Coronavirus: Maharashtra’s tally crosses 10 lakh with nearly 25,000 new cases in a day

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

10.37 pm: Rajasthan’s tally rises to 99,036 with 15 more fatalities and 1,660 new cases, reports PTI.

10.24 pm: Andaman and Nicobar adds 29 new cases to its total count. With this, the tally rises to 3,494 including 51 deaths, reports ANI.

10.18 pm: Mumbai registers 2,172 new cases, taking its overall count to 1,65,287, says the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. The toll in the city rises to 8,064 with 44 additional deaths.

10.11 pm: Gujarat registers its highest single-day spike of 1,344 coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, says the state health department. With this, the state’s tally rises to 1,10,971. The toll increases by 16 to 3,183.

10.08 pm: Maharashtra’s tally rises to 10,15,681 with 393 additional deaths and 24,886 fresh cases, News18 reports citing the health department.

9.55 pm: Ladakh reports 51 fresh infections and two deaths, according to ANI.

9.32 pm: Himachal Pradesh registers 318 news coronavirus cases and five deaths in the last 24 hours, says the health department.

8.57 pm: Karnataka’s Covid-19 toll crosses 7,000-mark after 130 more deaths, reports PTI. The state tally goes up by 9,464 to 4,40,411.

8.56 pm: After West Bengal, Punjab government lifts lockdown curbs on September 13 due to NEET 2020 exams, reports ANI.

8.55 pm: Congress leader DK Shivakumar has recovered from Covid-19, and has been discharged, reports ANI, citing a statement from the hospital.

8.53 pm: Tamil Nadu records 5,514 new coronavirus cases and 77 deaths, taking the state tally to 4,91,571, and toll to 8,231, according to ANI.

8.51 pm: The Maharashtra government releases a standard operating procedure and guidelines for hotels, lodges and resorts that have been allowed to restart operations at 100% capacity, reports PTI.

8.34 pm: Muted celebrations take place on Catalan national day, with a ban on traditional mass rallies backing independence from Spain, reports AFP.

8.33 pm: Haryana registers 2,388 new cases and 25 deaths today, taking the total number of cases to 88,332, including 932 deaths, reports ANI.

8.29 pm: Maharashtra’s case count crosses the 10-lakh mark with 24,886 new cases to reach 10,15,681. The state toll goes up by 393 to 28,724, reports ANI. As of Friday, 7,15,023 patients have been discharged, and 2,71,566 people are being treated.

8.25 pm: In Maharashtra’s Pune city, 27,989 cases of violating Covid-19 rules such as wearing masks have been registered between September 2 and September 10, reports ANI. “The only aim of this rule is to encourage people to wear masks in public places,” says B Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Pune. “The enforcement has been carried out by the PMC and the Pune Police.”

8.17 pm: Uttarakhand records 995 new Covid-19 cases, taking the state tally to 29,221, including 388 deaths and 19,428 recoveries, according to ANI.

8.16 pm: Punjab’s Covid-19 tally rises to 74,616 after 2,526 new cases, according to ANI. The toll rises to 2,212 after 63 more deaths.

7.47 pm: Delhi registers 4,266 new coronavirus cases and 21 deaths in 24 hours, taking the Capital’s tally to 2,09,748 and toll to 4,687, reports ANI. There are 26,907 active cases and 1,78,154 recoveries.

7.25 pm: The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation says trains on all sections will start running from 6 am on Sunday (September 13). “Starting next Sunday, 20th September, regular timings as per earlier time table with services starting at 8:00 AM on Phase 3 sections (on Sundays) will continue,” it says in a tweet.

From Saturday onwards, metro services will start on the Airport Express Line from 6 am to 11 pm on all lines.

7.21 pm: All judicial and administrative sections of the Allahabad High Court will not function on September 14 and 15, reports ANI, citing an order.

5.04 pm: The Assam government decides to pay up to Rs 5,000 as cremation expenses to district administrations in case family members of a patient cannot afford the cost or do not receive the body, PTI reports.

4.55 pm: Delhi Assembly members get tested for the coronavirus ahead of the session on Monday.

2.40 pm: Coronavirus tests being conducted in rural areas of Ludhiana via Community Health Centre, reports ANI. Medical Officer, CHC, Sidhwan Bet village says: “Testing in these centres has benefited people living in rural areas. We also set up camps for people in containment zones.”

2.32 pm: The Union health ministry appeals to states and Union Territories to ensure that no inter-state restriction is imposed on the movement of medical oxygen. “States/UTs made responsible to ensure that every hospitalized COVID patient receives oxygen,” the statement read.

