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Coronavirus India News Highlights: India on May 14 added 3,43,144 new coronavirus infections in a day pushing the COVID-19 tally to 2,40,46,809, while the death toll rose to 2,62,317 with 4,000 daily fatalities, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated. The active cases have increased to 37,04,893 comprising 15.41 percent of the total infections. The national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 83.50 percent, the data showed. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,00,79,599 while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.09 percent, the data stated. India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. India crossed the grim milestone of 2 crore on May 4. The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country stands at 17,91,77,029, as per the Health Ministry.
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Karnataka will soon have a Covaxin-manufacturing plant of Bharat Biotech in Kolar district near here, Deputy Chief Minister of the State Dr C N Ashwath Narayan said on Friday.
The construction work has already begun and the government has invited investors to make the vaccine in the State, he said.
"Covaxin vaccine-manufacturing plant of Bharat Biotech will be established at the earliest in Malur Industrial Area of neighbouring Kolar district," Narayan, who is the IT-BT Minister and heads the State Covid task force, said in a statement. (PTI)
Maharashtra on Friday reported 39,923 new COVID-19 cases and 695 deaths, the state health department said.
The number of new infections dipped below 40,000 for the first time since March 31 when 39,544 cases had been recorded. On Thursday, the daily case count was 42,582.
The state's caseload now is 53,09,215, while the death toll has reached 79,552.
Of 695 fatalities reported on Friday, 311 had occurred in the past 48 hours, 142 last week and the rest before the last week but were added to the tally now.
World health experts issued a grim warning Friday that the second year of Covid-19 was set to be "far more deadly", as Japan extended a state of emergency amid growing calls for the Olympics to be scrapped.
"We're on track for the second year of this pandemic to be far more deadly than the first," said the World Health Organization's director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The mood also darkened in Japan where the coronavirus state of emergency took in another three regions just 10 weeks before the Olympics, while campaigners submitted a petition with more than 350,000 signatures calling for the Games to be cancelled. (AFP)
Total lockdown imposed in Aizawl, other district headquarters of Mizoram extended till May 24.
Odisha on Friday registered its highest single-day spike of 12,390 new COVID-19 cases, which pushed the tally to 5,88,687, while a record number of 22 fatalities raised the toll to 2,273, a senior health department official said.
Accordingly, the number of active cases climbed to 1,04,016, the official said.
Of the 12,390 new cases, 6,938 were reported from various quarantine centres, and the rest detected during contact tracing, he stated.
Khurda district, of which state capital Bhubaneswar is a part, accounted for 2,201 new cases, followed by Sundergarh at 882, Cuttack at 719, Sambalpur at 677 and Angul at 532.
The Kerala High Court on Friday sought a timeframe from the Centre within which the southern state is likely to get the COVID-19 vaccines.
In an oral observation, the court said if vaccination is delayed, new mutations will come up and it will claim more lives.
The division bench of the high court, comprising Justices Raja Vijayaraghavan V and MR Anitha, made this observation while considering a plea challenging the decision to charge for vaccinations of those between 18-45 years age group and the differential pricing structure followed between the centre and the state.
GoI receiving international aid of COVID-19 medical supplies from different countries/organistations. 10,796 Oxygen Concentrators; 12,269 Oxygen Cylinders; 19 Oxygen Plants; 6,497 ventilators/Bi PAP; around 4.2 Lakh Remdesivir vials delivered/dispatched from 27 April-13 May.
The Finance Ministry has once again written to the States requesting them to consider putting in place a special dispensation for vaccinating the staff of banks, insurance companies, business correspondents, payment systems and other financial services providers on ‘priority’ basis.
Uttar Pradesh on Friday recorded 15,747 fresh COVID-19 cases that took the infection count to 15,96,628 while 312 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 16,958, officials said.
In the past 13 days, the number of active cases in the state has come down by over 1.17 lakh. On April 30, there were about 3.10 lakh active cases and the number currently stands at 1,93,815, said Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Amit Mohan Prasad.
As many as 1,57,257 patients are in home isolation, he said.
Actor-producer Anushka Sharma and her cricketer husband Virat Kohli have raised over Rs 11 crore via their fundraising campaign to support COVID-19 relief work in india.
The couple, on May 7, announced they have partnered with fundraising platform Ketto for the initiative #InThisTogether, to raise money to help the country in the fight against the second wave of the pandemic.
Sharma, 33 and Kohli, 32, made a donation of Rs two crore for the seven-day-long fundraising campaign.
The couple took to Instagram on Friday to thank their fans for their support and revealed the total funds raised stands at Rs 11,39,11,820, The amount will be donated to Act Grants, which will work towards providing oxygen, medical manpower, vaccination awareness and tele-medicine facilities all through the pandemic. (PTI)
Drug maker Dr Reddy's on May 14 said it plans to vaccinate 125 million people in the next 8-12 months with Sputnik vaccine. The company is in discussions with at least 2 states.About 15-20 percent of the initial supplies would be from imported from Russia.
"We have a supply committment of 36 million doses from RDIF in next two months," said M V Ramana, Executive Vice President and Head of the Branded Formulations at Dr. Reddy's. The company said it expects commercial shipments from the middle of June. Dr Reddy's Laboratories has said that the imported doses Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine have been priced at Rs 948 + 5 percent GST (Rs 995.40) per dose. Continue reading...
Thirteen Covid patients died at Goa's apex government hospital, the Goa Medical College, in the early hours of Friday owing to oxygen mismanagement, even as the death toll of patients who died between 2 am and 6 am at the premier facility reached 75 in four days.
Videos of chaos at the numerous wards of the medical college have gone viral, with patients, relatives pleading for assistance as well as uploading emotive snapshots of helplessness and lack of hygiene in the health facility. Read more here...
