Covid LIVE: TN allows theatres to operate with 50% occupancy from Aug 23

The company said on Friday that it had submitted an application to the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) on August 17 in this regard

7:43 AM

Arunachal Pradesh reports 125 new COVID-19 cases, 2 fresh fatalities

Arunachal Pradesh reported 125 fresh COVID-19 cases, pushing the virus tally in the northeastern state to 52,044, a senior health department official said here on Saturday.

 

The COVID-19 death toll in the frontier state increased to 257, with two more persons succumbing to the infection in the past two days, State Surveillance Officer (SSO) Dr Lobsang Jampa said.

7:27 AM

Ladakh records 3 fresh COVID-19 cases

The total number of COVID-19 cases in Ladakh climbed to 20,483 as three more people tested positive for the disease in the union territory, officials said on Saturday.

 

With 12 more patients recovering from the disease, the number of active cases dropped to 72, they said.

 

So far, Ladakh has recorded 207 Covid-related deaths -- 149 in Leh and 58 in Kargil.

7:03 AM

Sri Lanka announces 10-day quarantine curfew

A 10-day nationwide quarantine curfew has been imposed in Sri Lanka in order to prevent the further spread of Covid-19, the country's Army Commander General Shavendra Silva announced.

 

Silva, also Head of the National Operations Centre for Prevention of Covid-19, told Xinhua news agency that the curfew came into effect from 10 p.m. Friday and will be lifted at 4 a.m. on August 30.

 

However, essential services such as those in agriculture, apparel, construction workers, and pharmacies can continue to operate, he said.

6:45 AM

First cases reported from Athletes' Village at Paralympic Games

The Tokyo Paralympic Games organising committee on Saturday confirmed the first two cases of Covid-19 inside the Athletes' Village.

 

With two days to go for the opening ceremony, the latest figures released by the organising committee reveal a total of 15 new cases in the last 24 hours. No athlete has reported positive so far as the two cases from the Village are among the staff, though a large number of participants have reached Tokyo and some are still in quarantine.Of the 15 cases confirmed on Saturday, five are from among 'Games Related Persons', which includes representatives of the International Paralympic Committee, the International Olympic Committee, National Olympic Committees and international federations.The remaining 10 cases have been reported from among the Paralympic Games contractors and their workers. Those tested positive have been isolated.

6:34 AM

Delta worsens in Australia

Australia’s reported its highest daily number of new Covid-19 cases, with infections in New South Wales jumping almost 30% in one day and the spreading delta variant outbreak forcing neighboring Victoria state to expand its lockdown beyond the city of Melbourne.

 

New South Wales recorded 825 cases on Saturday, up from 642 on Friday, while three people had died, according to the state government. Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters that concern remains high in relation to western New South Wales, where the outbreak is spreading into vulnerable indigenous communities.

 

Victoria reported 61 new cases on Saturday, according to a tweet from the state’s health department, while the Australian Capital Territory had eight. The national total number of total infections rose to 894, surpassing the previous daily high of 754 two days earlier.

 

6:22 AM

Mizoram reports 645 new COVID-19 cases, single day positivity rate 9.56%

Mizoram on Saturday reported 645 new COVID-19 cases, with a single-day positivity rate of 9.56 per cent, a health department official said.

 

The 645 new cases, which included 118 children, pushed the tally to 51,604, he said.

 

The fresh cases were reported from various districts with Aizawl district reporting the highest at 391, followed by Kolasib at 76 and Lawngtlai at 59, he said.

6:05 AM

Pfizer set for full approval

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is poised to fully approve Pfizer Inc.’s vaccine early next week as President Joe Biden’s administration tries to woo more Americans to get the shot.

 

5:27 AM

Immunocompromised people nearly half of Covid-19 breakthrough hospitalisations, extra vax dose may help

The US Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officially recommended on Aug 12 and Aug 13, 2021, respectively, that people who are moderately to severely immunocompromised receive a third dose of the C0vid-19 vaccine. One reason for this recommendation is high hospitalisation rates among immunocompromised people who are vaccinated. 

 

As of July 2021, nearly half of the vaccinated people hospitalised with breakthrough Covid-19 infections were immunocompromised despite making up only 2.7% of the US adult population. 

 

In comparison, the rate of breakthrough cases among vaccinated people who are not immunocompromised was less than 1%. 

 

4:55 AM

India records 34,457 fresh Covid-19 cases, 375 deaths

A single-day rise of 34,457 Covid-19 cases pushed India's tally to 32,393,286 on Saturday, while the number of active cases declined to 361,340, the lowest in 151 days, according to Union health ministry data.

 

The death toll climbed to 433,964 with 375 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

 

The 361,340 active cases comprise 1.12 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March last year. The national Covid-19 recovery rate stands at 97.54 per cent, the highest since March last year, the ministry said.

 

A reduction of 2,265 cases has been recorded in the active caseload in a span of 24 hours.

 

The daily positivity rate stands at 2 per cent. It has been less than 3 per cent for the last 26 days, according to the ministry.

 

4:39 AM

India reports 34,457 news cases in the last 24 hours

India reports 34,457 news cases in the last 24 hours

4:36 AM

Thane district reports 220 new cases, nine more deaths

The COVID-19 caseload in Thane district of Maharashtra grew by 220 to reach 5,49,213, an official said on Saturday.

 

These cases were reported on Friday, he said.

 

With nine persons succumbing to the infection during the day, the death toll in the district rose to 11,230.

4:18 AM

US Covid-19 hospitalisation rate for children hits highest level

The Covid-19 hospitalisation rates for children in the US hit its highest levels ever, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday.

 

As for adults, every age group under 50 has also surpassed its previous record of hospitalisation, said a media report, adding that "the biggest increase was in adults ages 30 to 39 and children under 18, both of which were more than 30 per cent higher than their previous peak", the Xinhua news agency reported.

3:56 AM

No deaths due to oxygen shortage in state: Hry govt tells Assembly

No deaths due to a lack of oxygen have been reported in Haryana during the Covid pandemic, the state government informed the assembly on Friday.

 

In a written reply to a question, Health Minister Anil Vij said the state has reported a total of 9,665 Covid-related deaths till August 20.

 

No deaths due to a lack of oxygen has been reported in the state, Vij said in his reply to a question by Congress MLA Aftab Ahmed who sought to know if anyone had died due to oxygen shortage amid the ongoing pandemic.

3:38 AM

Zydus Cadila's Covid vaccine for children above 12 years gets EUA in India

The world’s first DNA-plasmid vaccine, the three-dose one for Covid-19 developed by Cadila Healthcare (Zydus Cadila), has received emergency-use authorisation from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for use in adolescents 12 years old and above.

 

This makes indigenously developed ZyCoV-D India’s first Covid-19 vaccine for this age group, and the vaccine has many firsts. It is based on DNA-plasmid technology; then, it can be administered using a needle-free injection system; and finally, it remains stable in room temperatures for three months.

 

This is a three-dose vaccine whose second and the third doses are 28 and 56 days, respectively, after the first.

3:10 AM

Global Covid-19 caseload tops 210.7 mn

The global coronavirus caseload has topped 210.7 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 4.41 million and vaccinations soared to over 4.86 billion, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

 

In its latest update on Saturday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload, death toll and vaccination tally stood at 210,783,833, 4,413,673 and 4,867,003,253, respectively.

 

The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 37,611,752 and 627,833, respectively, according to the CSSE.