Coronavirus: Guidelines for festival season released, no celebrations in containment zones

11 pm: Read the top 10 updates of the day.

10.45 pm: Jharkhand reports 847 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, taking its tally to 88,873. The state’s toll rises by 10 to 757.

10.15 pm: Mumbai registers 1,625 new cases, taking total number of cases to 2,17,090, reports ANI. The overall tally includes 9,199 deaths and 1,81,485 recoveries, and active cases stand at 23,976.

10.10 pm: Assam’s Covid-19 tally goes up by 1,184 to 1,88,902. The toll stands at 778, according to ANI.

10 pm: Maharashtra reports 12,258 new cases, 370 deaths and 17,141 discharges today, reports ANI. The state tally rises to 14,65,911, including 38,717 deaths and 11,79,726 discharges. The active cases stand at 2,47,023.

8.39 pm: World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says a vaccine against the coronavirus may be ready the end of this year, Reuters reports. “We will need vaccines and there is hope that by the end of this year we may have a vaccine,” he says. “There is hope.”

8.35 pm: West Bengal reports a record 3,370 coronavirus cases on Tuesday, which push its tally to 2,77,049, according to PTI. The state’s toll rises by 63 to 5,318.

8.33 pm: Delhi reports 2,676 new cases on Tuesday, taking its tally to 2,95,236. The Capital’s toll rises by 39 to 5,581.

7.45 pm: Jammu and Kashmir reports 738 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, taking its tally to 80,476. The Union territory’s toll stands at 1,268.

7.40 pm: The Union health ministry releases guidelines for festivals. The events are permitted only outside containment zones.

7.06 pm: Private contractors hired by pharmaceutical firm Moderna to recruit volunteers for its coronavirus vaccine trial failed to enroll enough Black, Latino and Native American participants, to determine how well the vaccine works in these populations, company executives and vaccine researchers have told Reuters. This led to a slowdown in the late-stage trials of the vaccine.

7 pm: International Monetary Fund chief Kristina Georgieva says that the economic downturn due to the coronavirus will not be as severe as was initially feared, AFP reports. However, she adds that the crisis is far from over.

6.50 pm: The ministry says 10 states including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh account for 77% of the active cases in the country. It also says that it is too early to say whether the growth of active cases in Maharashtra has stabilized.

6.44 pm: The health ministry says almost 50% of the deaths are concentrated in 25 districts in eight states of the country. Of these, 15 districts are in Maharashtra alone.

6.41 pm: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare says that new recoveries have been more than new cases over the last two weeks, according to a tweet by the ministry. New cases being reported in last 14 days are lower than previous highs of 90,000 cases per day, it says.

6.37 pm: There have been 2,121 new cases in Rajasthan today. As many as 15 people have died, and 2,037 recovered.

6.27 pm: Rajesh Bhushan says that insurance has been claimed for Rs 50 lakh each in 95 cases of deaths of healthcare workers engaged in coronavirus relief work, ANI reports. As many as 176 claims are in process and 79 are yet to be received from states.

6.22 pm: “The average daily coronavirus positivity rate has been coming down,” says Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Secretary Rajesh Bhushan. “From 9.21% during September 16-22, it has come down to 6.82%.” He says there has been a decline in average daily new cases over the last few weeks.

6.18 pm: Tamil Nadu records 5,017 cases today, 5,548 recoveries and 71 deaths, taking total positive cases to 6,30,408, including 5,75,212 discharged cases, 9,917 deaths and 45,279 active cases.

6.15 pm: Andhra Pradesh reports 5,795 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours. The total number of cases in the state is now 7,29,307 including 50,776 active cases, 6,72,479 recoveries and 6,052 deaths.

6.13 pm: Kerala reports 7,871 new cases of the coronavirus, including 111 health workers, according to ANI, which has quoted Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. As many as 4,981 people have recovered today and 25 have died.

6.05 pm: The Ministry of AYUSH has recommended Ayurveda preparations for mildly symptomatic coronavirus patients, ANI reports.

4.29 pm: Congress’ Bengaluru Rural MP and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee head DK Shivakumar’s brother DK Suresh tests positive for the coronavirus, PTI reports.

4.26 pm: Maharashtra Higher and Technical Education Minister Uday Samant says the current coronavirus situation in the state is not appropriate to allow in-person classes in schools and colleges, PTI reports. Maharashtra has reported 14,53,653 coronavirus cases and 38,347 deaths so far.

