Covid LIVE: 'Final decision' on Covaxin clearance next week, says WHO

Coronavirus LIVE updates: Kerala recorded 12,297 cases, Maharashtra 2,692, Delhi 34, Karnataka 397, Tamil Nadu 1,531 cases in the last 24 hours. Stay tuned for corona updates

Coronavirus updates: India recorded a spike of 18,346 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours. The country also witnessed 263 deaths, taking the death toll to 449,260. So far, India has recorded 33,853,048 corona cases in total. Delhi reported 34 Covid-19 cases and no fatality. Kerala recorded 12,297 new Covid-19 cases and Maharashtra 2,692 cases. 

Seventy percent of India's adult population has been administered the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Monday as the total doses given across the country crossed 91 crore.

According to officials, 25 percent of the adult population has been administered both doses.

World coronavirus update: Covid-19 is continuing to spread around the world, with 236,114,110 confirmed cases and 4,821,962 deaths across nearly 200 countries recorded since China reported its first cases in December 2019. The US remains the worst-hit country with 44,654,270 cases, followed by India, Brazil, UK and Russia.

12:48 AM

Bengal's Covid vaccination coverage crosses 6 crore mark

West Bengal administered over 9.66 lakh Covid-19 vaccine doses on Tuesday and crossed the milestone of inoculating 6 crore people with at least one dose, a health department official said.

 

The last one crore jabs were given in 17 days.

 

"Around 9,66,563 doses were administered in the state today. And cumulatively, 6,03,46,913 doses have been administered," the official said.

 

Altogether 5.8 lakh beneficiaries got the jab on Monday, he said.

 

Meanwhile, West Bengal's Covid-19 toll on Tuesday rose to 18,848 after 11 more people, one less than the previous day, succumbed to the disease, the state health department said in a bulletin.

11:56 PM

Central team in Mizoram to assess COVID-19 situation amid surge in infections

A four-member central team, led by National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) consultant-epidemiologist Dr Vinita Gupta, arrived in Aizawl on Tuesday to assess the COVID-19 situation, amid the surge infections in the state, an official statement here said.

 

Shortly after the team's arrival in the state capital on Tuesday, its members held a meeting with officials of State Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), chief medical officers (CMOs) of Aizawl East and Aizawl West and discussed ways to combat the situation.

 

The team will hold another virtual meeting with chief medical officers of various districts on Wednesday to review the measures being taken to control the spread of the disease across the state, the statement said.

11:15 PM

Three Covid deaths, 155 new cases in Himachal Pradesh

Three more people died from COVID-19 in Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday as 155 fresh cases pushed the state's infection count to 2,19,746, an official said on Tuesday.

 

So far, the infection has claimed 3,672 lives in the state.

 

Of the fresh deaths, two were reported from Kangra and one from Una district, he added.

 

Meanwhile, 161 more patients recovered from the infection, the official said.

 

The active cases today stood at 1,400, he added.

 

The number of recoveries has reached 2,14,657, the official said.

10:07 PM

24 fresh cases raise Sikkim's Covid tally to 31,561

Sikkim has reported 24 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the tally to 31,561, a health department bulletin said on Tuesday.

 

The death toll due to the disease remained unchanged at 388 as no fresh fatalities were reported.

 

Of the new cases, East Sikkim district registered 18, followed by West Sikkim (four) and South Sikkim (two).

 

The Himalayan state now has 421 active cases, while 316 patients have migrated to other states.

 

Altogether 30,436 coronavirus infected people have recovered from the disease, the bulletin said.

 

Sikkim has tested 469 samples for coronavirus in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of such tests to 2.51 lakh so far.

 

The state's Covid-19 positivity and recovery rates are 5.1 per cent and 97.4 per cent respectively, the bulletin said.

9:47 PM

Delhi reports 27 Covid cases, zero death in a day; positivity rate 0.05%

The national capital reported 27 cases of COVID-19 and zero death in a day while the positivity rate stood at 0.05 per cent, according to data shared by the health department here on Tuesday.

 

Delhi has recorded only one death due to the infection in October so far. Last month, five people succumbed to the viral disease.

 

With the new cases, the coronavirus infection tally in the city climbed to 14,39,027. Of this, over 14.13 lakh patients have recovered from the disease. The death toll stands at 25,088. According to the health bulletin, authorities conducted only 55,537 tests, including 34,326 RT-PCR ones, the previous day. There are 349 active Covid cases in Delhi, of which 109 are in home isolation. The number of containment zones stands at 100.

9:11 PM

CO2 monitors can track indoor Covid risk

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a way of using carbon dioxide (CO2) monitors to help estimate the risk of catching Covid-19 and other airborne diseases in near real time.

 

The researchers said that it could help track the evolving risk of transmission in indoor spaces such as schools and offices and may also lay the groundwork for air quality monitoring systems of the future.

 

"CO2 monitoring has been used for decades to assess the quality of air handling in buildings, and can now be re-purposed to assess the risk of indoor airborne disease transmission, including Covid-19," said Martin Z. Bazant, professor of chemical engineering and applied mathematics at MIT.

 

"We've shown how it can be used in conjunction with our safety guideline to assess that risk and hope to inform personal and policy decisions about closing and re-opening indoor spaces, such as schools and businesses," he added.

8:54 PM

Mumbai reports 433 new Covid-19 cases, 2 deaths, 525 recoveries

Mumbai logged 433 new coronavirus cases and two fresh deaths on Tuesday, taking the infection tally to 7,45,163 and the toll to 16,129, a civic official said.

The city witnessed a rise in cases, but daily fatalities remained unchanged as compared to Monday, when it reported 341 infections cases and two deaths. According to the BMC official, with 31,969 COVID-19 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, their cumulative number climbed to 1,05,34,673.

8:38 PM

The Emergency Use Listing process is centred on determining if a manufactured product is quality-assured: WHO

8:29 PM

'Final decision' on Covaxin clearance next week, says WHO

8:04 PM

Hockey India withdraws from 2022 Commonwealth Games over Covid concern

7:50 PM

Ladakh reports 3 new Covid cases, 5 discharged

Ladakh on Tuesday reported three fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to 20,825 while the active cases in the Union Territory came down to 50, officials said.

Ladakh has registered 207 Covid-related deaths -- 149 in Leh and 58 in Kargil -- since the outbreak of the pandemic last year.

Five patients of coronavirus infection were cured and discharged from hospitals, taking the tally of cured patients to 20,658, they said.

7:40 PM

Nashik sees 63 new Covid-19 cases; two more deaths

With the addition of 63 fresh cases of Covid-19, the tally of infections in Maharashtra's Nashik district rose to 4,08,856 on Tuesday, an official said.

Apart from this, 71 patients were discharged from hospitals, while two died of the infection during the day, taking the toll to 8,641 and the count of recoveries to 3,99,314, the official said.

According to the district authorities, 357 casualties have been reported from Malegaon, 3,986 from Nashik city and 4,172 in other parts of the district so far.

 

7:14 PM

One in 7 children have mental health issues & Covid has exaggerated that: UNICEF India

6:28 PM

Kerala reports 9,735 new Covid-19 cases

6:05 PM

AstraZeneca asks FDA to authorise Covid antibody treatment

AstraZeneca, the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker that developed one of the first COVID-19 vaccines, has asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to authorise the emergency use of an antibody treatment to prevent the disease.

The company said Tuesday that the treatment, known as AZD7442, would be the first long-acting antibody combination to receive an emergency use authorization for COVID-19 prevention. The treatment may help protect people whose immune systems don't respond adequately to vaccination, AstraZeneca said.