Coronavirus News LIVE Updates: India tally near 1.02 cr; Oxford COVID-19 vaccine may become 1st to get DCGI nod for emergency use

India's COVID-19 tally of cases climbed to 1,01,87,850 with 18,732 new cases in a day, while 97,61,538 people have recuperated so far pushing the national recovery rate to 95.82 percent, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday. The death toll climbed to 1,47,622 with the novel coronavirus virus claiming 279 lives in a span of 24 hours in the country, the data updated at 8 am showed. The COVID-19 case fatality rate was registered at 1.44 percent.

There are 2,78,690 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which comprises 2.73 percent of the total caseload, the data stated. According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 16,81,02,657 samples have been tested up to December 26 with 9,43,368 samples being tested on Saturday.

Thirty-nine more people tested positive for the coronavirus in Ladakh, taking the infection count in the Union Territory to 9,394, officials said on Sunday. Ladakh has so far recorded 126 COVID-related deaths -- 83 in Leh and 43 in Kargil -- while 9,050 patients or 96 per cent of the total cases have recovered from the infection in the UT. The officials said 31 of the fresh cases were detected in Leh and eight others in Kargil during the past 24 hours. Thirty-one patients were discharged after successful treatment in Leh during the same period, they said. According to the officials, the number of active COVID-19 cases in Ladakh stands at 218 -- 192 in Leh and 26 in Kargil.

 Sri Lanka's overall coronavirus caseload has surpassed the 40,000 mark after 500 more people tested positive for the virus in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry said. The total patient count reached 40,282, out of which 32,051 patients had recovered and been discharged from hospitals, bringing down the active patient count to 8,045, Xinhua news agency quoted the Ministry as saying in its latest update on Saturday.

 Nine more persons, including a policeman, tested positive for COVID-19 in Arunachal Pradesh, pushing the tally to 16,687, an official said on Sunday. Twenty-three more patients recovered from COVID-19, taking the total number of recoveries in the state to 16,477.The SSO said the COVID-19 recovery rate of Arunachal Pradesh at present is 98.74 percent.

 

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the African continent has increased to 2,623,086, while the death toll reached 61,954, health authorities have confirmed. The most affected African countries in terms of the number of positive cases include South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia and Ethiopia, respectively, figures from the Africa CDC showed.

Telangana reported 472 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to over 2.84 lakh (2,84,863), while two fatalities pushed the toll to 1,531, the state government said on Sunday. Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) accounted for the most number of cases with 106, followed by Medchal Malkajgiri and Rangareddy with 45 and 44 respectively, a government bulletin said on Sunday, providing details as of 8 pm on December 26. Over 2.76 lakh (2,76,753) people have recovered from the disease so far. As many as 6,579 patients are under treatment and 37,347 samples were tested on Saturday. Cumulatively, over 67.23 lakh samples have been tested. The samples tested per million population was over 1.80 lakh, the bulletin said. The case fatality rate in the state was 0.53 percent, while it was 1.4 percent at the national level. The recovery rate in Telangana was 97.15 percent, while it was 95.8 percent in the country.

With preparations underway for a possible vaccine-rollout by January, the Indian drug regulator is looking at the UK, which sources believe may give its nod to the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine next week, before deciding on giving emergency use authorisation to the Serum Institute that is manufacturing the shots here.

Once the UK drug regulator gives its approval to the Oxford vaccine, the expert committee on COVID-19 at the CDSCO will hold its meeting and thoroughly review the safety and immunogenicity data from the clinical evaluations conducted abroad and in India before granting any emergency authorisation for the vaccine, official sources said.

The process of granting emergency use approval for Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine 'Covaxin' may take time as its phase 3 trials are still underway, while Pfizer is yet to make a presentation.

"Going by this, Oxford vaccine 'Covishield' is likely to be the first to be rolled out in India," a source said.

The Karnataka government once again flip-flopped on its decision to impose a night curfew in the state starting Thursday. The decision was reminiscent of some of the state government’s early decisions during the pandemic which had also seen a lot of indecisiveness.

The chief minister announced Thursday evening, just hours before 11 pm curfew, that the government was withdrawing the curfew announced between Dec 24-January 1 following criticisms by stakeholders. READ MORE

Japan's government will temporarily ban the entry of all nonresident foreign nationals as a precaution against a new and potentially more contagious coronavirus variant that has spread across Britain.

The entry ban will start Monday and last through Jan. 31 for the time being, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement late Saturday.

Japan banned the entry of nonresident foreigners from Britain and South Africa last week but is further stepping up border control after confirming the new variant in seven people over the last two days five returnees from Britain who tested at airports and two others in Tokyo.

Japan is also suspending exemptions of a 14-day quarantine for Japanese nationals and resident foreigners on a short-track program that began in November. The entrants now must carry proof of a negative test 72 hours prior to departure for Japan and self-isolate for two weeks after arrival, the ministry said.

- 18.7k new cases, 21.4k new recoveries, 279 new deaths, 2.98k dip in active cases

- New cases lowest since July 1 (179 days ago)

- New deaths below 300 for the second consecutive days

- Kerala reports 3.5k new cases, Maharashtra 2.9k, West Bengal 1.3k

- Maharashtra reports 60 new deaths, West Bengal 33, Delhi 23

Maharashtra's COVID-19 caseload rose to 19,16,236 on Saturday as it recorded 2,854 new cases, a health official said. The state also reported 60 fatalities, taking its death toll due to the pandemic to 49,189, he said. A total of 1,526 patients were discharged after treatment, taking the tally of recovered people to 18,07,824. There are 58,091 active patients in the state now. Maharashtra's COVID-19 tally is as follows: Positive cases: 19,09,951, new cases: 3,580, death toll: 49,058, discharged: 18,04,871, active cases: 54,891, people tested so far: 1,23,41,204.

Delhi recorded 655 fresh COVID-19 cases, the lowest in over four months, and 30 more fatalities due to the disease on Saturday, even as the positivity rate stood at 0.98 per cent, authorities said. The case tally mounted to over 6.22 lakh in the city and the death toll due to the coronavirus rose to 10,437, they said, adding that over 67,000 COVID-19 tests were conducted on Friday.

From December 21-23, the count of daily cases was below the 1,000-mark in the city. On Monday, 803 cases were reported, the lowest since August 17, 939 cases were recorded on Tuesday and 871 on Wednesday.

However, 1,063 cases were reported on Thursday. The number again dropped to 758 on Friday. The 655 fresh cases came out of the 67,115 tests conducted the previous day, including 40,138 RT-PCR tests and 26,977 rapid antigen tests, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department.

On August 17, Delhi had recorded 787 COVID-19 cases. The city had reported 652 coronavirus cases on August 16.

The tally of active cases in the national capital dropped to 6,921 on Saturday from 7,267 on Friday.

The bulletin said the total number of cases has climbed to 6,22,094 in Delhi, while the recovery rate stood at over 97 percent.

The highest single-day spike in the city till date—8,593 cases—was reported on November 11.

According to the bulletin, of the total number of 18,774 beds in COVID hospitals, 16,149 are vacant.