Coronavirus: Delhi’s tally crosses 2-lakh mark; Serum Institute gets show-cause notice

10.50 pm: Read the top 10 updates of the day here.

10.45 pm: Mumbai reports 2,227 new cases of the coronavirus, according to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. The city sees 839 more recoveries and 43 more deaths. The total number of active patients has increased to 25,659, and the toll to 7,982.

10.32 pm: The United States has kept India in its list of countries under “do not travel” advisories, the Hindustan Times reports. However, it has removed Pakistan and Bangladesh from the list. “We continue to monitor health and safety conditions around the world, working with the CDC and other agencies, as conditions evolve,” the state department says.

10.29 pm: A sero survey will be conducted in ten districts of Chhattisgarh, including Raipur, to find out the status of “herd immunity”, a government official says according to PTI. Sero survey involves testing of blood serum to check for the prevalence of antibodies against Covid-19 infection.

10.22 pm: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal says daily cases would have been in the range of 1,500 if the government had not increased testing. “Today, highest no of cases – 4039,” he tweets. “But also, highest no of tests – 54,517 against 15,000/20,000 tests till last week. If we did same no of tests, today’s cases wud be less than 1500. So, don’t b scared by no of cases. Del wages war against corona wid aggressive testing.”

10.14 pm: Maharashtra reports 23,816 new cases and 325 deaths. With this, the state’s total number of cases rises to 9,67,349.

9.58 pm: Gujarat BJP chief CR Paatil tests coronavirus positive, reports PTI. “Paatil is currently admitted to Apollo Hospitals and is undergoing treatment for Covid-19,” says the hospital he is admitted to. “He is currently stable and being taken care of by multidisciplinary team of specialists.”

9.37 pm: Rajasthan’s tally rises to 95,736 with 1,610 new cases and toll goes up to 1,178 with 14 additional deaths, reports ANI citing the health department.

9.22 pm: Tamil Nadu records 5,584 new cases and 78 deaths, reports ANI. With this, the state’s tally rises to 4,80,524, including 8,090 fatalities.

9.14 pm: The Drugs Controller General of India sends a show-cause notice to Serum Institute of India for not halting trials of Oxford vaccine, reports PTI. “Whereas, Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd, Pune, till now has not informed the Central licensing authority regarding pausing the clinical trial carried out by AstraZeneca in other countries and also not submitted casualty analysis of the reported serious adverse event with the investigational vaccine for the continuation of phase 2 and 3 clinical trials of the subject vaccine in the country in light of the safety concerns,” reads the notice.

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Coronavirus: Drugs regulator sends notice to Serum Institute of India for not halting vaccine trials

9.10 pm: Haryana reports 2,294 fresh infections cases and 28 deaths today. Uttarakhand, meanwhile, registers 1,061 new cases.

9.08 pm: West Bengal registers 3,107 new cases and 53 deaths in the last 24 hours, ANI reports citing the state health department.

8.34 pm: Gujarat records 1,329 new cases, taking overall case count to 1,08,295, reports PTI. The toll rises to 3,152 with 16 deaths.

8.11 pm: Karnataka registers 9,540 new Covid-19 cases and 128 deaths in 24 hours, reports ANI. There are over 4,21,000 cases in the state.

8.08 pm: Andhra Pradesh records 10,418 new Covid-19 cases, taking the state’s overall count to 5,27,512, reports ANI. The toll stands at 4,634.

8.05 pm: Manipur records 160 new coronavirus cases, taking the state tally to 7,362. The overall cases include 5,548 recoveries, 1,774 active cases and 40 deaths, reports ANI.

7.59 pm: Kerala registers 3,402 new cases on Wednesday, reports ANI. The active cases in the state stands at 24,549, and 70,921 patients have recovered so far.

7.46 pm: Punjab’s case count goes up to 69,684, including 2,061 deaths and 50,558 recoveries, reports ANI. The active cases in the state stands at 17,065.

7.36 pm: Delhi records 4,039 new cases and 20 deaths in 24 hours, taking the Capital’s case count to 2,01,174, including 4,638 deaths and 1,72,763 recoveries, reports ANI, citing a government bulletin.

