risen to 51,724 and the toll reached 2,109, the officials said.

 

As many as 344 patients were discharged during the day, taking the total number of recoveries to 46,495, he said.

 

With 445 infections, the west zone of Ahmedabad city has the highest number of active cases, followed by the north-west zone with 433 infections, south-west with 430 and south with 403, the official said.

 

Of the seven zones in the city, the central zone has the least number of active cases at 292, he said.

 

According to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, the number of micro-containment areas in the city has come down to 279, with 19 existing areas removed from the list and three new areas.

 

As per the Ahmedabad Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association, the bed occupancy rate in city's private hospitals requisitioned to treat COVID-19 cases has eased to 75.6 per cent, with 2,504 out of 3,312 available beds occupied.

9:30 PM

Mumbai's coronavirus positivity rate drops to 10-month low: BMC official

The Covid-19 positivity rate in Mumbai has fallen to just 5 per cent, the lowest in the past 10 months since the outbreak of the pandemic, a top BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official said here on Saturday.

 

"The Covid-19 test positivity rate for the past 10 days in Mumbai looks promising. But we should not be complacent and not lower our guard," said Municipal Commissioner I.S. Chahal.

 

When the pandemic hit Maharashtra in full force in March, the positivity rate was as high as 35-36 per cent, he said in a statement.

 

On Friday, of the 16,394 tests conducted in the city, only 825 - or 5.03 per cent - returned positive, boosting the morale of the health authorities.

 

The 16,394 tests comprised 8,867 RT-PCR and 7,527 Rapid Antigen Tests of which 684 and 141 tested positive, respectively, informed Chahal.

 

The Mumbai city and the district still remain in the top position on the country's Covid-19 graph in terms of fatalities - reporting 10,945 deaths so far, besides registering 284,509 cases till date, of which 13,754 are active cases.

8:49 PM

Gujarat sees 1,514 new Covid-19 cases

Gujarat on Saturday reported 1,514 fresh coronavirus positive cases, taking the total count of infections to 2,17,333, the state health department said.

 

With 15 more persons succumbing to the viral infection, including nine deaths in Ahmedabad, three in Rajkot, two in Surat, and one in Aravalli, the cumulative toll in the state mounted to 4,064, it said.

 

At the same time, 1,535 patients were discharged from hospitals after treatment, taking the tally of recoveries to 1,98,527, the department said in a release.

8:37 PM

WHO warns vaccines no magic bullet for coronavirus crisis

The World Health Organization warned that vaccines were no magic bullet for the coronavirus crisis, as Russia started vaccinating its high-risk workers Saturday and other countries geared up for similar programmes.

"Vaccines do not equal zero Covid," said WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan, adding that not everyone will be able to receive it early next year.

"Vaccination will add a major, major, powerful tool to the tool kit that we have. But by themselves, they will not do the job."

8:32 PM

Karnataka reports 1,325 new cases, 1,400 discharges, and 12 deaths today

8:29 PM

Nepal reports 1,024 new cases of coronavirus

Nepal has reported 1,024 new cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of infections in the nation to 239,885, the health ministry said on Saturday.

 

Ministry of Health and Population said that the cases were detected after conducting 6,074 tests across the country.

 

The total number of new cases in the last 24 hours stand at 1,024. With this the total number of cases in the country has reached 239,885, according to a statement from the health ministry.

 

So far, 2,206 people have recovered from the disease on Saturday.

8:25 PM

Uttarakhand reports 680 more Covid-19 cases, eight fatalities

Uttarakhand's COVID-19 infection tally rose to 77,573 on Saturday with 680 more people testing positive for the disease, while eight fresh fatalities pushed the death toll in the state to 1,281.

 

Dehradun district reported the highest number of 307 new cases, followed by Nainital with 87, Almora with 50, Haridwar with 38, Pithoragarh with 36, Pauri with 33, Udham Singh Nagar with 31, Chamoli with 27, Bageshwar with 25, Tehri with 15, Champawat with 14, Rudraprayag with nine and Uttarkashi with eight, a state Health department bulletin said.

8:00 PM

Maharashtra reports 4,922 new Covid-19 cases, taking tally to 18,47,509; 95 deaths push toll to 47,694

7:52 PM

AI, machine learning to play key role in fight against Covid, say experts

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are helping analyse massive amounts of data around the human genome and drug molecules, and these new-age technologies can play an important role in the fight against COVID-19, industry experts said on Saturday.

 

Speaking at KnowDis Machine Learning Day, Avantika Lal - Senior Scientist (Deep Learning and Genomics) at NVIDIA - said larger data sets on genome sequences (DNA arrangement) are being acquired, and this data is being studied for multiple parameters.

 

"As the cost of sequencing goes down, more and more people can get their genome sequence and in fact, governments, research institutes and public health organisations around the world are trying to sequence many thousands of people in order to be build up an idea of the genomes of the populations of their countries," she said.