2.29 pm: The Supreme Court directs all states to fix reasonable rates for ambulance services to Covid-19 patients, reports NDTV.

1.35 pm: Turkey Health Minister Fahrettin Koca on Thursday said that the country is considering a request from Russia to conduct Phase 3 trials of Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine, according to Reuters. He added that a decision would be made in the next week.

1.29 pm: The British government releases detailed guidelines for the reopening of universities this month, which include a ban on gathering of more than six people across campuses.

1.23 pm: Maharashtra’s Thane city reports 1,856 cases on Friday, taking its tally to 1,40,249, according to PTI. Thirty-two more deaths push the city’s toll to 3,842.

1.21 pm: Odisha’s Women and Child Development Minister Tukuni Sahu tests positive for the coronavirus. She is the fifth minister in the state to have contracted the infection, according to PTI.

1.15 pm: South Korea reported 176 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, taking its total to 21,919, according to Reuters. A fresh wave of infections had erupted at a church in capital Seoul last month. The country has reported 350 deaths so far.

1.11 pm: Government data shows that nearly 74% of the total active cases are concentrated in the nine most affected states. Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh contribute more than 48% of the total active cases.

1.07 pm: The Assam government decides that if a person travels outside the state and returns within 96 hours, they will not be required to undergo the 10-day quarantine. However, they have to first take a test.

12.22 pm: Arunachal Pradesh’s coronavirus tally rises to 5,672 as 127 more people, including 14 security personnel, have tested positive, reports PTI.

12.20 pm: All the members of the Great Andamanese tribe in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, who had tested positive for the coronavirus, have recovered, says Chief Secretary Chetan Sanghi.

9.30 am: India records 96,550 new cases in 24 hours, taking the country’s tally to 45,62,414. The toll rises by and 1,209 to 76,271. As many as 35,42,663 people have recovered from the infection.

9.26 am: The Karnataka High Court observed on Thursday that a writ court cannot decide whether allopathy treatment or ayurvedic treatment will work on a patient infected with Covid-19, Live Law reports.

The court was hearing a plea by two qualified practitioners of Ayurveda, who sought to quash the Union health ministry’s mandate to use only allopathic drugs for the treatment of coronavirus patients. Under the guidelines, a patient cannot choose or refuse any other form of treatment.

9.22 am: The Gujarat High Court on Thursday suspended proceedings and shut down its premises till September 16, after 12 of its employees tested positive for coronavirus, PTI reports.

9.18 am: AstraZeneca Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot on Thursday said the coronavirus vaccine the company is developing with the University of Oxford could still be ready before the end of the year, Bloomberg reports. On Tuesday, the firm paused its clinical trials due to an unexplained illness in a study participant.

“What we have here is a special set of circumstances where the whole world becomes involved in the conduct of a clinical trial,” Soriot said in his first public comments since the trial was halted. “The reality is we all have to be very patient and see how it unfolds.”

9.15 am: SP Charan, the son of playback singer SP Balasubrahmanyam, said the singer’s recovery continues to be slow and steady. He added that his father is comfortable and and not sedated, though he is still on the ventilator. Balasubrahmanyam had tested positive for the coronavirus last month.

“Everything is going smooth,” SP Charan said in an Instagram video. “We don’t expect any complications of infections or anything like that. So all seems well. Thanks to your prayers, your wishes. We are grateful for your concern and affection towards dad.”

9.09 am: China on Thursday approved clinical trials of its first nasal spray vaccine to combat the novel coronavirus, Global Times reports. The vaccine is a collaborative mission between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland that involves researchers from the University of Hong Kong, Xiamen University, and Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy. The country is expected to start phase one clinical trials of the nasal spray vaccine in November.

9.04 am: Another sero-survey conducted in Andhra Pradesh reveals that close to 20% of the 5.43 crore population of the state has acquired immunity to Covid-19, PTI reports. The sero-survey was conducted in two phases last month with a sample size of 5,000 in each of the 13 districts of the state. Andhra Pradesh Commissioner for Health and Family Welfare Katamaneni Bhaskar said 22.5% population in urban areas and 18.2% in rural acquired immunity for the coronavirus.

9.01 am: A national sero-survey conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research indicates that 0.73% adults in India were exposed to SARS-CoV-2, amounting to a total of 64 lakh coronavirus infections by early May, PTI reports.

The survey, which was published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research, was conducted from May 11 to June 4 and covered 28,000 individuals whose blood samples were tested for IgG antibodies.

