Covid LIVE: Karnataka sees nearly 23,000 new cases; 20,740 in Maharashtra

Coronavirus live updates: India reported 186,364 fresh Covid-19 infections today, taking the caseload tally to 27,555,457. Death toll stands at 318,895. Stay tuned for corona-related news

7:57 PM

Kerala reports 22,318 new Covid-19 cases, 194 deaths

COVID-19 cases in Kerala continued its downward trend, with the state on Friday logging 22,318 infections, taking the caseload to 24.40 lakh, while 194 deaths pushed the toll to 8,257.

 

Recoveries outnumbered new infections with 26,270 patients testing negative, taking the total to 22,24,405.

 

A total of 1,36,068 samples were tested in the past 24 hours, taking the caseload to 24,40,847 and the test positivity rate to 16.4 per cent, a health department bulletin said. Active cases stood at 2,37,819.

7:51 PM

Covid LIVE: 'Lockdown-like curbs in Maharashtra extended by fortnight'

7:44 PM

Telangana logs 3,527 Covid-19 cases, 3,982 recoveries, 19 deaths

Telangana on Friday logged 3,527 COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to over 5.71 lakh while the toll stood at 3,226 with 19 deaths, a government bulletin said.

 

Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) accounted for the most number of cases with 519, followed by Nalgonda (218) and Khammam (215), the bulletin said.

 

The state has37,793 active cases and over 97,000 samples were tested.

7:35 PM

Covid LIVE: Mumbai sees 929 new coronavirus positive cases

7:28 PM

We have sole selling rights, beware of fake agents of Sputnik-V: Dr Reddy's

Hyderabad-based pharma major Dr Reddy's Laboratories (DRL) said on Friday that it is not supplying the Russian Covid-19 vaccine, Sputnik-Vm to any residential societies.

 

There have been several messages in circulation on social media claiming to organise vaccinations at site (housing colonies etc) with Sputnik V.

 

DRL cleared the air saying, "In the past few days, there have been several unsubstantiated reports and claims from various quarters in India on alleged tie-ups for the Sputnik V vaccine. We wish to clarify that Dr Reddy's has not entered any partnership or collaboration with any party to supply the Sputnik V vaccine to residential associations, nor has the Company authorised any third party or intermediary to supply the vaccine on its behalf in India." READ MORE...

7:23 PM

Goa records 1,055 new Covid-19 cases; 32 fatalities

As many as 1,055 persons tested positive for COVID-19, while 32 died of the infection in Goa on Friday, an official from the state health department said. With this, the coastal state's COVID-19 caseload has risen to 1,53,456 and the toll mounted to 2,570, the official said.

 

The count of recoveries in the state reached 1,35,560, after 1,396 were discharged from hospitals during the day, he said, adding that the state is now left with 15,326 active cases.

 

With 4,865 swabs tested during the day, the total number of tests conducted in the state has gone up to 8,12,415, the official said. Goa's COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases 1,53,456, new cases 1,055, death toll 2,570, discharged 1,35,560, active cases 15,326, samples tested till date 8,12,415.

7:19 PM

Goa govt defends before Bombay HC its decision to distribute Ivermectin as preventive medicine against Covid

7:18 PM

India's daily new Covid cases lowest in 44 days; TPR drops to 9%

With a daily increase of 186,364 in total cases, the lowest daily increase in 44 days, India’s tally of coronavirus cases has risen from 27,369,093 on Thursday to 27,555,457 – an increase of 0.7%. Death toll has reached 318,895, with 3,660 fatalities. Now the second-most-affected country by active cases, total cases and recovery, and third by death, India has added 1,523,466 cases in the past 7 days. READ MORE...

6:57 PM

Blood cancer patients can fight Covid with T cells: Study

Antibodies aren't the only immune cells needed to fight off Covid-19, T cells are equally important and can step up to do the job when antibodies are depleted, suggests a new study of blood cancer patients with coronavirus, IANS reported.

 

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, US, found that blood cancer patients with Covid-19 who had higher CD8 T cells, many of whom had depleted antibodies from cancer treatments, were more than three times more likely to survive than patients with lower levels of CD8 T cells.

6:46 PM

Coronavirus LIVE: Tamil Nadu govt extends lockdown till 6 am on June 7

6:38 PM

SC to hear on May 31 plea to cancel class 12 board exams due to Covid

The Supreme Court Friday said it would hear on May 31 a plea seeking directions to cancel the class 12 exams of the CBSE and Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) amidst the surge in COVID-19 cases across the country.

 

The plea, which also sought directions to devise an "objective methodology" to declare the result of class 12 within a specific time frame, came up for hearing before a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari.

 

At the outset, the bench asked petitioner Mamta Sharma whether she has served the copy of the plea to the advocate representing the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

6:35 PM

Universities and Colleges requested to make optimum use of SWAYAM online platform for benefit of students: UGC

6:21 PM

Covaxin manufacturing to vaccination takes 4 months, says Bharat Biotech

Manufacturing to supply of COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin involves four months of lag time depending on technology and regulatory approvals, Bharat Biotech said on Friday.

 

"The timeline for manufacturing, testing and release for a batch of Covaxinis approximately 120 days, depending on the technology framework and regulatory guidelines to be met. Thus, production batches of Covaxin that were initiated during March this year will be ready for supply only during the month of June," the vaccine maker said in a press release.

6:19 PM

65-year-old man in Delhi becomes first patient to get antibody cocktail at Apollo

A 65-year-old man from Delhi, having multiple co-morbidities, has become the first COVID-19 patient to receive monoclonal antibody therapy at the Apollo hospital here, the healthcare group said on Friday.

 

The patient responded well to the infusion of the antibody cocktail and went home after an hour of observation on Thursday, hospital authorities said.

 

As part of this single dose infusion-based treatment, patients with mild to moderate symptoms, are offered a cocktail of Casirivimab and Imdevimab, that is said to reduce their chance of hospitalisation by 70 per cent. READ ON...

6:13 PM

Covid-19 claims 159 more lives in UP, tally of cases rises by 2,402

The COVID-19 death toll in Uttar Pradesh crossed 20,000 on Friday with 159 more people succumbing to the disease in a day, while the infection tally reached 16,86,138 with 2,402 new cases, officials said on Friday.

 

The recovery rate in the state is now stood at 95.7 per cent, while there are 52,244 active cases, which include 38,055 patients who are in home isolation, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said.

 

The number of active cases has come down by 83 per cent since April 30 when a peak of 3,10,783 such cases was reported. READ MORE...