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Coronavirus News Highlights: Today is the 264th day since India implemented a nationwide lockdown to help curb the novel coronavirus pandemic. So far, India has recorded 9,826,775 confirmed COVID- 19 cases, including 141,772 deaths. A total of 9,324,328 patients have recovered, as per the latest data from the Union Health Ministry. However, there are 359,819 active cases in the country, which comprise 3.66 percent of the total caseload. Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have reported the highest number of cases so far. However, infections continue to rise rapidly in states like Kerala and West Bengal. India's recovery rate continues to rise and now stands at 94.74 percent. The country conducted 10.65 lakh tests during the previous 24-hour cycle. Globally, more than 7.01 crore people have been infected by the novel coronavirus and 15.92 lakh have died so far.
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Oxford-AstraZeneca's COVID vaccine can be available in 1st half of next year: Official
Oxford-AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine can be available in the country as early as the first half of next year, AstraZeneca Country President Gagandeep Singh said on Saturday. Speaking at the 93rd annual convention of industry chamber FICCI, he said that in the current pandemic the vaccine has to be made available broadly, equitably as well as in a timely manner. Pune-based Serum Institute of India is conducting clinical trials of Oxford University-AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine candidate Covishield in India.
“We started working in April with Oxford University and currently we are hoping to get emergency use authorisation approved and that can potentially mean that we could have something which is available as early as the first half of 2021,” Singh said. In order to make the vaccine available in a time manner the entity has signed close to 3 billion dosages supply agreements across the world encompassing close to 160 countries, he noted.
USapproves use of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for pilots, controllers
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Saturday it had approved the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine by pilots and air traffic controllers.
The U.S. aviation regulator said pilots and controllers must not fly or conduct safety-related duties for 48 hours after receiving doses. The FAA said it will "monitor the patient response to Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and may adjust this policy as necessary to ensure aviation safety. (Reuters)
Twenty-one more people succumbed to COVID-19 in Punjab, raising the death toll to 5,057 in the state, while 482 fresh cases brought the infection count to 1,59,579 on Saturday, according to a medical bulletin.
Six new deaths linked to the pandemic were reported from Gurdaspur; four from Ludhiana; three each from Pathankot and Jalandhar; two from Hoshiarpur and one each from Patiala, Mohali and Moga, the bulletin said.
Punjab has 7,091 active cases of the novel coronavirus, it said.
With Pfizer Inc’s andBioNTechSE’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution imminent after U.S. authorization onDecember 11, top regulators sought to reassure Americans that the record fast pace was warranted and had not sacrificed safety.
“We worked quickly based on the urgency of this pandemic, not because of any other external pressure,” U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn said during a press conference.
Peru suspended trials for China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine due to a “serious adverse event” that occurred with one of the volunteers for the study, the Peruvian government said in a statement on December 12.
The health ministry said the event is “under investigation to determine if it is related to the vaccine or if there is another explanation.”
Rajasthan recorded 14 fatalities due to COVID-19 on December 12, taking the death toll to 2,528 in the state, while the infection count climbed to 2,89,999 with the detection of 1,307 fresh cases, according to a bulletin.
The state has 16,821 active novel coronavirus cases, the state health department bulletin said.
A total of 2,70,650 people in Rajasthan have been discharged after recovering from the infection, according to the bulletin.
A campaign to promote mandatory wearing of face masks at places where people gather in large numbers, to help reduce COVID-19 positivity, was launched in the metro on December 12 by Tamil Nadu health secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan. Accompanied by a team of officials, he visited Royapuram Shaik Maistry Street and distributed masks to residents and street vendors.
Goa's COVID-19 tally nears 50,000; over 47,400 have recovered
Goa's coronavirus caseload went up by 70 and reached 49,305 on December 12, while two deaths took the toll to 705, an official said.
He said 47,489 people have been discharged so far, including 144 on Saturday, leaving the state with 1,111 active cases.
The official said 2,069 samples were tested for the infection during the day.
Uttarakhand reports 10 more COVID-19 deaths, 728 new cases
Uttarakhand reported 10 more COVID-19 deaths on Saturday, taking their number to 1,351, while 728 more cases pushed the state''s infection tally to 81,939.
Dehradun district reported the highest number of 246 cases, followed by Nainital with 132, Haridwar with 72, Almora with 41, Pauri with 37, Pithoragarh with 32, Udham Singh Nagar with 32, Chamoli with 28, Tehri with 26, Uttarkashi with 26, Rudraprayag with 25, Bageshwar with 21 and Champawat with 10, a state health department bulletin said. (PTI)
Delhi recorded 1,935 fresh COVID-19 cases on December 12 with over 73,000 tests being conducted, even as the positivity rate dropped to 2.64 percent, authorities said.
The positivity rate from December 3 to December 7 had successively dipped to 4.96 percent, 4.78 percent, 4.2 percent, 3.68 percent and 3.15 percent respectively.
However, on December 8 it had risen again to 4.23 percent, falling again to 3.42 percent on December 9 and 2.46 percent on December 10. It had risen to 3.33 percent again on December 11.
COVID-19 active cases drop to 5,000 level in Andhra Pradesh
The number of COVID-19 active cases in Andhra Pradesh came down to the 5,000 level while 510 were added afresh and 665 patients recovered on December 12. The total positives reached 8,75,025 and recoveries 8,62,895, the latest government bulletin said. In the 24 hours ending 9 am on Saturday, three more coronavirus victims died, taking the overall toll to 7,052. All 13 districts reported less than 100 new COVID-19 cases each with Chittoor and Krishna topping with 89 and 82 respectively.
The COVID-19 death toll in Uttar Pradesh rose to 8,056 on December 12 with 32 more fatalities, while 1,520 new cases pushed the infection tally to 5,64,132, a health department bulletin issued here said.
The number of those who have recovered and have been discharged from hospitals rose to 5,35,985 with 1,761 patients fully recovering from the infection in the past 24 hours, it said.
The number of active cases in the state currently stands at 20,091, the bulletin said.
During the past 24 hours. seven deaths have been reported from Lucknow, five from Varanasi, three from Gorakhpur and two each from Kanpur Nagar, Prayagraj, Azamgarh and Ghazipur.
