With 20,000 Coronavirus Cases, India's total reaches 5.29 lakhs

NEW DELHI, June 28: India recorded its biggest surge in the number of coronavirus cases in 24 hours with 19,906 new patients on Sunday, taking the total to 5,28,859 infections, the Union Health Ministry said this morning.

The country also witnessed 410 COVID-19 related deaths during the period, taking the total number of casualties to 16,095. This is the first time that more than 19,000 fresh infections have been reported in a single day. India is the fourth worst-hit country in the world by the pandemic after the United States, Brazil and Russia.

Here are the top 10 developments on coronavirus cases in India:

This is the fifth consecutive day that coronavirus infections have increased by more than 15,000. There has been a surge of 3,38,324 infections from June 1 till date. The number of active cases stands at 2,03,051, while 3,09,712 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, according to the updated data at 8 am.

Eight states - Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal - had contributed to 85.5 per cent of active caseload and 87 per cent of all COVID-19 related deaths in the country. Of them, Maharashtra (1.59 lakh cases, 7,243 deaths), Delhi (80,188 cases, 2,558 deaths) and Tamil Nadu (78,355 cases, 1,025 deaths) together have 63.7 per cent of the active caseload.

Maharashtra reported over 5,000 cases for the second consecutive day today, taking the state's tally of COVID-19 cases to 1,59,133. With 1,400 new infections, Mumbai's tally has climbed to 74,252. The state has reported 167 COVID-19 related deaths. Of these 86 deaths occurred in the last 48 hours and the rest 81 are from the previous period.

Delhi, the worst-affected city in the country, has over 80,000 infections now. The total number of deaths in the national capital has mounted to 2,558 as the city-state grapples with the shortage of hospital beds. "As some people could not get beds due to the shortage, the death count started rising," Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said.

Amid rising number of cases, the Karnataka government has enforced full lockdown every Sunday from July 5. No activity will be allowed on Sundays, except essential services, the state government announced. The decision was taken after state capital Bengaluru reported 596 positive cases - the highest one-day spike in the city -- on Saturday. The total cases in the southern state have climbed to 11,923; so far 7,287 have recovered and 191 have died.

India has recorded over five lakh confirmed cases since the outbreak began in China in December last year. Of these, 2,03,051 are active cases and 16,095 are deaths linked to the infectious virus. The country has seen a worrying surge in fresh cases over the past two weeks - coinciding with "Unlock1". That number has increased steadily, day-by-day since June 22, when 14,821 new cases were logged.

The government has no plan to defeat the pandemic and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has "surrendered" as he refuses to fight coronavirus, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted yesterday as he renewed his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Coronavirus outbreak.

The government on Saturday allowed the use of the low-cost steroid drug dexamethasone as an alternative to methylprednisolone to treat coronavirus patients with moderate and severe symptoms.

India's fight against the pandemic is driven by its people, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday, attributing the "success" against the pandemic to the implementation of the nationwide lockdown in its initial phase. "As against the death rate of 350 individuals per million in the US and over 600 per million in European nations like the UK, Italy and Spain, the rate of fatalities in India is less than 12," Modi said at a virtual meeting with Indian-American Doctors in the US.

Global coronavirus cases exceeded 10 million and almost half a million people have lost their lived due to the virus in seven months according to news agency Reuters. North America, Latin America and Europe each account for around 25% of cases, while Asia and the Middle East have around 11% and 9% respectively, according to the Reuters, which uses government reports.

The US, which has reported the most cases of any country at more than 2.5 million, had managed to slow the spread of the virus in May, only to see it expand in recent weeks to rural areas and other places that were previously unaffected.

India Crosses 5 Lakh COVID Cases

NEW DELHI, June 26: India's total of coronavirus cases crossed the five lakh-mark on Friday after the country reported its highest single-day spike of over 17,000 cases. Maharashtra, the worst-hit state, with over 5,000 new cases, reached an aggregate of 1,52,765, while West Bengal and Tamil Nadu also reported their biggest single day COVID-19 numbers.

The overall death count today climbed to 15,301 with 407 new fatalities. This was the seventh day in a row that India registered over 14,000 cases. India is only behind US, Brazil and Russia.

Here are 10 points on India's coronavirus situation:

Maharashtra today reported 5,024 COVID-19 cases and 175 deaths because of the infection. The state has a positivity rate of 17.52 per cent and death rate of 4.65 per cent. There are 65,829 active cases in the state. Mumbai's total of coronavirus cases reached 72,175 on Friday.

Delhi, which is grappling with the shortage of COVID-19 beds, reported 3,460 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours. The national capital's coronavirus total reached 77,240 on Friday. 2,326 people were cured of the disease in the last 24 hours, which took the total of recoveries to 47,091. With an addition of 63, the death count stood at 2,492.

Tamil Nadu, which is ranked third on India's coronavirus list, has reported 3,509 new cases, its highest single day spike, pushing the infection count to 70,977. With 45 new deaths, the total number of deaths in the state has reached 911.

West Bengal registered its highest single-day increase in COVID-19 cases on Friday, recording 542 fresh infections, to push the tally to 16,190. A total of 10,535 patients have recovered from the respiratory ailment, a bulletin issued by the health department said.

The total of COVID-19 cases in Haryana reached 12,884 on Friday with 421 people testing positive in the last 24 hours. With 13 deaths, the death count stood at 211, official government data said.

Delhi, Chennai, Thane, Mumbai, Palghar, Pune, Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Ahmedabad and Faridabad are 10 cities and districts that have contributed to 54.47 per cent of the total cases in the country. Delhi, earlier this month, overtook Mumbai to be the worst-hit city in India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said Uttar Pradesh, with a population size the same as four European countries badly hit by the coronavirus, had only a fraction of their death count because of efforts to fight COVID-19.

"England, France, Italy and Spain - these countries at one time had conquered the world and were the biggest powers of the world, but if you add up the populations of all these countries it comes to 24 crore, but in India, UP alone has 24 crore. How effective UP has been can be seen from the fact that the four European nations together had 1,30,000 deaths due to COVID-19. But in UP, the number of deaths is 600," he said.

Amid a spurt in total coronavirus cases, Assam on Friday announced a "total lockdown" in Guwahati from Monday for the next two weeks. Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma advised the people of the state to stock up essentials as no establishment other than hospitals and medical stores will be allowed to open. "A total lockdown will be observed in Kamrup (Metro) district for two weeks from Sunday midnight. For the first seven days, only pharmacies and hospitals will be open. Everything else will be shut," he said.

The worst-hit coronavirus states - Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra - will received the first batch of the generic version of the experimental COVID-19 drug Remdesivir, which is being manufactured in India by Hyderabad-based drugmaker Hetero.

India has the fourth-highest number of coronavirus cases among 10 nations worst-hit by coronavirus. The coronavirus pandemic has killed over 4.89 lakh people globally since it was first detected in China in December last year. Over 96.04 lakh people have been infected with the highly contagious virus globally.

Oxford vaccine in final stage of clinical trials

LONDON, June 24: The University of Oxford and AstraZeneca Plc.’s experimental vaccine is the first to enter the final stages of clinical trials to assess how well it works in protecting people from becoming infected by the virus that causes the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), which has infected 9.4 million and killed 480,000 globally since late December.

The ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine, which has been licenced to AstraZeneca, will be given to 10,260 adults and children in the next stage in the UK. The vaccine is also being trialled in South Africa and Brazil, with Serum Institute of India (SII) investing $100 million to mass-produce one billion doses for India and other low-and-middle-income countries.

The vaccine is made from the ChAdOx1 virus, which is a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus) that causes infections in chimpanzees; it has been genetically changed so it can’t cause infection in humans.

“The clinical studies are progressing very well and we are now initiating studies to evaluate how well the vaccine induces immune responses in older adults, and to test whether it can provide protection in the wider population,” said Professor Andrew Pollard, head of the Oxford Vaccine Group, in a statement on Wednesday.

If the trial is successful, the Oxford Vaccine Group expects to launch the Covid-19 vaccine by the end of this year, which will make it the fastest vaccine to progress from lab to getting regulatory approval for use.

The Oxford Vaccine Group is not the only group to move to a vaccine at warp speed. The pace of vaccine development is accelerating with each passing week with companies from around the word racing to be the first to develop an effective vaccine to stop or at least slow the spread of Covid-19.

There were 13 experimental vaccines in clinical trials and another 129 in the preclinical evaluation stage on June 22, according to the World Health Organisation’s draft landscape of Covid-19 vaccines. On June 12, there were 10 in advanced clinical trials and 115 in preclinical evaluation stages.

Vaccine development, on average, takes 10.71 years from the preclinical phase, and has a success rate of 6%, according to a study in the science journal, PLOS One. Some remain elusive for decades despite massive investments, like for vaccines against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Vaccines from US-based Moderna Inc. and China’s Sinovac Biotech a will enter the final stage of trials next month, and Beijing-based China National Biotec Group Co. is the latest to receive regulatory approval to conduct phase 3 trials of its Covid-19 vaccines in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday.

Four vaccine candidates Indian companies are partnering to develop are in the preclinical trial stages to test their pharmacological effect and toxicity, with five companies in the fray.

Delhi-based Panacea Biotec is partnering with Refana Inc. in the US to develop an inactivated whole virus vaccine, Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech is working on three vaccine candidates using two different platforms in the works, including one that uses an existing nasal flu vaccine, and SII has three partnerships with Oxford-AstraZeneca, US-biotech firm Codagenix, and Austria’s Themis Bioscience. Zydus Cadila in Ahmedabad and India Immunologicals in Hyderabad have also formed partnerships to develop Covid-19 vaccines.

While a fast-tracked vaccine development process could have a vaccine for emergency use ready by early 2021, safety must not be compromised in the rush to reach the finish line, experts cautioned.

