Top 10 Covid-19 updates: Health minister says vaccine likely by early 2021, India’s tally 47.5 lakh
A look at the biggest developments of the day.
- India’s coronavirus tally reached 47,54,356 on Sunday, after the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare reported a rise of 94,372 cases in 24 hours. The toll rose by 1,114 to 78,586. India now has 9,73,175 active cases, while 37,02,595 people have recovered. India’s recovery rate is currently 77.88%, while the mortality rate is 1.65%.
- Minister of Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan said that India may get a vaccine against the coronavirus in the first quarter of 2021 and that he will take the first dose to dispel doubts about its safety.
- Former Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh died of the coronavirus. He was 74. Singh was being treated for complications from the coronavirus in an intensive care unit of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi. His condition became serious on Saturday, following which he was put on a ventilator.
- Karnataka reported its biggest one-day rise of 9,894 cases, taking its tally to 4,59,445. The state’s toll rose by 104 to 7,265. Uttarakhand also reported a record 1,637 cases, which pushed its tally to 31,973. The state’s toll rose by 12 to 414.
- Union Home Minister Amit Shah was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi again for a complete medical checkup before the Parliament session. Shah had tested positive for the coronavirus last month.
- The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare released a new advisory for patients recovering from the coronavirus. The government advised them to look for signs like a drop in oxygen level or unexplained chest pain. It added that recovered patients may continue to report symptoms such as fatigue, body ache, cough, sore throat and difficulty in breathing.
- The Delhi government directed 33 major private hospitals in the city to reserve 80% of their intensive care unit beds for coronavirus patients. The Capital is witnessing a surge in coronavirus cases.
- A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that face masks may accidentally be giving people immunity against the coronavirus. Experts said that masks could serve as a form of inoculation and slow the spread of the virus as the world waits for a vaccine.
- Scientists, including those in the United States, have produced images of the novel coronavirus infecting lab-grown respiratory cells, revealing the number of virus particles produced and released per cell inside the lungs. The images have also been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
- Globally, the coronavirus has infected more than 2.88 crore people and killed over 9.21 lakh others, according to the Johns Hopkins University. The number of recoveries has reached 1,94,93,117.