Covid LIVE: Kerala CM rules out complete lockdown for economic reasons

Coronavirus LIVE updates: India's active Covid-19 cases increase to 400,000. Delhi reported 39 Covid-19 cases and no fatality. Stay tuned for corona updates

1:10 PM

New Zealand's new cases fall

The number of new coronavirus cases in New Zealand fell significantly on Friday, raising hopes among health officials that they have contained an Auckland outbreak of the delta variant. Officials recorded 28 new local cases, down from 49 a day earlier and more than 80 a day during the peak last month, the AP reported.

12:23 PM

Guidelines on international travel: India lists more countries for post-arrival RTPCR test

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday imposed restrictions on passengers from additional countries, citing the reports of new mutations in SARS-CoV-2 and the rising number of "Variants of Concern (VOCs) and Variants of Interest (Vols) globally".

 

Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan asked chief secretaries of States/UTs referring to the updated guidelines on international travel to strengthen their Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) activities.

 

The Ministry has added to the list of UK, EU and Middle East more countries including South Africa, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand and Zimbabwe.

 

International travellers from all these countries would now need RTPCR negative reports to get on flights to India and RTPCR testing upon arrival here.

 

"Considering the reports of new mutations in SARS-CoV-2 and rising number of Variants of Concern (VoCs) and Variants of Interest (Vols) globally, the following countries have been added in the scope of part B of MoHFW's Guidelines on International Arrival, in addition to existing Countries in "Part-B" i.e. United Kingdom, Europe and Middle East," Bhushan said in a statement.

 

"More countries including South Africa, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand and Zimbabwe. International travellers from all these countries would now need RTPCR negative reports to get on flights to India and RTPCR testing upon arrival here," it added.

 

11:57 AM

Coronavirus LIVE updates: Pakistan reports 3,787 new cases, death toll crosses 26,000

Pakistan's coronavirus death toll crossed the grim figure of 26,000 on Friday, even as the country reported 3,787 new cases during the last 24 hours.

 

So far the country has recorded 1,171,578 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 26,035 total deaths since the first patient was diagnosed on February 26, 2020, the Ministry of National Health Services reported.

 

The data showed that the pandemic death rate has been 2.2 per cent in Pakistan, whereas an overwhelming number of 1,055,467 or over 90 per cent cases have fully recovered so far. Another 88,076 or 7.5 per cent are still active patients. Read on...

11:40 AM

Coronavirus LIVE updates: China's August services activity slumps into contraction, according Caixin PMI

Activity in China's services sector slumped into sharp contraction in August, a private survey showed on Friday, as restrictions to curb the Covid-19 Delta variant threatened to derail the recovery in the world's second-biggest economy.

 

The Caixin/Markit services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell to 46.7 in August from 54.9 in July, plunging to the lowest level since the pandemic's first wave in April 2020. The 50-point mark separates growth from contraction on a monthly basis.

 

The grim readings in the private survey, which focuses more on smaller firms in coastal regions, tally with findings in an official survey earlier this week which also showed growth in the services sector slipped into contraction.

 

China's services sector was slower to recover from the pandemic than manufacturing, but has been helped by a gradual improvement in consumption in recent months.

11:27 AM

Pfizer vaccine antibody levels decreased over 80% after 6 months: Study

Antibodies produced by the Pfizer vaccine against Covid-19 decreased more than 80 per cent after six months in some elderly people, according to a study that emphasises the need for booster shots.

 

Researchers from the Universities of Case Western Reserve, Brown and Harvard studied blood samples of 120 Ohio nursing home residents and 92 health care workers.

 

In particular, they looked at humoral immunity, also called antibody-mediated immunity, to measure the body's defenses against the coronavirus.

 

The findings, published on online preprint medRxiv and being peer-reviewed, showed that individuals' antibody levels decreased more than 80 per cent after six months; the results were the same in older adults (median age 76) and caregivers (median age 48) and old alike.

11:13 AM

Karnataka coronavirus update: 31 students test Covid positive in Bengaluru

The officials of the health department have sealed the Christian Nursing College located in Bengaluru's Horamavu after 31 students tested Covid positive.

 

The health department said on Friday that the authorities are putting all efforts to trace the primary and secondary contacts of the infected persons in the city.

 

Among 31 nursing students who tested positive for Covid, 20 hail from Kerala and 11 came from West Bengal. The whole campus has been sealed and the students who tested positive for Covid are being treated at HAL Covid Care Centre.

 

The students arrived in the city as the colleges were reopened on August 5. Initially, two students tested positive after being tested for showing symptoms. The college authorities have got the Covid test done for all 300 students.

 

Ten students tested positive and later the tests confirmed Covid positive results for the other six students. The recent tests have confirmed the infection among 15 students.

11:06 AM

Coronavirus LIVE updates: Arunachal logs 54 new Covid-19 cases, one more fatality

At least 54 more people tested positive for Covid-19 in Arunachal Pradesh, taking the tally in the northeastern state to 53,156, an official said on Friday.

 

The death toll in the state rose to 261 as a 56-year-old man from the Capital Complex Region succumbed to the infection on Wednesday at a dedicated COVID hospital here, State Surveillance Officer Dr Lobsang Jampa said.

 

"The patient died due to acute respiratory distress syndrome with COVID Pneumonia and was also suffering from hypertension," the SSO said.

 

Fifty fresh cases were detected through rapid antigen test, three through TrueNat method and one through RT-PCR, the official said, adding that 23 people have developed symptoms of the coronavirus infection.

