Coronavirus LIVE: Bharat Biotech's vaccine gets nod for phase 3 trials

Coronavirus update: Maharashtra has 1,625,197 coronavirus cases, Andhra Pradesh 796,000, Karnataka 782,773, Tamil Nadu 700,000 and UP 463,858. Stay tuned for coronavirus India LIVE updates

3:26 PM

Will Kannadigas not get free Covid-19 vaccine: Siddaramaiah taunts BJP over Bihar poll promise

3:15 PM

70% success rate in Goa with Remdesivir, plasma steroid treatment

Health authorities in Goa have achieved a 70 per cent success rate with the combination of antiviral Remdesivir, plasma and steroid treatment for Covid-19 patients, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said on Friday and added that the state government would continue the successful treatment protocol.

3:01 PM

Tripura records 145 fresh Covid-19 cases, 5 deaths

Tripura reported at least 145 fresh Covid-19 cases on Friday, pushing the tally to 30,070,  while the death toll rose to 336 with five fatalities, a  health department official said

2:35 PM

Govt plans special immunisation programme for coronavirus vaccine

The coronavirus vaccine, once available, will be distributed under a special Covid-19 immunisation programme with the Centre procuring the doses directly and making it available for priority groups, official sources said.

 

According to them, the Centre will procure the vaccine directly to make it available to the priority groups free-of-charge through the existing network of states and districts.

 

States have been asked not to chart separate pathways of procurement, they said.

 

The Centre, with the help of state and union territory governments, has started the process of identifying around 30 crore priority beneficiaries who would be given vaccine dose in the initial phase.

2:28 PM

Ahead of bypolls, MP CM says poor to get coronavirus vaccine for free

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has announced that Covid-19 vaccine, when available, will be administered free of cost to the poor in the state.

 

Chouhan said: "Since the time Covid-19 vaccine trials started in India, there has been one discussion among the poor people -- 'whether we will be able to afford the vaccine?' Today, I want to make it clear that every poor person in Madhya Pradesh will get the vaccine free of cost. We will win this battle." Read on...

2:05 PM

Coronavirus vaccine update: Bharat Biotech's vaccine gets nod for phase 3 trials

 Covaxin, the coronavirus vaccine being developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has been cleared for the third phase of clinical trials. Read on...

1:49 PM

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal hails corona warriors

The chief minister hailed the "corona warriors" of the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital, who have either lost their lives or continue to serve in the frontline.

1:33 PM

DRDO praises Air Force for supporting its weapon trials, anti-Covid-19 measures

"The Indian Air Force has given us active support for our trials and anti-COVID-19 measures. Without their active support, it would not have been possible to carry out many of our weapon trials at short notice as well as transportation of men and material to fight against Covid-19," Reddy told ANI when asked about the role of Air Force in supporting DRDO in recent times.

 

In last six to seven weeks, the DRDO has carried out more than a dozen successful trials of different weapon systems including the Shaurya strategic missile, Nag anti-tank guided missile, BrahMos Extended Range missile system, Hypersonic Missile Technology Demonstration Vehicle and the Rudram-1 anti-radiation missile system.

 

In the last six months, the Indian Air Force has flown more than 160 hours for supporting the missions of Defence Research and Development Organisation for Covid-19 relief and weapon trials.

1:32 PM

Puducherry coronavirus update: 158 fresh Covid cases, overall tally rises

Puducherry registered 158 fresh coronavirus cases taking the overall tally in the union territory to 33,986, a top Health department official said on Friday.

 

The new cases in the last 24 hours were identified at the end of the examination of 3,784 samples, Director of Health and Family Welfare S Mohan Kumar said in a release.

 

The overall tally of infections rose to 33,986 (after transfer of four cases to Tamil Nadu). Read on...

1:19 PM

Coronavirus India and the World: A look at where India stands among 10 most affected countries

1:15 PM

Coronavirus data story: After two months, India's active case count drops below 700,000 mark

India's count of coronavirus tests has exceeded the 100-million mark, with 1,442,722 tests being conducted on Thursday. Read on...

1:13 PM

European nations tighten anti-coronavirus measures

Amid a resurgence of fresh coronavirus cases across Europe, several countries in the continent have tightened their measures against the pandemic and in an effort to curb the further spreading of the disease.

 

While Germany and France saw their infection tallies hit new single-day highs on Thursday, the UK, Poland, the Netherlands, Austria, Croatia and Lithuania have all reported new daily records since pandemic began, reports Xinhua news agency.

 

Germany's Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the federal government agency for disease control and prevention, announced on Thursday that Covid-19 infections in the country increased by a record 11,287 within one day, pushing the total to 392,049.

1:00 PM

Asymptomatic children have low coronavirus levels compared to those with symptoms, study finds

An analysis of over 800 pediatric cases of the novel coronavirus infection has revealed that most asymptomatic children have significantly low levels of the virus compared to those who experience symptoms, findings which raise concern about the use of low sensitivity diagnostic tests for screening the pediatric population.

 

However, the study, published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, cautioned that the reason for this finding is unclear, while it also remains to be explained how lower viral loads impact the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

 

"While these findings provide some reassurance about the safety of asymptomatically infected children attending school, these unanswered questions suggest that risk mitigation measures in daycares, schools and the community remain critical to reduce the spread of COVID-19," said study first author Larry Kociolek, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital in the US.

 

"Children must continue to wear masks, maintain social distance and wash their hands frequently," Kociolek said.

12:20 PM

Coronavirus gives fragile Rohtang Pass recovery time

The Coronavirus-induced lockdowns have cleaned up the fragile Rohtang Pass with the piles of trash almost vanished and nature making a comeback in the cold, rugged and rocky mountains of the Pir Panjal range of the Himalayas -- the origin of one of North India's major rivers, the Beas.

 

Also the vehicular pollution plummeting to levels unseen in the living memory.

 

"What a pleasant surprise to see no littering of trash in hills en route to the Rohtang Pass," remarked Nikita Pandey, a tourist from Delhi.

 

"We should be thankful to Covid-induced lockdowns that gave nature a recovery time to regain its glory," she told IANS, while pointing towards spots where non-biodegradable waste was normally dumped carelessly along the banks of the glacial-fed Beas river near Marhi, en route to the Rohtang Pass from Manali.

11:28 AM

West Bengal coronavirus update: Mamata Banerjee mourns demise of BDO

Wangdi Gyalpo Bhutia, an official of the West Bengal government succumbed to coronavirus today

 

Condoling his demise, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted, "We have lost yet another colleague in the battle against Covid. He has been suffering from the disease for quite some time and succumbed to it this morning."