Researchers at Oxford University in the United Kingdom have said that a vaccine being developed for the coronavirus has been found to be both effective and safe in early trials, according to a study in medical journal The Lancet. Meanwhile, the enrollment of volunteers for the human trials of the Covaxin vaccine began in New Delhi on Monday.
India reported 40,425 new cases of the coronavirus on Monday morning, taking the total to 11,18,043. The toll rose by 681 to 27,497. This is the highest single-day rise in the number of fresh infections as well as deaths. More than 7 lakh people have recovered so far.
The global coronavirus count is now over 1.45 crore, and the toll has crossed 6.07 lakh, according to the Johns Hopkins University. More than 81.9 lakh people have recovered so far.
The national helpline number for the coronavirus is 011-23978046, and a toll-free number 1075.
These are the helpline numbers for states and the Union Territories.
10.39 pm: The toll due to coronavirus in Bihar climbs to 187, with eight more fatalities reported today, while 1,076 fresh cases push the state’s tally up to 27,455, PTI reports.
10.30 pm: Human trials of Covaxin, the first indigenously developed vaccine for the coronavirus have begun at Redkar Hospital in Goa, says Chief Minister Pramod Sawant. “This is a testimony of India’s immense potential in healthcare innovation,” he adds. “My best wishes to the entire team working on #Covaxin.”
10.28 pm: With the trials of Covid-19 vaccine being developed at Oxford University showing encouraging results, Serum Institute of India says it will apply for a licence to start clinical trials of the shot in a week’s time, PTI reports.
9.59 pm: Madhya Pradesh reports 710 new coronavirus cases and 17 deaths. As many as 373 people recovered today. The total number of cases in the state is now 23,310, including 6,888 active cases and 738 deaths.
9.44 pm: Pune division records a surge of 2,696 cases today. The whole of Maharashtra reports 8,240 new cases and 176 new deaths.
9.27 pm: Rajasthan records 956 fresh infections and nine deaths till 8.30 pm. Total number of cases rise to 30,390 including 7,627 active cases and 568 deaths.
9 pm: The Pune administration has said that the complete lockdown in the city will not be extended after July 23, The Times of India reports. However, there will be some restrictions in place to curb the further spread of the virus.
8.33 pm: AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria says that the Covaxin vaccine may become available for manufacture by the end of the year or early in 2021, The Times of India reports. He also says that Delhi seems to have reached its peak in coronavirus cases.
8.11 pm: Mumbai has 1,043 new infections, 41 new deaths and 965 more recoveries, says the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. The total number of active cases rises slightly to 23,865, and the deaths stand at 5,752. The doubling rate of infections is now 57 days.
7.35 pm: Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan and ICMR Director General Dr Balram Bhargava have written to all states to ramp up testing capacity, ANI reports.
7.22 pm: British medical journal The Lancet says United Kingdom’s vaccine against Covid-19 is “safe and induces an immune reaction, according to preliminary results”.
7 pm: A complete lockdown will be imposed in Sikkim from July 21 to July 27 as coronavirus cases surge, News18 reports.
6.55 pm: The Odisha government would provide Rs 7,500 for the handling and disposal of each Covid-19 patient’s body.
6.26 pm: IndiGo plans to lay off 10% of its workforce due to the pandemic, ANI reports.
6.22 pm: The Odisha government announces incentives for doctors, paramedics and employees deployed at dedicated Covid-19 hospitals or health centres in the state, ANI reports. Doctors would get Rs 1,000 per day, paramedics Rs 500 and Class IV employees would get Rs 200 per day.
6.15 pm: Tamil Nadu reports 4,985 new coronavirus cases and 70 deaths in a day. With this, the state’s caseload rises to 1,75,678, including 51,348 active cases and 2,551 deaths.
6 pm: Kerala reports 794 new cases in a day. With this ,the active cases rise to 7,611, ANI reports.
5.40 pm: Delhi reports 954 new cases and 35 deaths in a day. This takes the total number of positive cases in the Capital to 1,23,747, including 1,04,918 recoveries and 3,663 deaths.
5.26 pm: A policeman died of the coronavirus in Assam on Monday, taking the state’s toll to 58, PTI reports. He is the second police officer to die.
5.20 pm: India must draw up its immunisation strategy now on the administration of Covid-19 vaccine on people when it comes out, says Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, PTI reports. “Vaccine is anybody’s guess. Right from the end of this year to the middle of next year is the prediction,” she says. “If the government can make sure that at least 20% of the most high-risk population is immunised, then we can sort of create a control on the virus.” However, she noted that 20% of teh population in India is a huge number.
5.15 pm: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he cannot promise that there would be a vaccine for Covid-19 by the end of the year. “To say that I’m 100% confident that we’ll get a vaccine, this year or indeed next year, is alas, just an exaggeration. We’re not there yet,” Johnson says, according to Reuters.