7:13 PM

Punjab reported 644 new Covid-19 cases, 671 discharges, and 23 deaths today

7:05 PM

Delhi reports 3419 new Covid-19 cases, 4,916 recoveries and 77 deaths today

6:37 PM

Bharat Biotech says Covaxin efficacious, safe, as Anil Vij tests positive for Covid-19

6:29 PM

Rajasthan reports 2076 new cases, 3,198 recoveries and 20 deaths today

6:16 PM

Uttarakhand reports 680 new cases, 457 recoveries and 8 deaths today

5:53 PM

Covid-19: 100 cops in Ahmedabad found positive in special drive

About 100 police personnel have tested positive for coronavirus in a special drive in Ahmedabad in the last four days, a senior officer said on Saturday.

 

Among the infected police personnel, two constables have been hospitalised while others are in home isolation, Joint Commissioner of Police (Admin) Ajay Chaudhary told PTI.

 

"We started a drive from Tuesday (December 1) to test all 14,000 police personnel in Ahmedabad. Nearly, 1,000 police personnel are being tested everyday. About 100 personnel have tested positive for the virus so far," Chaudhary said, adding that this is the second drive to test the police personnel in the city.

5:43 PM

No regular classes for students of classes 1 to 8 in Madhya Pradesh till March 31: CM

5:31 PM

Moscow opens dozens of coronavirus vaccination centers

Thousands of doctors, teachers and others in high-risk groups have signed up for Covid-19 vaccinations in Moscow starting Saturday, a precursor to a sweeping Russia-wide immunization effort.

 

The vaccinations come three days after President Vladimir Putin ordered the launch of a large-scale Covid-19 immunization campaign even though a Russian-designed vaccine has yet to complete the advanced studies needed to ensure its effectiveness and safety in line with established scientific protocols.

 

The Russian leader said Wednesday that more than 2 million doses of the Sputnik V jab will be available in the next few days, allowing authorities to offer jabs to medical workers and teachers across the country starting late next week.

5:26 PM

No new Covid cases reported in Mizoram over the last 24 hours, while 16 patients recovered in the state

4:17 PM

Covaxin trials a two-dose schedule: Bharat Biotech on Anil Vij testing positive

3:14 PM

573 more cases reported yesterday in Bihar, taking the total count of active cases in the State to 6,145

3:01 PM

Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain wishes Anil Vij speedy recovery from Covid-19

2:56 PM

Russia reports all-time high daily Covid-19 cases

At least 28,782 additional people in Russia have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, which marked the highest single-day spike in the number of confirmed cases since the onset of the pandemic earlier this year, health authorities said on Saturday.

 

The new figure recorded in the last 24 hours has increased the country's overall caseload to 2,431,731, TASS News Agency quoted the anti-coronavirus crisis centre as saying in its latest update.

2:54 PM

Plea in SC seeks refund of 'exorbitant money' charged for RT-PCR test to detect coronavirus

2:18 PM

Telangana reported 596 new Covid-19 cases, 3 deaths and 921 recoveries on 4th December

2:09 PM

Vaccine should be given free to everyone: Nawab Malik

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held an all-party meeting on COVID-19 vaccination in the country, Maharashtra Cabinet Minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik has said that COVID-19 vaccine should be given free to every citizen of the country.

 

Speaking to ANI, Malik said, "The Prime Minister held an all-party meeting and now they are saying State and Centre will decide the price, how can it be? In Bihar, they have given the assurance that vaccination will be free. We demand vaccine should be given to each Indian free of cost."

1:56 PM

Odisha's caseload mounts to 320,803 after 409 people test positive, 5 more fatalities push death toll to 1,765

1:35 PM

India's total Covid active caseload drops to 409,689 -- lowest in 136 days

1:30 PM

India's total COVID-19 active caseload lowest in 136 days: Health ministry

India's total COVID-19 active caseload dropped to 4,09,689 on Saturday, the lowest in 136 days, according to the Union health ministry.

India's present active caseload comprises 4.26 per cent of the total positive cases, and new recoveries have led to a net decline of 6,393 in the total active cases, the ministry said in a statement.

"India's total active caseload has dropped below 4.10 lakh (4,09,689) today. This is the lowest after 136 days. The total active cases were 4,11,133, on July 22," it said.

The ministry said that for the past eight days, the daily new recoveries recorded in the country have been more than the daily cases.

1:29 PM

Odisha's COVID-19 death toll rises to 1,765, tally at 3,20,803

Odisha's COVID-19 caseload mounted to 3,20,803 on Saturday after 409 people tested positive for the virus, while five more fatalities pushed the death toll to 1,765, a health department official said.

The fresh cases were detected in 27 of the state's 30 districts, of which 234 came from quarantine centres and the remaining were local-contact infections.

Sundergarh district recorded the highest of 53 positive cases, followed by Khurda (44) and Angul (35). Three districts - Gajapati, Kandhamal and Subarnapur - did not register any fresh coronavirus case during the last 24 hours, he said.

12:28 PM

Poonawalla of Serum Institute among 6 named 'Asians of the Year' by Singapore daily

Adar Poonawalla, the chief executive of the world's largest vaccine manufacturer Serum Institute of India, is among six people named "Asians of the Year" by Singapore's leading daily, The Straits Times for their work in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) has collaborated with the University of Oxford and the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca for making the COVID-19 vaccine, ''Covidshield'', and is conducting trials in India.