Covid19 Latest Updates: 40% of India's population to develop antibodies, estimate researchers

In the last 24 hours, the country saw the largest spike in coronavirus cases with over 2 lakh new reported cases. Vaccination in India is also taking place at a fast pace. Amidst all this, a new mutant of the virus has become everyone's concern. To know about it click here!

Scientists now report that wearing two face coverings can nearly double the effectiveness of filtering out SARS-CoV-2-sized particles, preventing them from reaching the wearer's nose and mouth and causing Covid-19. The reason for the enhanced filtration isn't so much adding layers of cloth but eliminating any gaps or poor-fitting areas of a mask, according to the study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

A team of US scientists, led by an Indian-origin researcher, has identified a set of human genes that fight SARS-CoV-2 infection, the virus that causes Covid-19. According to Sumit K. Chanda, professor and director of the Immunity and Pathogenesis Programme at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, the scientists have gained new insights into how the virus exploits the human cells it invades.

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According to the Health Ministry data released on Saturday, a total of 1,23,354 patients recovered in the same time span, taking the number of recoveries to 1,26,71,220, with a recovery rate of 87.23 per cent. The Health Ministry said that a total of 14,95,397 samples were tested in the last 24 hours.

India has reported 2,34,692 fresh Covid cases in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day spike ever, pushing the country's overall Covid tally to 1,45,26,609, according to the Health Ministry data released on Saturday. This is the third consecutive day that the country has registered over 2 lakh Covid cases. India recorded 2,00,739 and 2,17,353 cases on Thursday and Friday respectively. 

Meanwhile, as many as 1,341 people died of Covid in the last 24 hours, taking the country's death toll to 1,75,649 so far. The daily active cases tally on Friday rose to 16,79,740.

The number of new COVID-19 cases per week worldwide has nearly doubled over the past two months, approaching the highest infection rate seen so far during the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. Cases and deaths are continuing to increase at worrying rates, and some countries that had previously avoided widespread transmission are now seeing steep increases in infections, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a special ministerial meeting.

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A research by Credit Suisse estimates that the faster the second wave rises, the faster it should fall. The analysis notes that the area under the curve matters, as the infection fatality rate is still 0.05 per cent against an all-cause mortality rate of 0.7 per cent. Click here to read full story