“The dengue vaccine (Dengvaxia) controversy in the Philippines should be a grim reminder of the dangers of rushing ahead without safety checks in place. Philippines suspended its school-based dengue vaccination programme using Sanofi Pasteur’s Dengvaxia vaccine following reports of vaccination-related deaths. The company then cautioned that the vaccine carried higher risk for people without prior dengue infection,” said Dr N K Ganguly, former director general, Indian Council of Medical Research.

Vaccination of healthy people carries a risk of subsequent Sars-CoV2 infection becoming more severe, as has happened before with vaccines including a coronavirus-unrelated respiratory virus in children, according to a paper published in Science on May 29.

Vaccine development includes at least three human trials to test their safety, dosage and the strength and duration of the protection they offer, followed by production, licensing, deployment and plans for post-marketing surveillance. Many of these trials have been collapsed and merged in the case of Covid-19 to have a vaccine ready for use by early 2021.

“With promising preliminary preclinical and phase 1 data available, meticulously planned trials are needed to separate the contenders from pretenders. Post-marketing data on adverse reactions is vital to measure the benefits in a large population, 60% of whom may develop some amount of herd or community immunity over the next two years that would help reduce transmission,” said Dr Ganguly.

Global coronavirus cases top 9 million; outbreak surges in Brazil, India

NEW DELHI, June 22: Global cases of the novel coronavirus surpassed 9 million on Monday, as Brazil and India grappled with a surge in infections, and the United States, China and other hard-hit countries reported new outbreaks, according to a tally.

The first case was reported in China in early January and it took until mid-May to reach 4.5 million cases. It has taken just five weeks to double to 9 million cases, the tally shows.

The United States leads the world with the highest number of infections, at about 2.2 million or 25% of all reported cases.

The tally shows the disease is spreading fastest in Latin America, which now accounts for 23% of all cases.

Brazil has the second most cases behind the United States, and India is on track to overtake Russia as the third most affected country by cases.

The number of global infections continues to rise at a rate of around 1%-2% a day since the beginning of June, even as many countries are taking steps to ease lockdown measures.

On Friday, global cases rose by a record 176,000 in a day, according to the tally, when Brazil reported over 54,000 cases in a single day, the most of any country throughout the pandemic.

Global deaths stand at over 464,000 and have doubled in seven weeks.

The crisis is deepening in Brazil where the death toll is over 50,000, widespread testing is absent, and the country is still without a permanent health minister.

In the United States, which has about 120,000 deaths, cases are rising again after declining for more than a month and wearing a mask is not mandatory in most states.

China is also trying to contain a fresh outbreak in Beijing, where it asserts it has a capacity to test over 1 million people a day in the city alone.

On its best day, the United States tested over 594,000 people nationwide but often tests fewer than half a million a day.

Even in Germany, a country seen as successful in curbing the virus and limiting deaths, infection rates are rising above the level needed for long-term containment. Australia is also battling a spike in cases in Victoria where other states have seen few, if any, new cases in weeks.

Still there are bright spots such as Spain reopening its borders, death rates plunging in the former hot spot of Italy, and Greece welcoming a return of foreign tourists.

Just under half of all reported cases have recovered, though the number is likely higher as some countries do not report the statistic.

WHO calls to ramp up dexamethasone production for Covid-19 patients

GENEVA, June 22: The World Health Organization called Monday for a rapid increase in production of the steroid dexamethasone, after British clinical trials found it had life-saving potential for critically-ill coronavirus patients.

Researchers led by a team from the University of Oxford administered dexamethasone to more than 2,000 severely ill patients hospitalised with the new coronavirus.

Among those who could only breathe with the help of a ventilator, it reduced deaths by 35 percent.

“Although the data are still preliminary, the recent finding that the steroid dexamethasone has life-saving potential for critically ill COVID-19 patients gave us a much-needed reason to celebrate,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual news conference in Geneva.

“The next challenge is to increase production and rapidly and equitably distribute dexamethasone worldwide, focusing on where it is needed most.

“Demand has already surged, following the UK trial results showing dexamethasone’s clear benefit.

“Fortunately, this is an inexpensive medicine and there are many dexamethasone manufacturers worldwide, who we are confident can accelerate production.”

A low-dose steroid, dexamethasone has been on the market for over 60 years and usually serves to reduce inflammation.

The WHO emphasises that dexamethasone should only be used for patients with severe or critical disease, under close clinical supervision.

There is no evidence that the drug works for patients with mild disease or as a preventative measure, and it could cause harm, Tedros said.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide has topped nine million, according to a tally.

“It seems that almost every day we reach a new and grim record,” said Tedros.

“Some countries are continuing to see a rapid increase in cases and deaths.”

The UN health agency said it was shipping more than 140 million items of personal protective equipment, 14,000 oxygen concentrators and millions of tests to 135 countries.

After FabiFlu, Hetero’s antiviral drug Covifor gets DCGI approval to treat Covid-19 patients

NEW DELHI, June 21: India-based pharma company Hetero on Sunday announced it has received both manufacturing and marketing approval for the investigational antiviral drug Remdesivir, from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to treat Covid-19 patients.

Hetero’s generic version of Remdesivir will be sold under the brand name COVIFOR in India soon. Barely a day earlier, another India-based pharma firm Glenmark Pharmaceuticals launched antiviral drug Favipiravir, to be sold under the brand name FabiFlu, for the treatment of patients with mild to moderate Covid-19 symptoms.

“In the light of increasing Covid-19 cases in India, the approval of ‘COVIFOR’ (Remdesivir) can prove to be a game-changer given its positive clinical outcomes. Backed by strong backward integration capabilities, we can ensure that the product is immediately made available to patients across the country,” Dr. B Partha Saradhi Reddy, Chairman, Hetero Group of Companies said on the DCGI nod.

The drug Remdesivir has been granted approval by DCGI for the treatment of suspected or laboratory-confirmed cases of Covid-19 in adults and children, hospitalized with severe symptoms of the infectious disease.

COVIFOR will be available in 100 mg vials (injectable) which needs to be administered intravenously in a hospital facility under the proper supervision of a doctor or trained healthcare worker.

“We are prepared to ensure supply of enough stocks required to cater to the present need. We will continue to work closely with the government and medical community to make a difference in the fight against Covid-19. This product is made indigenously in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India campaign,” Dr Reddy said.

The medicine will be launched in the country under a licensing agreement with Gilead Sciences Inc. to expand access to affordable Covid-19 treatment in low and middle-income countries.

Pharma company Hetero is one of India’s leading generic pharmaceutical firms and the world’s largest producer of anti-retroviral drugs.

Earlier in June, the Union Health Ministry included the use of anti-viral drug Remdesivir as part of “investigational therapy” only for restricted emergency-use in its updated Clinical Management Protocol for Covid-19 patients.

Off-label application of immunomodulator tocilizumab and convalescent plasma therapy for treating coronavirus patients in moderate stage of criticality, were also approved by the ministry.

India Crosses 4 Lakh Coronavirus Cases

NEW DELHI, June 20: India crossed 4 lakh novel coronavirus cases today on a day the country reported over 14,000 cases, in its steepest one-day jump. The total number of cases is now 4,00,412 and the number of deaths linked to the contagion is close to 13,000.

India has the world's fourth highest number behind the United States, Brazil and Russia.

Data from state health departments show an increase of over 5,000 cases just this evening - India's coronavirus tally was 3.95 lakh cases in the morning.

Over 12,900 patients have died due to the deadly virus in the country since the beginning of the pandemic. The country's recovery rate stood at 54.12 per cent this morning.

Maharashtra remains the worst affected state in India with over 1.24 lakh cases followed by Tamil Nadu which reported 56,845 cases - an increase of over 2,000 cases since this morning. The country's capital Delhi is third with over 53,000 cases.

This is the third consecutive day that India registered a record jump in the number of coronavirus cases.

India tested the highest number of samples in the last 24 hours (1,89,869), the government said this morning. A total of 66,16,496 samples have been tested so far.

A number of countries continue to evacuate their citizens from India, amid concerns hospitals in major cities such as Delhi and Mumbai may be overwhelmed.

As cases continue to rise in Delhi, the AAP government ordered government hospitals to cancel all leaves and said further leave would only be granted under the most compelling circumstances.

Globally, the COVID-19 count has crossed 86 lakhs. 4.5 lakh people have died so far. In the United States, which is now the epicentre of the pandemic, 22 lakh people have been affected by the highly contagious illness; 1.1 lakh have died.

Glenmark Launches COVID-19 Drug Favipiravir At Rs 103 Per Tablet

NEW DELHI, June 20: As Glenmark Pharmaceuticals launched antiviral drug Favipiravir for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 cases, medical experts on Saturday cautioned against seeing it as a "magic bullet" to treat the deadly virus but said it will be helpful as it can be orally administered and reduce viral load.

They said the drug's real efficacy would be known in the coming months.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals 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.

FabiFlu is the first oral Favipiravir-approved medication in India for the treatment of COVID-19, it said in a statement.

"This drug was already being used in Japan for influenza. They have been using it in COVID-19 patients also. Even China was using it and Russia had also given permission in May to use it. Antiviral drugs like Remdesivir and Favipiravir are not specific to COVID-19 but were being used for influenza," said Dr Vikas Maurya, Director, Department of Pulmonology and Sleep Disorders, Fortis Hospital, Shalimar Bagh.

He said studies found that there was some benefit of Favipiravir in COVID-19 treatment and that is why it has now been launched in India as well.

Dr Maurya said with COVID-19 cases rising, the launching of the drug comes as a relief.

"It is not a magic bullet as it is not the only thing we have to give. This is not a specific drug made for COVID-19 and has been found to be useful, but how much it will be useful we will have to see. Real efficacy will be known when administered on a large scale," he said.

"Best thing is that it is an oral drug, while Ramdesiver is an intravenous drug. It (Favipiravir) can be even taken at home. So even if it is giving some benefit, it will be quite useful," Dr Maurya said.

Noted city-based lung surgeon Dr Arvind Kumar said he does not believe that any of these antiviral drugs like Remdisiver or Favipiravir will be game changers.

