Coronavirus LIVE: 6 mn doses given Thurs; 109 new cases in Delhi

Today's coronavirus numbers: Bengaluru (1,008 cases), Mumbai (863 cases), Chennai (396 cases), Kolkata (178 cases), Delhi (111 cases). Stay tuned for corona-related news

2:56 PM

More than 18.9 million unutilised vaccine doses available with states/UTs: Govt

More than 1.89 crore balance and unutilised Covid-19 vaccine doses are still available with the states and Union territories, the Union health ministry said on Thursday.

 

Over two crore vaccine doses have been administered in the first 72 hours of the implementation of the new revised guidelines of the National COVID-19 Vaccination Programme, the ministry said.

 

More than 30 crore (30,33,27,440) vaccine doses have been provided by the Centre to states/UTs so far, through Government of India (free of cost channel) and direct state procurement category. (PTI)

2:44 PM

Single dose of Pfizer, Astra vaccine offers 60% protection: Lancet study

A single dose of Pfizer or AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine offers around 60 per cent protection against infection from SARS-CoV-2 in adults aged 65 years and above, according to a study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

 

To obtain real-world data on the effectiveness of these vaccines in care homes, the researchers from the University College London (UCL) in the UK used data from the VIVALDI study.

 

That research investigated SARS-CoV-2 transmission, infection outcomes, and immunity in residents and staff in long-term care facilities in England for adults aged 65 years and older since June 2020. Read here

2:27 PM

Royal Enfield commits Rs 50 cr aid to support virus relief activities

Mid-sized motorcycle maker Royal Enfield on Thursday said it has earmarked Rs 20 crore to support relief and rehabilitation efforts amid the coronavirus pandemic.

 

The Rs 20-crore amount is in addition to Rs 50 crore committed last year by Eicher Group to support relief efforts.

 

Royal Enfield, which is a part of Eicher Motors, noted that in addition to working with state governments and NGOs across Delhi-NCR and Tamil Nadu, the earmarked amount is being distributed under various areas, including building sustainable medical support. (PTI)

2:21 PM

Madhya Pradesh: Five cases of coronavirus variant 'Delta Plus', 1 dead

Five persons have so far been found infected with the 'Delta Plus' variant of coronavirus in Madhya Pradesh and one of them has died, state Medical Education Minister Vishwas Sarang said on Thursday.

 

The other four persons, who were vaccinated against Covid-19, are fine, he told PTI.

 

"One person from Ujjain, who died, was not inoculated, he said. (PTI)

2:08 PM

Coronavirus Latest: Odisha logs 3,650 fresh cases

Odisha on Thursday registered 3,650 fresh Covid-19 cases, raising the tally to 8,90,596, while the death toll climbed to 3,761 with 44 more fatalities, a health department official said.

 

The coastal state now has 33,770 active cases and 8,83,012 patients have recovered from the disease, he said.

 

The new infections were reported from all the 30 districts - 2,098 cases in quarantine centres and 1,552 local-contact cases. (PTI)

1:48 PM

Japan to abolish fiscal advisory panel as Covid adds to debt pile

Japan will abolish on Thursday a nearly two-decade-old panel consisting of academics and corporate executives that has offered long-term proposals on fixing the country's worsening finances, two government officials told Reuters.

 

The move comes as huge stimulus packages to combat the coronavirus pandemic add to Japan's already huge public debt, which is the largest among major industrialised nations and twice the size of its economy.

 

The panel, which met about twice a year to debate Japan's fiscal policy and long-term debt issuance plans, will hold its final meeting on Thursday, the officials said on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak publicly. Read here

1:46 PM

Puducherry reports 298 new cases

The union territory of Puducherry added 298 fresh coronavirus cases during the last 24 hours taking the overall tally to 1,15,925, a senior official of the Department of Health and Family Welfare Services said on Thursday.

 

The Puducherry region alone accounted for 222 of the new cases followed by Karaikal (42), Mahe (25) and Yanam (9), Director of Health and Family Welfare Services S Mohan Kumar said.

 

The new cases were identified at the end of the examination of 8,891 samples. (PTI)

1:30 PM

SC asks state education boards to declare internal results by July 31

The Supreme Court on Thursday asked state education boards to declare internal assessment results of Class 12 examination by July 31, making it clear that there can''t be a "fit-all" scheme and each board was autonomous and free to formulate its own evaluation method for students. The court said it will not pass any direction for having a uniform scheme for assessment across the country, PTI reported.

1:23 PM

Johnson to convene summit as London lags on vaccines

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will convene a London summit to help tackle the lagging Covid-19 vaccination uptake in the U.K. capital, as the government tries to inoculate the most vulnerable groups ahead of the planned lifting of pandemic curbs next month. Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi said the government is “intensifying” efforts to tackle vaccine hesitancy, particularly among Black and Asian communities, and the meeting on Friday will bring health officials and community leaders together to discuss how to boost the take-up of Covid shots, Bloomberg reported.

1:09 PM

5 cases of Covid-19 'Delta Plus' variant in MP; 1 dead

Five persons have so far been found infected with the 'Delta Plus' variant of coronavirus in Madhya Pradesh and one of them has died, state Medical Education Minister Vishwas Sarang said on Thursday.

 

The other four persons, who were vaccinated against Covid-19, are fine, he told PTI.

 

"One person from Ujjain, who died, was not inoculated, he said.

 

'Delta Plus' has been declared a variant of concern by the Centre.

1:06 PM

Indonesian cleric gets 4 years for concealing Covid-19 test

An influential firebrand cleric was sentenced to another four years in prison in Indonesia on Thursday for concealing information about his coronavirus test result.

 

The three-judge panel at East Jakarta District Court, which was under heavy police and military guard, ruled that Rizieq Shihab had lied about his Covid-19 test result, which made contact tracing more difficult.

 

Shihab has been detained since Dec 13. The judges ordered the time he has already served to be deducted from his sentence.

1:03 PM

Now swab samples from mobile phone screens can detect Covid

A team of researchers has developed an accurate, non-invasive, and low-cost method of testing for Covid-19 using samples taken from the screens of mobile phones.

 

The team led by University College London researchers analysed swabs from smartphone screens rather than directly from people, and found that people who tested positive by the regular nasal swabbing PCRs were also positive when samples were taken from phone screens.

 

The new method -- known as Phone Screen Testing (PoST) -- detected the Covid-19 virus on the phones of 81 to 100 per cent of contagious people with a high viral load, suggesting it is as accurate as antigen lateral flow tests.

 

12:58 PM

One shot of Pfizer, AstraZeneca vaccine offers 60% protection against Covid

A single dose of either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine offers around 60 per cent protection against infection from SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing Covid-19, in adults aged 65 years and above, according to a new study published in the The Lancet Infectious.

 

The study, led by researchers from the University College London, in the UK showed that the protective effect of a single dose of vaccination is evident from four weeks to at least seven weeks after vaccination, which provides some evidence to support extension of the interval between doses beyond three weeks, in line with UK policy. Read on...

12:48 PM

DATA STORY: Total vaccination goes past 300 mn-mark; Delta variant surges

India has so far administered 301,626,028 vaccine doses. That is 1002.65 per cent of its total caseload, and 21.64 per cent of its population. Read on...

12:41 PM

Top Naxal commander Haribhushan died of Covid-19: Chhattisgarh Police

Top Naxal commander Haribhushan died of Covid-19: Chhattisgarh Police