Coronavirus India Updates: Amit Shah Tests Positive; Total Tally Crosses 17 Lakh

Union Home Minister Amit Shah took to the social media to inform he has tested positive for coronavirus and is getting hospitalised on the advice of doctors.

"I have undergone a coronavirus test after showing initial symptoms and have tested positive. My health is fine but I am getting admitted to a hospital on the advice of doctors," the 55-year-old tweeted in Hindi.

The minister also requested those who had come in contact with him in the last few days to get tested for coronavirus and isolate themselves.

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and state Health Minister Vishwajit Rane wished Shah a speedy recovery, PTI reported.

Separately, Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit has tested positive for Covid-19, but advised home isolation since his infection was mild, city-based Kauvery Hospital said on Sunday. The 80-year old was on self-isolation since July 29 after three people in the Raj Bhavan tested positive for the coronavirus, PTI reported.

Also, Uttar Pradesh Minister Kamal Rani Varun, the only woman cabinet minister in the state, died of Covid-19 at a hospital in Lucknow on Sunday. The technical education minister, 62, tested positive on July 18 and is the first minister in the state to succumb to the disease. She breathed her last at the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, according to a PTI report.

Besides, Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party chief Swatantra Dev Singh also tested positive for coronavirus. He is currently under home quarantine.

Track news and developments around the Covid-19 outbreak in India here.

Himachal Pradesh's coronavirus count rose to 2,655 on Sunday as 20 more people, including six armed forces personnel, tested positive for the disease, a senior official said.

So far, 13 people have died from the infection in the state.

Among the fresh cases, eight were reported from Kangra, five from Shimla, four from Mandi and three from Chamba, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) RD Dhiman said.

Four Army and one Navy personnel besides a five-year-old girl were among those who contracted the infection in Kangra, Superintendent of Police Vimukt Ranjan said.

In Shimla, five labourers tested positive at Dakolar in Rampur subdivision, SP Omapati Jamwal said.

In Mandi, a 27-year-old Army jawan from Pahlehra village and a 15-year-old girl of Samkhetar are among the fresh cases, a district official said.

Till now, 1,508 people have recovered from the infection while 15 migrated out of the state.

Six patients--four in Kangra and two in Shimla--recovered from the infection on Sunday, Dhiman said.

There are a total of 1,117 active Covid-19 cases in the state now, Dhiman said.

Solan has the highest number of active cases in the state at 386, followed by 189 in Sirmaur; 133 in Kangra; 127 in Mandi; 88 in Shimla; 67 in Una; 37 in Chamba; 35 in Bilaspur; 25 in Hamirpur; 19 in Kullu; and 11 in Kinnaur, Dhiman said.

(Source: PTI)

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan has tested negative for Covid-19 and has been discharged from the hospital, son Abhishek Bachchan shared on Sunday.

Amitabh, 77, and Abhishek were admitted to Nanavati hospital after they tested positive for Covid-19 on July 11.

Taking to Twitter, Abhishek, 44, wrote Amitabh will now be resting at home.

"My father, thankfully, has tested negative on his latest Covid-19 test and has been discharged from the hospital. He will now be at home and rest. Thank you all for all your prayers and wishes for him."

In a following tweet, Abhishek said he is still Covid-19 positive and will remain under medical care.

"I, unfortunately due to some comorbidities remain Covid-19 positive and remain in hospital. Again, thank you all for your continued wishes and prayers for my family. Very humbled and indebted. I'll beat this and come back healthier! Promise," he said.

Abhishek's wife, actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, 46, and eight-year-old daughter Aaradhya were discharged from the hospital on Monday after testing negative for Covid-19.

(Source: PTI)

The new sero-prevalence survey in the national capital will exclude those who were part of the previous exercise and 25% of the fresh samples in all districts will be taken from persons aged 50 and above, according to a standard operating procedure prescribed for it.

As per the SOP for the survey that began on Saturday, each sample collection team is to collect 25-40 samples per day.

"All districts are to ensure that out of total number of samples, 25% are of those younger than 18 years of age, another 50% are in the age group of 18-49 years and the remaining 25% of those in the age group of 50 years or more," the SOP prescribed by the Delhi's Directorate General of Health Services said.

The fresh exercise is being undertaken for a comprehensive assessment of the Covid-19 situation in Delhi, but due to Eid holiday not many samples could be collected on Saturday, officials said. Hence, it has been decided to extend the survey till Aug. 7, a senior official said.

A sero-prevalence survey involves testing the blood serum of individuals to check for the prevalence of antibodies against infection.

• 15,000 samples would be collected as part of this exercise, spanning different areas and age groups. Representative samples will be taken from all the 11 districts.

• Systematic random sampling methodology will be used for collection of samples with mandatory exclusion of individuals or households selected during the last sero survey conducted in June-July.

