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1 min read Last Updated : Aug 19 2021 | 2:24 AM IST

Key Events

2:24 AM

Turkey reports 19,944 daily COVID-19 cases

Turkey on Wednesday registered 19,944 new COVID-19 cases, raising its tally of infections to 6,138,452, according to its health ministry. The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 168 to 53,675, while 15,537 more people recovered in the last 24 hours.
 
A total of 295,206 tests were conducted over the past day, it said.
 
Turkey started mass COVID-19 vaccination on Jan. 14 after the authorities approved the emergency use of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine. More than 45.02 million people have received their first doses of vaccines, while over 34.12 million had their second doses. Turkey has so far administered over 86.41 million doses including third booster jabs.

1:03 AM

Discharges outnumber new Covid cases in Karnataka

Karnataka logged 1,365 new Covid cases against 1,558 discharges, while 22 fresh deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, a statement said on Wednesday. The positivity rate for the day stood at 0.76 per cent and the case fatality rate at 1.61 per cent. The total active cases stood at 21,266, according to the state Health Department bulletin.
 
Bengaluru Urban recorded 327 positive cases, 318 discharges and two deaths in the last 24 hours. Its total active cases stood at 7,920. The numbers of micro containment zones in the city has come down to 130. Mahadevapura zone is still in top of the list with 27 micro containment zones.
 
The authorities have been successful in deactivating as many as 783 micro containment zones amongst declared 913 zones. Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar has stated that creating micro containment zones in the city helped authorities to deal with the containment of the disease effectively.

12:01 AM

Maharashtra has 7 high-burden districts; less than 10 active cases in six districts

Just seven districts, including Pune, account for bulk of the COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra, while half a dozen other districts have less than ten active cases currently.
 
This information was revealed in a presentation made before Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and his cabinet colleagues on Wednesday. Maharashtra, the worst coronavirus-affected state in the country, has 36 districts. There is no active COVID-19 case in Nandurbar district as of now, while Dhule, Washim, Yavatmal, Bhandara, Wardha and Gondia districts have less than ten coronavirus patients under treatment, said an official. Districts such as Parbhani, Hingoli, Nanded, Amravati, Akola, Buldana, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli have less than 100 active cases of the infection. 

10:57 PM

Bengal reports 646 new COVID-19 cases, 7 fresh fatalities

West Bengal's COVID-19 tally rose to 15,40,258 on Wednesday as 646 more people tested positive for the infection, while seven fresh fatalities pushed the state's coronavirus death toll to 18,325, a health bulletin said.
 
As many as 660 more people were cured of the disease, taking the recovery rate to 98.18 per cent.
 
The state now has 9,715 active cases, while 15,12,218 people have recovered from the disease to date.
 
West Bengal has thus far tested 1,64,94,077 samples for COVID-19, including 44,044 in the last 24 hours, it said, adding the positivity rate stood at 1.47 per cent.
 
The state has so far vaccinated 3,49,31,229 people, including 3,49,079 on Wednesday.

9:50 PM

Received over 6,800 applications under Covid relief scheme since Jul 6: Delhi govt

The Delhi government has received over 6,800 applications from families of Covid victims for benefits under the "Mukhyamantri COVID-19 Pariwar Aarthik Sahayata Yojana", a social security scheme. According to data shared by the government on Wednesday, it has received 4,165 applications for one-time ex-gratia payment of Rs 50,000 from July 6 till Tuesday afternoon.
 
Separately, it received 2,753 applications for monthly assistance under the scheme, the data showed.
 
The applications will be verified by district officials, and subsequently, the amount will be disbursed, the government said.
 
Delhi's death toll due to the pandemic stands at 25,073. The scheme was launched by the city government on July 6. The scheme has a provision for ex-gratia of Rs 50,000 to families that have lost loved ones to COVID-19. It also provides for a pension of Rs 2,500 per month if the deceased was the family's sole breadwinner.

9:14 PM

Nashik sees 81 new COVID-19 cases; two more fatalities

The count of COVID-19 cases in Nashik district of Maharashtra rose to 4,04,306, after 81 persons tested positive for the infection on Wednesday, an official said.
 
At least 114 patients were discharged from hospitals, while two died of the infection during the day, raising the count of recoveries to 3,94,718 and toll to 8,555, the official said.
 
Of the total number of COVID-19 cases, 2,29,006 were reported from Nashik city, 1,53,100 from other parts of the district, 12,607 from Malegaon and 5,677 from outside the district, it was stated.
 
As many as 23,87,584 swab samples have been tested in the district till date, of which 5,111 were tested during the day, he added.

8:47 PM

US to make vaccine booster shots widely available to all Americans

8:23 PM

India provided 200,000 vaccine doses for UN Peacekeeping personnel worldwide in March this year.

7:43 PM

Bengaluru: Civic agency BBMP calls upon people to shed vaccine hesitation

7:41 PM

Maharashtra records 5,132 fresh Covid cases

7:06 PM

Mumbai: No vaccination in government and municipal corporation-run centres on August 19, 20

7:02 PM

WHO holds a briefing on Covid as the Delta variant spreads

6:28 PM

Andhra sees 1,433 new Covid-19 cases, 15 deaths

Andhra Pradesh reported 1,433 fresh cases of coronavirus, 1,815 recoveries and 15 deaths in 24 hours ending 9 am on Wednesday, PTI reported.

The number of active cases reduced further by 397 to 15,944, the latest bulletin said. The gross Covid-19 positives touched 19,97,102. The total recoveries went up to 19,67,472 and deaths to 13,686, according to the bulletin.

6:09 PM

Kerala reports 21,427 new cases, 179 deaths

5:46 PM

Vaccine nationalism may help emergence of novel variants, warn researchers

Coronavirus updates: India recorded 35,178  new Covid-19 cases and 440 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking its tally to 32,285,857 and the death toll to 432,519. 

The Centre will provide a financial package of Rs 1,300 crore to the Northeastern states to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya announced on Tuesday.

Reviewing the Covid-19 situation with health ministers of all the Northeastern states, Mandaviya said the fund is being provided to purchase medicines, enhance oxygen supply, increase beds -- general, ICU and children -- at local and district-level hospitals.

World coronavirus update: Covid-19 is continuing to spread around the world, with 209,334,368 confirmed cases and 4,393,437 deaths across nearly 200 countries recorded since China reported its first cases in December 2019. The US remains the worst-hit country with 37,892,089 cases, followed by India, Brazil, Russia and France. 

To read updates from our yesterday's blog, click here

Topics :CoronavirusDelta variant of coronavirusWorld Health OrganizationCoronavirus VaccineHealth Ministry

First Published: Aug 18 2021 | 7:27 AM IST