India Covid Dispatch: Country's vaccination coverage crosses 500-mn mark

Stories from around the country on the fight against the pandemic

Over 38,000 fresh cases reported

India reported 38,268 fresh coronavirus infections on Saturday, taking the cumulative caseload to about 31.9 million, according to central health ministry data. The country saw 617 more deaths due to the pandemic, taking the death toll to 427,371. The active caseload is at 412,153, while the total recoveries have surged to 31 million. As many as 501 million vaccine shots have been administered since the nationwide inoculation programme kicked off on January 16. Of these, 4.9 million were given on Friday. Read more.

Over 500 million Covid vaccine doses administered

India's Covid vaccination campaign has crossed the milestone of 500 million doses, PTI reported. “India soars high on #COVID19 vaccination, historic record of 50 crore doses administered to date!” Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in a tweet. He said the country took 85 days to touch the figure of 100 million. It then took 45 days to cross the 200 million mark and 29 more days to reach 300 million. India took another 24 days to reach 400 million and 20 more days to cross 500 million vaccinations, the report said. Read more.

Bhandara is the first district in Maharashtra to become Covid free

With the last active Covid patient in Maharashtra's Bhandara district being discharged on Friday, it is the first in the state to become free of Coovid cases, a report in The Indian Express said. None of the 578 people tested on Friday turned out to be positive for the infection. The district had reported its first Covid patient on April 27 last year, and had seen a peak of 1,596 positive cases in a single day on April 12 this year. The district had reported its highest number of active cases — 12,847 — on April 18, the report said. Read more.

Covid patient develops rare white fungus abscess in brain after recovery

A patient who recovered from the Covid in Hyderabad developed a rare case of white fungus or Aspergillus forming an abscess in the brain, media reports said. The patient who recovered from the viral disease in May complained of weakness in limbs and difficulty in speech. When doctors conducted a scan of the patient’s brain, they found clot-like formations that did not reduce despite medication. It was only after surgery was conducted that the doctors detected that the white fungus had formed an abscess in the brain, the report said. Read more.

Cornea donations greatly reduced because of pandemic: Study

A study of corneal donations in Aravind Eye Hospital found that during the Covid pandemic, the number of donations had fallen drastically, a report in The Hindu said. This hurt patients who required corneal transplants to heal ulcers — some of them have lost their sight permanently. The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Cornea, found that the delay in presentation and acute shortage of donor corneal tissues for emergency keratoplasty because of the pandemic had resulted in irreversible blindness in a significant number of patients. Read more.