Coronavirus India News highlights: Karnataka reports 6,317 fresh COVID-19 cases, 115 deaths

Potential accuracy issues with a widely used coronavirus test could lead to false results for patients, U.S. health officials warned.

The Food and Drug Administration issued the alert Monday to doctors and laboratory technicians using Thermo Fisher's TaqPath genetic test.

Regulators said issues related to laboratory equipment and software used to run the test could lead to inaccuracies.The agency advised technicians to follow updated instructions and software developed by the company to ensure accurate results.

The warning comes nearly a month after Connecticut public health officials first reported that at least 90 people had received false positive results for the coronavirus.

The national expert group on vaccine administration for COVID-19 met representatives of leading domestic manufactures, including Serum Institute of India, Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila, on Monday to take inputs about the present stage of various candidate vaccines as well as their expectations from the government, the Union Health Ministry said.

The meeting was mutually beneficial and productive, the ministry said.

"It provided the national expert group with inputs about the present stage of various candidate vaccines being developed by indigenous manufacturers as well as their expectations from the Union government," the statement said.

According to sources, the panel comprising Department of Biotechnology Secretary Renu Swarup, ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava and Department of Pharmaceuticals Secretary P D Vaghela met the representatives of the five pharma firms and asked them about their production capacity and whether they need any sort of assistance from the government.

Chhattisgarh reported 372 new COVID-19 cases and six more deaths, taking the statewide tally to 15,993 and the toll to 148.

While three patients died on Monday and two others on Sunday, the COVID-19 report of a man who was brought dead to a hospital here on Sunday was found to be positive, a health official said.

The day also saw the discharge of 363 patients following their recovery from the infection.

Twenty staff members of theUttarPradesh Assembly tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Monday, three days before the session begins, SpeakerHridayNarayanDixitsaid, according to news agencyPTI.

The brief session of the state legislature is scheduled to start from Thursday and coronavirus tests were carried out on its 600 secretariat staff on Monday.

"Of these, only 20 tested positive for COVID-19, while the rest 580 tested negative,"DixittoldPTI. "Those who tested positive have been sent to quarantine," he added.

355 new COVID-19cases reported in Goa today, taking the total number of positive cases in the state to 11,994 including 3,825 active cases, 8,058 recovered cases and 111 deaths.

India travel demand high, says Lufthansa as air bubble flights to Germany resume

The Lufthansa Group on Monday expressed confidence that air travel demand to and from India remains high despite the COVID-19 lockdown disruption, as it welcomed the bilateral air bubble agreement which allowed Germany's largest airline to resume flights from India last week.

George Ettiyil, Lufthansa Group's Senior Director for South Asia Sales, said the airline is offering more than 40 flights from Frankfurt and Munich to Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore until the end of August, beyond which it hopes to formally apply for inbound flights to India in consultation with Indian authorities.

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6,317 new COVID-19cases (including 2,053 cases from Bengaluru Urban) and 115 deaths reported in Karnataka today. The total number of cases rises to 2,33,283 including 80,643 active cases, 1,48,562 discharges and 4,062 deaths.

COVID-19 has given chance to structurally re-imagine public health infrastructure: Harsh Vardhan

Speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Public Health Conference virtually, Vardhan expressed hope that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's goal of a…... Read More

Delhi reports 787 new COVID-19cases, 740 discharges/recoveries and 18 deaths today. Total number of cases now at 1,53,367 including 1,38,301 recovered/discharged/migrated cases, 10,852 active cases and 4,214 deaths.

1,492 new COVID-19cases and 51 deaths reported today in Punjab. The total cases in the state rise to 32,695 including 862 deaths and 20,180 patients discharged. Active cases stand at 11,653.

Maharashtra reports 8,493 fresh COVID-19 cases and 228 deaths. Over 11,000 patients have also been discharged after recovering from the disease.

Jammu and Kashmir on Monday recorded 422 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of infected persons to 28,892, even as six COVID-19 patients died during the last 24 hours in the Union territory, officials said.

Six persons, who were COVID-19 positive, have died over the past 24 hours in Jammu and Kashmir, the officials said, adding that all the deaths were reported from Kashmir Valley.

4,186 COVID-19cases, 4,376 cases of discharge and 69 deaths reported in the state in last 24 hours. Total active cases in the state stands at 50893. Death toll stands at 2515, a total of 104808 patients discharged till date.