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Event Highlights
Coronavirus LIVE Updates: After Maharashtra and Punjab, Madhya Pradesh has issued a fresh order to impose Covid-19 curbs in several districts in view of an alarming rise in cases.
Night Curfew in Bhopal, Indore from March 17 | “Night curfew will be implemented in Bhopal and Indore from March 17 until further order. Whereas markets in eight cities – Jabalpur, Gwalior, Ujjain, Ratlam, Burhanpur, Chhindwara, Betul, Khargone — to shut at 10 pm, from March 17. There won’t be curfew in these cities,” ANI quotes Madhya Pradesh Government as saying.
Delhi Covid-19 Cases | Delhi reports 425 new Covid-19, 257 recoveries, and 1 death in the last 24 hours.
Delhi reports 425 new COVID-19, 257 recoveries, and 1 death in the last 24 hours
Total cases: 6,44,489
Total recoveries: 6,31,056
Death toll: 10,945
Active cases: 2,488 pic.twitter.com/QHaCmMcl8o— ANI (@ANI) March 16, 2021
Covid-19 Deaths in Europe Pass 900,000 | The number of deaths from Covid-19 across Europe passed 900,000 today, according to an AFP tally of official figures provided by health authorities. As of 0845 GMT, the 52 countries and territories of the region — which includes Russia and Turkey — had officially registered 900,185 coronavirus deaths since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, out of a total of 40,083,433 confirmed cases. This makes Europe the deadliest region, ahead of Latin America and the Caribbean (721,581 deaths), Canada and the United States (558,110 deaths) and Asia (263,250).
All BJP MPs have been asked by the party to provide information on total number of Covid-19 vaccination centers in their respective constituencies, number of vaccination centers they have visited and in how many centers the help desk has been set up, reports ANI.
Govt Denied Permission to Feb Sikh ‘Jatha’ to Visit Pak Due to Covid, Threat to Safety | The government denied permission to a Sikh ‘Jatha’ to visit Nankana Sahib in February this year in view of increasing number of Covid-19 cases in Pakistan and threat to the safety and security of a large number of Indian citizens, Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said today.
Haryana Records 1,58,901 Single-Day Vaccinations | Over 1,58,901 persons were vaccinated for coronavirus in a single day in Haryana today. A total of 6,81,264 people have been vaccinated till date in the state, said Haryana Health Minister, Anil Vij.
Telangana Covid-19 Tally LIVE Updates | Telangana registered 204 Covid-19 cases today, taking the tally to 3.01 lakh, while the toll rose to 1,656 with two more fatalities.
Recovered cases: 2,97,851
Active cases: 2,015
Covid Infection Rising Exponentially in Germany | Coronavirus infections are rising exponentially in Germany, an expert at the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases said on Tuesday, adding that the risk of AstraZeneca’s vaccine was relatively low. The number of cases per 100,000 reported on Tuesday was 83.7, up from 68 a week ago, and the RKI has said that metric could reach 200 by the middle of next month.
UPDATE | France’s decision to suspend temporarily the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine was taken in co-ordination with other European countries, French industry minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher told France Info radio on Tuesday. French vaccination chief Alain Fischer also said on Tuesday he expects the suspension of AstraZeneca’s vaccine to be temporary. Fischer told France Inter radio that the number of cases of people showing adverse side-effects from the vaccine remained small.
932 New Covid-19 Cases in Karnataka, 7 Deaths | Karnataka logged 932 fresh COVID-19 cases and seven related fatalities, taking the total number of infections to 9.61 lakh and the toll to 12,397, the Health department said on Monday. The day also saw 429 patients getting discharged after recovery. Bengaluru Urban continued to top the list of fresh cases, with 550 infections. Cumulatively 9,61,204 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 12,397 deaths and 9,39,928 discharges, the Health department said in a bulletin. Out of 8,860 active cases, 8,735 patients are stable and in isolation at designated hospitals, while 125 are in Intensive Care Units.
Gujarat Govt Announces Night Curfew in 4 Cities | Gujarat Govt announces to impose night curfew in four main cities Ahemdabad, Surat, Vadodara & Rajkot from 10pm – 6pm from March 17 till March 31 in the wake of rising cases of Covid-19.
Spain Joins France, Germany and Italy in Pausing Oxford/AstraZeneca Vaccine | France, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia and Cyprus announced they will stop administering the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine pending an assessment by the EU’s medicine regulator. Spain said it will stop using the AZ vaccine for at least two weeks. The benefits of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing Covid outweigh the risks of side effects, the European Medicines Agency said in a statement. The World Health Organization (WHO) has said there is no proven link to blood clots and that people should not panic.
