Covid LIVE: Karnataka sees 7,345 new cases in a day; 880 in Mumbai

Coronavirus live updates: PM Modi will launch a customised crash course programme for Covid-19 frontline workers on Friday. Stay tuned for corona-related news, unlock guidelines and more

4:36 AM

Kolkata malls get mixed reactions on reopening after over a month

The malls in Kolkata received a mixed reaction on Wednesday when the facilities reopened after being closed for 45 days due to restrictions imposed by the West Bengal government to check the spread of coronavirus.
 

As the Covid situation improved, the state administration allowed malls to operate with 25 per cent staff and a maximum of 30 per cent footfall capacity from 11 am to 6 pm for stores and 8 pm for restaurants.
 

Mall managers said all employees deployed on Wednesday are vaccinated and the premises have been sanitised.
 

"About 90 per cent of stores opened. Vibes are positive but footfall is not very high due to lack of public transport and restriction on movement of private cars," Acropolis Mall head K Vijayan said.
 

South City mall management said they received a better response this time than the first day of the reopening after lockdown 1.
 

"We had a footfall of around 10,000 today which is higher in comparison with the first day of previous unlock when we had received about 7,000 footfalls. Sales were also higher by 15-18 per cent than the previous unlock. The trend is very positive," South City head Manmohan Bagree said.
 

A few managers said that malls that have good catchment of visitors did well compared to standalone malls due to curbs on transport facilities.
 

Malls do not foresee footfall restriction hurting their business at least for now as actual footfall is far lower than respective permitted numbers.
 

"We encourage the visit of only serious shoppers. All new malls have footfall scanners so managing 30 per cent of capacity will not be difficult," Bagree said.
 

4:36 AM

Vaccine effort turns into slog as infectious variant spreads

As cases tumble and states reopen, the potential final stage in the US campaign to vanquish Covid-19 is turning into a slog, with a worrisome variant gaining a bigger foothold and lotteries and other prizes failing to persuade some Americans to get vaccinated.
 

“The last half, the last mile, the last quarter-mile always requires more effort,” Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday.
 

While two of the states slammed hardest by the disaster, California and New York, celebrated their reopenings this week with fireworks and a multimillion-dollar drawing, hospitalizations in parts of Missouri are surging and cases are rising sharply in Texas, illustrating the challenges the country faces this summer.
 

One major concern is the highly contagious and potentially more severe delta variant of the coronavirus that originated in India. While health officials say the vaccines are effective against it, the fear is that it will lead to outbreaks in states with lower vaccination rates.
 

The delta variant has increased from 2.7% of all cases in May to 9.7% this month, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a call for governors on Monday, according to details provided by the Washington governor's office.
 

At the same time, states are convening focus groups to better understand who is declining to get vaccinated, why, and how to convince them that getting the shot is the right thing to do.

4:35 AM

Portugal's surge in cases highest since February

Portugal is experiencing a surge in coronavirus cases, with the government set to review its pandemic rules on Thursday.
 

The European Union country reported 1,350 new cases on Wednesday, the highest daily total since February. Experts say the delta variant first identified in India may be driving the spread. The Lisbon region has accounted for almost 1,000 of the new cases.
 

Portugal was the worst-hit country in the world in January, when daily cases peaked at more than 16,000. Nearly 7,000 Covid-19 patients were in the hospital and close to 1,000 were in ICUs. Now, hospitals have 351 virus patients, with 83 in intensive care.
 

A nation of 10.3 million people, Portugal has inoculated 42% of its population with a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and 25% have had both shots. 
 

2:40 AM

US: Millions fear eviction as housing crisis worsens

More than 4 million people in the US say they fear being evicted or foreclosed upon in the coming months just as two studies released found that the nation's housing availability and affordability crisis is expected to worsen significantly following the pandemic.
 

The studies released on Wednesday come as a federal eviction moratorium is set to expire at the end of the month. The moratorium has kept many tenants owing back rent housed. Making matters worse, the tens of billions of dollars in federal emergency rental assistance that was supposed to solve the problem has not reached most tenants.
 

The housing crisis, the studies found, risk widening the housing gap between Black, Latino and white households, as well as putting homeownership out of the reach of lower class Americans.
 

“The unprecedented events of 2020 both exposed and amplified the impacts of unequal access to decent, affordable housing,” wrote researchers at Joint Centre for Housing Studies at Harvard University.
 

“These disparities are likely to persist even as the economy recovers, with many lower-income households slow to regain their financial footing and facing possible eviction or foreclosure.” The reports were released on the same day as Census Bureau's biweekly Household Pulse Survey came out. It showed that nearly 4.2 million people nationwide report that it was likely or somewhat likely that they will be evicted or foreclosed upon in the next two months.
 

12:09 AM

White House: Markets showing little worry about inflation

The White House believes it has an ally in the bond markets to make the case that inflation isn't an economic threat.
 

Republican lawmakers have interpreted the jump in consumer and producer prices as a sign that inflation is spiking at levels that will hurt growth, and they say President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package has overcooked the economy. But the financial markets appear to be backing Biden's case that any price increases are the fleeting result of the United States restarting after the lockdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
 

The White House points to charts that dig into two key market-based measures of inflation and show no cause for alarm in the medium to long term. The charts look at the interest rate on the five-year US Treasury note and a measure of expected inflation known as 5y5y, which looks forward five years to investors' five-year inflation expectations.
 

