Coronavirus LIVE: Kerala reports 5,980 new Covid-19 cases in past 24 hours

Coronavirus LIVE updates: Globally, more than 107.4 million people have been infected by the virus and the death toll stands at 2,348,727

9:53 PM

Andhra Pradesh reports 50 new Covid-19 cases, 121 recoveries

9:28 PM

Manipur reports 11 new Covid-19 cases

9:26 PM

Over 13k railway health staff inoculated against Covid-19: Goyal

Around 13,117 railway health staff have so far been vaccinated against Covid-19, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal informed Parliament on Wednesday, according to PTI. In a reply to a query in the Lok Sabha, the minister said the vaccination of Railway employees is being done in a phased manner.

In the first phase Railway health care staff are being vaccinated. Till now, 13,117 Railway health care staff have been vaccinated. 3,70,316 front line Railway employees have been identified for vaccination in the next phase, he said. More than 30,000 railway employees have so far contracted COVID-19 and around 700 have died from it.

8:55 PM

Chills, appetite loss, headache may also be COVID-19 symptoms: UK study

A study of over a million people in England has revealed additional symptoms linked with having coronavirus, which could include chills, loss of appetite, headache and muscle ache.

 

While these wider symptoms were noted in addition to the known or so-called classic symptoms of loss of sense of smell and taste, fever and new persistent cough, around 60 per cent of infected people did not report any symptoms in the week leading up to their test, the Imperial College London led Real-time Assessment of Community Transmission (REACT) study revealed on Wednesday.

 

"These new findings suggest many people with COVID-19 won't be getting tested and therefore won't be self-isolating because their symptoms don't match those used in current public health guidance to help identify infected people," said Professor Paul Elliott, director of the REACT programme at Imperial.

8:25 PM

Delhi to increase the number of Covid-19 vaccination sites

Delhi to increase the number of Covid-19 vaccination sites from 183 to 265; 82 new vaccination sites to operationalised from February 11.

8:23 PM

Delhi reports 127 fresh coronavirus cases; positivity rate 0.19%

Delhi recorded 127 fresh COVID-19 cases and two new deaths on Wednesday, taking the overall toll to 10,884, a day after no coronavirus fatality was registered in the national capital. The zero single-day death was reported on Tuesday after nearly nine months. A total of 100 cases were reported on Tuesday.

 

With the latest figures, the infection tally in the city rose to 6,36,387 and the death toll mounted to 10,884, according to a health bulletin. The active cases tally on Wednesday stood at 1,046, according to the bulletin. The positivity rate on Wednesday stood at 0.19 per cent, authorities said.

8:13 PM

415 new cases in Karnataka, three deaths

Karnataka reported 415 new cases of COVID-19 and three related fatalities on Wednesday, taking the total number of infections to 9,43,627 and the death toll to 12,244, the Health department said. The day also saw 322 patients getting discharged after recovery.

 

According to a department bulletin, out of 5,875 active cases, 5,734 patients are in isolation at designated hospitals and stable, while 141 are in ICU. A total of over 1,76,91,918 samples have been tested so far, out of which 66,199 were tested on Wednesday alone, and 4,256 among them were rapid antigen tests.

8:04 PM

Coverage of healthcare workers in seven States/UTs less than 40%: Govt

8:03 PM

Total hospitalisation due to vaccination is 30 so far: Health Ministry

7:47 PM

Maharashtra sees 3,451 new coronavirus cases, 2,421 recoveries; 30 die

Maharashtra reported 3,451 fresh coronavirus positive cases on Wednesday, taking the tally of the infections to 20,52,253, the state Health department said. With 30 more people succumbing to the COVID-19 disease, the toll rose to 51,390 in the state, it said, adding 19 of these fatalities were from the past 48 hours, while nine had occurred in the last week and the remaining two earlier.

 

A total of 2,421 patients were discharged from hospitals during the day, taking the overall number of recoveries in Maharashtra to 19,63,946, the department said. The state is now left with 35,633 active cases. Maharashtra's case recovery rate now stands at 95.7 per cent, while the fatality rate is 2.50 per cent, it said.

7:15 PM

30 trainee nurses test positive for Covid-19 at private institute in Palampur

Thirty trainee nurses at a private nursing college in Himachal Pradesh's Palampur tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. All of them are under isolation as per protocol, Kangra Chief Medical Officer Dr Gurudarshan Gupta said.

 

"Apart from this, the institution and its hostels are being sanitised," he said, adding that 16 trainee nurses of the college had tested COVID-19 positive on Sunday.

 

So far, 8,290 COVID-19 cases have been reported in the district. While 7,992 patients have been cured of the disease, 91 cases are active at present, the official said.

6:36 PM

UK variant of Covid strain reported in 86 countries: WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that the Covid-19 variant B.1.1.7, which was first identified in the UK on September 20, has been reported in 86 countries.

 

In its weekly epidemiological update, WHO says the variant B.1.1.7 has shown an increase in transmissibility, and some evidence of increase in disease severity based on preliminary findings.

 

As of February 7, an additional six countries have reported cases of this variant. In the UK, for example, Covid-19 test samples of this strain increased from 63 per cent in the week of December 14 to 90 per cent in the week of January 18, the WHO said on Tuesday.

6:27 PM

Kerala reports 5,980 new coronavirus cases in past 24 hours

Kerala reports 5,980 new coronavirus cases, 5,745 recoveries and 18 deaths in the last 24 hours. Number of active cases are 64,346: Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan

6:18 PM

UP schools reopen for classes 6 to 8 with Covid-19 protocols in place

Schools in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad, Noida, Varanasi, and Gorakhpur reopened for classes 6 to 8 on Wednesday with COVID-19 protocols in place, after months of closure due to the pandemic.

 

Primary education officer, Moradabad, Yogendra Kumar told ANI," The government ordered reopening schools from February 10 for classes 6 and 8, including all government and private schools in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad. The government has also instructed to call different standard students on different days of the week, with students of class 6 attending school on Mondays and Thursdays, class 7 on Tuesdays and Fridays, and class 8 on Wednesdays and Saturdays."

5:50 PM

Health workers in Meghalaya reluctant to take Covid-19 jabs, says official

Health workers in Meghalaya are "reluctant" to take Covid-19 vaccine shots, with only 27 per cent of the over 33,000 beneficiaries having turned up for inoculation thus far, a senior official said on Wednesday.

 

The northeastern state has received 35,000 Covishield doses for the first phase of the vaccination process, Health Services Director Aman War told PTI.

 

"Only 9,017 of the 33,185 Covid-19 beneficiaries in the state have taken the shots, and none has reported any adverse effect following immunisation (AEFI)," he said.