• The survey began with samples collection from various districts, including North Delhi and Northwest Delhi, to start with on Saturday.

• Sources said six districts are to be covered on Sunday.

• According to the survey's SOP, selection bias must be avoided and any individual or household that was included in the previous round of sero-survey must be excluded.

• Teams in the field will collect the samples and will transport the samples the same day to the designated laboratories for processing. Sample collection must be completed latest by 2 p.m. so that samples reach the designated labs latest by 4 p.m.

(Source: PTI)

In the past four months when the entire country was in various stages of the coronavirus-induced lockdown, the railways has digitised over 12 lakh documents like letters, bills, office orders, project drawings and more than four lakh files, scrapping their manual handling and reducing not just physical contact between officials but also operational costs.

The use of railways' e-office has grown manifold since the pandemic hit the country — the number of e-receipts increased from 4.5 lakh during March 2019 to March this year, to 16.5 lakh in April-July this year; the number of e-files increased from 1.3 lakh to 5.4 lakh during the same period, respectively.

The e-office platform provided by RailTel is a cloud-enabled software developed by the National Informatics Centre and aims to provide reliable, efficient, and effective ways of handling office files and documents.

(Source: PTI)

The central government has written to all states and union territories stating that smartphones and tablet devices should be allowed for hospitalised Covid-19 patients so that they can interact with family and friends through video conferencing, which would provide them psychological support.

Director General of Health Services in the Health Ministry Dr. Rajiv Garg in the letter to the principal secretaries of health and medical education of states and union territories said appropriate protocols for disinfecting devices and allotting time slots can be developed by the hospital concerned to facilitate contact between patients and their family.

(Source: PTI)

The Covid-19 death toll reached 703 in Rajasthan as nine more patients succumbed to the disease, while 561 new cases pushed the state's infection tally to 43,804, a health department official said.

Five deaths were reported from Jaipur, three from Ajmer and one from Nagaur, he said.

In Jaipur alone, the death toll due to Covid-19 has reached 200, followed by 84 in Jodhpur, 53 in Bharatpur, 47 in Ajmer, 42 each in Bikaner and Kota, 31 in Pali, 29 in Nagaur, 16 in Alwar and 15 in Dholpur.

There are 12,391 active cases in the state, while a total of 29,222 people have been discharged after treatment, the official said.

Of the 561 fresh cases, 100 were reported from Kota, 77 each from Bikaner and Jaipur, 58 from Pali, 49 from Barmer, 43 from Sikar, 40 from Ajmer, 33 from Nagaur, 30 from Udaipur, 24 from Baran, 15 from Sirohi, six each from Karauli and Pratapgarh, and three from Dungarpur.

(Source: PTI)

The Hyderabad International Airport has received a Unicef-funded mass fever screening system from the central government which will help enhance the efficacy of the screening process as part of its fight against Covid-19.

The new thermal scanner, which will be used by the airport health officials, is a ceiling mounted mass fever screening system, a release from GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd., the company that operates the city airport, said.

This system is capable of scanning, detecting and tracking febrile persons with elevated skin temperature. It automatically adjusts and adapts to the surrounding ambient temperature without any human intervention.

With its intuitive user interface and dual-displays (day camera + infra-red), it provides easy identification of passengers with elevated temperature, while simplifying operations and minimising handling, it said.

(Source: PTI)

Delhi recorded 961 fresh cases of the novel coronavirus on Sunday, taking the infection tally to over 1.37 lakh in the national capital, while the death toll mounted to 4,004, authorities said.

As many as 1,23,317 patients have recovered, migrated or been discharged, while the number of active cases stood at 10,356.

Fifteen people succumbed to the deadly virus in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 4,004, they said. The infection tally stood at 1,37,677.

A total of 4,289 RT-PCR and 8,441 rapid antigen tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, they said. The number of containment zones was 496.

(Source: PTI)

The Covid-19 case tally in Puducherry rose to 3,806 on Sunday with 200 people testing positive for the virus, while one death took the toll to 52.

The total number of active cases was 1,445, while 2,309 patients had been discharged from various hospitals so far, Director of Health and Family Welfare S Mohan Kumar said in a release.

The positivity rate in the union territory was 22.6%, while fatality rate was 1.4%, he said.

A total of 40,652 samples have been tested so far, of which 36,142 were negative. The results of the others are awaited. There are also 242 patients in home quarantine, of whom 231 were in Puducherry and the other 11 were in Yanam, Kumar said.

Puducherry had 161 cases, while its enclaves Karaikal and Yanam had seven and 32, infections, respectively. Mahe, another enclave, has not reported any Covid-19 case as of date.

(Source: PTI)

Recoveries among Covid-19 patients in India crossed the 11 lakh-mark on Sunday with over 51,000 patients recuperating in a 24-hour span, the highest recorded so far, pushing the recovery rate to 65.44%, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday.

