Coronavirus LIVE: Delhi adds 53 cases, lowest since April 15 last year

Coronavirus LIVE updates: India on Saturday recorded 42,766 new Covid cases. Stay tuned for corona-related news

3:33 PM

Chinese province reports 12 new locally transmitted Covid cases

China's Yunnan province reported 12 new locally transmitted Covid-19 confirmed cases, all in the city of Ruili, the local health commission said Sunday. The cases were all found in the all-inclusive nucleic acid testing in Ruili, the commission said. The province also registered four imported confirmed cases and two asymptomatic carriers, reports Xinhua news agency. Three of the confirmed cases were from Sri Lanka and the other one was from Myanmar. By the end of Saturday, there were 136 confirmed cases in hospitals in Yunnan, including 50 locally transmitted cases.

3:15 PM

No total lockdown in Itanagar for now

The Arunachal Pradesh government has turned down the request for a week-long total lockdown in the state capital from July 12 but suggested a slew of measures to check the spike in COVID-19 cases. In a letter to Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar, Capital Deputy Commissioner Talo Potom on Saturday sought approval for a total lockdown for a week from Monday, citing the rise in COVID-19 cases. He said that in view of the rise in the cases in the Capital region, the administration convened a meeting on Friday with all the stakeholders, who recommended total lockdown as per the suggestion of the Health Department to contain the spread of the virus.

2:38 PM

CEOs expect swifter recovery post 2nd Covid wave: CII Poll

Top corporates in the country anticipate a faster economic recovery from the impact of the second wave of Covid-19. A CII CEOs Poll of 119 corporate heads showed that about 59 per cent of the CEOs polled expect the recovery in sales to be better than in the first wave for their companies, while 46 per cent of them expressed a similar trend for their respective industry sectors.

2:22 PM

19 new Covid cases in Ladakh; 35 more patients recover

Nineteen new cases of coronavirus were reported in Ladakh, raising its tally to 20,186, while 35 more patients were cured of the infection, officials said on Saturday. All the 19 persons who returned positive for COVID-19 are from Leh district, the health department officials said. No death due to COVID-19 was reported in the union territory in the past 24 hours, they said.

2:06 PM

Adityanath govt hid Covid-19 death figures in UP: Akhilesh Yadav

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday accused the Uttar Pradesh government of hiding the COVID-19 death figures, and claimed the state government did not want to give the statistics as it did not want to help the people. He also highlighted the issue of teachers dying during panchayat poll duty in the state.

1:48 PM

Odisha logs record 65 COVID-19 fatalities, 2,282 new cases

Odisha on Sunday registered 65 COVID-19 fatalities, the highest-ever in a single day, pushing the toll to 4,599, while 2,282 new cases raised the tally to 9,39,752, a health department official said. Fourteen fresh fatalities were reported from Khurda district, of which state capital Bhubaneswar is a part, six each from Puri, Keonjhar and Bargarh, five each from Angul and Mayurbhanj, four from Nayagarh and three from Sundargarh, Kendrapara and Ganjam.

1:25 PM

One in 10 Covid-19 patients had persistent symptoms in Singapore: Study

One in 10 recovered COVID-19 patients in Singapore had persistent symptoms six months after their initial infection, a study led by the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) has found.

 

In this condition known as "long COVID", they continued to experience symptoms, most commonly a lingering cough and shortness of breath, long after recovering from COVID-19. Other symptoms included persistent fatigue, dizziness and insomnia, but these were not frequently observed, The Straits Times reported on Saturday, citing the study by the country's top infectious disease body which is focusing on COVID-19 treatment. READ MORE...

1:06 PM

Kerala observes weekend lockdown

People in Kerala continued to observe a full weekend lockdown on Sunday amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Visuals from Thiruvananthapuram showed quiet, deserted roads. In some parts, police personnel approached people on the street who had ventured out of their homes despite the lockdown.

 

The weekend lockdown had been imposed in the state earlier in April when the second COVID wave hit, in order to tackle the worrying rise in COVID-19 cases. Months later, the state is still recovering from the wave, with daily cases hovering between 10,000 to 15,000 for the last few weeks.

12:37 PM

India maintains steady vaccination; adds 41,506 cases in a day

India on Sunday reported a net reduction of 915 in active coronavirus cases to take its count to 454,118. India’s share of global active coronavirus cases now stands at 3.79 per cent (one in 26). The country is fourth among the most affected countries by active cases. On Saturday, it added 41,506 cases to take its total caseload to 30,837,222 from 30,795,716 — an increase of 0.1%. And, with 895 new fatalities, its Covid-19 death toll reached 408,040, or 1.32 per cent of total confirmed infections. READ MORE...

12:16 PM

Auditoriums, assembly halls in schools and educational institutions in Delhi to function with 50% capacity

Auditoriums, assembly halls in schools and educational institutions in Delhi to function with 50 per cent capacity for educational training: DDMA

12:15 PM

Odisha reports 2,282 new coronavirus cases

Odisha reported 2282 new COVID-19 cases, 3120 recoveries and 65 deaths in the last 24 hours, informed the state health department on Sunday.

 

With this, the cumulative count in the state stands at 939752 including 909639 recoveries, 4599 deaths and 25461 active cases.

 

Out of fresh Covid cases reported, 1315 people got infected in quarantine, while 967caught the infection from local contacts. One of the worst-hit districts of the state is Khurda, which has reported 592 new cases in the last 24 hours, which is the highest among other 31 districts of the states. As per the government data, the state has tested 14568487 samples so far.

12:02 PM

Covid pandemic: Shimla continues to receive tourists from neighbouring states

11:48 AM

States to borrow close to Rs 2 trillion to mobilise funds for Covid relief

With the pandemic pushing up the need to spend more towards Covid relief measures, states have lined up massive borrowing plan for the second quarter of current financial year.

 

In all, states and union territories expect to borrow Rs 1,92,091 crore from the markets during July-September quarter. The Reserve Bank of India, in consultation with the State Governments/Union Territories (UTs) has drawn up the borrowing calendar for the quarter where bonds will be issued to mobilise funds on a weekly basis.

 

As per the states' borrowing calendar, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, the two of the country's largest states with higher population would have maximum borrowings of Rs 25,000 crore and Rs 22,500 crore respectively during the quarter. READ MORE...

11:40 AM

Sputnik V gives 90% protection against Delta strain: Scientist

Viral vector and mRNA vaccines, including Russia's Sputnik V, provide enough protection against the new Delta strain of the coronavirus, Head of the Novosibirsk State University's Laboratory and corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) Sergey Netesov told Sputnik.

 

"According to data from the UK, the US and other countries, mRNA and vector vaccines, including our Sputnik V, protect against it [the Delta variant], albeit to a lesser extent, but they do protect against it. They offered 95 per cent protection against the initial strain and now they give 90% protection against the 'delta' variant," Netesov said.

 

He added that the vaccines already developed should be used as they are quite effective.

11:22 AM

States, private hospitals have over 1.44 crore unutilised vaccine doses: Centre

More than 1.44 crore balance and unutilised Covid-19 vaccine doses are still available with the states, UTs and private hospitals to be administered, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday.

 

Over 38.60 crore vaccine doses have been provided to states and UTs so far through all sources and a further 11,25,140 doses are in the pipeline.

 

Of this, the total consumption including wastage is 37,16,47,625 doses, according to data available at 8 am. The new phase of universalisation of COVID-19 vaccination commenced from June 21.