Covid LIVE: Kerala sees 17,681 new cases, 208 deaths in last 24 hrs

Coronavirus live updates: Russian president tests negative; India plans to increase financial support for children who lost their parents to Covid-19.

9:50 AM

Japan to send additonal 500,000 Astra Zeneca vaccine to Taiwan

Japan has announced it will send an additional 500,000 Astra Zeneca's COVID-19 vaccine doses to Taiwan.

 

With this, Tokyo's vaccine donation to the self-ruled island has reached 3.9 million, Nikkei Asia reported.

 

This was announced by Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi.

 

To date, Japan has given out more than 23 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine produced in Japan to countries in South Asia and the Pacific islands, Motegi said.

9:41 AM

India records 27,176 new cases

India recorded 27,176 new cases of Covid-19 in 24 hours and 284 deaths from the disease, said the health ministry on Wednesday marking a slight decline in daily infections since Tuesday.

9:36 AM

Thane sees 197 new COVID-19 cases, 3 more deaths

Thane has logged 197 new cases of coronavirus, raising the infection count in the Maharashtra district to 5,55,090, an official said on Wednesday.

 

These new cases were reported on Tuesday, he said.

 

The virus also claimed the lives of three more people, which pushed the death toll in the district to 11,354, he said, adding that the COVID-19 mortality rate in Thane stood at 2.04 per cent.

9:31 AM

Scientists who declined lab-leak theory linked to Wuhan lab: Report

Scientists who declined the theory that Covid-19 leaked from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) had connections to the infamous lab, according to media reports.

 

All but one of the scientists who signed a letter published in The Lancet on March 7 last year rejecting the lab-leak theory had links to Chinese researchers, their colleagues or funders, The Telegraph reported.

 

The Lancet letter, signed by 27 scientists and initiated by British zoologist Peter Daszak, effectively shut down scientific debate into whether Coronavirus was manipulated or leaked from the Chinese lab.

9:30 AM

Foreign tourists' overnight stays in Italy down nearly 55% in 2020

The final official tally for Italy's tourism industry during the pandemic year of 2020 is in, and according to the country's National Statistics Institute(ISTAT), the decline sparked by the coronavirus was "drastic."

 

According to data released on Tuesday by the ISTAT, overnight stays of foreign visitors declined by 54.6 per cent last year, Xinhua news agency reported.

 

Overnight stays of domestic tourists dropped by less, but were still down by 32.2 per cent compared to 2019.

9:22 AM

US pressuring India to restart COVID-19 vaccine exports: Report

The US is quietly pressuring India to restart COVID-19 vaccine exports, Axios reported citing sources.

 

According to the report, the Biden administration is planning to offer a higher-profile role for Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the COVID-19 global summit in New York if he agrees to release vaccines soon.

 

Early this year, India halted vaccine exports as coronavirus cases surged in the country.

 

9:13 AM

Global Covid-19 caseload tops 225.7 mn

The global coronavirus caseload has topped 225.7 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 4.64 million and vaccinations soared to over 5.74 billion, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

 

In its latest update on Wednesday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload, death toll and vaccination tally stood at 225,763,017, 4,647,792 and 5,747,547,990, respectively.

 

The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 41,360,450 and 663,923, respectively, according to the CSSE.

 

In terms of infections, India follows in the second place with 33,289,579 cases.

9:12 AM

New Zealand reports 14 new community cases of Covid-19 Delta variant

New Zealand reported 14 new community cases of Delta variant of Covid-19 on Wednesday, all in the largest city Auckland, which brought the total number of cases in the country's community outbreak to 983.

 

Of the current community cases, 20 cases are in hospital, including four cases in intensive care units (ICUs) or high dependency units (HDUs), Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told a press conference.

 

Auckland has 966 community cases and the capital Wellington has 17 cases, Bloomfield said.

9:09 AM

Malaysia reports 15,669 new Covid-19 cases

Malaysia reported another 15,669 new Covid-19 infections, as of midnight Tuesday, bringing the national total to 2,011,440.

 

Some 17 of the new cases are imported and 15,652 are local transmissions, data released on the ministry's website showed, the Xinhua news agency reported.

 

Another 463 more deaths have been reported, bringing the death toll to 21,587.

8:19 AM

India may resume vaccine exports to Africa

The World Health Organization said talks are underway with India for a resumption of vaccine exports to African countries following a pause during a deadly wave of infections earlier this year, Bloomberg reported. India had been supplying doses to Covax, the equitable vaccine initiative on which most African countries are reliant. The government then moved to prioritize its own population after the delta virus variant began sweeping through major cities. 

7:17 AM

China's Fujian reports new cases

China's southeastern province of Fujian, the focus of the country's latest Covid outbreak, reported its fifth straight day of new local infections, though cases remained contained in three cities on the coast. The National Health Commission said on Wednesday that 50 new locally transmitted cases were reported for Sept. 14, compared with 59 infections a day earlier. All of them were in Fujian, reported Reuters.

6:43 AM

Eight Gujarat cities reschedule night curfew

Eight Gujarat cities, including Gandhinagar and Surat, will enforce an 11pm-to-6 am curfew from September 15 to 25 to slow down the spread of Covid. The curfew was rescheduled in August to start at 1am in view of Krishna Janmashtami and Ganesh Utsav festivals.

 

5:39 AM

No of people getting at least one jab in India highest in world: Govt

India's number of people who have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine is highest in the world, said the health ministry on Tuesday. As many as 62.54 per cent doses of the vaccines were administered in vaccination centres in rural areas and the rest in urban areas.

5:35 AM

Thailand reports fewest cases since July

Thailand reported 11,786 new infections on Tuesday, the lowest single-day increase since July 20. The infection count has dropped in recent weeks and the government is gearing up to reopen more provinces to vaccinated visitors and more businesses next month, Bloomberg reported.

 

5:34 AM

Putin to self-isolate

Russian president Vladimir Putin will go into self-isolation after people around him fell sick with Covid-19. He has tested negative. Putin canceled plans to fly to Dushanbe, Tajikistan, this week to attend the Collective Security Treaty Organization summit and will instead hold online meetings, according to a statement. The summit is set to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, Bloomberg reported.