Coronavirus in India Updates: DGCI grants EUA for single dose Sputnik Light

Tamil Nadu continued to witness a decline in daily Covid-19 cases as 6,120 new infections were reported in the last 24 hours, pushing the aggregate to 34,10,882, the health department said on Sunday.

1151 new positive cases have been reported, 511 from Jammu Division and 640 from Kashmir Division. 09 Covid deaths have been reported, 05 from Jammu Division and 04 from Kashmir Division. 4393 COVID-19 patients recovered, 1378 from Jammu Division and 3015 from Kashmir Division.

Kerala has reported 26,729 new COVID-19 cases with 49,261 recoveries and 22 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Delhi has reported 1,410 new COVID cases with 2,506 recoveries and 14 fatalities in the last 24 hours.

Andhra Pradesh added 2,690 new cases to its Covid-19 tally, taking it to 23,03,455 on Sunday. In 24 hours ending 9 am on Sunday, 11,855 infected people got cured, making it a total of 22,19,219 so far, according to the latest bulletin.

Nine more deaths pushed the overall toll up to 14,664. The number of active cases came down to 69,572, the bulletin added.

Arunachal Pradesh recorded 106 new COVID-19 cases, pushing the tally to 63,421, a senior health official said on Sunday. The frontier state currently has 1,800 active COVID-19 cases.

As many as 61,330 people have recuperated from the disease so far, State Surveillance Officer (SSO) Dr Lobsang Jampa said.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands logged 13 new COVID-19 cases, three less than the previous day, pushing the total caseload to 9,896, a health department official said on Sunday. Of the 13 new cases, 12 were detected during contact tracing and one during testing at the airport, he said.

The union territory now has 214 active COVID-19 cases, while 9,553 patients have recovered from the disease so far, the official said. The COVID-19 death toll remained unchanged at 129 as no fresh fatality was recorded in the last 24 hours.

Ladakh’s COVID-19 caseload increased to 26,821 on Sunday as 111 more people tested positive for the viral disease, officials said. The death toll remained unchanged at 226.

Bihar school reopening: Bihar government on February 6 has announced that Bihar schools can reopen for offline classes from tomorrow, February 7. Nitish Kumar led government has decided that classes up to 8th will be allowed to reopen with 50 percent capacity. Whereas, for classes 9 and above, schools will be allowed to reopen with 100 percent capacity. Colleges and coaching institutes have also got permission for reopening. Along with this many other announcements easing Bihar COVID lockdown have been made. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar took to Twitter to make the announcement. 

"In view of the improvement in the situation of corona infection, all schools up to class 8th will be able to open with 50 percent capacity and all schools and colleges and coaching institutes belonging to classes 9th and above will be able to open with 100 percent attendance," CM Nitish Kumar tweeted.

Leaving a nation devastated, legendary Bollywood singer Lata Mangeshkar passed away at Mumbai's Breach Candy Hospital on Sunday. Mangeshkar (92) was undergoing treatment for COVID-19 for the past three weeks. The news was confirmed by her sister Usha Mangeshkar. The Bharat Ratna awardee was put on a ventilator on Saturday morning after her health turned critical. Mangeshkar tested positive for COVID-19 and was hospitalised on January 11.

"It is with profound grief that we announce the sad demise of Lata Mangeshkar at 8:12 AM. She has died because of multi-organ failure after more than 28 days of hospitalisation post-COVID19," said Dr Pratit Samdani, who was treating her at Mumbai's Breach Candy Hospital. Her body is to be taken to Shivaji Park for people to pay homage. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari was one of the last persons to see the veteran singer on Sunday morning.

 Jharkhand's COVID-19 tally rose to 4,31,252 on Sunday as 449 more people tested positive for the infection, while two fresh fatalities pushed the state's coronavirus death toll to 5,310, a health bulletin said.

East Singhbhum district, under which industrial city Jamshedpur falls, registered the highest number of new cases at 187, followed by 90 in state capital Ranchi. The fresh fatalities were recorded in Seraikela-Kharsawan and Hazaribag districts.

The state now has 2,787 active cases, while 4,23,155 people have recovered from the disease so far, including 715 in the last 24 hours.

The administration has tested 56,625 samples for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, it added. 

Odisha recorded 23 more COVID-19 deaths on Sunday, while the infections were the lowest in a month as 2,106 people tested positive, the Health Department said.

The daily positivity rate dropped to 3.48 per cent as 60,483 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, a bulletin stated.

Of the 23 COVID-19 deaths, Khurda district reported nine. The state had logged 2,603 COVID-19 cases and 21 deaths on Friday.

Khurda district of which the state capital Bhubaneswar is a part, reported the highest number of cases with 429 infections, while 324 children were among those newly infected in the state.

