Coronavirus News Highlights | Govt will inoculate 30 crore people in 6-7 months, says Harsh Vardhan

This LIVE blog session has concluded. Stay tuned to Moneycontrol for the latest news, views and updates.

Tamil Nadu logs 1,127 new COVID-19 cases

Tamil Nadu on December 19 recorded 1,127 new COVID-19 cases, taking the infection count to 8,05,777, while 14 people have succumbed to the virus pushing the death toll to 11,968. As many as 1,202 people have got cured from the contagion totalling to 7,84,117 so far, a bulletin said.
Active cases stood at 9,692. A total of 76,348 samples were tested today, taking the cumulative total to 1,33,87,049 specimens examined.

6,293 new COVID-19 cases in Kerala, total count crosses 7-lakh mark

With 6,293 new COVID-19 cases reported in Kerala on Saturday, the total count of coronavirus cases in the state has gone up to 7,00,158.

The state Health Department said that 29 more deaths were reported in the past 24 hours and the death toll has gone up to 2,786.

With 4,749 more patients cured of the disease, the total recoveries in the state have gone up to 6,36,814. The number of active COVID-19 cases now stands at 60,396.

Madhya Pradesh on December19 added 1,085 new COVID-19 cases, taking its case tally to 2,30,215, a health official said.
With 15 patients succumbing to the viral infection, the death toll reached 3,468, he said.

At the same time, 1,410 patients were discharged from hospitals, taking the state''s recovery count to 2,15,211.

The COVID-19 death toll inHaryanarose to 2,816 on Saturday with 13 more, while 590 new cases pushed the infection tally to 2,57,067, a state health department bulletin said.
The new fatalities include three fromYamunanagarand two each fromSonipat, Ambala andJhajjar.

Twenty-four more people died of coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh on December 19, pushing the death toll to 8,177, while the infection count reached 5,73,401 with 1,226 fresh cases.
Of the 24 deaths, five were reported from state capital Lucknow, three from Kanpur, two each from Prayagraj, Varanasi and Chandauli, a statement issued by the government said.

Among the fresh cases, 209 were reported from Lucknow and 77 from Varanasi, it said.

Rajasthan recorded nine more fatalities due to COVID-19 on December 19, taking the death toll due to the disease to 2,608 in the state, according to a health department bulletin.
The state also reported 989 fresh coronavirus cases, taking the tally to 2,98,018. Of these, 12,779 are under treatment.

According to the bulletin, 2,83,631 COVID-19 patients have been discharged from hospitals after treatment in Rajasthan.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was holding a conference call with his senior ministers on December 19 to discuss concern over a new strain of the COVID-19 virus which is rising across parts of Britain, his spokesman said.

The government on Monday said a rise in infections might be partly linked to a new more transmissible variant of the virus when it moved London and other swathes of the country into the highest tier of restrictions to curb the spread of COVID.

Govt will inoculate 30 crore people in 6-7 months, says Harsh Vardhan

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Saturday said that country's scientists and health experts have worked on the development of an indigenous vaccine and in the upcoming six to seven months India will have the capacity to inoculate about 30 crore people.

Addressing the 22nd Group of Ministers (GoM) meeting on COVID-19, Health Minister said, "Our scientists and health experts have worked on the development of a vaccine by genome sequencing and isolation of the coronavirus and developed an indigenous vaccine. In 6-7 months, we will have the capacity to inoculate about 30 crore people."

Healthcare experts have said that there may not be a second peak of COVID-19 in the country, and even if it occurs, it is unlikely to be as strong as the first one.

The comments come as the country's COVID-19 caseload surpassed the one crore mark, though the number of daily cases and daily fatalities have been continuously coming down.

Noted virologist Dr Shahid Jameel said India's curve for daily cases is on a downward slope since a peak in mid-September.

Swiss drugs regulator Swissmedic has authorised the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and partner BioNTech, the agency said on December 19, calling it the world’s first such approval under a standard procedure.

Two months after receiving the application, Swissmedic granted authorisation for the vaccine in a rolling review of documents being submitted.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic in Delhi seems to be under control now, as the city reported 1,133 fresh cases at a positivity rate of less than 1.5 percent.

"There was a time in November when the daily cases went up to nearly 8,600. But, even then it wasn't a panicky situation in Delhi, and beds were available. We fought it all together. The fresh cases count today is 1,133, the official report will soon be out," he told an online briefing. (PTI)

China will begin its COVID-19 inoculation programme by first vaccinating some key priority groups, including those involved in medical treatment and disease control, within the winter-spring period, before starting a mass roll out, the National Health Commission (NHC) said on December 19.