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Coronavirus News Highlights: Today is the 372nd day since India implemented a nationwide lockdown to help curb the novel coronavirus pandemic. India reported 56,211 new coronavirus cases in a span of 24 hours, taking the country's COVID-19 tally to above 1.20 crore, according to Union Health Ministry data. Registering a steady increase for the 20th day in a row, the active cases
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Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police Dilbag Singh and his wife tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, officials told news agency PTI. Also in J&K, as many as 50 students from two different schools in South Kashmir tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, prompting the authorities to shut these institutions as contact-tracing programme was initiated.
Maharashtra governmenthas cappedthe price of RT-PCR test to Rs 500 at collection centres, Rs 600 at Covid centre, quarantine centre or isolation centre and Rs 800 if the test is done from residence, reported news agency ANI.The rapid antigen test would cost Rs 150.
"6,43,58,765 vaccine doses have been administered in the country till 7 pm today. Total 13,04,412 vaccine doses were given till 7 pm today, 75th day of nationwideCOVID-19 vaccination," the central government said in a statement.
Delhi reports 1,819 new COVID-19 cases, 399 recoveries and 11 deaths.
Maharashtra reported39,544 new COVID-19 cases, 23,600 discharges and 227 deaths in the last 24 hours. The number of fatalities in a single-day is highest since October 17.
Gujarat reports 2,360 newCOVID-19 cases, 2,004 discharges and 9 deaths in the last 24 hours.
The number of beneficiaries who have received COVID-19 vaccine shots in Maharashtra so far has reached 60,29,649, the state government said on Wednesday. From Tuesday, the government started administering the second dose of the vaccine to senior citizens and the people with co-morbidities in the age group of 45 to 60 years.
Altogether, 2,10,461 people were inoculated on Tuesday. A total of 9,91,812 healthcare workers have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine so far in the state while 4,74,723 of them have been given the second dose.
Similarly, 8,50,953 frontline workers have received the first dose so far while 2,56,700 of them have been administered the second dose.
PTI
The restrictions imposed between March 15 and 31 in Maharashtra's Nagpur by the district administration due to the rise in COVID-19 cases will not be extended further, state minister Nitin Raut said on Wednesday.
However, the curbs and guidelines issued by the state government will be applicable in the district, he said. Raut, who is Nagpur district guardian minister, on Wednesday held a review meeting with the local officials to assess the pandemic situation. Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis attended it virtually.
With the surge in COVID-19 cases, restrictions had been imposed in Nagpur district from March 15 to 21, which were later extended till March 31.
Talking to reporters after the review meeting, Raut said that these restrictions will not be extended further. 'The curbs imposed by the district administration will not continue, but the guidelines issued by the state government will be applicable,' he said.
PTI
Yemen received its first COVID-19 vaccines on Wednesday, a week after the internationally recognised government declared a health emergency in areas under its control. The 360,000 doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine arrived by plane at Aden, part of a consignment from the global COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme expected to total 1.9 million doses this year, COVAX said.
In Aden, the government's interim capital in a six-year-old war, patients at an isolation centre in the grounds of a hospital lay on temporary beds in tents next to oxygen cylinders, breathing heavily.
"We need more staff, because the rise in cases is not normal. We are exhausted from work, exhausted," said Zainab al-Qaisi, a doctor and director of the centre. "The centre is overwhelmed. We need oxygen, to expand intensive care across all provinces." The COVAX vaccines will be free, and distributed across the country, a spokesman for the government's health ministry said last week, confirming more shots would arrive in May.
Aid group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said last week it had seen a dramatic influx of critically ill COVID-19 patients in various parts of Yemen, and that all aspects of the COVID-19 response were lacking. "While some countries have successfully vaccinated half of their population, Yemen finds itself at the back of the queue," said MSF's Head of Mission in Yemen, Raphael Veicht.
Reuters
Japan is calling for further investigation into the origins of COVID-19, saying the WHO report released this week was based on work that faced delays and lacked access to essential virus samples. In order to prevent future pandemics, it is indispensable to carry out prompt, independent and experts-led investigations that are free of surveillance, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told reporters. We are concerned that the latest investigation faced delays and the lack of access to virus samples.
The World Health Organization's report was released Tuesday after experts travelled to Wuhan, China, the city where illnesses from the coronavirus were first detected in late 2019.
China has touted its cooperation with WHO and warned that attempts to politicize the matter would cost lives. The US and other countries say the WHO report lacked crucial information, access and transparency and further study was warranted. Kato called for additional investigation and analysis and said Japan will encourage WHO to consider additional investigation inside China.
AP
The vaccine of Pfizer-BioNTech has been found to be 100 percent in children aged between 12 and 15, both the companies said in a joint statement issued on March 31.
A senior Chinese health official said on Wednesday there was no factual basis to accusations that China did not share data with researchers appointed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to look into the origins of Covid-19. Following the official publication of the joint study into the origins of Covid-19 by China and the WHO on Tuesday, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said China had withheld data from international investigators during their visit to Wuhan, where the coronavirus was first identified.
But Liang Wannian, who was co-leader of the joint study, told reporters that Chinese and international researchers had access to the same data throughout the investigation and that the claims about lack of access were not accurate. "Of course, according to Chinese law, some data cannot be taken away or photographed, but when we were analysing it together in Wuhan, everyone could see the database, the materials - it was all done together," he said.
