Coronavirus News Highlights: Mumbai reports 402 new cases, 577 discharges & 14 deaths today

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The Union Health Secretary will address floor leaders of political parties on COVID-19 on Tuesday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’ Brien said here, terming it as a victory of a “constructive Opposition” which had insisted that the PM's address on the issue should be before Parliament.

At an all-party meeting on Sunday, opposition parties had objected to the government's offer for a joint address by Modi to all floor leaders on COVID-19 in a building in the Parliament complex, saying this will be 'highly irregular' at a time when Parliament was in session and claimed it was intended to 'bypass' norms.

The British government decided Monday not to inoculate most children and teenagers against COVID-19 until more data on the available vaccines becomes available.

Children as young as 12 with severe neuro-disabilities, Down Syndrome, immunosuppression and multiple or severe learning disabilities, as well as those who are household contacts of individuals who are immunosuppressed, will be eligible for vaccination, the government said.

Mumbai on July 19 reported 402 COVID-19 cases, the lowest daily addition since February 9 when the rise was 375, and 14 deaths, taking the tally to 7,31,563 and the toll to 15,716, a civic official said. Monday is the fourth day in a row when the case addition has been less than 500, though the fatality count continued to hover around the 10-14 mark over the past six days, he pointed out.

Kerala on Monday logged 9,931 fresh COVID-19 cases, pushing the infection caseload to 31,70,868, with the Test Positivity Rate climbing to 11.08 per cent after remaining around the 10 per cent mark for several weeks. The number of people who have succumbed to the virus rose to 15,408 with 58 more deaths, a state government release said. As many as 13,206 people have been cured of the infection, taking the total recoveries to 30,33,258 and the number of active cases in the state to 1,21,708, it said.

Goa's coronavirus caseload went up by 99 and reached 1,69,839 on Monday, while the day also saw 225 recoveries and the toll remaining unchanged at 3,111, an official said. The recovery count stands at 1,65,292 and the active caseload is 1,436, he said. With 3,264 samples being examined, the number of tests in Goa reached 10,05,297, the official added. Goa's COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases 1,69,839, new cases 99, death toll 3111, discharged 165292, active cases 1436, samples tested till date 10,05,297.

A significant percentage of university students faced learning loss due to the COVID pandemic and it may take three years to repair this gap, says a survey.According to a survey by TeamLease EdTech, college going students believe they have faced 40 per cent to 60 per cent of learning loss due to COVID and this learning loss is twice the estimated learning loss in G7 countries.The survey findings indicated that it will take three years to bridge this gap.To assess the extent and kind of academic regression among students, TeamLease EdTech conducted a research survey with more than 700 students and 75 university leaders across the country to assess their estimation of learning loss.The learning loss is majorly due to five factors -- the digital divide, slow governance at government institutions, pre-existing capacity deficits, longer lockdowns than most countries, and weak online teaching/learning content. "India has 35 million out of the world''s 222 million university students. Learning is a perennial pandemic for many Indian learners but COVID has been catastrophic because of our many pre-existing challenges," Shantanu Rooj, CEO of Teamlease Edtech, said.

A serological survey of around 5,000 people from different parts of Ahmedabad city in Gujarat has revealed that 81.63 per cent of the sampled population had developed antibodies against COVID-19, officials said on Monday. People who have taken both doses of coronavirus vaccines had high levels of seropositivity as compared to those who were yet to be inoculated, they said, citing findings of the recent survey. The survey to detect seropositivity for antibodies against SARS-CoV2, which causes COVID-19, was conducted by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) between May 28 and June 3, when the second wave of the pandemic was subsiding. Seropositivity essentially means the presence of antibodies in the blood serum. "We carry out serosurveillance studies at regular intervals to detect antibodies. Overall, 80 per cent seropositivity has been detected in the general population of Ahmedabad. Those who took both the doses had high levels of seropositivity as compared to those who took none," said AMC Medical Officer of Health Dr Bhavin Solanki.

At least 257 more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Sikkim in the last 24 hours, taking the tally in the state to 23,649, a health department bulletin said on Monday.Of the fresh cases, 111 were reported from West Sikkim, 80 from South Sikkim, 65 from East Sikkim and one from North Sikkim.Sikkim has 2,429 active cases, while 20,634 people have recovered from the disease and 262 patients migrated to other states.The recovery rate among coronavirus patients in the state stands at 88.2 per cent.The death toll remained at 324 as no new fatality due to the infection was reported in the last 24 hours, the bulletin said.The Himalayan state has so far conducted 1,80,353 sample tests for COVID-19, including 1,335 since Sunday.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has tested negative for COVID-19 and is not displaying any symptoms of the virus, his spokesman said on Monday. Johnson, who has received both doses of a vaccine, is isolating at his country residence until July 26 after he was identified as a close contact of health minister Sajid Javid. Javid announced on Saturday that he had tested positive for the virus.