3:10 PMIndia's national recovery rate among highest in the world: Health ministry
India has been recording a steady decline in the number of daily new deaths since October 1, 2020, while the national recoveryrateis amongst the highest in the world, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday.
"Since 1st October 2020, the nation has seen an unabated decline in Case Fatality Rate. The Case Fatality Rate today stands below 1.5 (1.43%). India's Case Fatality Rate is one of the lowest in the world," it said.
The recoveries have surged to 1,06,11,731 with11,016 patients getting discharged in a span of 24 hours.
"India's Covid-19 recovery rate of 97.31 per centis amongst the highest in the world. The difference between the recovered and active cases has grown to 1,04,74,164 as on date," the ministry highlighted.
3:08 PMJapan formally approves its first Covid-19 vaccine
Japan on Sunday formally approved its first Covid-19 vaccine and said it would start nationwide inoculations within days, but months behind the US and many other countries.
Japan's health ministry said it had approved the vaccine developed and supplied by Pfizer Inc.
2:29 PMRussia registers 14,185 new Covid-19 cases
Russia registered 14,185 new Covid-19 cases over the past 24 hours, down from 14,861 the day before, taking the overall tally to 4,071,883, the coronavirus response center said on Sunday.
"Over the past day, 14,185 coronavirus cases were confirmed across 85 regions, including 1,587 cases (11.2 percent) that were detected actively, with people showing no clinical symptoms," the center said, adding that the cumulative case count has now reached 4,071,883, with the rate of increase at 0.35 percent.
2:12 PMOdisha records 73 fresh coronavirus cases, tally mounts to 336,174
Odisha's Covid-19 caseload on Sunday surged to 3,36,174 after 73 more people tested positive for the infection, a health department official said.
The 73 new cases were detected in 19 of the 30 districts of Odisha, with 44 reported from different quarantine centres while the remaining 29 are local contact cases.
Bargarh district recorded the highest 14 new positive cases followed by Angul (8) and Sambalpur (6). As many as 11 other districts did not register any new cases since Saturday, the official said.
1:22 PMEthiopia reports 756 new Covid-19 cases
Ethiopia registered 756 new COVID-19 cases over the last 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 145,704, the country's Ministry of Health said Saturday. The death toll from COVID-19 in the country reached 2,181 on Saturday evening after four new deaths were reported, the ministry said. Meanwhile, 155 more recoveries were logged, taking the national count to 128,019, it added.
Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation, has so far reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the East Africa region. According to the latest figures from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the country's COVID-19 cases accounted for around 4 percent of Africa's total. The Ethiopian government has been urging the public to implement COVID-19 precautionary measures to contain the spread of the virus.
12:26 PMHumidity from masks may help lessen severity of coronavirus infection, say scientists
Not only do facemasks help protect people from getting or spreading the novel coronavirus, the humidity created inside masks also hydrate the respiratory tract and benefit the immune system, says a new study.
According to the research, published in the Biophysical Journal, the higher level of humidity in inhaled air could explain why wearing masks is linked to lower disease severity in people infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus since hydration of the respiratory tract is known to benefit the immune system.
"We found that face masks strongly increase the humidity in inhaled air and propose that the resulting hydration of the respiratory tract could be responsible for the documented finding that links lower COVID-19 disease severity to wearing a mask," said the study's lead author, Adriaan Bax from the US NIH's National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).
11:44 AMActive Covid-19 cases in India stand at 137,567: Health Ministry
Active Covid-19 cases in country stand at 137,567, while 106,11,731 people have recovered from the disease: Union Health Ministry
11:35 AMCommon cold can't be termed as sign of coronavirus: AIIMS
A while ago, a group of general physicians in the UK claimed that common cold symptoms should not be taken for granted, instead treated as a sign of coronavirus. But there is a divergent view, the President of AIIMS, Bhopal and Jammu, Y.K. Gupta told IANS that cough, fever and common cold cannot be 100 per cent termed as signs of coronavirus.