As of Monday, the 5y5y was trading at 2.28%, an indication that annual inflation will be close to the Federal Reserve's 2% target. The charts suggest that inflation expectations — despite the recent bump in prices — are within the realm of expectations over the past 15 years. They also show that market expectations of coming inflation have essentially been flat in recent months.
 

9:00 PM

Tamil Nadu CM rolls out scheme to help children who lost parents to Covid-19

Rolling out a welfare scheme to help fulfill the future needs of children who lost both their parents to COVID-19, Chief Minister M K Stalin on Wednesday handed over certificates of Rs five lakh fixed deposit in favour of each of five such children.

 

The deposits made in the state-run Tamil Nadu Power Finance and Infrastructure Development Corporation was given by the Chief Minister to their guardians at the Secretariat.

 

Also, Stalin gave away cheques for Rs three lakh to each of five other children who had lost one of their parents to the virus. Top government officials, led by Chief Secretary V Iraianbu participated.

8:53 PM

Bangladesh reports 3,956 new Covid cases, 60 deaths

Bangladesh has reported 3,956 new Covid-19 cases and 60 deaths, the highest daily death toll since May 4, taking the total tally to 837,247 and the toll to 13,282, according to health authorities on Wednesday.

 

Data from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) showed that 23,807 samples were tested in the last 24 hours across Bangladesh, Xinhua reported.

 

The total number of recovered patients in the country stood at 773,752 including 2,679 new recoveries on Wednesday, said the DGHS. According to the DGHS, the fatality rate in Bangladesh is 1.59 per cent and the current recovery rate 92.42 per cent.

8:47 PM

Covid Impact: Manipur govt cancels Class 10 and 12 board examinations

Class 10 and 12 Board Examinations have been cancelled in state-run schools in Manipur, in wake of prevailing Covid condition in the state

8:43 PM

Over 23% people to have lasting post-Covid symptoms, finds study

Among all patients infected with the coronavirus disease, more than 23 per cent continued to suffer from one or more health issues even a month after being diagnosed with Covid-19, according to a large study.

 

Many patients recover from Covid-19 within a few weeks, but some exhibit persistent or new symptoms more than four weeks after first being diagnosed. Patients with such post-Covid conditions are variously referred to as having long-haul Covid, long Covid or post-acute sequelae of Covid-19 (PASC).

 

The study by health care nonprofit FAIR Health analysed private health care claim records for nearly 2 million people diagnosed with Covid in 2020. The people in the study ranged in age from babies to the elderly; some 53 per cent were female and 47 per cent were male. The study has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal. READ ON...

8:26 PM

Pregnant, postpartum women more severely affected during second Covid wave than first: ICMR study

Pregnant and postpartum women were more severely affected during the second wave of COVID-19 as compared to the first with symptomatic cases and the case fatality rate being significantly higher among this category this year, according to a study by ICMR.

 

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Wednesday said cases related to pregnant and postpartum women during the first wave (April 1, 2020 - January 31, 2021) and during the second wave (February 1, 2021 to May 14) of the pandemic in India were compared.

 

"Symptomatic cases were significantly higher at 28.7 per cent in the second wave (111/387), compared to the first wave (162/1143) when the proportion was 14.2 per cent," the apex research body said.

8:20 PM

Registration on CoWIN for Sputnik V vaccine will be open at time of commercial launch: Dr Reddy's

8:09 PM

635 new Covid cases, 1,649 recoveries in Jammu and Kashmir

Recoveries remained ahead of new cases in J&K on Wednesday as 1,649 patients were discharged after recovery and 635 new cases were reported in the Union Territory during the last 24 hours.

 

Officials said 193 cases and six deaths came to light in the Jammu division, and 442 cases and six deaths in the Kashmir division.

 

So far, 309,361 people have been infected with coronavirus out of which 293,763 have recovered, while 4,217 have succumbed. The number of active cases is 11,381 out of which 4190 are from Jammu and 7,191 from the Kashmir division.

7:51 PM

Tamil Nadu reports 10,448 new Covid cases and 270 deaths today

7:51 PM

Uttar Pradesh reports 310 new Covid-19 infections, 50 fatalities

With 50 fresh COVID-19 fatalities in the state, the death toll in Uttar Pradesh rose to 21,963, while the tally climbed to 17,03,458 with 310 fresh cases, according to a health department bulletin on Wednesday.

 

Of the 50 fresh deaths, 10 have been reported from Lucknow, four from Shahjahanpur, three each from Lakhimpur Kheri, Jhansi, Ghazipur, two each in Kushinagar, Gorakhpur, Sonbhadra, Ayodhya, Sant Kabirnagar, Basti, one each in Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Kanpur Nagar, Saharanpur, Bulandshahr, Pilibhit, Mathura, Pratapgarh, Hardoi, Gonda, Etawah, Aligarh, Amroha, Kannauj and Banda, it said. READ MORE...

7:43 PM

Covid LIVE: Fatality rate for pregnant women higher in 2nd wave, says ICMR