There are 5,67,730 active cases of the coronavirus infection, which is the "actual caseload" of Covid-19 for the country and account for 32.43% of the total cases, it said.

With 51,225 patients cured and discharged in a day, India's total recoveries have surged to 11,45,629 and exceeded active cases of Covid-19 by 5,77,899 as on date, while the case fatality rate has further dropped to 2.13%.

"India has one of the lowest case fatality rate at 2.13% compared to the global average," the ministry said.

(Source: PTI)

A registry of hospitalised Covid-19 patients across the country is being mooted to collect real time data which will help improve treatment outcomes, analyse trends in the progression of the pandemic and calibrate response, officials said.

The ICMR in collaboration with the Health Ministry and the AIIMS is planning to set up the National Clinical Registry which will help researchers and policy makers understand effectiveness of investigational therapies, adverse effects taking place and generate evidence for improving the treatment of Covid-19 patients.

Fifteen institutions of national repute, including the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research in Chandigarh, AIIMS Delhi, AIIMS Jodhpur, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru and Armed Force Medical College in Pune, will connect with the hospitals and medical colleges to get them on board.

These 15 institutions would be the registry sites and would be mentoring around 100 Covid-19 hospitals which would be called satellite centres from where the data would be collected as part of the exercise.

(Source: PTI)

Tamil Nadu went on a total shutdown mode on Sunday with the government imposing intense curbs as part of its anti-coronavirus measures, leaving main roads deserted while most shops, barring pharmacies,remained closed.

Roads were virtually empty with no vehicles plying on account of the strict implementation of the curbs, with police making it clear that private vehicles will be allowed only for emergency purposes.

While announcing extension of the coronavirus-induced lockdown to August, Chief Minister K Palaniswami had said on July 30 that complete curbs will be in place on all five Sundays this month also, much like in July.

There will be no relaxations, he had said.

Subsequently, all kinds of shops, including those selling vegetables and groceries, commercial establishments, hotels and restaurants downed shutters on Sunday, while the roads were deserted in the absence of major vehicular movement.

In Chennai, police said no vehicle will be allowed to ply today except those meant for milk distribution, medical purpose, emergency and funeral cause.

Private vehicles meant for medical emergency and those belonging to the print and electronic media were exempted from the curbs.

Other vehicles plying without (valid) reasons will be detained and 193 traffic check posts have been set up across the city for this purpose, police said and requested people against venturing out of their homes "unnecessarily."

As of Aug. 1, Tamil Nadu's cumulative Covid-19 cases stood at 2,51,738, with Chennai having a total of 1,00,877 of these infections.

(Source: PTI)

Eighty-three more people, including 14 security personnel and seven healthcare workers, tested positive for Covid-19 in Arunachal Pradesh on Sunday, taking the state's total tally to 1,673, an official said.

Of the new cases, 38 were reported from the Capital Complex region, 10 from East Siang district, eight from Tirap, seven from West Kameng, four each from Lower Siang and Upper Siang, three each from Tawang and Lower Subansiri, two each from Namsai and Shi-Yomi and one each from Changlang and Londing, State Surveillance Officer Dr. L Jampa said.

"Fourteen security personnel of various central paramilitary forces — six from Tirap, four from Upper Siang, two from Lower Subansiri and one each from Tawang and Lower Siang districts — are among the fresh patients," he said.

Seven healthcare workers have been diagnosed with the disease in East Siang district, Jampa said. All, barring four, are asymptomatic and have been shifted to Covid Care Centres, he said.

A total of 51 patients were discharged from hospitals on Saturday, he said.

Arunachal Pradesh now has 701 active cases, while 969 people have recovered from the disease and three died of it.

The Capital Complex region, comprising Itanagar, Naharlagun, Nirjuli and Banderdewa areas, has the highest number of active Covid-19 cases at 259, followed by Changlang (121), East Siang (42), Namsai (41), East Kameng (35) and Tawang (32), the official said.

The state government has conducted 86,288 tests for coronavirus so far, he said.

(Source: PTI)

As many as 1,891 new Covid-19 cases and 10 deaths were reported in Telangana, taking the total tally to 66,677 and the death toll to 540, the state government said on Sunday.

Out of the fresh cases, 517 were reported from Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, Ranga Reddy district 181, Medcha l46, Warangal Urban 138, Nizamabad 131 Sangareddy district 111, followed by others, a bulletin said, providing data as of 8 p.m. on Saturday.

It said 1,088 people were discharged, taking the cumulative recoveries to 47,590 so far, while 18,547 were under treatment.

A total of 19,202 samples were tested on Saturday and cumulatively, 4,77,795 samples have been examined.

The number of asymptomatic cases (of those under home isolation) was 84%. The bulletin said 66.3% of the Covid-19 patients were male, while 34.4% were female.