6.58 pm: Kerala has reported 3,402 cases on Wednesday, the highest single-day rise for the state, PTI reports. Twelve more people have died. The total number of cases is now 95,916 and the toll 384.

Among those who tested positive, 46 had come from abroad, 133 from other states and 3,120 were infected through contact, while the source of infection of 235 people was not known, Health Minister KK Shailaja has said. Eighty-eight health workers are among the 3,402 new cases.

6.50 pm: The total ridership on Yellow, Blue and Pink Lines was approximately 33,300 between 7 am to 11 am today, says the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation according to ANI.

6.42 pm: Bihar’s coronavirus tally rises to 1,52,192, including 775 deaths and 1,35,791 recoveries, ANI reports.

6.41 pm: Uttar Pradesh registers 6,711 new cases and 66 deaths on Wednesday. The active cases in the state are 64,028, recoveries are 2,16,901 and toll is 4,112, according to ANI.

6.39 pm: Jammu and Kashmir’s Covid-19 tally rises to 47,542 after 1,617 new cases. The Union Territory’s toll stands at 832, reports ANI.

6.26 pm: The Kolkata Metro Railway issues a set of dos and don’ts for commuters when they travel on its trains after the services are resumed, keeping with Covid-19 safety norms, reports PTI.

6.17 pm: The coronavirus tally in Mumbai’s Dharavi slum goes up to 2,839, with nine new cases, reports PTI, citing the city’s civic body Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.

6.13 pm: The Delhi government has ruled out the possibility of another lockdown, with Health Minister Satyendar Jain saying that the economy “cannot be kept shut for eternity”, reports PTI.

3.54 pm: As many as 533 policemen in Maharashtra test positive for the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, ANI reports. The force’s tally rises to 17,972. Three more deaths push the toll to 180.

3.52 pm: The Supreme Court agrees to examine a plea seeking the re-opening of all religious places in the country amid the coronavirus crisis, ANI reports. The top court issues a notice to the Centre and the states.

3.46 pm: The Serum Institute of India says it will continue trials of the Oxford vaccine despite AstraZeneca pausing the study, ANI reports. “We can’t comment much on the UK trials, but they have been paused for further review and they hope to restart soon,” the institute says. “As far as Indian trials are concerned, it is continuing and we have faced no issues at all.”

12.53 pm: “The total number of coronavirus recoveries on a weekly basis has increased from 1,53,118 during the third week of July to 4,84,068 in the first week of September 2020,” the health ministry adds. The Centre says nearly 75,000 people recovered in the last 24 hours.

12.51 pm: The Union health ministry says Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu account for 61% of the total active cases in the country.

12.48 pm: Brazil’s acting Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello on Tuesday said that a COVID-19 vaccine would be rolled out for all Brazilians in January, 2021, according to Reuters. “We are closing contracts with vaccine manufacturers and the forecast is that a vaccine will arrive for us starting in January next year and we will start vaccinating everyone,” he said.

12.42 pm: Australia’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Nick Coatsworth says he is not worried about not AstraZeneca’s decision to put its COVID-19 vaccine trial on hold, Reuters reports. “With the information that I have got at the moment, I am not worried about it,” he says. “In some respects, this is a very positive thing because it shows that despite the accelerated vaccine development, safety is the priority of the clinical trialists and investigators.”

12.38 pm: Puducherry records 341 new coronavirus cases and 10 deaths on Wednesday, PTI reports. The Union territory’s tally rises to 18,084 and the toll reaches 347.

12.34 pm: The Supreme Court refuses to hear a batch of pleas seeking the postponement or cancellation of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test or NEET scheduled for September 13, PTI reports.

12.28 pm: Odisha records 3,748 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, taking its total to 1,35,130, ANI reports, citing the state government. The state’s toll rises by 11 to 580.

12.27 pm: “Over 1 lakh street vendors have benefited from the SVANidhi yojana,” Modi says. “In spite of the COVID pandemic, providing documents to 4.5 lakh street vendors under SVANidhi Yojana is massive and I call upon other states to take inspiration from Madhya Pradesh.”

12.22 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks to the benificiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Swanidhi Yojana for street vendors.

