India's COVID-19 curve has been steadily rising throughout the lockdown period with a massive spike in cases in the fourth phase of the lockdown that ended on May 31 and afterwards.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,48,93,410 and the case fatality rate has increased to 1.16 per cent
Here's a glimpse of all that happened around the world last week, in 10 images.
"As of now, there is no data from any country to suggest these new subvariants are more clinically severe," Chief scientist at WHO clarified.
India has so far reported nine cases of monkeypox, including one death.
The move is aimed at dealing with any possible emergency situation on account of a spurt in coronavirus cases.
Amid rising cases of Covid, the Centre on Friday asked eight states including Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra to maintain a strict watch and take pre-emptive action in any area of concern to control any emerging spread of infection.
'When one was with Mother, one realised you were with somebody who was the nearest person to God.' 'She must have been God incarnate.'
Maggie is among the first set of people contacted in advance by the NHS for the jab based on a pre-determined health risk criteria and will include 87-year-old British Indian grandfather of nine Hari Shukla, who will get his first dose at a hospital in Newcastle.
The World Health Organisation team's visit has become a bone of contention as Beijing, which questions the widely-held view about the virus' origins in Wuhan, had delayed granting permission to it.
'These number surges will be the outcome of emerging virus variants, loss of vaccine- or infection-acquired protective immunity in people, and environmental factors'
The World Health Organisation said in its latest update that the XE recombinant (BA.1-BA.2) was first detected in the UK on January 19 and more than 600 sequences have been reported and confirmed since then.
In another 2-3 weeks, coronavirus will chariot India to overtake the United States. In March, Modi had exhorted the nation to celebrate India's impending success over the virus by clanging metal plates. Make no mistake, India is losing this momentous war under his captaincy, notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
In a tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India is deeply honoured to be a 'long-trusted' partner in meeting the healthcare needs of the global community and that supplies of the vaccines to several countries will commence on Wednesday, and more will follow in the days ahead.
Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com reveals how the BMC has contained the spread of COVID-19 in Dharavi, India's largest slum, which WHO wants to know more about.
A new analysis of genetic samples collected from a seafood market in central China's Wuhan city shows the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in raccoon dogs sold at the venue, strengthening the case for the natural origin of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a team of international experts.
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said in its latest Yellow Card monitoring of the coronavirus vaccine programme this week that of the 18.1 million people who had the Oxford vaccine in the UK, 30 people developed blood clots and seven had died as of March 24.
The Oxford vaccine, which also has a tie-up with the Serum Institute of India, was first administered to Brian Pinker, an 82-year-old Oxford-born dialysis patient. Pinker is among the first to be vaccinated by the Oxford University Hospital's (OUH) chief nurse, hailed as a major milestone in the phased vaccination programme being undertaken by the National Health Service (NHS).
As countries around the world are in lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, street artists everywhere are responding, bringing a dose of colour -- and urgent messaging -- to a weary public.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.11 per cent while the weekly positivity was pegged at 0.16 per cent, the ministry said.
Australia's medicines and medical devices regulator on Monday formally recognised India's Covaxin, a vaccine against the coronavirus as the country's border was reopened for the first time in nearly 20 months.
Thirty districts in the country, including 13 in Kerala, eight in Mizoram, four in Meghalaya, three each in Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, two in Sikkim and one in Meghalaya are reporting a weekly positivity rate of over 10 per cent.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday asked the public not to panic about COVID-19, but be alert and follow the directives issued by the government from time to time.
It underlined that anyone can catch the virus if they have had prolonged or repeated contact with an infected individual.
'The government should act proactively to instil confidence in the private investors, and also boost the purchasing power of people directly or indirectly by ensuring minimum wages.'
A dipstick survey covering 30 villages in Rajasthan threw up some worrisome numbers. About 250 children missed their regular vaccination schedule in March alone. These numbers are alarming, since India has around 600,000 villages according to the 2011 census. Sohini Das reports.
Israel and Bhutan, however small, illustrate what governments can do, and the mountains they can move, if they really care for their citizens.
Doggedly persisting with its much-criticised zero-Covid policy, China has slipped deeper into the coronavirus quagmire as it reported a record 31,444 infections on Thursday with many of its cities, including Beijing, resorting to community lockdowns to stem the virus amid worsening wintery weather.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind president Maulana Arshad Madani urged Muslims to offer prayers, including special 'Taraweeh' prayers, during Ramzan at home rather than in mosques.
'There is no emergency of a third wave that we are rushing for booster doses.'
The March 2020 lockdown did not stop the spread of infection (as it triggered a huge reverse migration from cities), but it did help to flatten the curve and gave time to scale up health infrastructure.
Dr Fauci said that India needs to immediately build makeshift field hospitals like what China did a year ago.
Never mind work-life balance: this generation spends more time on the job than ever before.
During a virtual meeting with health ministers and senior officials of states in view of the recent surge in coronavirus cases in some parts of the world, he said, "The Centre and states need to work in tandem and in a collaborative spirit as was done during the previous surges for Covid prevention and management."
The WHOS has long held that the coronavirus is spread primarily by large respiratory droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
Continuing with the trend of the last nine days, India has reported more daily recoveries than daily new cases in a span of 24 hours.
Bayannur, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, announced a level III warning of plague prevention and control, state-run People's Daily Online reported. The suspected bubonic plague case was reported on Saturday by a hospital in Bayannur.
, tells Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar, "The strategy of containment is important."
Amid an uptick in daily cases of COVID-19 in Delhi and the positivity rate going beyond two per cent, there has been a rise of nearly 48 per cent in the number of home isolation cases in the last one week, according to official data.
