Coronavirus India Updates: For The First Time, India Adds Over 14,000 New Cases In A Day, Tally Crosses 3.9 Lakh

The Covid-19 infection rate in India showed no signs of abating in the world’s fourth-worst affected nation.

India registered over over 14,500 new Covid-19 cases, the biggest one-day spike, taking the total tally closer to four lakh mark in Asia’s third-largest economy, according to Health Ministry’s update on June 20.

Key Numbers

• Total number of confirmed coronavirus cases: 3,95,048
• Active cases: 1,68,269
• Cured/discharged/migrated: 2,13,831
• Deaths: 12,948

Indian authorities reported 14,516 new cases, 375 deaths and 9,120 recoveries in the 24 hours preceding the update.

While coughing, fever and difficulty in breathing are common symptoms of Covid-19, a new case study has found that pink eye is also a reason to be tested for the disease.

Meanwhile, since the Supreme Court raised questions about the Delhi government's handling of Covid-19, it has moved to introduce changes and norms. After fixing price caps for tests, a high-powered committee has now recommended fixing the costs of hospital beds. Delhi has also made mandatory for Covid-19 patients under home quarantine to spend at least five days in institutional quarantine.

Globally, cases crossed 8.5 million with deaths exceeding 4,54,000 as of Friday night.

U.S. noted that the pandemic was worsening in the sun belt states after Arizona and Florida saw big increases. The WHO said that the global coronavirus pandemic is accelerating, with a record 150,000 cases reported Thursday. GlaxoSmithKline’s Covid-19 vaccine partnership with Clover Biopharmaceuticals started tests in humans, following a number of other programmes in the sprint to try to halt the pandemic.

Track news and developments around the Covid-19 pandemic here.

Only those COVID positive patients who don't require hospitalisation on clinical assessment and don't have adequate facilities for home isolation will need to undergo institutional isolation, Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal said on Saturday.

His statement came following protests by the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government against his order mandating five-day quarantine for all COVID-19 patients.The order had been opposed by the chief minister and his deputy Manish Sisodia at a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on Saturday.

"Regarding institutional isolation, only those COVID positive cases which do not require hospitalisation on clinical assessment & do not have adequate facilities for home isolation would be required to undergo institutional isolation," the LG said on Twitter after the meeting.

In another tweet, he said the DDMA approved recommendations of high level expert committee for fixing subsidised rates for COVID-19 treatment in Delhi's private hospitals.

Source: PTI

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd. on Saturday said it has launched antiviral drug Favipiravir, under the brand name FabiFlu, for the treatment of patients with mild to moderate Covid-19 at a price of about Rs 103 per tablet.

The drug will be available as a 200 mg tablet at a maximum retail price of Rs 3,500 for a strip of 34 tablets, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals said.

FabiFlu is the first oral favipiravir-approved medication in India for the treatment of Covid-19, it said in a statement. It is a prescription-based medication, with recommended dose being 1,800 mg twice daily on day one, followed by 800 mg twice daily up to day 14, it said.

The tablets are being produced by the company at its Baddi facility in Himachal Pradesh. The drug will be available both through hospitals and the retail channel, Glenmark said.

The Mumbai-based firm had on Friday received the manufacturing and marketing approval from the Drugs Controller General of India.

“This approval comes at a time when cases in India are spiralling like never before, putting a tremendous pressure on our healthcare system,” Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Chairman and MD Glenn Saldanha said in the statement.

The company hopes that the availability of an effective treatment such as FabiFlu will considerably help assuage this pressure, and offer patients in India a much needed and timely therapy option, he added.

Source: PTI

Tripura reported 27 fresh COVID-19 cases, pushing the state's tally to 1,186, officials said on Saturday. A total of 657 people have recovered, reducing the number of active cases in the state to 529, they said.

"Out of 1,279 samples tested for COVID-19, 27 people found positive,” Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb tweeted.

Tripura has been witnessing a rise in the number coronavirus cases days after it was declared free from the disease in late April.

Researchers, including an Indian-origin scientist, have shown that infants under 90 days of age who tested positive for COVID-19 tend to be well, with little or no respiratory symptoms.

According to the study, published in The Journal of Pediatrics, fever was often found to be the primary or only symptom in new born babies infected with the novel coronavirus.

"While there is limited data on infants with COVID-19 from the US, our findings suggest that these babies mostly have mild illness and may not be at higher risk of severe disease as initially reported from China," said study lead author Leena Mithal from the Northwestern University in the US.

"Most of the infants in our study had fever, which suggests that for young infants being evaluated because of fever, COVID-19 may be an important cause, particularly in a region with widespread community activity," Mithal said.

However, she added that evaluation for bacterial infection in young infants with fever remains important. In the study, the researchers assessed 18 infants, none with a significant medical history.

"It is unclear whether young infants with fever and a positive test for SARS-CoV-2 require hospital admission," Mithal said. "The decision to admit to the hospital is based on age, need for preemptive treatment of bacterial infection, clinical assessment, feeding tolerance, and adequacy of follow-up," she added.

The number of COVID-19 positive patients in Daman district of the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu (UTDNHDD) has gone up to 27 with eight fresh cases, following which the administration has sealed the district's border with Gujarat border for a few days, officials said on Saturday.

Most of the 27 COVID-19 patients in Daman are factory workers who cross the border to work in industrial units at Vapi in neighbouring Gujarat and vice versa, the officials said. The eight fresh cases were reported on Friday.

"The district administration has closed all border check-posts with Gujarat for a few days due to clustering of cases near the border areas, and has declared several parts of Dabhel village, an industrial hub, as containment zones in an effort to control the spread of coronavirus," an official said. Vehicles holding valid e-passes are also not being allowed to enter Daman, he said.

Daman had reported its first two COVID-19 cases on June 9, a few days after the Union Territory said the district was coronavirus-free due to the strict implementation of lockdown measures.

With 42 persons testing positive for coronavirus, the case count in Madhya Pradesh's Indore district has reached 4,288 on Saturday, a health official said. At least 1,768 swab samples were tested in the district, of which reports of 42 patients have come out positive in the last 24 hours, taking the tally to 4,288, the official said.

As per the latest data, the district has recorded a recovery rate of 74 per cent as on Saturday morning and 3,168 patients have been discharged from hospitals so far. Indore's COVID-19 mortality rate was at 4.5 per cent, which continues to be higher than the national death rate.