5.09 pm: The West Bengal government would impose a total lockdown on two days every week, Home Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay says, according to News18. This week, the total lockdown would be imposed on July 23 and July 25. This would be in addition to the lockdowns already enforced inside containment zones.
Bandyopadhyay adds that the coronavirus was now in community transmission stage in some parts of the state.
4.58 pm: Uttar Pradesh records 1,913 new cases and 46 deaths in a day, taking the state’s caseload to 51,160 and toll to 1,192, PTI reports. “There are 19,137 active cases in the state, while a total of 30,831 people have been discharged from hospitals so far after recovering from the disease,” Additional Chief Secretary, (Medical and Health) Amit Mohan Prasad says.
4.48 pm: AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria claims that there isn’t a lot of evidence to prove community transmission at the national level in India. “But there are hotspots, even in cities where there is spike of cases and it very likely that local community transmission in those areas is happening,” he says.
He adds that some areas like Delhi seem to have reached their peak as the daily number of cases are reducing.
4.45 pm: All India Institute of Medical Sciences’ Director Randeep Guleria says phase 1 of Covaxin vaccine trial would be done on healthy people between the ages of 18 and 55, and with no comorbidities. “A total of 1,125 samples have been collected, of which 375 will be studied in first phase and in second phase 750 people will be recruited between 12-65 years,” he says, according to ANI.
4.35 pm: Bihar reports 1,076 new cases in a day, taking the state’s tally to 27,455.
4.32 pm: The licences of two malls in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala have been cancelled for not following Covid norms, ANI reports.
4.30 pm: The Bihar Police headquarters has asked for a list of personnel who have recovered from the coronavirus so that their blood plasma can be used for therapy, ANI reports.
3.07 pm: An increase in coronavirus cases in Australia’s second-largest city, Melbourne, may take weeks to subside even with a lockdown and orders to wear face masks, says the country’s Acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly, reports Reuters.
3.05 pm: Britain has gained access to 90 million doses of potential coronavirus vaccines in deals with biotech companies, including BioNTech, Pfizer and Valneva, reports AFP.
2.13 pm: The Satish Dhawan Space Centre will function with minimum staff with immediate effect and until further orders, to avoid further transmissions and to complete contact tracing of primary and secondary contacts of detected coronavirus cases, reports ANI, citing a statement.
2.02 pm: The Sadar Hospital in Bihar’s Siwan district has come under fire after a woman was left unattended for hours outside the emergency ward on Sunday. The matter came to light after a Twitter user posted pictures of the woman lying on the floor while it rained incessantly. Siwan also happens to be state Health Minister Mangal Pandey’s hometown.
Read more here: Amid rising Covid-19 cases in Bihar, woman lies unattended outside Siwan Sadar Hospital for hours
1.56 pm: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has urged Ganesh mandals in prominent areas like Andheri, Juhu and Versova areas to follow the concept of “one ward-one Ganpati” during the festival this year due to the coronavirus crisis, reports PTI.
1.44 pm: Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain says source of many coronavirus infections in the city is not known, reports ANI. “There is spread in community, now it’s very technical to say either it’s local or community spread,” he adds. “Source of many [coronavirus patients] remains unknown after test. Let’s leave the technical battle on Center to decide over community spread.”
1.40 pm: Three Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MLAs in Tamil Nadu tested positive for coronavirus on Sunday, reports The Indian Express. P Karthikeyan, MLA for Vellore, R Gandhi, MLA of Ranipet and Krishnagiri MLA Senguttuvan have tested positive.
12.49 pm: The number of coronavirus cases in Himachal Pradesh stands at 1,548, including nine deaths, ANI reports, quoting the figures by the state health department.
12.35 pm: Puducherry reports 93 new cases of the coronavirus on Monday, taking the overall tally of infections in the Union Territory to 2,092, PTI reports. The toll rises to 29 after a 73-year-old woman succumbed to the disease.
12.33 pm: The Telangana Police arrests a group of four men in Malkajgiri for allegedly selling antiviral drugs Remdesivir and Favipiravir for prices higher than the Maximum Retail Price, ANI reports.
12.30 pm: Yadav alleges discrepancies in the tally of coronavirus cases in Bihar and says different figures are being provided by the central and state governments. “People are receiving test report even when they have not given any sample for test,” he claims. “[The] medical staff at Covid centres do not have PPE kits. We demand that state govt must give a clear picture.”
12.28 pm: Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav warns that Bihar will gradually become a global Covid-19 hotspot, “as the state government is not worried about the rising number of cases,” ANI reports. “They [Bihar government] are doing nothing to increase testing,” he adds. “The number of Covid-19 deaths is also increasing in Bihar.”