"If at all ''game changer'' can be used, it is for dexamethasone which has shown a significant reduction in mortality and is available cheaply," he said.

There are so many medications available and Favipiravir will also help some patients, added Dr Kumar, who works at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

The Favipiravir 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.

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 added.

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 (DCGI).

"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 option of timely therapy, he added.

The approval's restricted use entails responsible medication usage where every patient must have signed informed consent before treatment initiation, Glenmark said.

Favipiravir can be used for coronavirus patients with co-morbid conditions such as diabetes and heart disease with mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms, Glenmark added.

It offers rapid reduction in viral load within four days and provides faster symptomatic and radiological improvement.

Favipiravir has shown clinical improvement of up to 88 per cent in mild to moderate COVID-19 cases, it said.

Considering the emergency and unmet medical need for COVID-19, the DCGI under the fast-tracked approval process granted domestic firm Glenmark Pharmaceuticals the permission to manufacture and market Favipiravir (200 mg) tablet.

Glenmark pharmaceuticals was the first company in India to initiate phase three clinical trials on Favipiravir for COVID-19 patients in India.

India adds over 13,000 new cases in a day; Corona tally rises to 3.8 lakh

NEW DELHI, June 19: The COVID-19 pandemic in India grew by the highest number yet again when over 13,000 fresh cases were detected across the country in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra and Delhi recorded the biggest jump in cases on Thursday. Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu also witnessed an explosion of fresh infections. The total number of coronavirus cases in the country zoomed to 380,532.

India reported 336 deaths related to coronavirus infection in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra recorded 100 fatalities while Delhi added 65 causalities on Thursday. The deadly novel virus claimed 12,573 lives in India.

On the brighter side, over 2 lakh coronavirus patients were recovered from the infection. More than 52% of the total COVID-19 cases were cured in the country.

Maharashtra confirmed a record number of COVID-19 patients on Thursday. At least 3,752 people tested positive for the infection, taking the total COVID-19 count to 120,504. With 100 deaths, the number fatalities in the state increased to 5,751.

Delhi also witnessed the biggest spike in coronavirus count on Thursday. The national capital registered 2,877 fresh cases in the last 24 hours. The total number of COVID-19 patients in the state stood at 49,979 The death toll rose to 1,969 in Delhi.

Tamil Nadu continued to add over 2,141 coronavirus cases even on Thursday. With this, the total number of patients in the state mounted to 52,334. In the wake of coronavirus outbreak, the state government decided to implement 12-day lockdown in Chennai and three other districts.

Russia, EU accelerate corona vaccine trials

NEW DELHI, June 18: With global coronavirus cases crossing the 8 million-mark, the need for an anti-Covid-19 vaccine becomes more urgent. Drug-makers and experts across the world are ramping up efforts to arrive at the potential vaccine against Covid-19.

From experimental drug remdesivir making strides to generic steroid drug dexamethasone emerging as the first Covid-19 drug, the race to developing the antidote to Covid-19 is getting more interesting by the day.

Here are some of the latest development around Covid-19 vaccine development:

• Drugmaker Gilead Sciences said it will soon begin enrolment of pediatric patients with moderate-to-severe Covid-19 in a late-stage study testing its experimental drug, remdesivir.

• Clinical trials of a Russian coronavirus vaccine started on Wednesday, the Health Ministry said in a statement.

• The European Union (EU) is planning to accelerate the development of Covid-19 vaccines through advance purchase agreements with promising medical companies, the bloc announced in a statement on Wednesday.

• Israel has signed an agreement with Moderna Inc for the future purchase of its potential Covid-19 vaccine, the Prime Minister said.

• The WHO said testing of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in its large multi-country trial of treatments for Covid-19 patients had been halted after results from other trials showed no benefit.

• China National Pharmaceutical Group Corp. known as Sinopharm on Tuesday said that an inactivated Covid-19 vaccine developed by its subsidiary China National Biotec Group’s (CNBG) Wuhan Institute of Biological Products has triggered a strong neutralizing antibody response in a phase 1/2 trial.

India’s Covid-19 toll nears 12,000 after backlog data reconciled, infection tally tops 3.5 lakh

NEW DELHI, June 17: India recorded more than 2,000 deaths from the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) after Delhi and Maharashtra updated their figures taking the country’s toll to nearly 12,000 as the infection tally rose to 354,065, the Union health ministry’s report showed on Wednesday.

According to the ministry’s Covid-19 dashboard, 10,974 fresh cases were reported from across the country in the last 24 hours and 2,003 patients succumbed to the respiratory disease. India’s death toll stands at 11,903 so far.

The death toll surged after Delhi and Maharashtra took into account hundreds of fatalities that were pending review, officials have said.

There are 155,227 active cases and 186,934 people have been discharged after being cured of the coronavirus disease, data showed.

The recovery rate was at 52.79% slightly up from 52.46% on Tuesday.

The surge in numbers comes on a day Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet chief ministers of Delhi, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Karnataka, Gujarat, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to discuss the pandemic situation.

PM Modi has already held consultations with chief ministers from Punjab, Assam, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Tripura and Himachal Pradesh among other states on Tuesday.

The PM in his sixth such meeting on the pandemic between the Centre, and states and Union territories said once again that the national priority must be to protect both lives and livelihoods.

“We must focus on both life and livelihood, boost health infrastructure, testing and tracing as well as increase economic activity,” he said during the virtual meeting.

As of Tuesday, 83% of Covid-19 deaths in the country have been reported from the five worst-hit states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. The 10 worst-affected states account for more than 96% of all deaths reported in India.

The country had recorded its first fatality in March when the Covid-19 infection tally was a little over 70.

The first 5,000 fatalities took 80 days, the latest 5,000 deaths came in just 17 days, with more than 2,500 being reported in the last week.

A 76-year-old man, who returned to Karnataka’s Kalburgi from Saudi Arabia, tested positive for Covid-19 and succumbed to the disease. It was reported on March 12.

India’s case fatality rate (CFR) or the proportion of death to the total number of cases has gone up to 3.4% from 2.9% with the jump in the death toll.

India is the fourth worst-hit country in the world in terms of total Covid-19 cases but it has fared much better in terms of deaths where it comes on the eighth spot.

Its total death trajectory is also a lot more gradual when compared to many other nations ravaged by the disease. India’s CFR is at 14% and is much lower than the global average of 56%.

Worldwide, there are 8.6 million infections and 441,668 people have died till date, according to the Johns Hopkins coronavirus tracker.

Dexamethasone found to reduce Covid-19 death rate

LONDON, June 16: Scientists have hailed a cheap steroid, dexamethasone, as a “major breakthrough” in the fight against Covid-19, after it was found to reduce deaths by up to a third among patients suffering the worst effects of the virus.

The mortality rate of those who end up on a ventilator was reduced by a third among people prescribed dexamethasone.

More than 11,500 patients from 175 hospitals in the UK have been enrolled on the “Recovery” trial since it was set up in March to test a range of potential coronavirus treatments.

In the dexamethasone study, 2,104 patients received 6 mg of dexamethasone once a day by mouth or intravenous injection for 10 days. Their outcomes were compared with a control group of 4,321 patients.

Over a 28-day period, the mortality rate among patients requiring ventilation was 41 per cent, and for those needing oxygen it was 25 per cent. Among those not requiring respiratory intervention the figure was 13 per cent.

The study revealed the steroid reduced deaths by a third in ventilated patients and a fifth in people needing oxygen. There was no change in deaths among patients who did not require respiratory support.

The Recovery trial – which stands for Randomised Evaluation of COVid-19 therapy – was co-ordinated by scientists from the University of Oxford.

Peter Horby, professor of emerging infectious diseases at the university’s Nuffield Department of Medicine, and one of the chief investigators for the trial, described it as “an extremely welcome result”.

“This is the only drug that has so far shown to reduce mortality, and it reduces it significantly. It is a major breakthrough, I think,” he said. “Dexamethasone is inexpensive, on the shelf, and can be used immediately to save lives worldwide.”

Martin Landray, professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Nuffield Department of Population Health, and another chief investigator, said: “Covid-19 is a global disease — it is fantastic that the first treatment demonstrated to reduce mortality is one that is instantly available and affordable worldwide.

“It’s been around for probably 60 years. It costs in the order of £5 . . . for a complete course of treatment in the NHS, and substantially less – probably less than one dollar – in other parts of the world, for example in India.”

India records over 11,000 fresh cases for third straight day

NEW DELHI, June 15: The states added over 11,000 fresh coronavirus infections for the third straight day. The total number of coronavirus cases in India increased to 332,424. Maharashtra continued to record over 3,000 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours. Tamil Nadu and Delhi also saw an explosion of new cases on Sunday.

At least 307 deaths from the COVID-19 infection were reported in the last 24 hours. The deadly novel virus killed 9,520 people in the country.

There were 153,106 active coronavirus patients in India, according to the data released by ministry of health and family welfare. On the positive side, over 1.69 lakh people were cured from the disease.

With 3,390 fresh coronavirus cases, Maharashtra's COVID-19 zoomed to 1,07,958. Out of this, Mumbai alone reported 58,226 coronavirus cases since the outbreak. At least 120 patients succumbed to death in the last 24 hours, bringing the toll to 3,950.

The coronavirus cases in Tamil Nadu inched towards the grim milestone of 45,000. As many as 1,974 people tested positive for the novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours. Chennai confirmed over 1,400 fresh cases on Sunday. At least 38 COVID-19 patients died in the last 24 hours, taking the fatalities to 435 in Tamil Nadu.

Delhi's COVID-19 count breached 40,000-mark. The national capital added 10,000 coronavirus cases in the last six days. With 2,224 fresh cases in the last 24 hours, the state registered the biggest jump in coronavirus count. This was the third straight day when over 2,000 cases were reported in a day in Delhi.

Centre, Delhi govt agree to fight Coronavirus crisis together

NEW DELHI, June 14: Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday said that the Centre and the Delhi government would have to work in tandem to make the country as well as the national capital healthy and coronavirus free under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Shah was chairing a meeting, his second today, to review the Covid-19 health crisis in the national capital which has been reporting a surge in coronavirus cases.

