Covid LIVE: 3rd phase trial of Bharat Biotech vaccine starts in Chennai

Coronavirus live updates: At 1,852,266, Maharashtra has the highest number of coronavirus cases, followed by Karnataka 893,006, Andhra Pradesh 871,972, Tamil Nadu 790,240, and Kerala 636,392

2:01 AM

Most populous Brazil state aims to start vaccination

The governor of Brazil's Sao Paulo state said on Monday that vaccination against the coronavirus is slated to begin on Jan 25.
 

“We're not turning our backs on the national vaccination plan, but we need to be more agile, and so we're anticipating,” said Gov. João Doria, whose state is home to 46 million people.
 

“Why start vaccination that saves the lives of millions only in March, if we can do it in January? We're losing more than 600 lives every day,” he told reporters.
 

The potential CoronaVac vaccine is being developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical firm Sinovac and would be mostly produced by Sao Paulo's state-run Butantan Institute. It has yet to be approved by Brazil's health regulator, Anvisa.
 

Assuming CoronaVac is approved, the first phase of Sao Paulo's program would provide two shots free of charge to 9 million people, of whom 7.5 million are over 60 years old, according to Doria's presentation.

2:00 AM

Assam reports 2 more Covid deaths, 166 new cases

Two more persons succumbed to Covid-19 on Monday taking the death toll to 995, while 166 new infections pushed the tally to 2,13,925, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
 

He said that 131 coronavirus patients recovered from the disease and the number of total discharged people went up to 2,09,342.
 

Assam currently has 3,585 active cases, while three patients had migrated out of the state.
 

"Sad to share the demise of two #Covid patients today... Condolences & Prayers!" Sarma said on Twitter.
 

The two fresh fatalities were reported from Tinsukia and Kamrup Metropolitan districts, the minister added.
 

The death toll now increased to 995.
 

However, Sarma had earlier said on multiple occasions that several hundred more Covid-19 patients have died, but the government's Death Audit Board has not included them in the tally of deaths as they had other ailments too.
 

"166 Cases detected out of 29475 tests conducted with positivity rate of 0.56%," the minister tweeted.
 

Assam thus tested 54,91,479 samples for Covid-19 to date.

1:59 AM

Sikkim reports six new Covid-19 cases, two more deaths

Sikkim's Covid-19 caseload rose to 5,203 as six more people tested positive for the disease, while two fresh fatalities pushed the toll to 117, an official said on Monday.
 

A 27-year-old woman and a man, aged 50, died due to coronavirus infection, Sonam Bhutia, a member of Sikkim Information, Education and Communication (IEC) panel, said.
 

They had comorbidities, the official said.
 

East Sikkim registered four new cases and one each was reported from West and South Sikkim districts.
 

Sikkim has 371 active cases, while 4,622 people have recovered from the disease and 93 migrated to other states.
 

The state has so far conducted 64,029 sample tests for Covid-19, including 43 in the past 24 hours, the official added.

1:58 AM

Years of research laid groundwork for speedy Covid-19 shots

How could scientists race out Covid-19 vaccines so fast without cutting corners? A head start helped -- over a decade of behind-the-scenes research that had new vaccine technology poised for a challenge just as the coronavirus erupted.
 

“The speed is a reflection of years of work that went before,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, told The Associated Press.
 

“That's what the public has to understand.” Creating vaccines and having results from rigorous studies less than a year after the world discovered a never-before-seen disease is incredible, cutting years off normal development. But the two US frontrunners are made in a way that promises speedier development may become the norm -- especially if they prove to work long-term as well as early testing suggests.
 

“Abject giddiness,” is how Dr. C. Buddy Creech, a Vanderbilt University vaccine expert, described scientists' reactions when separate studies showed the two candidates were about 95 per cent effective.
 

“I think we enter into a golden age of vaccinology by having these types of new technologies,” Creech said at a briefing of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

10:41 PM

19 more coronavirus deaths in Punjab pushes toll to 4,934; 620 new cases take infection tally to 1,56,839: Health bulletin

10:40 PM

Vaccine update

CDSCO to evaluate applications for emergency use nod for COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer, Serum Institute, Bharat Biotech on Wednesday: Source

10:40 PM

Two more deaths, 86 new coronavirus cases reported in Chandigarh

Two more deaths due to COVID-19 in Chandigarh pushed the toll to 293 while 86 new cases took the infection count to 18,113 on Monday, official data showed.

 

There are 921 active cases as of now in the Union territory, according to a medical bulletin.

 

A total of 85 patients were discharged after they recovered from infection, taking the number of cured persons to 16,899, the bulletin said.

 

A total of 1,52,801 samples have been taken for testing so far with 1,33,852 testing negative while reports of 161 samples were awaited, as per the bulletin.

10:39 PM

Uttar Pradesh coronavirus update: 1,515 fresh Covid-19 cases, 20 deaths

With 1,515 fresh cases, the total number of those infected by coronavirus went up to 5,56,397 in Uttar Pradesh, while the death toll rose to 7,944 following 20 more deaths on Monday.