The toll mounted to 8,734 and these are confirmed as deaths to the disease after an audit. Fifty-three other COVID-19 patients have died due to comorbidities so far, according to data.

Odisha currently has 23,672 active COVID-19 cases, including 5,245 in Khurda, which is in the red zone. Sundargarh and Cuttack are among the four districts that are in the yellow zone with over 1,000 cases.

India added 1,07,474 new coronavirus cases, taking the total tally of COVID-19 infections to 4,21,88,138, while the active cases further declined to 12,25,011, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday.

The death toll climbed to 5,01,979 with 865 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.

The active cases comprise 2.90 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 95.91 per cent, the ministry said.

A reduction of 1,06,637 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 7.42 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 10.20 per cent, according to the ministry.

A total of 5,01,979 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,43,008 from Maharashtra, 57,740  from Kerala, 39,300 from Karnataka, 37,733 from Tamil Nadu, 25,969 from Delhi, 23,303 from Uttar Pradesh and 20,789 from  West Bengal.

Puducherry witnessed a slide in the number of daily COVID-19 cases with 279 fresh infections reported on Sunday taking the total caseload in the Union Territory to 1,64,186.

On Saturday, the UT had registered 344 coronavirus cases.

In a press release, Director of Health G Sriramulu said the 279 new cases were identified at the end of the examination of 2,292 samples during the last 24 hours ending at 10 am on Sunday These cases were spread across Puducherry (192), Karaikal (68), Yanam (14) and Mahe (five), he said.

There are 4,152 active cases in the UT with 96 patients admitted in hospitals taking treatment while the remaining 4,056 patients are recovering in home isolation.

A 51-year-old man from Puducherry succumbed to COVID-19 infection raising the overall death toll to 1,948.

"The Union Government is committed to accelerating the pace and expanding the scope of COVID-19 vaccination throughout the country. The nationwide COVID 19 vaccination started on 16th January 2021. The new phase of universalization of COVID-19 vaccination commenced on 21st June 2021. The vaccination drive has been ramped up through the availability of more vaccines, advanced visibility of vaccine availability to States and UTs for enabling better planning by them, and streamlining the vaccine supply chain.

As part of the nationwide vaccination drive, the Government of India has been supporting the States and UTs by providing them COVID Vaccines free of cost. In the new phase of the universalization of the COVID19 vaccination drive, the Union Government will procure and supply (free of cost) 75% of the vaccines being produced by the vaccine manufacturers in the country to States and UTs."

 Tamil Nadu has inoculated 90.78 per cent of people above the age of 18 with the first dose of vaccine against Covid-19 by administering the vaccine to 1,86,785 people. At the 21st mega vaccination camp held on Saturday, the State Minister for Medical and Family Welfare Ma Subramanian said as much as 70.02 per cent received the second dose with 5,77,397 people getting the jab. He inspected the vaccination at the Government Omandurar Medical College and Hospital in the city.

During the camp, a precautionary booster dose was administered to 27,707 people totalling 7,91,889 beneficiaries who included those who received the first and second dose, said a press release.

The vaccination drive was conducted in government hospitals, primary health care centres, Anganwadi centres, schools and other locations.

In the 20 mega vaccination camp, 3.57 crore people benefitted from it, the release said.

Schools reopening update: Monitoring the decline in COVID cases, the Gujarat government has decided to reopen schools for offline classes. It has been decided that Gujarat schools will be reopened for Classes 1 to 9 from February 7, 2022. This will be applicable to all the government, private, and grant-in-aid schools. However, students must know that the online classes will also continue. Therefore, they will be provided with an option of choosing between online and offline education.

To be noted that offline classes had been suspended for these classes after witnessing the surge in COVID cases in December 2021. Offline classes will be run in accordance with the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) issued by the government earlier, the circular said. Education Minister Jitu Vaghani said in a tweet that the decision was taken after the issue was discussed with Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and at the state's core committee amid declining new coronavirus cases.

West Bengal logs 1,345 new COVID-19 cases, 31 more deaths on Saturday

Delhi records 1,604 COVID-19 cases on Saturday, 17 fatalities; positivity rate declines to 2.87 per cent: Authorities

Telangana logs 2,098 new COVID-19 cases, 2 deaths on Saturday.

India’s COVID-19 vaccination coverage has crossed 169 Crore (1,69,40,55,710) today. More than 40lakh (40,57,946) Vaccine Doseshave has been administered till 7 pm today. More than 1.46 Crore (1,46,98,311) Precaution Doses for the identified categories of beneficiaries (HCWs, FLWs and Over 60 years) for COVID vaccination have been administered so far.