 

The Capital Complex Region reported the highest number of new cases at 18, followed by Lower Subansiri (11), Tawang (six), Lohit (four), East Siang (three), Papumpare, Upper Siang and West Kameng (two each).

11:02 AM

In coronavirus's alphabet soup of names, why Mu is 'variant of interest'

This week the World Health Organization named a new “variant of interest” of the coronavirus, called the Mu variant. It was first found in Colombia in January 2021, and has been found in about 39 countries so far.

 

Mu has changes, called mutations, which mean it might be able to evade some of the protection we get from Covid vaccines.

 

But one reassuring element is that, despite being around since January 2021, it doesn’t seem to be outcompeting Delta, the dominant variant across most of the world.

 

If Mu was truly a really bad variant, we would have expected to have started to see indications of this, and we haven’t yet. Read on...

10:55 AM

Coronavirus LIVE updates: Rs 3.66 cr given to people in tourism sector in Uttarakhand

The Uttarakhand government has given over Rs 3.66 crore so far as part of a relief package to people in the tourism sector in view of the financial setback caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, an official release here said.

 

Rs 3,66,37,580 have been transferred directly to the accounts of 9,398 people till August 31 across the state under the relief package announced by the state government for the tourism sector, it said.

 

An amount of Rs 2,000 per month is being paid under the package to employees of hotels, restaurants and homestays that are registered with the tourism department, it said.

 

They will continue to get this amount for five months.

 

Hotels, restaurants, and homestays upoad the names of their employees on the tourism department's portal.

10:45 AM

Coronavirus LIVE updates: Punjab sees 64 new cases

Punjab on Thursday reported 64 more cases of coronavirus, taking the infection tally to 6,00,715, according to a medical bulletin.

 

No covid-related death was reported in the state as the toll stood at 16,435. The toll figure included one death which was not reported earlier.

 

The number of active cases in the state was 353.

 

Pathankot reported 10 cases, followed by nine in Ludhiana, and seven each in Bathinda and Jalandhar, among the new COVID-19 cases.

 

With 40 recoveries, the number of cured pople reached 5,83,927, as per the bulletin.

10:28 AM

Coronavirus LIVE updates: Rich Asians jump booster shot queue, put 'entire community at risk'

n some of Asia’s Covid-19 hotspots, powerful and wealthier citizens are nabbing booster shots even as most people remain unvaccinated, undermining the inoculation strategies of nations struggling with the highly infectious delta variant.

 

The growing trend in countries like Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines is worsening inequities at a time when they are grappling with vaccine shortages. Read on...

10:23 AM

Coronavirus LIVE updates: US hospitals hit with nurse staffing crisis amid Covid

The Covid-19 pandemic has created a nurse staffing crisis that is forcing many U.S. hospitals to pay top dollar to get the help they need to handle the crush of patients this summer.

 

The problem, health leaders say, is twofold: Nurses are quitting or retiring, exhausted or demoralised by the crisis. And many are leaving for lucrative temporary jobs with travelling-nurse agencies that can pay $5,000 or more a week.

 

It's gotten to the point where doctors are saying, Maybe I should quit being a doctor and go be a nurse, said Dr. Phillip Coule, chief medical officer at Georgia's Augusta University Medical Center, which has on occasion seen 20 to 30 resignations in a week from nurses taking travelling jobs.

 

And then we have to pay premium rates to get staff from another state to come to our state, Coule said.

10:16 AM

Coronavirus LIVE updates: Thane district's Covid-19 tally grows by 269

With the addition of 269 coronavirus positive cases, the infection count in Thane district of Maharashtra mounted to 5,51,981, an official said on Friday.

 

These cases were reported on Thursday, he said.

 

As the virus claimed the lives of seven persons, the fatality count in the district rose to 11,302.

 

Thane's Covid-19 mortality rate is 2.04 per cent, he added.

10:14 AM

Coronavirus LIVE updates: Kim Jong-un orders tougher virus steps after North Korea shuns vaccines

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered officials to wage a tougher epidemic prevention campaign in our style after he turned down some foreign Covid-19 vaccines offered via the UN-backed immunisation programme.

 

During a Politburo meeting Thursday, Kim said officials must bear in mind that tightening epidemic prevention is the task of paramount importance which must not be loosened even a moment, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Friday.

 

While stressing the need for material and technical means of virus prevention and increasing health workers' qualifications, Kim also called for further rounding off our style epidemic prevention system, KCNA said.

10:09 AM

Coronavirus LIVE updates: Yogi orders surveillance teams in all UP districts

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed officials in the health and allied departments to launch a special disease prevention and surveillance survey across all districts from September 7.

 

An official statement issued by the chief minister's office said that health teams must go door-to-door to identify those with viral fever, Covid-19 symptoms and other diseases arising out of the seasonal vagaries.

 

Under this drive, nodal officers will be appointed in every district of the state to monitor the relief work in areas affected by floods and heavy rains.

 

Preventive measures such as spraying of anti-larval and antimalarial sprays in localities must also be undertaken.

 

According to the government spokesman, the chief minister has also instructed officials to ensure supply of pure drinking water and distribute chlorine tablets in the flood-affected districts."

 

"Special efforts should be made to improve surveillance. The health department, rural and urban development and child development departments should stay alert and run special cleanliness campaigns with inter-departmental coordination," the chief minister said.