The home minister during today’s meeting directed the Delhi government, all three Mayors and the three municipal corporations of the city to work together and implement the decisions taken in the first meeting held earlier on Sunday morning.

“The Modi government is determined to prevent the coronavirus infection in Delhi. To stop the spread of the virus, testing will be doubled in the next two days and after six days the testing will be increased three-fold. Subsequently, after a few days, every polling station in the containment zones will be covered for testing,” Shah said in a tweet earlier today.

Shah also directed the Delhi Police Commissioner to ensure all guidelines to curb the spread of Covid-19 are enforced strictly in the national capital. The Delhi Police report directly to the Home Ministry.

On Sunday, in compliance with orders of the home minister, the Union Health Ministry too directed that bodies of suspected Covid-19 victims in Delhi should be handed over to their relatives immediately without waiting for any kind of lab confirmation on their test results. The Supreme Court had, two days ago, termed the condition of Delhi’s Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital as “pathetic” and its wards as ‘deplorable’.

Earlier on Sunday, Amit Shah met Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal along with Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and AIIMS chief Dr Randeep Guleria to discuss the Covid-19 management in Delhi. The meeting, described as a ‘productive one’ was helmed by the home minister.

The Centre, too on Sunday announced a slew of measures to control the spread of coronavirus in Delhi, which included carrying out a comprehensive door-to-door health survey in all containment zones, doubling of tests in next two days followed by a three-fold increase within a week’s time.

Unable to keep up with the rising number of coronavirus cases, the Delhi government had asked the Indian Railways to allocate isolation coaches for Covid-19 patients of the national capital. At least, 500 railway coaches with a capacity of 8,000 beds have been allocated for Delhi. Private hospitals, too, have been told to earmark 60% of beds for Covid-19 affected patients at lesser rates.

The Centre has also promised to provide the Delhi government with all necessary medical resources like oxygen cylinders, ventilators, and all other equipment to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

With nearly 12,000 coronavirus cases, India's total crosses 3.2 Lakh

NEW DELHI, June 14: India's coronavirus tally rose to 3,20,922 cases today as it recorded the single-day biggest jump of 11,929 new infections in the last 24 hours and 311 deaths, the Union Health Ministry said this morning.

A total of 9,195 COVID-19 patients have died so far, according to the government. This is the second consecutive day that India has recorded more than 11,000 new infections in one day.

The country has jumped two positions since last week to become the fourth worst-hit country by the pandemic after the United States, Brazil and Russia.

Over 70,000 new patients and more than 2,000 deaths have been recorded in a week as Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Gujarat continue to remain the worst-affected states.

Delhi details plans to use hotels in Covid war

NEW DELHI, June 13: The Delhi government is preparing for a surge in coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases and plans to use a total of 40 hotels and 77 banquet halls as makeshift hospitals, a move that is expected to add over 15,800 beds to the city-state’s health care infrastructure, according to documents seen by HT. On Saturday, two top hotels in South Delhi, Vasant Continental and Hyatt Regency, were asked to place rooms at the disposal of the hospitals they were being attached to.

Authorities plan to set up 11,229 beds in 77 banquet halls, which will function under the Delhi government, and 4,628 beds in 40 hotels, which will be supervised by private hospitals, a list released on Friday night showed. On May 29, the Delhi government identified the first five hotels in the first-of-its kind move in the country and issued an order to this effect.

“Today (Saturday), all district magistrates were asked to submit the time they will take to set up such facilities. The aim is to get the hotels and banquet halls readied within a week,” a senior government official said on the condition of anonymity.

Patients opting for the hotel facility, which is primarily for those with moderate symptoms, will have to pay a minimum of Rs 63,000 a week if it’s a three- or four-star hotel. If it’s a five-star hotel, the weekly charge will go up to at least Rs 70,000. In addition, patients needing oxygen support will have to pay Rs 2,000 a day. The charges will vary with medical investigations, which private hospitals overseeing these facilities will bill at their own rates, and the duration of treatment.

The Delhi government move came against the backdrop of a spike in Covid-19 cases; the national capital added 2,134 new cases on Saturday to end the day with a total of 38,958 infections (22,742 of them active) and 1,271 fatalities. At present, Delhi’s bed capacity across private and government hospitals for Covid-19 patients stands at 9,698. Of them, 4,248 are vacant, according to Delhi’s coronavirus app dashboard. Between Monday and Saturday, Delhi has added 9,015 cases.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Wednesday that the city will need 150,000 beds by the end of July as he accepted Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal’s order overruling his government’s decision allowing only Delhi residents to be treated in government and private hospitals. And on June 7, while Kejriwal announced the reopening of malls, dine-in restaurants and places of worship after two-and-a-half months, he said hotels and banquet halls will continue to be closed as they will be used to augment the city’s health care infrastructure. Meanwhile, L-G Baijal, who is the chairperson of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority, directed government officials to immediately start scouting for banquet halls, hotels and stadiums to increase the city’s bed capacity.

Of the 11 districts in Delhi, Northwest District will have the maximum banquet halls (21) that will be turned into Covid-19 hospitals. West District will have the maximum such hotels (12).

The list of hotels include Maidens Hotel of the Oberoi Group in Civil Lines (supervised by Sant Parmanand Hospital); Hyatt Regency in Bikaji Cama Place (Fortis Hospital, Vasant Kunj); Park Inn by Radisson in Lajpat Nagar (Moolchand hospital); Hotel Ramada in Pitampura (Jaipur Golden Hospital); and Holiday Inn in Mayur Vihar (Apollo Hospital). The five hotels in the May 29 order were Crowne Plaza (Batra Hospital); Hotel Surya (Apollo); Hotel Siddharth (BL Kapur Memorial Hospital); Hotel Jivitesh (Sir Gangaram Hospital); and Sheraton Saket (Max Super Speciality Hospital)

Officials in Apollo Hospitals, which will supervise five hotels, pointed to the challenges. “We reached out to two hotels, but they said they will let us start only after the judgment of the high court…We have not been able to do a recce,” a hospital official said, requesting anonymity.

On June 4, CHL Ltd, which owns and runs Surya hotel, approached the Delhi HC against the state government’s May 29 order directing five luxury hotels, including Surya and Crowne Plaza, to be converted into hospitals. The hotels argued that the government took the decision unilaterally and that they were not consulted.

The court directed on Thursday a committee of two doctors --- All India Institute of Medical Sciences director Randeep Guleria and NITI Aayog member VK Paul --- to check the plan’s feasibility. The matter will now be heard on Monday (June 15).

An official in Max Hospital, who asked not to be named, said work at Sheraton Hotels in South Delhi’s Saket was complete. Max is supervising four hotels. “We are treating several patients at Sheraton, which was among the first five hotels…However, we too have not been able to extend our services to the other hotels because they are all awaiting the court verdict,” said the official.

The Delhi government is setting up health care facilities on its own at the banquets. The fee structure for a banquet-turned-hospital was not immediately available.

“All these facilities will have separate entry and exit points. A tender has already been floated for cots. The water and electricity bills that will be generated in these banquet halls/hospitals will be paid by the health department from its funds. The medical equipment and the staff will be arranged by the health department,” said a second government official.

The Delhi Medical Association, which is holding regular meetings with the state government to discuss bed augmentation plans, said the city-state’s administration has approached it for medical staff, including nurses.

“Nursing associations are also being reached out, but manpower is going to be a serious challenge,” said Dr Girish Tyagi, president of the association.

As for stadiums, the government plans to set up 2,500 beds at Pragati Maidan and 200 beds at Talkatora, emulating Maharashtra. “But stadiums need more medical engineering...We are first going with hotels and banquet halls, which are easier and quicker because their structure resembles that of hospitals; there are rooms and washrooms,” said an official in the health department who did not want to be named.

Dr Lalit Kant, the former head of epidemiology and communicable disease at Indian Council of Medical Research, said such arrangements should have been done by now. “…all that needs to be done is ramping up of health infrastructure as soon as possible. However, simultaneously, it is also very important to ensure strict enforcement of civic rules such as wearing masks and maintaining social distancing.”

India sees record jump of Covid-19 cases at 11,458 in one day

NEW DELHI, June 13: India, the fourth worst-hit country in the world, recorded more than 11,000 cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and 386 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the Union health ministry on Saturday.

There were 11,458 new Covid-19 cases and 386 deaths between Friday and Saturday, taking India’s infection tally to 308,993—with the latest 100,000 cases added in just the last 10 days—and its toll to 8,884.

The previous 100,000 cases took 15 days and the first 100,000 cases took 78 days after the coronavirus disease was reported in the country in late January. A little under a quarter of all cases have been reported just in the last week and the cases doubling in the last 17 days.

According to the health ministry’s dashboard, 154,329 patients have recovered from Covid-19 or nearly 50% of people who contracted the respiratory disease have been discharged from hospitals so far.

The active cases stood at 145,779 and the number of recovered patients in the country has been outnumbering that of active cases since Tuesday now.

The United States, Brazil and Russia are the other countries to report more than 300,000 cases of Covid-19.

Most of India’s Covid-19 cases have been reported from four states of Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.

Maharashtra has breached the one lakh-mark and now has 101,141 infections with 3,717 deaths. In Tamil Nadu, there are 40,698 Covid-19 cases and 367 fatalities, while Delhi has reported 36,824 infections and 1,214 deaths so far.

Gujarat has a higher number of deaths than the national capital at 1,415 but its case tally is 22,527.

West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have also seen a rising number of Covid-19 cases.

More than 7.6 million infections of the Sars-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, and 425,330 deaths has been reported across the world since the virus was first reported in China’s Wuhan in December last year.

India’s coronavirus count crosses 3 lakh mark

NEW DELHI, June 12: India on Friday reported a total Covid-19 tally of over three lakh cases, barely two weeks after the Centre announced lifting of the nationwide lockdown in phases and billed it Unlock-1. The country recorded over 10,000 new coronavirus cases in its highest single-day spike taking the tally to 3,01,579, according to data from Worldometer.