4.22 pm: Bihar reports 1,265 new coronavirus cases in a day, taking its number of active cases to 12,524, ANI reports.

3.40 pm: Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala says he has tested positive for the coronavirus, ANI reports.

3.33 pm: Punjab Health Minister Balbir Sidhu tests positive for the coronavirus, according to his office. He had shared the stage with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during a tractor rally in Punjab on Monday, according to The Indian Express.

1.40 pm: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal says the national Capital is past the peak of the second wave of coronavirus and the situation has been controlled to a large extent, reports PTI. “Delhi hit the peak of the second wave of Covid-19 on September 17 when 4,500 cases were reported across the city. The situation has been controlled to a large extent,” he adds.

1 pm: The health ministry says that India’s 9,19,023 active cases of the coronavirus constitute “merely” 13.75% of the total caseload, reports PTI. It also says that the country is steadily recording a declining trend of percentage of active cases.

11.14 am: Cinemas, theatres and multiplexes will be reopening from October 15,Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar, says, according to ANI. “Halls have been directed to operate with up to 50% of their seating capacity,” he adds. “All Covid-19 guidelines and standard operating protocols issued by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry must be followed.”

9.35 am: India reports 61,267 new coronavirus cases and 884 deaths. The country now has 66,85,083 total cases and the toll is at 1,03,569.

9.15 am: The White House has blocked strict Food and Drug Administration guidelines on bringing potential vaccines for the coronavirus to market, ensuring their approval before the November 3 presidential election, reports AP.

“A main sticking point has been the recommendation that volunteers who have participated in vaccine clinical trials be followed for about two months after the final dose before any authorization is granted,” The New York Times reports, citing a senior administration official and others familiar with the situation.

9.12 am: Government data shows that five states – Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh – have been reporting a rise in coronavirus cases even though India has witnessed a steady decline in daily infections in the last three weeks, reports Hindustan Times.

9.10 am: The United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has acknowledged concerns about airborne transmission of the virus, reports Reuters. It says Covid-19 can spread through virus lingering in the air, sometimes for hours. The CDC says there is evidence that people with coronavirus possibly infected others who were more than 6 feet away, within enclosed spaces with poor ventilation.

9.09 am: Doctors in Mumbai say that around 30% of the coronavirus patients in Intensive Care Units of hospitals are young people below the age of 40, reports NDTV. There has also been a 34% rise in such cases in the last month alone. Doctors say who are getting symptoms of coronavirus are largely self-medicating instead of visiting hospital and getting a coronavirus test.

9.05 am: A fresh batch of ink is being used in the coronavirus quarantine stamp for international passengers at the Delhi international airport after Congress leader Madhu Goud Yaskhi complained about pain and itchiness due to the chemical used in it, reports PTI.

9 am: Here are the top updates from Monday:

• India’s coronavirus count rose to 66,23,815 on Monday, as the country reported 74,422 new cases in the last 24 hours. India’s toll rose by 903 to 1,02,685. So far, more than 55 lakh people have recovered from the virus in India. The recovery rate is 84.34%. The Union health ministry said that India crossed a landmark milestone as active cases continued to be less than 10 lakh for 14 consecutive days.
• The World Health Organization said that around 10% of the global population may have been infected by the coronavirus. “It varies depending on country, it varies from urban to rural, it varies depending on groups,” the organization’s top Emergency Expert Mike Ryan said, according to Reuters. “But what it does mean is that the vast majority of the world remains at risk. We are now heading into a difficult period. The disease continues to spread.”
• The Ministry of Education released guidelines for reopening schools in a graded manner from October 15. It said that students will attend schools only with the written consent of parents and attendance norms will be flexible. The schools have also been asked to set up task forces to take responsibility for hygiene and emergency situations.
• The Supreme Court ordered the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India to place on record the KV Kamath Committee recommendations on debt restructuring, necessitated due to the economic stress caused by the pandemic. The court also said the Centre’s affidavit on waiving “interest on interest” on loans up to Rs 2 crore was not satisfactory and must be submitted again.
• A World Health Organization survey said that the pandemic has disrupted or halted mental health services in 93% of countries worldwide, even as the demand for them continued to increase.