Coronavirus India news summary for 20 July: cases, deaths and news

Drug regulatory authority examining favipiravir claims and cost

Acting on a complaint from an MP, India's drug regulatory authority has asked Mumbai-based Glenmark Pharmaceuticals for information about favipiravir, a drug approved for treating mild and moderate Covid-19 patients, reports the Telegraph.

On the one hand some doctors have said there isn't enough evidence to support the claims of the drug's efficacy in treating coronavirus, while on the other hand, the complaint from the MP says that the treatment cost is Rs 12,500, which is "not in the interest of the poor, lower middle class and middle class of India", wrote V.G. Somani, the head of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation. 
 

Woman with Covid-19 forced to live under a tree

Terribly sad story from the New Indian Express, about a 45-year old woman who was forced to shelter under a tree on the outskirts of Kaluvoya village in Nellore after her brothers refused to take her in and villagers told her she had to leave. She was relying on passersby to give her food until the story was picked up by the press, which led, thankfully to the authorities intervening.

Satish Dhawan Space Centre under lockdown

Fresh cases at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre have led to the complex being put under lockdown with all offices shut and only essential and emergency services running. 

An employee of the Solid Propellant Space Booster Plan and a security guard tested positive today. Five cases were previously reported at the complex. The Indian Space Research Organisation has therefore decided to lock down and operate with minimum essential staff. 

T20 World Cup postponed, as expected

The ICC has finally announced it will indeed postpone the T20 World Cup in Australia. It was due to be held from 18 October - 15 November, however back in May Cricket Australia had told the ICC it considered it would be basically impossible to stage a closed-door event requiring quarantine for 16 international teams and their coaching and support staff. 

ICC Chief Executive Manu Sawhney said: “We have undertaken a comprehensive and complex contingency planning exercise and through this process, our number one priority has been to protect the health and safety of everyone involved in the sport.

“The decision to postpone the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup was taken after careful consideration of all of the options available to us and gives us the best possible opportunity of delivering two safe and successful T20 World Cups for fans around the world.

“Our Members now have the clarity they need around event windows to enable them to reschedule lost bilateral and domestic cricket. Moving the Men’s Cricket World Cup to a later window is a critical element of this and gives us a better chance of maintaining the integrity of the qualification process. This additional time will be used to reschedule games that might be lost because of the pandemic ensuring qualification can be decided on the field of play.

“Throughout this process we have worked closely with our key stakeholders including governments, Members, broadcasters, partners and medical experts to enable us to reach a collective decision for the good of the game and our fans. I would like to thank everyone involved for their commitment to a safe return to cricket.”

Delhi's Covid-19 instances are declining, says AIIMS Director

While briefing the press convention on the Covid-19 vaccine, Prof Randeep Guleria acknowledged, “Delhi had its peak and now the cases are declining.”

He additionally mentioned that when the coronavirus vaccine is out, the precedence will probably be given to high-risk teams and the health-care staff.

Discussing Covid-19 control

Listen to the opinion of the Financial Commissioner of Health & Medical Education in J&K.

IndiGo to lay off 10 per cent of its workforce, says CEO

"From where things stand currently, it is impossible for our company to fly through this economic storm without making some sacrifices, in order to sustain our business operations," CEO Ronojoy Dutta said in a statement. 

"Therefore, after carefully assessing and reviewing all possible scenarios, it is clear that we will need to bid a painful adieu to 10 per cent of our workforce. It is for the first time in the history of IndiGo that we have undertaken such a painful measure," he added. 

As on March 31, 2019, the airline had 23,531 employees on its payroll.

Coronavirus

Lockdown in Sikkim: dates and restrictions

Lockdown in Sikkim: dates and restrictions

To curb the spread of Covid-19, Sikkim's government has decided to impose a complete lockdown for one week as of 21 July.