Maharashtra has the highest Covid-19 positive cases in India with 1,01,141 patients, followed by Tamil Nadu with 40,698 and national capital Delhi with 34,687. Maharashtra, accounting for almost one-third of the total coronavirus cases in the country remains the worst-hit state in India by the coronavirus pandemic. On Friday, the state recorded 3,493 new Covid-19 cases detected in the last 24 hours taking the total count past the 1lakh mark.

India now ranks the fourth-highest in the list of nations hit hard by the highly infectious disease. On Thursday, India overtook the United Kingdom to climb to the fourth place in the list of countries with a high concentration of coronavirus cases.

The country is now preceded only by Russia, Brazil and the United States. Russia currently has nearly 5 lakh cases and Brazil around 7.72 lakh. The United States, however, is the worst-hit country globally with more than 20 lakh Covid-19 positive cases.

For the first time since the outbreak of coronavirus, India on Friday recorded over 10,000 new cases and 396 deaths in a single day, even as the Centre advised all states to pay special attention to the emerging hotspots of Covid-19 and undertake all possible steps to curb the spread.

The death toll currently stands at 8,498 till Friday morning, the Union Health ministry data said.

The ministry also said the doubling time of coronavirus cases in India has improved to 17.4 days currently from 15.4 days a couple of weeks ago. At the time the lockdown was imposed on March 25, the doubling rate of coronavirus cases was 3.4 days, it said.

India Passes UK to Become 4th Worst-affected Nation by Covid-19

NEW DELHI, June 11: India on Thursday overtook the United Kingdom to become the fourth most affected country by the coronavirus after recording a record daily spike in new cases. According to a tally maintained by Worldometer, India currently has 2,97,832 cases while the UK has 2,91,409. India is only behind the US, Brazil and Russia now.

The total number of coronavirus cases around the world has risen to more than 75 lakh and the death toll has soared to over 4.21 lakh.

India has registered more than 9,500 cases for the seventh day in a row, while the one-day casualty figure crossed the 300-mark for the first time on Thursday.

The Union Health Ministry data, updated at 8 am on Thursday, said the country saw the highest single-day spike of 357 fatalities and 9,996 cases, pushing the death-toll to 8,102 and the nationwide tally to 2,86,579. The number of recoveries remained more than the active cases for the second consecutive day.

The number of active cases stood at 1,37,448 till Thursday 8 am, while 1,41,028 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, showed the ministry data. "Thus, around 49.21 per cent patients have recovered so far," said an official.

Of the 8,102 fatalities in total, Maharashtra tops the tally with 3,438 deaths followed by Gujarat (1,347), Delhi (984), Madhya Pradesh (427), West Bengal (432), Tamil Nadu (326), Uttar Pradesh (321), Rajasthan (259) and Telangana (156). The death toll reached 78 in Andhra Pradesh, 69 in Karnataka and 55 in Punjab.

Jammu and Kashmir has reported 51 fatalities, while 52 deaths have been reported from Haryana, 33 from Bihar, 18 from Kerala, 15 from Uttarakhand, nine from Odisha and eight from Jharkhand.

Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh have registered six fatalities each, Chandigarh five while Assam has four deaths so far. Meghalaya, Tripura and Ladakh have reported one fatality each, according to ministry data.

More than 70% of the deaths are due to co-morbidities, said the ministry's website.

The highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 94,041 followed by Tamil Nadu at 36,841, Delhi at 32,810, Gujarat at 21,521, UP at 11,610, Rajasthan at 11,600 and MP at 10,049 according to the ministry's data updated in the morning.

The number of cases has risen to 9,328 in West Bengal, 6,041 in Karnataka, 5,710 in Bihar and 5,579 in Haryana. It has gone up to 5,269 in Andhra Pradesh, 4,509 in Jammu and Kashmir, 4,111 in Telangana and 3,250 in Odisha.

Assam has reported 3,092 cases so far while Punjab has 2,805. A total of 2,161 people have been infected by the virus in Kerala and 1,562 in Uttarakhand.

Jharkhand has registered 1,489 cases, while 1,262 cases have been reported from Chhattisgarh, 895 from Tripura, 451 from Himachal Pradesh, 387 from Goa and 327 from Chandigarh.

Manipur has 311 cases, Nagaland has 128, Puducherry 127, Ladakh 115, Mizoram 93, Arunachal 57, Meghalaya 44 while Andaman and Nicobar Islands has registered 34 infections so far. Dadar and Nagar Haveli has 26 cases, Sikkim has reported 13 cases till now while Daman and Diu has two cases.

The ministry's website said that 8,931 cases are being reassigned to states and "our figures are being reconciled.

US Covid-19 cases cross 2 million, expert warns of 100,000 more deaths

WASHINGTON, June 11: The United States now has more than 2 million Covid-19 infections with over 27,000 reported in the last 24 hours and a spike in hospitalisation has been reported from 12 states triggering fears of a second wave and, in a grim reminder that it is far from over yet, an expert has forecast 100,000 more fatalities by September.

More than 112,000 fatalities had been reported till Thursday morning, with 935 in the last 24 hours. Ashish Jha, a Harvard physician, has argued the United States could see around 25,000 deaths a months, with the average of around 800 a day, at the minimum, going up to 200,000 by mid-September.

“Even if we don’t have increasing cases, even if we keep things flat, it’s reasonable to expect that we’re going to hit 200,000 deaths sometime during the month of September,” Jha said. in an interview to CNN Wednesday. “And that’s just through September. The pandemic won’t be over in September.”

Ramped up testing, contact tracing, strict adherence to social distancing norms and widespread use of masks could help prevent spiraling fatalities, he has argued.

Anthony Fauci, the top US epidemiologist who has also said the epidemic is not done with the United States yet, told ABC Wednesday he is worried about the impact of ongoing protests and demonstrations.

“Masks can help, but it’s masks plus physical separation and when you get congregations like we saw with the demonstrations, like we have said — myself and other health officials — that’s taking a risk,” he said., adding, “Unfortunately, what we’re seeing now is just an example of the kinds of things we were concerned about.”

Covid-19 hospitalizations — a number far more worrying than infections — have been spiking in 12 states (21 states have seen a surge in new infections) and there is talk already of a second wave hitting states after they reopened. Such as Florida, Arizona, and Texas.

Texas recorded a single-day high of more than 2,500 new cases and Florida logged a seven-day total of 8,553 cases, according to Bloomberg, which was told by Eric Tanner, a Johns Hopkins University scholar, “There is a new wave coming in parts of the country. t’s small and it’s distant so far, but it’s coming.”

Public health officials have been most worried about Arizona, where the number of new cases has doubled — up by 211% — over the past two weeks, the states health department has said. Its healthcare system, which is up to 83% occupancy, is in danger of being overwhelmed soon.

But the epidemic appears to have slipped off the radar of the president, the White House and US congress partly because of President Trump’s hurry to reopen the country, put businesses back at work and turnaround rising unemployment numbers (another 1.2 million filed for unemployment benefits last week) , which was has happened to an extent with hirings taking off.
The other reason has been antiracism protests and unrest ripping through the country after the death of George Floyd, an African American man, under a knee of a white police officer, with three others holding him down.

President Trump has announced plans to return to the campaign trail with public rallies; some of them in states that are experiencing a spike in new infections: Florida, Texas, Arizona, and North Carolina. He starts on June 19 in Oklahoma, which is relatively safer, but Tulsa, where the rally is to take place, is in a county that has seen a modest rise.

Delhi likely to have 550,000 Covid cases by July 31: Govt

NEW DELHI, June 9: A day after Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal revoked the Delhi government’s order to reserve beds in its hospitals for Delhi residents, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said the Capital is likely to have 550,000 Covid-19 cases by July 31, for which 80,000 beds would be needed, and accused the L-G of not having “any plan” for the surge in hospital admissions.

The Delhi government also expressed its disappointment over the Centre not declaring that the Capital has reached the community transmission stage, even as health minister Satyendar Jain said they are unable to establish contact tracing in almost 50% of the Covid cases being recorded.

The issue of hospital beds turned into a war of words, with the L-G releasing a statement late evening, in which he said that rather than “discriminating between patients, the goal of the government should be to plan and prepare for adequate infrastructure”. “We are all Indians and Delhi belongs to all!” the L-G’s statement read.

Kejriwal, in a digital press briefing on Sunday, announced that hospitals under the Delhi government and some private ones will be reserved for the people of Delhi till the Covid-19 crisis subsides. The order was overruled by the L-G on Monday saying that ‘right to health’ has been held as an integral part of ‘right to life’ under the Constitution by the Supreme Court — a point which the L-G office on Tuesday said was clarified to Sisodia and health minister Jain during Tuesday’s meeting of the state disaster management authority (SDMA).

At the meeting, which was chaired by the L-G, Sisodia urged Baijal to reconsider his decision.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is the vice-chairperson of the authority empowered Sisodia to attend the meeting since he was down with Covid-like symptoms, though his test result which came out in the evening was negative.

After the meeting, Sisodia told reporters, “We asked the L-G about his predictions on the increase in Covid cases in the coming days. We also asked him how many cases might come from outside. But, he had no answers. We also asked if people from outside come to Delhi, then how many beds would be needed. He had no answer to that as well.”

He said, there was, however, a consensus that considering the current doubling rate of 12.6 days, around 5.5 lakh cases are expected in the state by July 31 and 80,000 beds will be needed at that time.

“The prediction is based from the time when the borders were sealed due to lockdown and only residents of the state were coming for the treatment in Delhi hospitals. It was considering the surge in Covid cases that the Delhi Cabinet decided to reserve Delhi government and private hospitals for those living in the Capital. Now the decision of opening the hospitals for all will create a lot of obstacles for the people of Delhi,” Sisodia said.