Reportedly, 140 east London general practitioners (GPs) and health care professionals had written and signed an open letter to chief medical officer Chris Whitty and Susan Hopkins of Public Health England, claiming that patients usually experience typical symptoms of common cold like sore throat, a runny nose and headaches before testing positive for coronavirus.
Gupta, who was former Dean (Academics), and ex-Head, Department of Pharmacology, AIIMS New Delhi, said: "Common cold cannot be 100 per cent sign of coronavirus. Most common cold viral infections are on decline, but that does not mean that people should drop their guard. It is essential to wear mask and maintain social distancing."
10:56 AMWe could learn to live with Covid-19 like flu: UK Health Secy
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that he believes new treatments and vaccines will turn the novel coronavirus into a disease which "we can live with like we do flu".
Hancock, speaking to the Daily Telegraph newspaper on Saturday, said that new drugs should arrive in 2021 that will make coronavirus much more treatable, reports Xinhua news agency. He said vaccines would reduce the number of people admitted to hospital, bring down the number of deaths and cut transmission of the virus.
"I hope that COVID-19 will become a treatable disease by the end of the year," he said. "If Covid-19 ends up being like flu, so we live our normal lives and we mitigate through vaccines and treatments, then we can get on with everything again," he said.
10:29 AMCovid-19 LIVE update: India records 12,194 new positive cases
India's tally of COVID-19 cases surpassed1.09 crore with12,194new infections, while the daily deaths were recorded below100 for the eighth time thismonth, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday. The total coronavirus cases rose to1,09,04,940. Thedeath toll increased to1,55,642 with 92 daily new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.
Thenumber of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,06,11,731 which translates to a national COVID-19 recovery rate of 97.31 per cent,while theCOVID-19 casefatality rate stands at 1.43per cent. The COVID-19 active caseload remained below 1.5 lakh.
10:08 AMAndamans reports two new Covid-19 cases, tally rises to 5,009
Andaman and Nicobar Islands reported two new COVID-19 cases, pushing the coronavirus caseload in the union territory to 5,009, an official said on Sunday. The two new cases were detected in South Andaman district during contact tracing on Saturday, the official said. The union territory now has nine active COVID-19 cases and all the patients are in South Andaman district, he said.
Four more patients were cured of the disease on Saturday, taking the total number of COVID-19 recoveries in the archipelago to 4,938 while 62 people have succumbed to the infection so far, the official said. The administration has so far tested 2,45,745 samples for COVID-19 and the test positivity rate is 2.04 per cent, he added.
9:10 AMBrazil registers fifth consecutive day of over 1,000 Covid-19 deaths
Brazil registered 1,043 additional deaths due to the novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours, marking the fifth consecutive day that the single-day fatalities have remained above the 1,000 mark, the Ministry of Health said. The new fatalities have increased the overall death toll to 238,532, the second highest in the world after the US, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Ministry also reported 44,299 new cases of Covid-19 also in the same period, bringing the national tally to 9,809,754, the third highest after the US and India. The state of Sao Paulo, the most populous in the country, is the hardest hit by the pandemic, with 56,191 deaths and 1,911,411 cases, followed by Rio de Janeiro, with 554,040 cases and 31,383 deaths.
8:48 AMAndhra Pradesh's active Covid-19 cases drop below 800
Andhra Pradesh's active Covid-19 cases on Saturday came down to 797 from 853 the previous day. In the past 24 hours, the state logged 54 new Covid cases, pushing the tally to over 8.88 lakh, even as 71 more persons have recovered from the disease.
Visakhapatnam district accounted for the highest number of cases at 9, followed by Krishna (8), Chittoor and East Godavari (7 each), Kadapa (6) and Guntur and Srikakulam (5 each). Among other places, West Godavari (2). Anantapur, Kurnool, Prakasam and Vizianagaram districts recorded no cases. First time, as many as four districts not reporting even a single infection.
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