Bus, Eatery Restrictions in Parbhani, Aurangabad Amid Rising Cases | The Parbhani district administration on Monday moved to restrict private bus services from cities like Mumbai and others from Tuesday in view of a recent surge in COVID-19 cases, officials said. Private bus services from Parbhani to places like Mumbai, Aurangabad, Pune and Nanded will be halted from March 16 till March 23, an order issued by Collector Deepak Muglikar said.
Bus, Eatery Restrictions in Parbhani, Aurangabad Amid Rising Cases | The Parbhani district administration on Monday moved to restrict private bus services from cities like Mumbai and others from Tuesday in view of a recent surge in COVID-19 cases, officials said. Private bus services from Parbhani to places like Mumbai, Aurangabad, Pune and Nanded will be halted from March 16 till March 23, an order issued by Collector Deepak Muglikar said.
Kerala Logs 1,054 Fresh Covid-19 Cases, 11 Deaths | Kerala reported 1,054 new COVID-19 cases and 11 deaths on Monday, pushing the infection count to 10,92,673 and the death toll to 4,407. A total of 3,463 people recuperated from the disease today, taking the total cured to 10,60,560, while 27,057 are under treatment. There are 1,43,461 people under observation out of which 4,152 are in isolation wards of various hospitals across the state. State health minister K K Shailaja said the state government had tested 38,410 samples in the last 24 hours and the test positivity rate was 2.74 per cent.
Punjab Class 10, 12 Board Exams Postponed by Month as Cases Surge | The Punjab School Education Board on Monday announced the postponement of the final exams of classes 10 and 12 by about a month in the wake of rising COVID-19 cases in the state. The exams of class 10 will now start from May 4 instead of April 9, the date which was earlier scheduled, according to a statement issued by the PSEB. The exams of 12th standard will start from April 20. Earlier, the exams were to begin from March 22. The exams of classes 10 and 12 will end on May 24, it further said. According to Janak Raj, PSEB Controller (exams), the three-hour exams of classes 10 and 12 will start at 10 am and 2 pm, respectively.
Nagpur is under a complete lockdown from March 15-21
Maharashtra: Vehicular movement seen in Nagpur today.
The city entered complete lockdown from March 15th to March 21st amid rise in #COVID19 cases here. pic.twitter.com/SUoIn7NAXv
— ANI (@ANI) March 16, 2021
Maharashtra In Beginning Of 2nd Covid Wave, Limited Effort Flagged, Says Centre | Maharashtra is in the beginning of second wave of Covid, the centre has said in a letter to the Uddhav Thackeray-led government. Authorities have urged the state to focus on containment strategies, social distancing and hygiene. The letter, based on the assessment of a central team, notes the lack of Covid-appropriate behavior and tracking and testing of cases.
PM Modi to Interact with Chief Ministers on Covid Situation, Vaccination Drive on Wednesday | Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with chief ministers on the COVID-19 situation and the ongoing vaccination drive on Wednesday as the Centre looks to ramp up the inoculation exercise amid a rise in infection in some states. Official sources said Modi will hold a video conference to discuss the issues with chief ministers, an exercise which he has been holding regularly since the outbreak of the pandemic. Modi’s last interaction with chief ministers was in January before the vaccination roll-out. He had announced that the Centre will bear the expenses of vaccinating nearly three crore healthcare and frontline workers in the first round and suggested that public representatives, a reference to politicians, should not be part of this initial exercise.
A total of 22,82,80,763 samples tested for COVID-19 up to March 15, 2021. Of these, a total of 8,73,350 samples were tested yesterday, stated the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
Today’s Data Highlights
– 24.5k new cases, 20.2k new recoveries, 131 new deaths, 4.2k rise in active cases
– 3.04 million new vaccinations. Highest yet. Total vaccinations cross the 3 crore mark (3.29 crore)
– 8.73 lakh new tests. Highest in over 2 months
– Maharashtra reports 15k new cases, Punjab 1.8k, Kerala 1k, Karnataka 932
– Maharashtra reports 48 new deaths, Punjab 27, Kerala 11
– Kerala reports lowest new cases in over 7 months (224 days)
– New deaths in Kerala lowest in 6 months (179 days)
– More than 15k new cases in Maharashtra for the 4th consecutive day
– Punjab reports more new cases than Kerala. Punjab has been reporting more than 1k new cases for the 10th straight day
– Over 4 lakh new COVID-19 cases reported in Maharashtra in 2021
– Punjab reports highest new cases in 171 days
Japan Warns Over Daytime karaoke Venues | A rash of Japanese coronavirus clusters linked to daytime karaoke sessions by the elderly, including several linked to 93 cases in one prefecture, prompted a stern warning on Tuesday and calls for caution from authorities. Reuters reports that the recent clusters, which are spread across the country, come as the Tokyo metropolitan area is nearing the planned end of a state of emergency aimed at curbing the latest wave of coronavirus cases. The Olympics are set to begin in Tokyo in just over four months.