The percentage of deaths due to comorbidities was 53.87%, while that due to Covid-19 was 46.13%.

(Source: PTI)

Scientists have found that moist heat treatment of N95 masks eliminates the novel coronavirus, an advance which could allow reuse of these scarce resources in hospitals and long-term care facilities.

According to the study, published in Canadian Medical Association Journal, moist heat treatment of masks for 60 min at 70 degrees Celsius in a humid condition did not damage their structure or affect function.

"A single heat treatment rendered SARS-CoV-2 undetectable in all mask samples," the scientists, including those from the University of Toronto in Canada, wrote in the study. "This low-cost reprocessing strategy can be applied 10 times without affecting the mask's filtration, breathing resistance, fit and comfort, and thus may help to alleviate the global shortage during the Covid-19 pandemic," said study co-author Gregory Borschel from The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, Canada.

In the study, the researchers tested four common models of N95 masks at various temperatures and humidity levels to determine whether the virus could be detected on the treated masks.

(Source: PTI)

In a bid to augment the testing facilities, Odisha government allowed private hospitals, nursing homes and laboratories to conduct Covid-19 tests through Rapid Antigen and RT-PCR methods, a notification issued by the health and family welfare department said.

The department issued a separate set of guidelines for conducting sample tests both under Rapid Antigen and RT-PCR. The private health establishments have to abide by the ICMR norms.

The sample test results should first be informed to the state authorities before being released to the person whose test was conducted, the notification said.

For Rapid Antigen tests, the private bodies can charge a maximum of Rs 450 while the price for RT-PCR tests is fixed at Rs 2,200 per test. The nursing homes, hospitals and laboratories should be mandatorily registered under the Odisha Clinical Establishment (control & regulation) Act, 1990.

The manpower to be deployed for the purpose must be trained properly in consultation with the chief district medical and public health officers, the notification said.

(Source: PTI)

In 24 hours, 853 patients succumbed to the deadly virus.

Globally, India ranks fifth in the number of Covid-19-related deaths.

While new cases mounted, India also reported the biggest single-day spike in Covid-19 recoveries. In the last 24 hours, 51,255 patients recovered from the deadly infection. A total of 11,45,629 patients have recovered so far.

India added more than 50,000 fresh cases of coronavirus for the fourth straight day, just as the nation announced the third phase of lifting lockdown restrictions to revive an economy that’s headed toward a rare annual contraction in more than four decades.

India added 54,735 fresh cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total tally to 17,50,723 in the world’s third-worst infected country, according to the Health Ministry’s update as of 8 a.m. on Aug. 2. This includes 37,364 deaths and 11,45,629 patients who have recovered. Prior to this, India had reported the biggest one-day spike in coronavirus cases for three straight days.

Key figures:

• Total confirmed cases: 17,50,723

• Total number of active cases: 5,67,730

• Total patients cured/discharged/migrated: 11,45,629

• Total deaths: 37,364

• Number of fresh cases in last 24 hours: 54,735

• One-day recoveries: 51,255

• One-day deaths: 853

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, a total of 1,98,21,831 samples have been tested as on Aug. 1. Of these, 4,63,172 were tested on Aug. 1 alone.

The second-most populous nation with 1.3 billion people is only behind the U.S. and Brazil in the number of confirmed infections, with no sign of the virus curve flattening. India took 186 days since the first case was reported on Jan. 30 to reach 17 lakh cases. The pace of transmission is rising even as it has started to decelerate in some developed nations.

This comes as India announced its ‘Unlock 3’ phase where activities such gyms and yoga institutes that are not in containment zones will be allowed to reopen from Aug. 5 after standard operating procedure are issued by Ministry of Family Welfare and Health. These add to the list of activities allowed in the first and second phases.

Metro services, cinema halls and swimming pools, entertainment parks, auditoriums, bars, theaters, and other social, political or religious gathering places, however, will remain closed till Aug. 31.

And as cases mount, some states have announced fresh lockdown measures or imposed strict curbs.

Global update

Globally, the Covid-19 pandemic has sickened 17.8 million people, including 682,931 deaths.

An emergency committee of the World Health Organization said it expects the pandemic to be of “lengthy duration” and that it remains “a public health emergency of international concern”, Bloomberg reported citing the WHO's statement.

Total cases in the U.S. stood at 4,561,511. Another 1,353 deaths were reported, the fifth consecutive day of fatalities over 1,000.

Total cases in Brazil, the nation hit worst by outbreak after the U.S., are 2.6 million. Another 1,088 deaths were reported, down from 1,212 the day before, for a total of 92,475.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is considering sealing off Greater London and ordering at-risk members of the population to stay at home under a potential scenario designed to avert a second national lockdown.

China reported 49 new cases, while Hong Kong added 125. Victoria, Australia’s second-most populous state, is set to tighten lockdown measures amid rising virus cases.