Jain said that any given point of time, nearly 50% of patients treated in Delhi’s private hospitals are from outside the state and that in government hospitals, the proportion goes up to nearly 70%.

“During the lockdown in both private and government hospitals, the occupancy of people from outside was 10% and only the planned surgeries were happening. This could have been continued for some time but the L-G has not agreed to this,” he said.

The L-G responded by saying he is “fully aware” of the need to ramp up medical infrastructure. “In fact, from time to time several ideas and strategies have been discussed in the SDMA meeting chaired by the L-G to augment the medical infrastructure to meet the rising requirement… In today’s SDMA meeting also, ideas e.g. use of spaces like Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, Tyagraj Stadium, JLN Stadium, Pragati Maidan to make large makeshift medical facilities were discussed. It was also decided to utilize banquet halls, marriage places, etc. to ramp up the facilities,” the L-G’s office said.

Baijal has also advised the officers concerned to invoke Section 50 of Disaster Management Act, 2005 for expeditious procurement and timely setting up of required infrastructure, it further said.

The SDMA meeting also saw a lack of consensus between the Delhi government and the Central government officers over the issue of community spread in Delhi.

“The Central government officials present in the meeting said it has not happened yet in the city. So, there is no need to discuss this matter,” Sisodia said.

A city is said to have reached the community transmission stage once it is no longer possible to trace the source of infection. Health minister Jain said that the director of AIIMS, Dr Randeep Guleria, has also stated that there is a community spread in the containment zones of Delhi.

“On behalf of the state government, we can only say that there is a significant spread but only the Central government can say if it is community spread or not,” said Jain.

While health secretary Preeti Sudan did not respond on the matter, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan has said that Delhi government wasn’t giving the true picture of the Covid situation with labs and doctors being threatened. “Hiding numbers will not do; you have to actively search for cases as part of covid containment strategy,” he said.

Two members of a panel constituted by the government to aid in the augmentation of the city’s health care infrastructure said the L-G’s decision to make available beds in Delhi hospitals to those from all states will be detrimental.

“The committee has said Delhi will need 40,000 beds by mid-July. These calculations are based solely on Delhi’s population and the number of cases being reported from the city every day. Now, if these facilities were to be utilised by people from neighbouring states, the government will need to arrange thousands more beds over and above the projected requirement,” Dr RK Gupta, a member of the committee and former president of the Delhi Medical Association, said.

Dr Arun Gupta, a member of the committee and president of the Delhi Medical Council, said: “Health is a state subject and the government utilises the tax payers’ money on health care services. So a government’s primary responsibility is to the people of Delhi. The Delhi government order only kept aside Delhi government-run hospitals and some private hospitals for its residents; people from neighbouring states could still go to central government-run hospitals, hospitals run by civic bodies, or the super speciality private hospitals. Now, Delhi residents will be at a disadvantage.”

New Zealand eradicates Covid-19

WELLINGTON, June 8: At a time when the world is grappling with the fast-spreading Covid-19, New Zealand has announced that it has eradicated the novel coronavirus which causes the disease.

The stunning announcement came on Monday when the country’s health officials said that it has no active cases of Covid-19. The Pacific island nation is among only a handful of countries that have emerged from the pandemic, which first gripped the United States and has now turned Latin American into a hotspot.

It has been 17 days since the last new case was reported in New Zealand, and Monday also marked the first time since late February that there have been no active cases.

So how did they do it?

New Zealand enforced a strict lockdown for nearly seven weeks, in which most businesses were shut and everyone except essential workers had to stay at home.

Experts say that its isolated location in the South Pacific also gave New Zealand vital time to see how outbreaks spread in other countries. Just over 1,500 people contracted the virus in New Zealand, including 22 who died.

New Zealand’s Health Ministry said in a statement on Monday that the last person who was being monitored for coronavirus had recovered.

The officials, however, caution that new cases could be imported into the country, which has closed its borders to everybody but citizens and residents, with some exceptions.

How was lockdown implemented in New Zealand?

The country of five million people has pursued an elimination strategy to beat coronavirus, rather than just aiming to contain the disease.

Elimination did not mean eradicating the virus permanently from New Zealand, but eliminating “chains of transmission” for at least 28 consecutive days after the last infected person left isolation, which would be on June 15, the ministry said.

And this was done by the strict lockdown put in palce by the Jacinda Ardern government.

What now?

New Zealand has decided to move to national Alert Level 1 from the current Level 2. New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday that all coronavirus measures in the country will be lifted from Tuesday, barring border closure restrictions.

She said public and private events can go on without restrictions, retail and hospitality sectors can operate normally, and all public transport can resume.

“Having no active cases for the first time since February 28 is certainly a significant mark in our journey but as we’ve previously said, ongoing vigilance against Covid-19 will continue to be essential,” Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said in the statement.

India’s Covid-19 tally soars to over 2.56 lakh, death toll at 7,135

NEW DELHI, June 8: With 9,983 new cases of the coronavirus disease and 206 deaths between Sunday and Monday morning, India’s infection tally has risen to 256,611, according to the Union health ministry data.

This is the fifth day in a row that the country has reported more than 9,000 Covid-19 cases in a single day and as restaurants, shopping malls and places of worship were allowed to reopen across most part by strictly adhering to the guidelines laid down by the Centre.

The number of active cases in India stands at 125,381 and the recovery rate at 48.35% with 124,094 people cured of the respiratory disease, according to the health ministry.

Maharashtra has reported 85,975 Covid-19 cases and 3,060 deaths so far. India’s worst-hit state has now overtaken China in terms of the number of infections. China, where the virus first emerged late last year, has a total of 84,191 cases, according to data by America’s Johns Hopkins University.

The number of Covid-19 cases has also surged in Tamil Nadu, where there are 31,667 patients and 269 death so far. Delhi has reported 27,654 infections and the number of fatalities in the national capital stands at 761. Gujarat has 20,070 Covid-19 cases and 1,249 people have succumbed in the western state.

The Centre on Sunday defended the timing of imposition of the lockdown and rejected as “baseless” media reports expressing concerns that it did not take inputs from technical experts while drawing up its Covid-19 strategy.

It asserted that coronavirus is a “new agent” about which not everything is known and also said it is “fine-tuning” its strategy based on emerging knowledge and experience on the ground.

The health ministry said in a statement that the decision on the lockdown was taken due to the rapid escalation of Covid-19 cases.

“The doubling rate of cases had dropped to a low level, pointing toward a dangerous trajectory of high caseload and high mortality, as experienced by many western countries. The possibility that our health systems could soon be overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients seemed to be real,” it said.

There was a unanimous consensus on the lockdown among all state governments, it said. The government has already shared information on the impact of the lockdown and other restrictions to avert lakhs of infections and thousands of deaths, the ministry said.

“These apprehensions and allegations are unfounded and baseless. The government is constantly in consultation with experts for technical and strategic inputs, scientific ideas and domain-specific guidance to address the Covid-19 pandemic,” it said about reports in a section of the media expressing concern about the government excluding the views of technical experts.

Globally, there are more than 7 million Covid-19 cases and the number of people who have died due to the disease is 402,709, according to Johns Hopkins’ coronavirus tracker.

World reaches 4,00,000 coronavirus deaths, at least 6.9 million infected

ROME, June 7: The confirmed global death toll from the COVID-19 virus reached at least 400,000 fatalities on Sunday, a day after the government of Brazil broke with standard public health protocols by ceasing to publish updates of the number of deaths and infections in the hard-hit South American country.

Worldwide, at least 6.9 million people have been infected by the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University, whose aggregated tally has become the main worldwide reference for monitoring the disease. Its running counter says United States leads the world with nearly 110,000 confirmed virus-related deaths. Europe as a whole has recorded more than 175,000 since the virus emerged in China late last year.

Health experts, however, believe that the John Hopkins tally falls short of showing the true tragedy of the pandemic.

Many governments have struggled to produce statistics that can reasonably be considered as true indicators of the pandemic given the scarcity of diagnostic tests especially in the first phase of the crisis. Authorities in Italy and Spain, with over 60,000 combined deaths, have acknowledged that their death count is larger than the story the numbers tell.

Brazil’s government has stopped publishing a running total of coronavirus deaths and infections; critics say it’s an attempt to hide the true toll of the disease.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro went as far as to tweet on Saturday that his country’s disease totals are “not representative” of Brazil’s current situation, insinuating that the numbers were actually overestimating the spread of the virus.

Critics of Bolsonaro, who has repeatedly clashed with health experts over the seriousness of the disease and has threatened to take Brazil out of the World Health Organization, said the decision was a maneuver by the hardman-style leader to hide the depths of crisis.

Brazil’s last official numbers recorded over 34,000 virus-related deaths, the third-highest toll in the world behind the U.S. and Britain. It reported nearly 615,000 infections, putting it second behind the U.S.

After Bolsonaro stoked his clash with health experts, Pope Francis cautioned people in countries emerging from lockdown to keep following authorities’ rules on social distancing, hygiene and limits on movement.

“Be careful, don’t cry victory, don’t cry victory too soon,” Francis said. “Follow the rules. They are rules that help us to avoid the virus getting ahead” again.

The Argentine-born pontiff has also expressed dismay that the virus is still claiming many lives, especially in Latin America.

Francis was clearly delighted to see several hundred people gathered below his window in St. Peter’s Square on Sundays for the pope’s noon blessing after Italy eased its restrictions on public gatherings.

Many counties like the U.S. and Britain insist that they can ease restrictions before having stalled their outbreaks.

In the U.S., the virus churns on underneath the unrest provoked by the death of George Floyd and increasingly directed at President Donald Trump’s handling of the protests.

On Sunday, the U.K. revealed that places of worship can reopen from June 15 — but only for private prayer.

Worries have surfaced over the past couple of weeks that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is easing the restrictions too soon, with new infections potentially still running at 8,000 a day. As things stands, nonessential shops, including department stores, are due to reopen on June 15.

Professor John Edmunds, who attends meetings of the British government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, said the epidemic “is definitely not all over” and that there is an “awful long way to go.”

