COVID Update: Several states showing signs of plateauing of new coronavirus cases- MOHFW

Amid the rising cases of coronavirus pandemic, Maharashtra recorded as many as 42,582 COVID-19 cases on Thursday, taking the total tally of infections in the state to 52,69,292. As many as 850 deaths were reported in the state today, taking the total tally of fatalities to 78,857 in Maharashtra. As many as 54,535 patients were discharged from hospitals, taking the number of recovered patients to 46,54,731. The number of active cases stands at 5,33,294.

When will COVID-19 vaccines be widely available globally? Experts say it could be 2023 or later before the shots are widely available in some countries. The United States, Israel and the United Kingdom are among the nations where about half or more of the population has gotten at least one shot. In some countries, including South Africa, Pakistan and Venezuela, less than 1 per cent of people have been vaccinated.

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Amid a shortage of vaccines in the national capital, the Delhi government in Thursday decided to allow walk-ins COVID-19 vaccination for people aged 45 years and above, and shift vaccination centres from hospitals to schools for this age group.

The decision was taken after Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia chaired a review meeting on the ongoing vaccination drive in the city.

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Delhi recorded as many as 10,489 fresh coronavirus cases on Thursday. With this, the tally of COVID-19 cases in the national capital has reached 13,72,475, while the death toll mounted to 20,618. As many as 308 fatalities have been recorded in the last 24 hours, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department.

According to a health bulletin issued by the Delhi government, 73,675 COVID-19 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours.

The Centre on Thursday said that the gap between two doses of Covishield Covid vaccine can be increased from 12-16 weeks. The decision to extend between the first and second dose was taken on the recommendation of COVID Working Group chaired by Dr NK Arora.

The present gap between the two doses of Covishield vaccine is 6-8 weeks. There is no change in interval of Covaxin vaccine, manufactured by Bharat Biotech, doses.

Lav Agarwal, Union Health Ministry, Joint Secretary said 187 districts have shown continued decline in COVID cases since last 2 weeks. As for the vaccine drive, 17.72 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered till now.

Addressing the media, Health Ministry informs that trend of new coronavirus cases in the country is showing plateauing. "12 states have more than 1 lakh active cases while 8 states have over 50,000 cases," the ministry said.

WATCH LIVE | Health Ministry addresses the media on the present COVID situation.

The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has converted 288 of its passenger coaches into Covid care isolation wards and is also equipping the existing six railway hospitals with oxygen plants, NFR General Manager Anshul Gupta said on Thursday. Gupta said that to meet the Covid needs of different states, after modifying the 288 passenger coaches as Covid care isolation coaches with 4,608 beds, those were handed over to the northeastern state governments.

The NFR, one among the 17 railway zones in India, operates fully and partially in six of the eight northeastern states, excluding Meghalaya and Sikkim, and in seven districts of West Bengal and five districts of north Bihar. While addressing the media virtually from NFR headquarters in Maligaon, near Guwahati, Gupta said that the NFR has provided facilities for treatment of Covid positive patients in six of its railway hospitals with a total of 354 beds.

-- IANS

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The National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) has recommended increasing the gap between two doses of Covishield vaccine to 12-16 weeks, sources said on Thursday, according to news agency PTI. It has also suggested that pregnant women may be offered the choice to take any COVID-19 vaccine and that lactating women can be inoculated any time after delivery.

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India recorded 362,727 new Covid-19 infections and 4,120 deaths on Thursday, taking the caseload tally to 23,703,665, according to Health ministry website. With this, the total cases of COVID-19 in India have now mounted to 23,703,665. According to the data shared by the Union Health Ministry, the country saw a total of 3,52,181 discharges in the last 24 hours, taking the total recovery to 1,97,34,823.

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The overall global Covid-19 caseload has topped 159.3 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 3.32 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University. In its latest update on Thursday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 160,063,260 and 3,326,378, respectively.

The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 32,813,531 and 583,647, respectively, according to the CSSE.

In terms of infections, India follows in the second place with 23,340,938 cases.

The other worst countries with over 3 million cases are Brazil (15,359,397), France (5,882,882), Turkey (5,072,462), Russia (4,849,044), the UK (4,457,742), Italy (4,131,078), Spain (3,592,751), Germany (3,564,494), Argentina (3,215,572) and Colombia (3,048,719), the CSSE figures showed.

In terms of deaths, Brazil comes second with 428,034 fatalities.

Nations with a death toll of over 100,000 are India (254,197), Mexico (219,089), the UK (127,901), Italy (128,544), Russia (112,410) and France (107,280).

-- IANS