 

The total number of active cases stood at 21,732, of which, 10,241 are in home isolation and 2,122 in private hospitals, Additional Chief Secretar (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said.

 

Till now, 5,26,721 people have recovered and discharged from hospitals, he said, adding that 1,861 people were discharged in the past 24 hours.

 

The recovery rate of the state stands at 94.67 per cent, the official said.

 

According to a health department bulletin, 248 fresh COVID-19 cases were reported from Lucknow, 176 from Meerut and 155 in Ghaziabad among others.

 

Two deaths each have been reported from Kanpur Nagar, Varanasi, Fatehpur and one each from Lucknow , Prayagraj, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Muzaffarnagar, Hardoi, Etawah, Gonda, Ghazipur, Farrukhabad, Unnao, Mainpuri, Kanpur Dehat and Kasganj, it said.

 

Over 1.44 lakh tests were done in the state on Sunday taking the total number of tests conducted so far to over 2.04 crore, Prasad added.

9:42 PM

Madhya Pradesh records 1,307 new Covid-19 cases, infection tally rises to 2,15,957: Health officials

9:42 PM

Bharat Biotech seeks from DCGI emergency use authorisation for its indigenously developed COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin

9:01 PM

Goa reports 90 Covid-19 cases, 3 deaths on Monday; 154 discharged

Goa's coronavirus caseload went up by 90 and reached 48,776 on Monday, while three patients died and 154 recovered during the day, an official said. The toll in the state is now 701, while the number of people who have recovered stands at 46,778, leaving it with 1,297 active cases, he said.

A total of 1,575 samples were tested during the day, he added. Goa's Covid-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases 48,776, new cases 90, death toll 701, discharged 46,778, active cases 1,297, samples tested till date 3,60,920.

8:56 PM

Pak reports 3,795 new Covid-19 cases, highest number of daily cases since June 2

Pakistan on Monday recorded 3,795 coronavirus cases, the highest spike in daily new infections since July 2, raising the nationwide case count to 420,294, the health ministry said. The country also reported 37 more deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the total number of fatalities to 8,398. A total of 2,539 virus patients are in critical condition, said the Ministry of National Health Services.

The 3,795-new cases has also raised the country-wide coronavirus positivity rate to 9.71 per cent. It was also the highest daily case count since July 2 when the country reported 4,087 cases, the Dawn newspaper said. Monday was also the fifth straight day that more than 3,000 new cases have been reported. After carrying out 39,076 tests in the last 24 hour, the national tally of cases reached 420,294, the health ministry said. At least 356,542 people have recovered in the country, and the number of active patients is 55,354.

8:46 PM

Mumbai records 544 Covid-19 cases, 1,598 recoveries; 11 die

Mumbai's Covid-19 tally increased to 2,86,590 on Monday with the addition of 544 new cases, while nearly 1,600 patients were discharged from hospitals following recovery, the city civic body said. This was the ninth straight day when the city has recorded less than 1,000 new coronavirus cases. According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) updated data, the financial capital reported 11 fresh fatalities, the second lowest single-day count so far this month, taking the death toll to 10,913.

On December 1, Mumbai had witnessed nine deaths, the lowest in several months. According to the data, the number of recovered cases increased to 2,62,789, about 92 per cent of the total tally, with 1,598 more Covid-19 patients discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours. The city now has 12,065 active Covid-19 cases, the BMC said.

8:34 PM

Maharashtra sees 3,075 new Covid-19 cases, 7,345 recoveries; 40 die

Maharashtra's Covid-19 tally rose to 18,55,341 on Monday with the addition of 3,075 fresh infections, the state health department said. With 40 persons succumbing to the viral infection during the day, the overall fatality count rose to 47,774, it said in a statement.
 

At the same time, 7,345 patients were discharged from hospitals in the day, taking the count of recoveries to 17,30,715, it said. The state is now left with 75,767 active cases.

8:12 PM

UK to Brexit-proof Pfizer coronavirus vaccine supplies from Belgium

Britain said on Monday that plans are being put in place to ensure the transportation of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against Covid-19 is not affected in the event of no agreement being clinched with the European Union by the end of the Brexit transition period on December 31. The first vaccine doses have been arriving from Pfizer's manufacturing site in Belgium after the UK's independent regulator gave the official go-ahead for its rollout from this week. However, the bulk of the supply is expected in the New Year and the UK's Road Haulage Association has warned that a failure to agree an EU-UK post-Brexit trade deal by the end of this month could see "significant disruption" to the flow of goods for many months.

"We have looked at use of non-commercial flights, we've got border arrangements in place," Foreign Office minister James Cleverly told UK media outlets in reference to Brexit-proofing vaccine supplies. This could "potentially" involve the armed forces being deployed if required, as the minister added: "This is such an important product, it's probably perhaps the most important product, so we will look to ensure that those supplies are available in the UK in whatever circumstance."