Full details:

Oxford vaccine triggers immune response, say initial trial results

Human trials on a coronavirus vaccine being developed at Oxford University have shown that it appears to trigger a protective immune response against Covid-19.

The vaccine, called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, has been tested on just over 1,000 people.

"Preliminary results from a phase 1/2 trial involving 1077 healthy adults found that the vaccine induced strong antibody & T cell immune responses," said in results published in the medical journal The Lancet.

"Further testing is needed to confirm if the vaccine effectively protects against infection."

Gujarat Police personnel arrive near Sabarmati River in Ahmedabad as Hindu devotees participate in rituals on the first day of Goddess Dashama Vrat, violating the government's ban on religious gatherings to control the spread of the of the coronavirus. 

A man gets his swab sample collected in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir as India recorded a daily high tally of coronavirus cases on Sunday. 

Floods kill scores in India's tea-growing Assam

(Reuters) Intense rain and floods in the Indian state of Assam have killed at least 84 people and displaced more than 2.75 million since May, authorities said on Monday, as they tried to collect the bodies of nine rare rhinos drowned in the past 10 days.

Rescue teams were facing a double challenge of rising flood waters amid the novel coronavirus as villagers driven from their homes huddle in shelters.

"It's hard to enforce social distancing when people are being ordered to move away from the rising waters," said Sanghamitra Sanyal, a member of the northeastern state's flood management force. "We're urging people to at least cover their mouth and nose with a piece of clean cloth."

A municipality worker wears a face mask as he sprays disinfectant at a closed market in the new containment zone in Kolkata. According to news reports, India has passed one million Covid-19 cases with a record one-day spike in positive cases on Sunday. EFE/EPA/PIYAL ADHIKARY

India records new daily case record

The number of coronavirus cases recorded in India over the past 24 hours exceeded 40,000, with experts warning the monsoon may lead to a further spike.  

India vaccine trial to begin on Monday

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences is to begin a human trial of the Covid-19 drug Covaxin. 

Doctors caught breaching lockdown protocol

Charges have been brought against 11 doctors and two hotel owners by Shikrapur police for breaching lockdown regulations in a resort near Talegaon Dhamdhere in Shirur taluka. An anonymous phone caller tipped off police that a group of doctors were celebrating a birthday party when under current protocol, groups of five or more cannot gather while the hotel did not have permission to be open.

Houses washed away in Delhi monsoon flooding

Covid-19 case numbers dropping in Delhi

Active Covid cases in the city dipped to 16,031 — 13% of the 1,22,793 cases reported so far — on Sunday, while hospital bed occupancy stood at 3,500 of the 15,456 beds available.

The new cases reported Sunday also fell to 1,211 — the first time in several weeks that fewer than 1,300 cases were recorded in Delhi in a day.

6% more rainfall as monsoons hit

India has received six per cent more rainfall than normal so far during the current monsoon season, but precipitation in parts of north India remains deficient, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Sunday.

The IMD has four meteorological divisions and rainfall has been more than normal in the south peninsula, central India, and east and northeast India divisions. But the northwest India division, which covers Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Delhi and Rajasthan, has recorded a 19 per cent deficiency, according to the IMD.

Covid-19 death rate falling in India

India’s Covid-19 fatality rate is “progressively falling” and is currently at 2.49 per cent, which is one of the lowest in the world, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday, crediting efficient clinical management of hospitalised cases for it.

There are 29 states and union territories with a case fatality rate (CFR) lower than India’s average, with five of them having a CFR of zero and 14 having fatality rate of less than 1 per cent.

The focused efforts of the Centre and state and UT governments on efficient clinical management of hospitalised cases have ensured that India’s case fatality rate has fallen below 2.5 per cent, the ministry said.

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Coronavirus live India updates: welcome

Hello and welcome to our live, India-focused coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

The country has now seen over one million confirmed cases of Covid-19, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University. 

Worldwide the pandemic continues unabated, with nearly 14.4 million cases and over 600,000 deaths.