8.20 am: “It’s a race against this virus, and it’s a race to save lives. It’s not a race between companies, and it’s not a race between countries,” says WHO’s head of emergencies Mike Ryan on the pause of AstraZeneca’s trial.

8.15 am: World Health Organization Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan says AstraZeneca’s pause of the trial of the “Oxford vaccine” should not discourage researchers and must instead be taken as a wake up call, Reuters reports.

“This is a wake-up call to recognise that there are ups and downs in clinical development and that we have to be prepared,” Swaminathan says. “We do not have to be discouraged. These things happen.”

Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca on Tuesday said it has paused late-stage trials of its experimental coronavirus vaccine after a study participant developed an unexplained illness. The “Oxford vaccine” has been widely seen as one of the leading candidates against the infection. The vaccine, called AZD1222, had produced an immune response against the coronavirus and proved to be safe in early-stage clinical trials, according to results published in medical journal The Lancet.

8.10 am: WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus congratulates the pace at which vaccines, diagnostics and treatments for Covid-19 are being developed, AFP reports. But, while admitting that it is astonishing, he adds that more needs to be done.

“We need to rapidly scale up our clinical trials, manufacturing, licensing and regulation capacity so that these products can get to people and start saving lives,” he says.

According to the WHO, there are currently 35 vaccine candidates that are being tested on human beings. Nine of these are at advanced Phase 3 trials, which are conducted on thousands of people. There are 145 other vaccine candidates in earlier testing phases.

8 am: The United Nations has sought an immediate, “quantum leap” in funding for global programmes to fight the coronavirus, AFP reports.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said countries need to find $15 billion over the next three months to fund the ACT-Accelerator programme. This is a global collaboration led by the World HEalth Organisation looking for a vaccine. “Either we stand together or we will be doomed,” Guterres said, adding that the virus was the “number one global security threat”.

“We need a quantum leap in funding to increase the chances of a global solution to get the world moving, working and prospering again,” he added.

7.55 am: The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation begins operations on the magenta and grey lines.

7.50 am: The health ministry says, “There has been an unprecedented surge in COVID19 recoveries in India. There is more than 100% increase in patients recovered and discharged in the past 29 days.”

As many as 34,717,83 people have recovered so far from the infection. India’s recovery rate is currently 77.74%.

7.45 am: The number of COvid-19 cases in Mizoram rises to 1,353. This includes 603 active cases and 750 recoveries.

7.40 am: Globally, the coronavirus has infected more than 2.8 crore people and killed 9,07,980, according to the Johns Hopkins University. The number of worldwide recoveries has crossed 1.88 crore.

7.30 am: Here are the top updates from Thursday:

• India reported a record increase of 95,735 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, taking its tally to 44,65,864. The country’s toll rose by 1,172 to 75,063. As many as 34,717,83 people have recovered from the infection. India’s recovery rate is currently 77.74%, while the mortality rate is 1.68%.
  
• Doctors at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences said that patients who have recovered from Covid-19 are at risk of developing pulmonary fibrosis – scarring of the lungs that causes fatigue and shortness of breath.
• The Serum Institute of India said that it will stop phase three trials of the Oxford coronavirus vaccine and review the situation till they begin again in the United Kingdom.
• The Union health ministry directed all states and Union territories to mandatorily conduct reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction or RT-PCR test on symptomatic people who test negative for the coronavirus in rapid antigen tests. The latter has a high rate of false negative results.
• Delhi on Thursday registered the highest one-day jump in infections with 4,308 new Covid-19 cases, taking the Capital’s overall count to more than 2.5 lakh. The toll rose to 4,666 after 28 more deaths. Punjab and Haryana also recorded the highest single-day spike of 2,464 and 2,591 infections, respectively.
• West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said her administration has lifted the lockdown order for September 12 (Saturday) so that students can attend the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test examination on September 13 (Sunday). She said in a tweet that the government had received several requests from students to lift the lockdown on September 12.
• Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said his government will continue to use convalescent plasma therapy for severely-ill coronavirus patients. His remark came a day after a study funded by the Indian Council of Medical Research showed that the procedure does not help reduce the risk of death or slow down the progress of the infection.
• Russia started inoculating volunteers with the “Sputnik V” vaccine against the coronavirus in Moscow. This came even as 26 scientists issued an open letter to medical journal The Lancet, raising questions on the accuracy of data from the vaccine’s early-stage trials, saying it looked “highly unlikely”.
  
• China on Wednesday approved for trials its first nasal spray vaccine against the coronavirus.