Representative image. Photo: AP
After Congress accused the Centre of exporting Covis-19 vaccines while the country reels under the impact of a fresh wave of infections, the Union Health Ministry today clarified in Rajya Sabha that the government is not exporting vaccines ‘at the expense of Indians.
“Vaccines aren’t being sent to other countries at the expense of the people of India. Experts at the highest level and a committee of the government are maintaining a sensible balance about it. 30,39,394 people were vaccinated yesterday. We have touched a total vaccination figure of Rs. 3 crore,” ANI quoted Union Minister Harsh Vardhan as saying.
More than 30 lakh people were inoculated against COVID-19 on March 15, thehighestin a day so far, taking the total number of vaccine doses administered in the country to 3,29,47,432, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday. The vaccination of beneficiaries aged over 60 has touched 1 crore within 15 days, the ministry said. Of the total30,39,394 doses given in a span of 24 hours on March 15,26,27,099 beneficiaries have been administered the 1st dose and 4,12,295 individuals have been given the 2nd dose, according to the data compiled at 7 am. Of the cumulative 3,29,47,432 doses which have been administered till now,2,70,79,484 beneficiaries received the 1st dose and58,67,948individuals have taken the 2nd dose.
Maharashtra is “in the beginning of a second wave of Covid”, the Centre has told the Uddhav Thackeray-led government, noting the lack of Covid-appropriate behavior and “tracking and testing of cases”. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has written to Maharashtra Chief Secretary after the central team’s visit last week. “Maharashtra is in the beginning of a second wave of COVID-19 pandemic. There very limited active effort to track, test, isolate cases and quarantine contacts. There is no adherence to COVID appropriate behaviour among people both in rural and urban areas,” he said.
The EU’s largest countries joined a stream of states halting their rollouts of AstraZeneca jabs over blood clot fears, as the World Health Organization and Europe’s medicines watchdog insisted it was safe to use. Both organisations will hold special meetings this week after a host of countries said they would stop using the vaccine pending further review. The fresh suspensions were a major blow to a global immunisation campaign that experts hope will help end a pandemic that has already killed over 2.6 million people and decimated the global economy. The three largest EU countries — Germany, Italy and France — all paused rollouts on Monday and were later joined by Spain, Portugal, Slovenia and Latvia.
The suspensions were not limited to Europe, with Indonesia also announcing a delay to its rollout of the jab, which is cheaper than its competitors and was billed as the vaccination of choice for poorer nations. But the WHO insisted countries should keep using the vaccine, adding that it had scheduled a meeting of its experts on Tuesday to discuss the vaccine’s safety. “We do not want people to panic and we would, for the time being, recommend that countries continue vaccinating with AstraZeneca,” WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said. “So far, we do not find an association between these events and the vaccine,” she said, referring to reports of blood clots from several countries.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA), which is holding a special meeting on Thursday, echoed the WHO’s calls for calm and said it was better to get the vaccine than not. “The benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing Covid-19, with its associated risk of hospitalisation and death, outweigh the risks of side effects,” the agency said in a statement Monday. The UK has doled out more than 11 million doses of the AstraZeneca jab — more than the entire EU — apparently without major problems.
As policymakers struggled to manage vaccine rollouts, Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas announced she had tested positive — underlining the continuing threat of the contagion. She tweeted that she would continue to work virtually and the government added that she had “a low fever but no other symptoms and is generally feeling well”.
Italy provided another reminder that the pandemic was far from over — most of the country re-entered lockdown on Monday with schools, restaurants, shops and museums closed. The streets of central Rome were quiet on Monday morning and businesses already battered by a year of anti-virus measures braced for another hit. “I’m staying open because I’m selling cigarettes, otherwise it would not be worth it,” said Rome coffee shop owner Carlo Lucia. “It’s just a waste of money.”
Meanwhile, intensive care doctors in Germany issued an urgent appeal for new restrictions to avoid a third wave as the British variant takes hold there.
More than 350 million vaccines have now been administered globally, but poorer countries are still lagging far behind. Brazil, which has suffered one of the world’s worst outbreaks, is attempting to redress the balance, announcing the order of more than 138 million jabs on Monday.
The European Union has approved four jabs so far, and is monitoring others — including Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. The Russian developers said on Monday they had reached production agreements in key European countries.
The news came as the WHO said it had raised nearly $250 million in the past year from individual donors and companies towards battling the pandemic. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the fund’s success proved “what we can accomplish together in times of need”.
More than a year after his organisation declared the coronavirus threat a pandemic, a much-anticipated report on the origins of Covid-19 is expected to be released this week.
The report follows a fact-finding mission of international experts assembled by the WHO, which travelled in January to the Chinese city of Wuhan where the virus first emerged in December 2019.
“Within the next few years, we’re going to have real significant data on where this came from and how it emerged,” said British zoologist Peter Daszak, one of the team members.
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