In France, the government announced that from Tuesday, it will ease restrictions limiting travel from the French mainland to overseas territories in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean.

Spain is preparing to take another step forward in the scaling back of its containment with Madrid and Barcelona opening the interiors of restaurants with reduced seating on Monday.

In Turkey, Istanbul residents flocked to the city’s shores and parks on the first weekend with no lockdown, prompting a reprimand from the health minister.

Russia remained troubling, with nearly 9,000 new cases over the past day, roughly in line with numbers reported over the past week.

Pakistan is pushing toward 100,000 confirmed infections as medical professionals plead for more controls and greater enforcement of social distancing directives. But Prime Minister Imran Khan said a full shutdown would devastate a failing economy.

India confirmed 9,971 new coronavirus cases in another biggest single-day spike, a day before it prepares to reopen shopping malls, hotels and religious places after a 10-week lockdown.

China has reported its first non-imported case in two weeks, an infected person on the island of Hainan off the southern coast.

India Overtakes Spain To Become 5th Worst Hit By Coronavirus

NEW DELHI, June 6: India has become the fifth worst coronavirus-hit country in the world as it surpassed Spain on Saturday, reporting a grand total of around 2,44,000 cases. The European country, a COVID-19 epicentre weeks ago, has 2,40,978 cases. Now, only the US, Brazil, Russia and the UK have more cases than India.

On Saturday morning, the health ministry data said India reported 9,887 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours in the biggest one-day spike so far. There has been a minor fall in recovery rate compared to Friday, from 48.27 per cent to 48.20 per cent. The number of deaths reported in the last 24 hours is 294, taking the total in India to 6,642.

The country on Friday took over Italy, one of the biggest sufferers of the disease, in terms of total cases. Figures from America's Johns Hopkins University around Friday midnight showed India at 2,35,769 and Italy at 2,34,531.

Though the count of recoveries has risen, India still has more than 1 lakh active cases across the country. The cases have been rising sharply, by 8,000 or more, for several days now.

At least 19 states now have their tallies of confirmed cases in four or more digits, as against just nine on May 1. Also, three states now have five-digit tallies, as against only Maharashtra in that category on May 1.

While Delhi and Gujarat already have their tallies running into five digits, at least three other states - Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh - have total confirmed cases of more than 9,000.

Maharashtra tops the charts in terms of total confirmed cases, active cases, recoveries and deaths. Delhi is at the second place in terms of active cases, though it is third after Tamil Nadu in terms of total cases. Gujarat is ranked second for fatalities, followed by Delhi at the third place.

Maharashtra on Saturday reported 2,739 cases and 120 deaths, taking its total to 82,968. Tamil Nadu today reported 1,458 coronavirus cases. Delhi, with 1320 cases reported in 24 hours, has a total of 27,654 cases.

The government last month extended the lockdown till June 30 as it revealed a phased plan to unlock India. Malls, hotels, restaurants and places of worship can open on June 8 except in containment zones, the areas with the most number of coronavirus cases.

Restrictions were removed on movement of people and goods between states. Night curfew stayed, but the timings were changed to 9 pm-5am from the existing 7 pm-7am.

COVID-19 cases in India rise to 2.26 lakh

NEW DELHI, June 5: With the states registering over 9,000 coronavirus cases for the second straight day, the number of coronavirus cases in India hit a new high. India's COVID-19 count surged past the grim milestone of 2.26 lakh. At least six states or Union territories witnessed the biggest spike in COVID-19 infection in last 24 hours — Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala and Assam.

The death toll in India reached 6,348. The states recorded 273 fatalities in last 24 hours, the highest toll in a single day since outbreak. A lion's share of the total casualties on Thursday came from Maharashtra.

The total number of active coronavirus patients in India zoomed to 110,960 Nearly 48% of the total coronavirus cases — 1.09 lakh patients were recovered from the disease.

With 2,933 coronavirus cases, Maharashtra continued to add the highest number of COVID-19 cases even on Thursday. Coronavirus infected 77,793 people in the state. Mumbai alone accounted for 1,439 cases in last 24 hours. The fatalities from coronavirus infection touched another peak on Thursday. At least 123 people succumbed to death in the state in last 24 hours, the highest single-day toll so far.

After Maharashtra, Delhi reported the maximum number of active coronavirus cases. The state recorded over 1,300 fresh cases in last 24 hours. The total number of coronavirus cases in the national capital stood at 25,004. Delhi was the third state to record over 25,000 coronavirus cases after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

Gujarat saw the biggest jump in COVID-19 on Thursday. At least 495 people tested positive for the virus, taking the coronavirus tally to 18,584. The state recorded the second highest number of fatalities after Maharashtra at 1,155.

ICMR ramped up the testing capacity for detecting the novel coronavirus in the country. "At least 1,39,485 samples were tested in the last 24 hours. The total number of samples tested thus far is 42,42,718," the health ministry said on Thursday.

In the wake of coronavirus pandemic in the country, India imposed a nationwide lockdown in the last week of March. After more than two months, the Centre decided to "unlock" the country by opening restaurants, shopping malls and religious places from next Mond. A detailed guidelines were issued for maintaining social distance and necessary measures to fight against COVID-19.

India joins UK’s global vaccine mission, commits $15 million

NEW DELHI, June 4: India on Thursday joined the UK’s vaccine mission during the Global Vaccine Summit 2020, which helped secure $7.4 billion in funding to support global vaccine supply and immunisation.

The virtual event saw representatives of more than 50 countries – including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, other heads of state and government, business leaders, UN agencies and civil society – pledging their support to Gavi, the vaccine alliance, in its commitment to help save up to eight million lives over the next five years.

India committed $15 million to Gavi over the next five years at Thursday’s summit.

According to Gavi, India is the only country that has moved from being a recipient to a donor. India is also now its largest manufacturer, accounting for more than 60% of Gavi vaccines.

The acting UK high commissioner, Jan Thompson, said: “I was pleased to see such a strong endorsement from Prime Minister Modi at today’s summit, and to hear his message about the importance of global solidarity.

“As he said, India’s capacity to produce vaccines at low cost and research expertise will play a very important role. The UK is Gavi’s leading donor and already playing a major role in the international response to Coronavirus. I’m delighted to see the continuing and excellent UK-India collaboration as a force for good against Covid-19 – from vaccine development to keeping essential medical supply routes open.”

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he hoped the summit will be the “moment when the world comes together to unite humanity in the fight against disease”.

Gavi’s efforts, including during the Covid-19 pandemic, help stop the spread of infectious diseases and resurgence of other epidemics. “If a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine is developed, it will also have a role in its delivery around the world. Global access will ensure a collective international recovery,” said a statement from the UK high commission.

Gavi has immunised more than 760 million children in the poorest countries, saving more than 13 million lives. It holds a pledging conference every five years to raise funds for its next strategic period, and Thursday’s summit secured funding for 2021-25.

The UK has supported Gavi since its inception in 2000 and is its largest donor, with a pledge of £1.65 billion for the next five years. The Global Vaccine Summit 2020 built on the UK’s recent role as co-lead for the Global Coronavirus Response Initiative on May 4, which raised 7.4 billion euros (about £6.64 billion) for vaccines, tests and treatment to tackle the Coronavirus.

UK-India collaboration for a possible coronavirus vaccine includes a consortium comprising Serum Institute, Gates Foundation, MIT and Spy Biotech, a UK-based biotech company, which is trying to develop a vaccine using the new “spy-tag vaccine development technology”.

Oxford Nanopore is also working with some of India’s leading scientific institutions to focus on rapid analysis of Coronavirus samples, while a long-term Merck and Wellcome Trust venture on vaccine research, policy and manufacturing will be based in Delhi.

India's Coronavirus tally crosses 2.16 lakhs

NEW DELHI, June 4: India's tally of coronavirus cases has cross 2.16 lakh after a record number of 9,304 people tested positive for the deadly virus infection in the last 24 hours. The total cases in the country stood at 2,16,919, including 6,075 deaths, Union Health Ministry data shows.

As India and other nations fight the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday that clinical trials of the drug hydroxychloroquine will resume as it searches for potential coronavirus treatments.

The WHO had said last month that it had temporarily suspended the trials to conduct a safety review, which has now concluded there is "no reason" to change the way the trials are conducted.

The country's recovery rate - number of patients who have successfully fought the illness - stood at 47.99 per cent this morning. 1,04,107 people have recovered, the Health Ministry said.

Maharashtra - the state with the highest number of COVID-19 cases in India - reported the highest single-day spike in coronavirus deaths on Wednesday with 122 fatalities, taking the total number of deaths in the state to 2,587. The total number of positive cases in the state now stands at 74,860. 2,560 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Maharashtra on Wednesday, of which 1,276 cases were reported in Mumbai.

Tamil Nadu, which has over 25,000 virus cases. Remains the state with the state with the second-highest number of cases. For the fourth straight day, the state reported over 1,000 cases.

National capital Delhi, which has 23,645 coronavirus cases, remains the state with the third-highest number of cases in the country. The Delhi government said on Wednesday that very person arriving in the city by train, bus or flight, will now have to undergo compulsory home quarantine for a week, changing its earlier rule where no quarantine was required.

Assam reported a single-day spike of 269 cases, with the state's total cases going up to 1,830. Over 90 per cent of patients in Assam are asymptomatic or without symptoms of the infection, state government sources said.

Even as Telangana crossed the 3,000-mark with 129 new patients and seven deaths in the last 24 hours, a big concern arising of hospitals turning into virus hotspots. 31 doctors and three lab technicians have reportedly tested positive in state-run hospitals.

India is currently the seventh among the 10 nations hit worst by the virus,
The United States - the worst-hit country - recorded 919 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 1,07,099, according to the latest real-time tally Wednesday reported by Johns Hopkins University.

Globally, 64,30,800 people have been infected with the highly contagious virus.

