Coronavirus News Highlights: SII’s Adar Poonawalla to meet Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya …

Coronavirus Third Wave India Highlights, Coronavirus Statistics India August 5 Highlights: As R-factor hovers around 1 in some states, India registered a marginal increase in the daily caseload on Thursday.

While the easing of lockdowns etc has helped the Indian economy to revive, the nation must get the clear answer from the haunting of the second wave – how many Indians died during the harrowing months of April and May this year? As an Indian Express report says that the Centre has already given the answer – 1.69 lakh.

The states have been quietly revising the numbers in the process known as reconciling the Covid death data.

One of the key figures that may help is in understanding the difference between the official death count and the under-reported deaths are ‘all cause deaths’.

The gap between all cause deaths and the registered Covid deaths is the only way to know the scale of under-reporting.

Over 86,000 Covid vaccine doses were administered in Delhi the previous day, according to the city government’s vaccination bulletin issued on Thursday.

The cumulative number of doses administered in the city so far has reached 1,03,81,616 — 75,79.305 were the first doses and 28,02,311 the second doses.

A total of 1,67,840 Covisihield doses were added to the stock on Wednesday.

Kerala has received 3.61 lakh more doses of COVID-19 vaccine, the state government said here on Thursday.

Uttar Pradesh on Thursday registered three more Covid-related fatalities, taking the death toll in the state 22,770, while the infection tally rose to 17,08,649 with 34 new cases.

The count of active COVID-19 cases in the state stands at 659, the bulletin said.

New COVID-19 infections in Tamil Nadu rose to 1,997 on Thursday pushing the caseload to 25,69,398, while 33 people succumbed to the virus, aggregating to 34,230 fatalities, the health department said.

Coimbatore topped the new infections among districts with 220 people contracting the contagion, followed by Chennai 196, Erode 161, Chengalpet 130, Thanjavur 119 and Thiruvallur 106.

Nine of the deceased were without comorbidity or pre-existing illness which include a 29-year-old man from Salem who tested positive on May 23.

In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan also said there is no plan currently to introduce vaccine passports.

Goa’s coronavirus caseload went up by 102 and reached 1,71,608 on Thursday, while 88 patients recovered from the infection, a health department official said.

The number of recovered cases in the state increased to 1,67,423 after 88 patients were discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours, the official said.

Kerala on Thursday reported 22,040 fresh coronavirus cases and 117 deaths, taking the total infection count to 34.93 lakh and the toll to 17,328.

Some of the worst affected districts in the state are Malappuram with 3645 cases, Thrissur 2406, Ernakulam 2373 andPalakkad 2139.

Of the new cases, 76 are health workers, 67 had come from outside the state and 20,901 were infected through contact with the source of contact being not clear in 996 cases, the release said.

The Delhi’s drug control department Thursday told the Delhi High Court that they have decided not to prosecute the good samaritans who have procured and distributed oxygen without any wrongful intention in the national capital during the second wave of COVID-19.

The high court said no further orders are required to be passed in the matter and disposed of a petition seeking lodging of an FIR on the allegations that politicians are able to procure in huge quantities and distribute COVID-19 medicines even as patients were running from pillar to post to get them.

“The infections are expanding at a pace we have never experienced before.” Suga, who has been criticised for insisting on hosting the Olympics despite the coronavirus’s surge, says there is no evidence linking the increase in cases to the July 23-August 8 Games.

Alarmed by the pace of the spread, some experts have called for the state of emergency to be expanded nationwide.

Experts say people are not cooperating because many feel less of a sense of urgency about the pandemic while the Olympics are going ahead and the government’s repeats of the same requests for people to stay at home.

Experts on a Tokyo metropolitan government panel cautioned that infections propelled by the more contagious delta variant have become “explosive” and could exceed 10,000 cases a day in two weeks.

As hospital beds fill, Suga’s government introduced a new policy this week in which coronavirus patients with moderate symptoms will isolate at home instead of in hospitals, an attempt to save hospital beds almost exclusively for seriously ill patients.

In order to “set the record straight” — Bharat Biotech said in its statement that as of now all Covaxin batches released have been manufactured at its facilities at Genome Valley Hyderabad — which has been fully audited and approved by regulatory authorities.

“With 5,932 new tests, the cumulative number of coronavirus tests conducted in the state has gone up to 10,78,876,”  he added.

Despite a fall in daily cases in the last several days, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had recently cautioned that the chances of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic were quite real, and had asserted that his government was preparing on a “war-footing” to combat it.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said her government is weighing options for reopening schools and colleges on alternate days after the Durga Puja vacation in November.

The director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says he came down with COVID-19 last week and if he had not been vaccinated earlier, “I would not be here by now.” An audibly ill John Nkengasong told reporters that despite his vaccination in April, “the severity of the attack is unbearable.” He cited his experience to push back against vaccine hesitancy.

The number of active coronavirus cases increased by 118 as Andhra Pradesh reported 2,145 afresh, 2,003 recoveries and 24 deaths in the 24 hours ending 9 am on Thursday.

Hospitals in Sri Lanka have started preparations to face the current surge in the number of COVID-19 cases, deputy director general of health Dr Hemantha Herath said on Thursday.

Even as the threat of widespread transmission of Coronavirus has substantially dissipated in the United States, health experts have highlighted that cases of Coronavirus caused by the Delta variant are rendering younger patients sicker and more vulnerable in comparison to the past.

The Delhi government has given Rs 1 crore each as compensation to 17 Corona warriors, including doctors, teachers and sanitation staff, who died of the infection on duty, according to a response to an RTI query.

…Read the full story