Officer on Special Duty in the Health Ministry Rajesh Bhushan said 21 states and Union Territories have case positivity rate less than 10 per cent, while in four it is less than five per cent.
As India suffers and the ruling party is on the defensive, the truth is that the only way that this wave will pass is if exponential growth of the virus stops on its own, asserts Aakar Patel.
Weeks after the second wave peaked in many parts of the country, we are rapidly forgetting what happened to our hospitals, cautions Mihir S Sharma.
'The social distancing vaccine.' 'And the mask vaccine.' 'If you adhere to these two vaccines and go and meet people in a well-ventilated room -- not in an enclosed, non-ventilated, room -- you are probably going to be okay.'
Interacting with state chief ministers, Modi underscored the enormity of what he described as the world's biggest vaccination exercise, which begins from January 16, saying over 30 crore citizens will get the jabs in the next few months in India against only 2.5 crore people vaccinated so far in over 50 countries in around a month.
The local organizing committee for the upcoming Olympics in Rio de Janeiro said on Tuesday not a single case of Zika infection has been reported among 17,000 athletes, volunteers and staff during test events in the run-up to the games. As concern over the outbreak grows among the 500,000 visitors expected for the Olympics, the committee's chief medical officer said cooler temperatures, which are less propitious for mosquitos, had already led to a decrease in the number of Zika infections in recent months. U.S. health officials have concluded that Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies.
The four-month event has been hit by several high-profile runner cancellations as celebrities have pulled out, citing late notice and worries about drawing crowds during the pandemic.
Delhi recorded 954 cases on Monday, according to a health department bulletin. The bulletin said the number of tests conducted too was the lowest in July.
'What accounts for the huge difference in death tolls between the most advanced countries and the relatively poorer countries?' mulls Virendra Kapoor.
Acknowledging that while Singh understands the importance of vaccination as an important method of fighting the COVID-19 battle, Vardhan said in his letter that "irresponsible" public pronouncements made by some Congress leaders have resulted in a below national average vaccination coverage of senior citizens and even front-line workers in some of the Congress-ruled states.
'Most important were the breathing exercises -- whatever way you like.' 'Pranayam or just deep breathing...' 'Breathing is very, very, very, very, very, very important.'
'A proposal to do away with labour laws is not feasible.' 'That's why we wanted to have a dialogue with the states.'
"Those who ruled for decades since Independence believed Dispur was too distant from Delhi. 'Dilli ab door nahi aapke darwaaze par hai' (Delhi is not far now, it stands at your doorstep," he told a massive gathering.
According to SOP, those testing positive will be isolated in a separate unit of an institutional facility.
Play at the Australian Open continued amid the lockdown, but fans were banned through Wednesday. Thousands were forced to leave mid-matches before midnight on Friday.
'What proportion of the people require the vaccine for us to manage this entire COVID-19 situation?'
On this day 167 years ago, the wheels of the first passenger train in the country from Mumbai to Thane started rolling.
'The government lights lamps for nurses but when we demand what's due for us, they don't listen at all.'
'The question is really can we prevent half a million deaths.' 'We are fast approaching that number.'
IndusInd Bank was the top laggard in the Sensex pack, cracking around 10 per cent, followed by HDFC, Maruti Suzuki, Axis Bank and UltraTech Cement. On the other hand, TCS, Infosys, ITC and HCL Tech closed with gains. NSE Nifty plunged 313.60 points or 3.43 per cent to 8,823.25.
We knew from the moment the pandemic took hold that this would be a long haul -- at least 12 to 18 months. Nothing should have changed that assessment, says Mihir S Sharma.
India has purchased 500 million doses of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine candidate, one billion from the United States company Novavax and 100 million doses of the Sputnik V candidate from Russia's Gamaleya Research Institute, according to the US-based Duke University Global Health Innovation Center.
Ushering in a new era of movie watching, the Union government allowed multiplexes, cinema halls and theatres to reopen from Thursday within the framework of a set of standard operating procedures.
'People who have already got diabetes or heart disease or high blood pressure seem to be more badly affected by the disease.'
Meet Lysinbacillus telephonicus, Microbacterium telephonicum, Pyrenochaeta telephoni.
'When the virus, in a way, tires itself out, because it is not finding any more people to attack or keep itself viable, that is when the peak actually has been reached and you are on the downward limb (of the curve).'
Clashes were reported from Kharagpur in West Midnapore district, Narayanpur in North 24 Parganas, and Alipurduar town in north Bengal, among others.
Although China still faces the threat of new outbreaks due to local community transmissions or from imported cases, the country's capability to contain the COVID-19 has been honed, thanks to its experience in battling the virus for months.
'As people have moved from cities to small towns and villages, they have carried the infection into new territories.' 'Poor healthcare infrastructure in these places should be a big worry in the days to come.'
An astrologer told Ramesh Menon that he was increasingly having worried parents asking him about the future of their children who were showing serious behavioural changes like lack of tolerance towards others, shunning social interaction, and even violent behaviour. They were worried because they had never ever seen such traits in their children before the pandemic.
The researchers, working in an 'unprecedented' vaccine development effort to prevent COVID-19, said they have started screening healthy volunteers (aged 18-55) from Friday for their upcoming trial in the Thames Valley Region of England.
Modi said the biggest challenge would be to ensure that the disease does not spread to villages across the country after relaxations provided by the government.
Adversarial Harmful Networks -- India Case Study, cited in Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen's SEC complaints, revealed, among other things, that Facebook was a preferred platform for 'fear-mongering anti-Muslim narratives' in India, observes Devangshu Datta.
The people on the front lines of fighting the Ebola epidemic are Time Magazine's Person of the Year.
The manner in which a large proportion of common people have mortgaged their rationality and questioning spirit to let hatred, prejudice, and bigotry take over their minds is a cause of worry, observes Mohammad Sajjad.
The 93-year-old British monarch and Head of the 54-member Commonwealth of nations which includes India, acknowledged the grief, pain and financial difficulties being faced the world over during this "time of disruption" and expressed the hope that the whole world was uniting in a 'common endeavour'.
India is currently under the 21-day lockdown since March 25, with only essential services exempted to contain the fast-spreading virus.
Around 52.46 per cent of the patients have recovered, the health ministry said. The number of active cases stood at 1,53,178 while 1,80,012 patients have recovered, it said in the daily COVID-19 update.
Describing the surge of COVID-19 infections and deaths in India as 'nothing short of heartbreaking', Vice President Kamala Harris said on Friday that India's welfare is critically important to the US.
Cautioning that there will be social and psychological consequences for the rest of the country too, Guha said the migrant tragedy could have been averted or at least minimised if Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given them a week's notice to return home before the lockdown kicked in.
