As many as 48,493 people recuperated from COVID-19 in a day bringing India’s active caseload below 5% of the total infections as daily recoveries remained higher than single-day rise in cases for the last 47 days, according to data updated by the Union Health Ministry on Thursday.
The national recovery rate has improved to 93.58% with 83,83,602 recovered cases which exceeded active cases by 79,40,299.
You can track coronavirus cases, deaths and testing rates at the national and State levels here . A list of State Helpline numbers is available as well.
Here are the updates:
Night curfew imposed in Ahmedabad
In the wake of rising COVID-19 cases post Dipavali festivities in a second wave in Gujarat, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has imposed indefinite night curfew from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. beginning Friday to halt the infection spread.
The severe spike in cases in the city has led to an explosion in demand for hospital beds.
All commercial and business establishments, except essential service providers, will be shut from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Healthcare workers, people aged above 65 will be given priority for COVID-19 vaccine: Harsh Vardhan
Noting that it is natural to prioritise COVID-19 vaccine distribution , Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday said healthcare workers and people aged above 65 will be early recipients when a vaccine becomes available.
Addressing a webinar organised by the FICCI FLO on ‘The Shifting Healthcare Paradigm During and Post-Covid’, Mr. Vardhan said COVID-19 vaccine will be available in the next few months and it is estimated that by July-August 400-500 million doses will be made available for 25-30 crore people.
Oxford University COVID-19 vaccine ‘encouraging’ for older age groups: study
The coronavirus vaccine developed by teams at the University of Oxford has been shown to trigger a robust immune response in healthy adults aged 56-69 and those over 70 years of age.
The findings published in Lancet on Thursday based on 560 healthy adult volunteers shows that the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine is safe and well tolerated with a lower reactogenicity profile in older adults than in younger adults, meaning the older age groups could build immunity to the disease.
High Court raps Delhi government on COVID-19 situation
The Delhi High Court on Thursday asked the AAP government if it could explain to those who had lost their near and dear ones to COVID-19 in the last 18 days why the administration did not take steps when cases were spiralling in the national capital.
The high court, which also asked the government to look at the situation with a “magnifying glass”, observed that it was “disheartening” to see that the number of daily deaths due to the virus has increased to 131 and fresh COVID-19 cases have risen to 7,486.
Maharashtra officials asked to ramp up testing ahead of second wave
Though the graph of COVID-19 cases has shown signs of decline, the Maharashtra government, anticipating a second wave of the infection, has asked authorities not to drop guard and take all necessary steps to deal with any situation.
A circular-cum-advisory issued by the state Directorate of Health Services last week said the second wave of the pandemic is likely in January-February, and asked officials concerned to ramp up COVID-19 testing in the state.
Haryana’s Health Minister Anil Vij to be administered trial dose of COVID vaccine Covaxin
Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij who had offered to be the first volunteer in the phase three trials for Covaxin, a potential vaccine against COVOD-19, will get the dose on Friday.
The 67-year old senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader said he will be administered the trial dose of the indigenous vaccine at the Civil Hospital at Ambala Cantt.
“I will be administered a trial dose of Coronavirus vaccine #Covaxin a Bharat Biotech product Tomorrow at 11 am at Civil hospital, Ambala Cantt under the expert supervision of a team of doctors from PGI Rohtak and Health Department, Vij said in a tweet.
“I have volunteered to take the trial dose,” he added.
Centre rushes central teams to Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Manipur
Health Ministry on Thursday deputed high-level Central teams to Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Manipur to assist in strengthening COVID containment, surveillance, testing and infection prevention in these states.
Randeep Guleria, director, All India Institute of Medical Science, Delhi is leading the three-member team bound for Haryana and V K Paul, Member (Health), Niti Aayog is heading the Rajasthan team, S K Singh, Director (NCDC) will be leading the Gujarat team and L Swasticharan, Addl DDG, DHGS is heading the Manipur team.
The teams will visit the districts reporting high number of COVID cases and support the State efforts towards infection control. - Bindu Shajan Perappadan
COVID-19 hospitals can engage MBBS students in 4th, 5th years, interns
Amid rising cases of COVID-19 in the national capital, authorities have allowed all coronavirus facilities of the city government here to engage MBBS students in fourth and fifth years, interns and others to assist doctors on duty at a fixed honorarium, as per an order issued by the health department.
The order, dated November 18, comes at a time when hospitals are again getting swamped with infection spreading faster every single day, leading to an overwhelming number of deaths in the last several days.
Not wearing mask to attract Rs. 2,000 fine in Delhi
Not wearing mask while going out in the National Capital? Be prepared to pay Rs. 2,000 as fine. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said it has been decided to increase the fine four times from Rs. 500 now, in view of rising COVID-19 cases in the region.
All private hospitals have been asked to reserve 80% ICU beds for corona patients. For Non-ICU beds at private hospitals, 60% beds will be reserved for Corona patients.
Private hospitals have been asked to defer all non critical planned surgeries for a few days. - Jaideep Deo Bhanj
Delhi to double testing centres
The Delhi government on Thursday directed all 11 District Magistrates to double COVID-19 testing centres in their districts.