10.32 am: Telangana records 2,479 fresh infections, taking the state’s tally to 1.47 lakh, reports PTI. The toll rises to 916 in the state with 10 deaths.

9.40 am: India’s coronavirus tally rises to 43,70,128 with 89,706 infections in 24 hours. The toll increased by 1,115 to 73,890. As many as 33,98,844 people have recovered from the infection. India’s recovery rate is currently 77.65% while the mortality rate is 1.7%.

9.27 am: According to the Indian Council of Medical Research’s daily update, a total of 5,18,04,677 tests for the coronavirus have been conducted so far. Of these, 11,54,549 were conducted on Tuesday.

9.21 am: The popular hills stations of Darjeeling and Kalimpong in West Bengal reopened for tourists, after six months, the Hindustan Times reports. The neighbouring Himalayan state of Sikkim is also expected to resume tourism in October.

9.18 am: Eight people tested positive for Covid-19 during an examination conducted on MLAs, Assembly staff and media persons on Tuesday, ahead of the one-day monsoon session of the West Bengal House on Wednesday, PTI reports.

9.16 am: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has decided not to meet people for the next one month after nearly 40 staff at the Chief Minister’s Office and his residence tested positive for coronavirus in the last few days, PTI reports.

7.50 am: The Blue Line and Pink Line services of the Delhi Metro resume today.

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Coronavirus: Delhi Metro’s Blue Line, Pink Line to resumes services today

7.40 am: UK pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca pauses the late-stage trials of its coronavirus vaccine, which it is developing with the University of Oxford, after a volunteer fell ill, AFP reports.

“As part of the ongoing randomized, controlled global trials of the Oxford coronavirus vaccine, our standard review process was triggered and we voluntarily paused vaccination to allow review of safety data by an independent committee,” a spokesperson says. “This is a routine action which has to happen whenever there is a potentially unexplained illness in one of the trials, while it is investigated, ensuring we maintain the integrity of the trials.”

“We are working to expedite the review of the single event to minimise any potential impact on the trial timeline,” the spokesperson adds.

Oxford’s vaccine, called AZD1222, had produced an immune response against the coronavirus and proved to be safe in early-stage clinical trials, according to trial results published in The Lancet medical journal. The Oxford vaccine prompted an antibody response within 28 days and a T-cell response within 14 days. Neutralising antibodies, which can disable the virus, were detected in most participants after one shot, and in all of them after two.

7.35 am: Globally, the coronavirus has infected more than 2.73 crore people and claimed 8,92,714 lives, according to Johns Hopkins University. Over 1.83 people have recovered from the infection worldwide.

7.30 am: Here are the top updates from Tuesday.

1. India reported 75,808 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, taking its tally to 42,80,422. The country recorded 1,133 daily deaths – the highest since July 23 – pushing the toll to 72,775. As many as 33,23,950 people in the country have recovered from the infection. India’s recovery rate has gone up to 77.65% while the death rate has fallen to 1.7%.
   
2. The Centre on Tuesday said schools can partially reopen for Class 9 to 12 from September 21. All educational institutions have been shut across the country since March.
   
3. The central government said that Russia has requested India’s help in manufacturing of vaccine by Indian companies and conducting phase three studies in India. Earlier in the day, Russia rolled out the first batch of its “Sputnik V” vaccine against the coronavirus for public use.
4. Delhi on Tuesday recorded 3,609 new cases and 19 deaths. With this, the total cases in the national Capital is now 1,97,135 including 4,618 deaths. This is the highest daily surge in over two months. Maharashtra, the worst-affected state, registered 20,131 fresh infections, taking the state’s total to 9.43 lakh, with 27,407 deaths.
   
5. American credit rating agency Fitch Ratings on Tuesday sharply lowered its growth forecast for India, saying that the country’s gross domestic product for the financial year 2020-’21 is expected to contract by 10.5%, instead of its estimated 5% contraction in May.
   
6. Chinese President Xi Jinping claimed his country acted in an “open and transparent manner” amid the coronavirus crisis and that it had taken concrete efforts to help save millions of lives around the world during the pandemic. The virus had originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The United States, among others, has repeatedly accused China of not revealing the seriousness of the coronavirus to the world in the initial stages of the outbreak, causing it to spread rapidly.