Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday said she would not attend the last rites of former President A P J Abdul Kalam in Rameswaram owing to her health condition and has deputed seven cabinet colleagues to represent her and the state government at the funeral.
A record 3,689 daily Covid-19 fatalities pushed India's death toll to 2,15,542, while the infection count reached to 1,95,57,457 with 3,92,488 more people being confirmed positive for the disease, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday.
There has been a spike of 1,813 cases since Tuesday evening. The number of active COVID-19 cases stand at 22,982, while 7,796 people have recovered, and one patient has migrated, the health ministry said.
The death toll from the pandemic climbed to 4,52,811 with the addition of 160 fatalities, showed the data updated at 8 am.
Maharashtra recorded the maximum number of 653 Omicron cases followed by Delhi at 464, Kerala 185, Rajasthan 174, Gujarat 154 and Tamil Nadu 121 cases.
Recording over 20,000 coronavirus infections for the third consecutive day, India is set to overtake Russia's tally. According to the Johns Hopkins University, which has been compiling COVID-19 data from all over the world, India is behind Russia with 399 cases.
Ten states including Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Kerala and Punjab have shown a steep rise in the daily COVID-19 cases accounting for 84.21 per cent of the 1,26,789 new infections, the health ministry said on Thursday.
Of the 1,431 patients infected with the Omicron variant of the virus so far, 374 have either recuperated or migrated, according to the ministry's data updated at 8 am.
The study, published in the journal Science on Wednesday, assessed the disease transmission patterns in 5,75,071 individuals exposed to 84,965 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the two states based on data collected by tens of thousands of contact tracers.
A record single-day rise of 3,46,786 coronavirus cases pushed India's tally of infection to 1,66,10,481, while active cases crossed the 25-lakh mark, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Saturday.
They said the picture did not feature any 'life support system like a ventilator' and it was reassuring that their Thalaivar (leader) was recuperating well.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam President M Karunanidhi has urged the Tamil Nadu government to "put an end to rumours" regarding the health of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo and Chief Minister Jayalalithaa by providing proper information to the people, while wishing his arch rival a speedy recovery.
Rao's history includes arrests in 2000 by Sahadha police of Nandurbar district and subsequent releases, as well as an underground stint in 2002, leading to his arrest by Malkanoor PS police of Karnataka in 2005.
Maharashtra has reported the highest daily rise of 40,414 COVID-19 cases, followed by 3,082 in Karnataka, 2,870 in Punjab, 2,276 in Madhya Pradesh, 2,270 in Gujarat, 2,216 in Kerala, 2,194 in Tamil Nadu and 2,153 in Chhattisgarh, the ministry said.
Of the 1,075 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 432 fatalities, followed by Gujarat at 197, Madhya Pradesh at 130, Delhi at 56, Rajasthan at 51, Uttar Pradesh at 39 and Andhra Pradesh at 31.
The WHO on Tuesday issued a product alert over contaminated syrup by an Indian manufacturer, warning that it is unsafe for use, especially in children, and may result in serious injury or death.
According to sources, the filters were applied on Saturday night soon after the poll schedule was announced.
India on Sunday recorded 93,249 new coronavirus infections, the highest single-day rise so far this year, which took the total COVID-19 cases to 1,24,85,509, according to Union health ministry data.
Under its impact, rains will start on Sunday night and gradually increase on Monday in the northern districts of Chennai, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram, S Balachandran, Director, Area Cyclone Warning Centre, said.
The number of fresh cases of the coronavirus infection has been recorded below 15,000 for the last 47 days now.
A 29-year-old NRI who recently came to Vadodara in Gujarat from South Africa has been found infected with the BA.5 sub-variant of the highly-transmittable Omicron variant of coronavirus, a health official said on Tuesday.
A total of 74,32,829 people have recuperated from COVID-19 so far, taking the national recovery rate to 91.34 per cent. The case fatality rate has dropped to 1.49 per cent.
The active cases have further declined to 4,85,350 and comprise 1.59 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 97.09 per cent, the ministry said.
A total of 75,44,798 people have recuperated from COVID-19 so far, taking the national recovery rate to 91.68 per cent, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.49 per cent.
Eight new cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus were reported in Maharashtra -- seven of them in Mumbai -- and none of the patients had a history of international travel, the state health department said on Tuesday.
India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23 and 40 lakh on September 5. It went past 50 lakh on September 16, 60 lakh on September 28 and crossed 70 lakh on October 11.
A total of 1,525 cases of Omicron variant of coronavirus have been detected across 23 states and Union Territories so far, out of which 560 have recovered or migrated, according to the Union health ministry's data updated on Sunday.
The country's COVID-19 caseload mounted to 79,90,322 with 43,893 fresh cases being reported in a day, while the death toll climbed to 1,20,010 with 508 new fatalities, the ministry data updated at 8 am showed.
Total tally rises to 1,38,845; death toll climbs to 4,021
As per the Indian Council of Medical Research the number of samples tested for COVID-19 has crossed the 10-crore mark in the country.
India reported the lowest daily new coronavirus infections in 50 days with 1,52,734 cases, taking the tally to 2,80,47,534 on Monday, while the active caseload declined to 20,26,092, the health ministry said.
Maharashtra is the worst affected state with 59,546 cases.
As many as 67,95,103 people have recuperated from the disease so far pushing the national recovery rate to 88.81 per cent while the case fatality rate due COVID-19 has dropped to 1.51 per cent.
The cross-country foot march stayed in the news almost right through, mostly for the barbs between the BJP and the Congress and occasionally for other reasons, including infighting in the opposition party.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin's Cabinet, including him, would be 34-member strong and he has retained senior leaders like Duraimurugan and over a dozen shall be ministers for the first time.
For the second day in a row, the number of active COVID-19 cases remained below 9 lakh.
'They made so many toppers in NEET that automatically the paper leak issue got exposed.' 'The first mistake they did was announcing 67 toppers in NEET. No way this figure was possible.' 'The maximum numbers of toppers that you can have are two or three at best every year.'
O Paneerselvam did not even sit in Jayalalithaa's office chamber and left her seat vacant in the assembly. This time Amma is not coming back and he has a large number of challenges awaiting him.
With 39,297 cases in total, Maharashtra remains the worst affected state in the country, followed by Tamil Nadu (13,191 cases), Gujarat (12,537 cases), and Delhi (11,088 cases).