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Coronavirus LATEST News Updates: Telangana on Monday registered 3,043 COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to over 5.56 lakh, while the toll stood at 3,146 with 21 more deaths, a government bulletin said. Uttar Pradesh’s COVID-19 tally surged to 16,73,785 with 3,981 fresh cases while the death toll climbed to 19,362 as 157 more people succumbed to the disease. Kerala reported 17,821 new cases, taking the total number of infections to 23,35,762. Thiruvananthapuram recorded the highest number of 2,750 cases, followed by Malappuram with 2,533 and Palakkad 1,898 Anticipating a hike in COVID vaccine prices, Kerala on Monday urged the Centre to take steps to reduce it by floating a global tender after taking into account the cumulative need of the states going in for global procurement of shots. Delhi recorded 1,550 fresh cases of COVID-19 and 207 fatalities on Monday, even as Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said his government has begun preparing for what is being termed the “third wave”. Bharath Biotech may start clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin on children from June, a senior official of the vaccine-maker has said. A special vaccination drive to cover high-risk and vulnerable groups in the 18-45 age category would begin in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, initially from eight districts having a higher case count and COVID-19 positivity ratio, an official spokesman said. The drive would be extended to the rest of the 12 districts once the supply of vaccines increases, the spokesman said as chief secretary B V R Subrahmanyam finalized the rollout of the special vaccination drive at a high-level meeting. “Pfizer will supply COVID-19 vaccine only to Central government and supra-national organisations for deployment in national immunization programs. Allocation of doses and implementation plan within a country is a decision for local governments based on relevant health authority guidance,” news agency ANI quotes the vaccine manufacturer as saying. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said there are around 500 cases of black fungus or mucormycosis in Delhi and the city has been grappling with a shortage of Amphotericin-B injection used in its treatment. “We have set up dedicated centres for the treatment of black fungus at Lok Nayak Hospital, GTB Hospital and Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital but we do not have drugs…. We did not get the injections on Sunday,” he told reporters. Co-ordinating with Pfizer and Moderna at central level to facilitate regulatory approval and for procurement related facilitation, says the health ministry. Most of the times their order books are already full and depending on their surplus and how much they can provide to India, they will come back to GoI and we will ensure and facilitate supply to states on the basis of that, the ministry adds. Dr Randeep Guleria said that data from the first and second wave shows that children are protected from the virus and even if they get infected, the infection is very mild. There is no indication that children will be more affected in third wave, he says. Russia’s sovereign wealth fund RDIF says Panacea Biotec has begun production of Sputnik vaccine in India, reports The Hindu . According to India Today , Panacea Biotec will produce 100 million doses of SputnikV per year. Initial doses produced by Panacea Biotec will be for global markets, according to The Hindu. India has administered more than one crore vaccine doses in the 18-44 age group, the Union Health Ministry said on Monday. The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country exceeded 19.60 crore, the ministry said. A total of 19,60,51,962 vaccine doses have been administered through 28,16,725 sessions, according to the provisional report till 7 am. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Monday announced the extension of lockdown in the state till 1 June, saying the shutdown was having a good effect. Meanwhile, The Jammu and Kashmir administration declared black fungus (Mucormycosis) an epidemic and directed health facilities and medical colleges to follow the guidelines for its management. The Delhi govt spoke to Moderna, Pfizer for anti-coronavirus vaccines, they have refused to sell us directly saying they are talking to Centre claims Manish Sisodia. The Delhi deputy chief minister appeals to the Centre not to make vaccination drive a joke and to approve Pfizer, Moderna jabs immediately. The Haryana government and the Board of School Education Haryana have decided to fo for objective format of Class 12 exam, which will be held at the respective schools where students are enrolled, said reports. “Considering the second option suggested in the meeting, Haryana School Education Board and Haryana government has decided to conduct objective type examination of 1:30 hours. It has been further decided that the students’ own school will be made examination center. All students will be given the datesheet 15 days in advance,” The Indian Express quotes an official statement as saying. According to a Hindustan Times report, the examinations will only be held for core subjects. The Supreme Court on Monday sought response from the Centre on a plea seeking compensation of Rs 4 lakh to the families of those who have died from coronavirus. A vacation bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and MR Shah also asked the Centre to place before it the ICMR guidelines on issuance of death certificates for COVID-19 victims, saying there should be uniform policy for issuing such documents. Drug majors Roche India and Cipla announced launch of Roche’s Antibody Cocktail in India priced at Rs 59,750 per dose for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 in patients who are at high risk. Noting that Karnataka has recorded about 700 cases of black fungus infections in the last week, the deputy chief minister directed experts to find its source, with doubts being expressed about oxygen supply, quality of piping and cylinders used for it. Three researchers from Wuhan Institute of Virology sought hospital care in November 2019, months before China disclosed the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a US intelligence report. India reported 2,22,315 new COVID-19 cases, 3,02,544 discharges and 4,454 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per data updated by the Health Ministry. Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Puducherry extended their lockdowns on Sunday as India continues to battle the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. In the National Capital, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, extending the lockdown for a further week, said the unlock process would proceed in a phased manner from 31 May if the number of COVID-19 cases continue to decline. The Rajasthan government, which extended the coronavirus lockdown by 15 days till 8 June, also said the state may allow some relaxations in commercial activities from 1 June in districts where the COVID-19 situation will show significant improvement. The Haryana government, extending the lockdown till 31 May, said the positivity and fatality rates need to be brought down further, though it did allow some relaxations. In the Union Territory of Puducherry, where cases continue to soar, the government announced the extension of the lockdown till 31 May. This, as India registered 2,40,842 new cases and 3,741 fatalities over the past 24 hours, marking the seventh straight day when coronavirus cases remained below the 3 lakh-level, the Union health ministry data showed. With the fresh cases, India’s tally of COVID-19 cases climbed to 2,65,30,132. The toll due to the disease rose to 2,99,266 with 3,741 fresh fatalities, the ministry data updated at 8 am showed. The active cases further reduced to 28,05,399 comprising 10.57 percent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate improved to 88.30 percent. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease in the country surged to 2,34,25,467 while the case fatality rate stood at 1.13 percent, the data stated Meanwhile, a high-level meet on CBSE Class 12 exams chaired by defence minister Rajnath Singh ended inconclusively with the Centre asking states to send by 25 May suggestions on protocols and education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal vowing to inform students and parents of the final decision ‘at the earliest.’