"It is therefore directed that all District Magistrates/CDMOs will take steps to double the testing centres in all district immediately. The locations will be finalized by 19.11.2020 and actual scaling up will be done latest by 21.11.2020. The manpower required for the new testing centres may be hired from open market, if required," read an order issued by S.M. Ali, Special Secretary of Health and Family Welfare Department of the Delhi government. - Nikhil M. Babu
94,000 frontline workers identified for vaccine
As many as 94,000 frontline workers have been identified to be the first beneficiaries of the COVID-19 vaccination in Bengaluru. It had been reported that the vaccine will be ready for administration in early 2021.
On Wednesday, N. Manjunath Prasad, Commissioner, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), and chairperson of COVID-19 task-force, chaired a meeting with health officials on the preparations for the vaccination drive that will be taken up once the vaccine is ready.
Mr. Prasad told The Hindu that in the first phase, the vaccine will be administered to frontline workers and health service providers, including ASHAs anganwadi workers, ANM nurses, doctors, ambulance drivers and medical, nursing and para-medical students. This, he said, was in line with the directions from the Centre that had instructed States to identify corona warriors who will be the first beneficiaries of the vaccine.
ICMR to collect 8k more samples from Delhi for RT-PCR tests
Following Home Minister Amit Shah’s meeting on Sunday with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi government has received ventilators and bilevel positive airway pressure (BiPAP) machines from the Centre and the ICMR has decided to increase the number of samples from Delhi that can be sent for RT-PCR tests in the former’s labs, by nearly 8,000 a day, officials told The Hindu .
Also, about 58.1 lakh people live in high-risk areas for COVID-19, including containment zones and busy markets, and the highest number of such people are in the south-west district and lowest in the north-east district, as per Delhi government data.
About 57-58 lakh people will be covered in a door-to-door survey, starting Friday, to find people who have developed symptoms of COVID-19, according to officials. Though the 11 districts raised a demand of 11,400 teams to conduct the exercise in four to five days, the government has decided to go ahead with 9,500 teams.
Home Ministry outlines steps to curb virus cases in Delhi
The railways were in the process of equipping coaches with 800 beds for COVID-19 patients at Shakur Basti railway station in Delhi, the Ministry of Home Affairs said on Wednesday.
As many as 45 doctors and 160 paramedics of the paramilitary forces have arrived in Delhi for COVID-19 duties. The MHA said the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was going to add 250 additional ICU beds to the existing 250, besides creating 35 bilevel positive airway pressure (BiPAP) beds in the next three to four days at its COVID-19 hospital near the IGI Airport.
These came in the wake of 12 decisions taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday.
Telangana slashes prices of RT-PCR test at private labs
Telangana government on Wednesday has slashed the prices of RT-PCR tests in private labs. Earlier, Rs. 2,200 was charged if a sample was collected at a private lab. It has been reduced to Rs. 850. And Rs. 2,800 was charged if samples were collected from home, which is now slashed to Rs. 1,200. The revised prices includes all charges such as for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and others.
In an order issued on Wednesday, State Health department’s Principal Secretary Syed Ali Murtaza Rizvi directed all hospitals, institutions, labs to display the revised tariff prominently and strictly comply by the orders.
50 Haryana students test positive
Around 50 students of various senior secondary schools in Rewari and Jhajjar districts of Haryana have tested positive for COVID-19 over the past fortnight.
Haryana Education Minister Kanwar Pal told The Hindu that many students had tested positive in schools across the State during routine health check-ups but there was no proposal to withdraw or amend the order for holding classes.
It is estimated that around 100 students have tested positive in Rewari and Jhajjar since schools opened in the State in September. - Ashok Kumar
New York City schools to close again as city fights coronavirus
New York City is shuttering schools to try to stop the renewed spread of the coronavirus , Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday in a painful about-face for one of the first big U.S. school systems to bring students back to classrooms this fall.
The nation’s largest public school system will halt in-person learning from Thursday, the Mayor and Schools Chancellor said.
Cipla, MultiG ink deal to supply antibody test kit
Drug major Cipla on Wednesday said it had signed a licensing agreement with Belgium-based MultiG for distribution of their COVID-19 rapid antibody test kit, Covi-G, across most emerging markets and Europe. This agreement is part of Cipla’s efforts to enhance global access to life-saving treatments and diagnostic infrastructure for patients in need, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Cipla said MultiG rapid antibody kit has been commercialised in over 20 countries already, with sensitivity and specificity exceeding 92%.
People above 70 years, women most affected by COVID-19 in J&K: study
The population above 70 years and women are the most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic as Kashmir has shown prevalence of the virus-induced antibodies among two out of five persons in its 10 districts at 38.8%, according to a study released on Wednesday.
“The study indicates that there has been a widespread transmission of COVID-19 infection in the general population. There are apprehensions that the majority of the unaffected population may also contract the infection if standard operating procedures are not followed,” Dr. Salim Khan, head of the department, Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Srinagar, said.
According to the sero-prevalence study, COVID-19 specific antibodies were found prevalent among 38.8% samples in the population selected from l0 districts of the Kashmir Valley.
AP stays below 2,000 cases for 10 days in a row
The State reported fewer than 2,000 new coronavirus infections in 24 hours ending Wednesday morning, for the tenth day in a row. With the new cases, the cumulative tally went up to 8,57,395. The death toll increased to 6,899, with nine new deaths reported in the past day. The death rate remains at 0.80%.
As many as 1,236 new infections were detected as 69,618 samples were tested, registering single-day positivity rate of 1.78%. The overall positivity rate for 93.3 lakh tests came down to 9.19%.
