The Portugal government said on January 6 that hospitals in the country are under “strong pressure” from the coronavirus pandemic, as health authorities have reported a record 10,000 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours.
Coronavirus News Highlights: Today is the 288th day since India implemented a nationwide lockdown to help curb the novel coronavirus pandemic. So far. India has recorded 18,088 new coronavirus cases, taking the overall tally of infections to 1,03,74,932. The country also saw 264 deaths in a span of 24 hours, pushing India's coronavirus death toll to 1,50,114. Among the over 1.03 crore total Covid-19 cases, there are 2,27,546 active cases while 99,97,272 have recovered. In the past 24 hours, the country saw 21,314 recoveries, according to the Union Health Ministry. Globally, more than 8.63 crore people have been infected by the coronavirus and 18.66 lakh have died so far. Many countries have granted emergency use authorization for COVID-19 vaccines and have started the process of vaccinating healthcare workers and high-risk groups. India's regulator has granted restricted emergency use approval for two vaccines -- Covishield and Covaxin.
The Portugal government said on January 6 that hospitals in the country are under “strong pressure” from the coronavirus pandemic, as health authorities have reported a record 10,000 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a video-teleconference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on January 6 and briefed her on COVID-19 vaccine development in India, while also assuring her of the country's commitment to deploy its capacities for the benefit of the world. A Prime Minister's Office statement said Modi appreciated the long-standing role of Chancellor Merkel in providing stable and strong leadership at the European and global stage and thanked her for guiding the growth of the India-Germany Strategic Partnership.
Raising doubts over clearance for COVID-19 vaccines have the potential to create “unfounded” panic and keeping aside controversies, people should be made partners in the world’s biggest vaccination programme in the country, Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan said on January 6. “Keeping aside all the controversies, we must prepare and make the people partner in the world’s biggest vaccination programme in our country as stated by our Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Soundararajan, a doctor, said.
Uttar Pradesh has reported 742 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total coronavirus tally of the state to 5,90,339. Meanwhile, the total COVID-19 death toll of UP climbed to 8,441 with the addition of nine more fatalities. The state’s active coronavirus case count has finally dropped below 12,000 after nearly six months.
The Delhi government has directed schools here to submit the innovations done by teachers and management committee members to ensure education in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and the practices undertaken by them for COVID-19 management.
Schools in the national capital have been closed since March 2019. Though several states have partially reopened schools, the Delhi government has announced that schools will reopen only after a vaccine is available.
Teaching and learning activities moved online since the closure of schools, prompting teachers to innovate with teaching methods.
“Considering teachers and SMC (School Management Committee) members have played a crucial role both in the management of COVID-19 and innovations in the light of school closures, they must be highlighted,” the Directorate of Education (DoE) said in a letter to school principals.
Citing huge losses and “no instance of the spread of Covid-19 through cinema halls”, owners of single-screen theatres in West Bengal have written a letter to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urging her to allow full occupancy in cinema halls.
The theatre owners, in a letter sent to Banerjee on January 5, said that they have suffered huge losses while complying with the rule of 50 percent occupancy in cinemas since the reopening of the establishments in the third week of October.
“There has been no report on the spread of the pandemic by way of screening of films in cinema halls in and around the country since the time the halls reopened,” the letter signed by Eastern India Motion Pictures Association (EIMPA) president Piya Sengupta read.
Around 1.7 lakh vaccinators and 3 lakh vaccination team members trained in vaccine administration. Two COVID-19 vaccines have been given emergency use authorisation by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) recently. The rollout of COVID-19 vaccine is expected to begin in the near future. This milestone entails the need for testing of all planned mechanisms for conducting the vaccination drive in the country.
Maharashtra reports 4,382 new COVID-19 cases, tally rises to 19,54,553; toll goes up to 49,825 as 66 die.
The European drugs regulator could shortly approve an amendment to its approval of thePfizer-BioNTechCOVID-19 vaccine that would permit the extraction of six doses from a vial instead of five, an EU official told Reuters on Wednesday.The source, who asked to remain anonymous because discussions are not public, saidthe change to theauthorisationcould come “very soon”.The European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended on December21 the conditional approval of the Pfizer vaccine. Under thatauthorisationfive doses should be extracted from each vial.
Ukrainian police and health officials are investigating reports that some citizens have been illegally getting inoculated against COVID-19 with vaccines that have not been officially approved, Prime Minister DenysShmygalsaid on Wednesday. Ukraine, which has registered more than 1 million COVID-19 infections and 19,357 deaths so far,has yet to approve any of the newly developed vaccines, though it signed a contract in December to buy 1.9 million doses of China'sSinovacvaccine and the shots are expected to be delivered soon. Some Ukrainian media outlets reported on Wednesday that a clinic inKyivhad begun inoculating people, probably with the vaccine developed by Pfizer andBioNTech, at a charge of up to 3,000eurosper dose. The reports said the vaccine could have been brought in from Israel and that several top officials and businessmen had been vaccinated. "None of the vaccines are currently certified in Ukraine. And I'm sure no rational person would get vaccinated with drugs of unknown origin,"Shmygalsaid on the Telegram messenger service.
Switzerland plans to extend its lockdown restrictions by five weeks to the end of February, including closing all restaurants, cultural and recreational sites, the government said on Wednesday.A formal decision is due next week after consultations with cantons.Exemptions for regions less severely hit by the coronavirus have been scrapped, the government said, with a country-wide approach entering force from Saturday.
An extension is now needed because “it is already foreseeable that the number of cases will not decrease significantly and sustainably in the coming weeks,” the government said.Infection rates have remained stubbornly high, and despite the good news of vaccinations starting, further measures including shop closures and mandatory working from home are under discussion.