Terming the meeting as “extremely fruitful”, Pokhriyal said that the Centre had received valuable inputs from other stakeholders like state chief secretaries and education ministers. The virtual meeting was also attended by by Union ministers Smriti Irani and Prakash Javadekar as well as state-level authorities. In a series of tweets after the meeting ended on Sunday evening, Pokhriyal sought to allay the fears and anger of Class 12 students who have been asking the government to cancel the exams in view of the COVID-19 situation. ‘Only deal with Central Govt’ Also on Sunday, US-based COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer Moderna refused to send vaccines directly to the Punjab government stating that it only deals with the Centre, a senior state official said. Punjab’s nodal officer for vaccination Vikas Garg said according to Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s directions, all vaccine manufacturers were approached for direct purchase of COVID vaccines including Sputnik V, Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson. A reply was received only from Moderna wherein the company refused to deal with the state government, he said. According to Moderna’s policy, it deals with the government of India and not with any state government or private parties, the Punjab government said in a statement. Earlier, Singh had directed officials to explore possibilities of floating a global tender for the procurement of vaccines from all possible sources to ensure that people of the state are vaccinated against COVID-19 at the earliest. Notably, Punjab was forced to stop vaccination for phase 1 and phase 2 categories because of the non-availability of vaccine doses. All efforts would be made for the procurement of vaccines to meet the acute shortage in the state, which had received fewer than 44 lakh vaccine doses so far from the government of India, the statement said. From the government of India’s allocation for phase 3 (18-44 age group), the state government has been able to buy only 4.2 lakh vaccine doses, including 66,000 received on Saturday, Garg said. A total of 3.65 lakh have already been used and only 64,000 are left, he said. UK releases study on AstraZeneca vaccine Meanwhile, officials in the United Kingdom said a double dose of COVID-19 vaccines is almost as effective against the fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus first identified in India as it is against Britain’s dominant strain. Britain’s health minister said the data was groundbreaking and he was increasingly hopeful that the government would be able to lift more COVID restrictions next month. A study by Public Health England found the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 88% effective against symptomatic disease from the B.1.617.2 variant two weeks after the second dose. That compared with 93 percent effectiveness against the B.1.1.7 “Kent” strain which is Britain’s dominant COVID variant. Two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were 60 percent effective against symptomatic disease from the B.117 variant compared with 66 percent effectiveness against the Kent variant, PHE said. “I’m increasingly confident that we’re on track for the roadmap, because this data shows that the vaccine, after two doses, works just as effectively (against the Indian variant),” Health Secretary Matt Hancock told broadcasters. Under the government’s plans, a lifting of remaining coronavirus restrictions is due to take place from 21 June. Britain has rushed out Europe’s fastest vaccination programme so far but it has faced a new challenge from the spread of the variant first found in India. Harsh Vardhan writes to Ramdev Union health minister Harsh Vardhan called yoga guru Ramdev’s statement on allopathic medicines “extremely unfortunate” and asked him to withdraw it.
In a letter to Ramdev, Vardhan asked him to withdraw his statement on allopathy. “The statement disrespects the corona warriors and hurt the sentiments of the country. Your statement on allopathy can break the morale of healthcare workers and weaken our fight against COVID-19,” he said. Vardhan said that allopathic medicines have saved lives of crores and comments that it is responsible for death of lakhs is “extremely unfortunate” Citing a video circulating on social media, the Indian Medical Association on Saturday had said Ramdev has claimed that allopathy is a “stupid science” and medicines such as remdesivir, faviflu, and other drugs approved by the Drugs Controller General of India have failed to treat COVID-19 patients. The doctors’ body also quoted Ramdev as saying that “lakhs of patients have died after taking allopathic medicines”. These remarks were denied as “false” by the Haridwar-based Patanjali Yogpeeth Trust. With inputs from PTI