The novel coronavirus first surfaced in December in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

International solidarity needed on Covid vaccine to make 'everybody safe’

PARIS, June 3: The head of the global vaccine alliance has warned “nobody is safe unless everybody is safe” from the new coronavirus, urging international solidarity ahead of a fundraising summit as the pandemic threatens to trigger a resurgence of preventable diseases.

Scientists are racing to identify and test possible vaccines for Covid-19 as nations grapple with the economic and societal consequences of the virus lockdowns.

Seth Berkley of Gavi, the vaccine alliance, said the international community must ensure all countries will have access to any potential vaccines, regardless of their wealth.

“This is a global problem that needs a global solution and we have to all work together,” he said.

He spoke ahead of a virtual summit hosted by Britain on Thursday, where Gavi hopes to raise at least $7.4 billion to continue vaccination programmes against diseases like measles, polio and typhoid that have been severely disrupted by the pandemic.

The meeting will also see Gavi and its partners launch a financing drive to purchase potential Covid-19 vaccines, scale up their production, and support delivery to developing nations.

The fundraising goal for Covid-19 is $2 billion, although Berkley said it was an initial sum as they kickstart negotiations with manufacturers and could go up “substantially”.

The meeting comes as the pandemic exposes new ruptures in international cooperation.

US President Donald Trump last week announced he would pull out of the World Health Organization and there are fears America may use its economic clout to buy up vaccines.

Berkley said that countries needed a “different mindset”, adding that sharing access to drugs was not just a humanitarian and equality issue, but a global health security one.

“Nobody is safe unless everybody is safe. We saw the virus move from somewhere around Wuhan to 180 countries in less than three months, including islands and isolated areas,” he said.

The World Health Organization, UN children’s agency UNICEF and Gavi warned last month that the pandemic had hindered routine immunisation services in nearly 70 countries, affecting around 80 million children under the age of one.

Polio eradication drives were suspended in dozens of countries, including those still struggling with the debilitating illness, while measles vaccination campaigns were also put on hold in 27 countries, UNICEF said.

Recent Gavi-supported modelling from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical medicine estimated that for every Covid-19 death prevented by halting vaccination campaigns in Africa, up to 140 people could die from vaccine-preventable diseases.

Berkley said the situation was improving, with new guidance on how to carry out immunisation campaigns safely.

But he said locating all the children who missed out on vaccines before new outbreaks emerge will be a “real challenge”.

Thursday’s funding drive is for a five-year period in which the organisation aims to reboot halted programmes in the countries it supports -- allowing them to access vaccines at a much reduced cost -- with the goal of reaching some 300 million children.

Berkley said he was “cautiously optimistic” that the target would be reached, with more new countries pledging donations despite the economic strains of the pandemic.

Recalling past episodes when vaccine work was stalled by the outbreak of diseases such as Ebola and SARS, another coronavirus, he urged nations to move beyond “boom and bust” cycles of crisis planning.

“I don’t think this coronavirus is going to go away like SARS did,” he said.

He also warned of an “unprecedented” level of rumour and conspiracy theory around vaccinations, particularly from the northern hemisphere.

“Distrust between people in their government, the rumours and the intentional spread of false information is not only at an all time high, but it also is being amplified by social media tools that didn’t exist 20 years ago,” he said.

“So we have almost a perfect storm of problems.”

WHO says hydroxychloroquine’s coronavirus trials to resume

GENEVA, June 3: The World Health Organization announced Wednesday that clinical trials of the drug hydroxychloroquine will resume as it searches for potential coronavirus treatments.

On May 25, the WHO announced it had temporarily suspended the trials to conduct a safety review, which has now concluded there is “no reason” to change the way the trials are conducted.

The UN health agency’s decision came after a study published in The Lancet medical journal suggesting the drug could increase the risk of death among COVID-19 patients.

The executive group of the so-called Solidarity Trial -- in which hundreds of hospitals across the world have enrolled patients to test several possible treatments for the novel coronavirus -- took the decision as a precaution.

Hydroxychloroquine is normally used to treat arthritis but public figures including US President Donald Trump have backed the drug for COVID-19 prevention and treatment, prompting governments to bulk-buy.

“Last week, the executive group of the Solidarity Trial decided to implement a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm of the trial, because of concerns raised about the safety of the drug,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual news briefing.

“This decision was taken as a precaution while the safety data were reviewed.

“The data safety and monitoring committee of the Solidarity Trial has been reviewing the data.

“On the basis of the available mortality data, the members of the committee recommended that there are no reasons to modify the trial protocol.

“The executive group received this recommendation and endorsed continuation of all arms of the Solidarity Trial, including hydroxychloroquine.

“The executive group will communicate with the principal investigators in the trial about resuming the hydroxychloroquine arm of the trial.

“The data safety and monitoring committee will continue to closely monitor the safety of all therapeutics being tested in the Solidarity Trial.”

More than 3,500 patients have been recruited across 35 countries to take part in the trials.

India's Corona virus cases cross 200,000

NEW DELHI, June 2: India now has over 200,000 cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). It is now the seventh most affected country in the world. The only silver lining is that India’s fatality rate at less than 3% is among the lowest of the severely affected countries, which means that while the infection is spreading, it is not leading to as many deaths as elsewhere. While this is a health advantage India must sustain and build on, the situation is worrying.

India crossed 100,000 cases on May 18 and the doubling rate is about 15 days. If this persists, it means that by the middle of June, India may be close to 400,000 cases; by the first week of July, it could cross a million cases. This also means that if the current fatality rate stays static, India may witness close to 30,000 deaths from the disease by early July.
While this may be low in relation to other countries, it still represents a staggeringly high loss of precious Indian lives within a period of four months since the disease started spreading in India. Now, take into account the fact that through May, the lockdown was still in force, albeit with greater relaxations in the last fortnight of the month. The country has now substantially opened up, which, all experts agree, could lead to a sharp increase in cases.

This also means that India is clearly in the stage of community transmission, notwithstanding the government’s inexplicable denial of it. The surge in cases will make the process of contact tracing — integral to the treatment protocol and in ensuring that the rate of transmission is limited — far more difficult. It will also strain the health infrastructure.

There is no easy solution. But both governments and citizens need to be better prepared. Authorities, both at the central and state levels, will have to ramp up testing, be rigorous with tracing, find more hospitals and beds, and continue to focus on keeping fatalities low. Citizens will have to exercise great care when they step out, maintain social distancing norms, wear masks, and avoid all unnecessary activities. Remember that Unlock 1.0 is not freedom from the disease. Prepare for a difficult month ahead.

Russia to roll out its first approved Covid-19 drug next week

MOSCOW, June 1: Russia will start giving its first drug approved to treat Covid-19 to patients next week, its state financial backer told Reuters, a move it hopes will ease strains on the health system and speed a return to normal economic life.

Russian hospitals can begin giving the antiviral drug, which is registered under the name Avifavir, to patients from June 11, the head of Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund told Reuters in an interview. He said the company behind the drug would manufacture enough to treat around 60,000 people a month.

There is currently no vaccine for Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, and human trials of several existing antiviral drugs have yet to show efficacy.

A new antiviral drug from Gilead called remdesivir has shown some promise in small efficacy trials against Covid-19 and is being given to patients by some countries under compassionate or emergency use rules.

Avifavir, known generically as favipiravir, was first developed in the late 1990s by a Japanese company later bought by Fujifilm as it moved into healthcare.

RDIF head Kirill Dmitriev said Russian scientists had modified the drug to enhance it, and said Moscow would be ready to share the details of those modifications within two weeks.

Japan has been trialling the same drug, known there as Avigan. It has won plaudits from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and $128 million in government funding, but has yet to be approved for use.

Avifavir appeared on a Russian government list of approved drugs on Saturday.

Dmitriev said clinical trials of the drug had been conducted involving 330 people, and had shown that it successfully treated the virus in most cases within four days.

The trials were due to be concluded in around a week, he said, but the health ministry had given its approval for the drug’s use under a special accelerated process and manufacturing had begun in March.

Clinical trials to test efficacy drugs usually take many months, even when expedited, and involve large numbers of patients randomly assigned who receive either the drug being trialled or a control or placebo.

Success in small small-scale, early-stage trials is no guarantee of success in later, more comprehensive trials.

A study published this month, for example, tied the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, which U.S. President Donald Trump says he has been taking and has urged others to use, to an increased risk of death in hospitalised Covid-19 patients.

Dmitriev said Russia was able to cut testing timescales because the Japanese generic drug which Avifavir is based on was first registered in 2014 and had undergone significant testing before Russian specialists modified it.

“We believe this is a game changer. It will reduce strain on the healthcare system, we’ll have fewer people getting into a critical condition,” said Dmitriev. “We believe that the drug is key to resuming full economic activity in Russia.”

With 414,878 cases, Russia has the third highest number of infections in the world after Brazil and the United States, but has a relatively low official death toll of 4,855 - something that has been the focus of debate.

RDIF, which has a 50% share in the drug’s manufacturer ChemRar, funded the trials and other work with its partners, to the tune of around 300 million roubles ($4.3 million), said Dmitriev, who explained that the costs to Russia were much lower because of previous development work conducted in Japan.

India’s Covid-19 cases at 190,535, death toll reaches 5,394

NEW DELHI, June 1: As lockdown 4.0 ended on Sunday, State governments across the country rallied to open the economy under the 'Unlock 1'. In the latest released guidelines, state government relaxed restrictions and allowed various activities including inter-state travel and opening of restaurants and malls.

India became the world's seventh worst-hit country by the deadly coronavirus as it recorded its highest-ever jump in infections. Currently, India has 190,535 cases of coronavirus infections, out of which 5,394 people lost their lives, as per the health ministry data published on its site at 08:00 am.

Meanwhile, in Maharashtra which is among the worst affected state, the government allowed the resumption of film shooting with some restrictions in place.

Among the worst-hit countries, Brazil recorded 16,409 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, taking the final tally to 514,849, country's Health Ministry said on Sunday. Brazil's Covid-19 death toll increased by 408 in the past 24 hours and now stands at 29,314.