11.47 am: Arunachal Pradesh records its biggest single-day jump of 90 Covid-19 cases on Monday, taking the total tally of infections in the state to 740, PTI reports.
11.45 am: Over 40 nurses working on a contractual basis at Delhi’s Janakpuri Super Speciality Hospital hold a protest alleging the hospital ended their contract abruptly, ANI reports.
11.43 am: Odisha reports 673 new cases of the coronavirus and six deaths, taking the total tally of infections in the state to 18,110, ANI reports. The toll rises to 97.
11.41 am: The Drugs Controller General of India seeks clarification from Glenmark Pharmaceuticals regarding its alleged “false claims” on the utilisation of antiviral favipiravir tablets on Covid-19 patients with comorbidities, ANI reports. The top drug regulator has also asked for an explanation on the pricing of the drug. This move came after the drug regulator received a complaint from a Member of Parliament.
11.11 am: Rajasthan records 401 new coronavirus cases, taking the state’s tally to 29,835. With four more deaths, the toll stands at 563.
11.05 am: The former chief priest of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam, Srinivasa Dikshitulu, has died after testing positive for the coronavirus, reports The News Minute. “He was admitted on Thursday after testing positive and passed away early morning on Sunday,” says a spokesperson of Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences. Dikshitulu was 73.
Last week, the Tirumala Tirupati Balaji temple had said it will not shut down despite 140 of its employees testing positive.
10.24 am: Maharashtra minister Aslam Shaikh tests positive. The state textile minister says he is currently asymptomatic and urges those who came in close contact with him to get themselves tested.
10.22 am: Delhi health minister Satinder Jain to resume work from today, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal says. “He was always on the field visiting hospitals and meeting health workers and patients,” Kejriwal tweets. “He contracted corona. After one month, he joins back today. Welcome back Satinder and best wishes.”
10.20 am: China’s outbreak has spread to a second city in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, reports AP.
9.35 am: India reports 40,425 new cases of the coronavirus, taking the total to 11,18,043. The toll rises by 681 to 27,497. This is the highest single-day rise in the number of fresh infections as well as deaths. More than 7 lakh people have recovered so far.
9.10 am: India tested 2,56,039 samples on Sunday, says the Indian Council of Medical Research.
7.11 am: United States’ tally goes up to 37,62,081 with 63,872 new cases in the last 24 hours, reports AFP.
7.08 am: The Delhi government will add at least another 600 intensive care unit beds in three Covid hospitals by July-end, reports Hindustan Times. These new beds will be added to Lok Nayak Hospital, Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital and Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital. “Once the new beds are added, the total ICU beds in these three Delhi government hospitals will be more than 1,155,” an official tells the newspaper.
7.06 am: Assam reports 1,018 fresh cases and four deaths. With this, the state’s tally is now 23,999 and the toll is 57, says Minister for Health and Family Welfare Himanta Biswa Sarma.
7.02 am: Here are the top updates from Sunday
- India’s coronavirus cases rose to 10,77,618 on Sunday after the country reported the biggest single-day jump with 38,902 fresh infections. The toll rose by 543 to 26,816. The recovery rate stood at 62.86%.
- Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka recorded a single-day increase in number of new coronavirus infections in the evening. Maharashtra, the worst-hit state by the pandemic, recorded 9,518 new coronavirus cases, taking its total to 3,10,455. Whereas Tamil Nadu saw an increase of 4,979 new cases, pushing the state’s tally to 1,70,693. Meanwhile, Karnataka reported 4,120 new infections, bringing the total number of cases in the state to 63,772.
- The Union health ministry said India’s coronavirus case fatality rate is “progressively falling” and is currently at 2.49%. The ministry said this is the first time it has fallen below 2.5%, adding that it is one of the lowest fatality rates in the world.
- The Indian Medical Association said that the coronavirus situation in India was “really bad” and the fact that the infection was now spreading to rural areas points to community transmission. However, the Centre has repeatedly denied community transmission of the coronavirus in India.
- The ethics committee of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi gave the institute the approval to start human trials of Covaxin, the first indigenous vaccine against the coronavirus. AIIMS will begin enrollment volunteers for the trials from Monday.
- Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa directed private hospitals in the state to reserve 50% of their beds for coronavirus patients amid a sharp increase in the number of cases. Yediyurappa said that he was concerned about the deaths of coronavirus patients because of being denied treatment by certain hospitals.
- Russia’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Andrei Kelin, denied allegations that his country’s intelligence services are trying to steal the coronavirus vaccine and treatment research from academic and pharmaceutical institutions around the world.
- The global coronavirus count is now over 1.42 crore, and the toll has crossed 6 lakh, according to the Johns Hopkins University. More than 79.84 lakh people have recovered so far.