Coronavirus news highlights: India's tally reaches 99 lakh-mark, recoveries stand at nearly 94 lakh

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. Doctors at a leading private facility here have found multiple cases in recovering coronavirus patients, who were diagnosed with a deadly fungal infection "triggered by Covid-19", due to which nearly half of them lost their eyesight, hospital authorities claimed on Monday.

. Economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has set back decades of progress against the most severe forms of malnutrition and is likely to kill 168,000 children before any global recovery takes hold, according to a study released Monday by 30 international organizations.

The study from the Standing Together for Nutrition Consortium draws on economic and nutrition data gathered this year as well as targeted phone surveys. -AP

. Since a night curfew is in place in Ahmedabad in Gujarat to contain the coronavirus outbreak, there will be no parties on December 31 to ring in the new year, a senior police official said on Monday.

. Sweden, known for its soft-touch response to the coronavirus pandemic, recorded an all-time high on Monday for patients being treated in hospital for Covid-19, according to a calculation by the country's state broadcaster.

Swedish Television (SVT) reported that a total of 2,389 patients, including those in intensive care, were receiving hospital treatment for the disease on Monday, 65 more people than on April 20, when the previous high was recorded. -Reuters

. Punjab reports 464 new Covid-19 cases, 21 deaths and 633 discharges today.

Total cases 1,60,659

Total discharges 1,48,680

Death toll 5,098

Active cases 6,881

. Himachal Pradesh's Covid-19 case tally rises to 49,761 with 386 fresh cases reported today.

Total active cases: 6,948

Recovered cases: 41,954

Death toll: 813

. Russia has signed manufacturing and supply agreements for its Covid-19 vaccine candidate with more than 10 countries in Asia, South America and the Middle East, as Moscow speeds up plans to distribute its shot abroad in the fight against the coronavirus. -Reuters

. In late November doctor Maurizio Cappiello visited more than 130 patients in the emergency room of Cardarelli hospital, in the southern Italian city of Naples. More than two-thirds had Covid-19.

The virus which was limited mainly to Italy's industrial north during the first wave in the spring was now also ravaging the poor south, overwhelming its fragile public health system. -Reuters

. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will self-isolate on Monday after having come into contact with acoronaviruspatient, his office said calling it a precautionary step.

Netanyahu tested negative for the virus on Sunday and on Monday, but he will still "enter isolation until Friday following contact with a confirmedcoronaviruspatient", the statement said. -AFP

. A nurse in New York became the first person in the United States to receive the coronavirus vaccine Monday.

Sandra Lindsay, a critical care nurse at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, received the shot live on television shortly before 9:30 am (1430 GMT).

"First Vaccine Administered. Congratulations USA! Congratulations WORLD!" President Donald Trump tweeted. -AFP

. Former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi has tested positive for Covid-19 following which Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) national executive meeting has been put off.

. After being closed for about nine months due to Covid-19 outbreak, the Odisha government on Monday said the process for reopening religious institutions has started, a top official said.

Following decline in single-day Covid-19 positive cases, the authorities are now mulling reopening of religious places for devotees, he said. -PTI

. China is considering setting up a new disease control agency as part of its public health reforms following the deadly Covid-19 pandemic, Caixin reported on Monday.

The government body will oversee work aimed at preventing future outbreaks and managing emerging ones, Caixin said, citing two government insiders and three public health experts. -Reuters

. Tamil Nadu reported 1,141 new Covid-19 cases, 1,203 discharges, and 14 deaths in the last 24 hours: State Health Department

Total positive cases: 8,00,029

Total discharges: 7,78,081

Death toll: 11,909

Active cases: 10,039

. Positive Cases: 1,376

Tests Conducted: 63,944

Positivity Rate: 2.15%

Recovered/Discharged/Migrated: 2,854

Deaths: 60

Death Rate (Based on last 10 days data): 2.54%

. A smart ring that generates continuous temperature data may flag Covid-19 in its very early stages, even in cases when the coronavirus infection is not suspected, a new study says.

. Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) are expecting higher credit loss as well as an increase in provision coverage rates, mainly due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a study.

The study by leading consultancy EY is based on an analysis of the standalone financial statements of 42 NBFCs, including 14 Housing Finance Companies (HFCs), for the year ended March 31, 2020. -PTI

. To keep a check on Covid-19 situation, tests are being done at airports & train stations. People are attending functions & big rallies but the situation is not worsening. If a second wave comes, it's a different thing but as of now we are comfortable: HB Sarma, Assam Minister. -ANI

. London is likely to be placed into the toughest tier of Covid-19 restrictions following a sharp rise in coronavirus rates, the BBC reported on Monday.

The British capital is currently in the second highest tier of restrictions, with a review currently scheduled to take place on Dec. 16. -Reuters

. Vaccinating 100-200 people in each session per day, monitoring them for 30 minutes after administering the shots for any adverse event and allowing only one beneficiary at a time are among the guidelines issued by the Centre for the Covid-19 inoculation drive.

According to the guidelines issued to states recently, the Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network (Co-WIN) system--a digitalised platform--will be used to track enlisted beneficiaries for the vaccination and anti-coronavirus vaccines on a real-time basis. -PTI

. Spain expects to start vaccinating people against the coronavirus as early as Jan. 4 or 5 if the European Medicines Agency gives the green light to a vaccine on Dec. 29, health minister Salvador Illa said on Monday. -Reuters

. The European Union could donate 5% of the Covid-19 vaccines it has secured to poorer nations, an internal document seen by Reuters shows, in a move that risks undercutting a distribution scheme co-led by the World Health Organization.

The plan, drafted by the French government, sets for the first time a clear target for EU vaccine donations which so far had only been considered as an option if the bloc ended up with surplus doses. -Reuters

. Two Malaysian ministers who should have been quarantining after being exposed to coronavirus voted in parliament in protective gear Monday, triggering an opposition walkout.

The politicians came into contact with Covid-19 patients earlier this month, but officials allowed them to partake in a key budget vote -- provided they wore gowns, face masks, shields and gloves.

But the sitting quickly descended into pandemonium, with opposition MPs shouting out in protest and most deciding to leave the chamber rather than cast their votes. -AFP

. A single-patient study conducted by British scientists has found that Gilead's antiviral drug remdesivir could be highly effective against Covid-19, raising questions about previous studies that found it had no impact on death rates from the disease. -Reuters

. India's Covid-19 active cases as on date stands at3,52,586comprising3.57 per cent of the total caseload, the lowest after 149 days, the Union Health Ministry said on Monday.

. The Japanese government has decided to suspend a travel subsidy programme dubbed "Go To Travel" from Dec. 28 to Jan. 11 nationwide, local media reported on Monday, responding to concerns about its impact on the spread of the coronavirus. -Reuters

. Night began to fall in Rio de Janeiro's Pedra Branca state park as four Brazilian scientists switched on their flashlights to traipse along a narrow trail of mud through dense rainforest. The researchers were on a mission: capture bats and help prevent the next global pandemic.

A few meters ahead, nearly invisible in the darkness, a bat made high-pitched squeaks as it strained its wings against the thin nylon net that had ensnared it. One of the researchers removed the bat, which used its pointed teeth to bite her gloved fingers.

The November nighttime outing was part of a project at Brazil's state-run Fiocruz Institute to collect and study viruses present in wild animals — including bats, which many scientists believe were linked to the outbreak of COVID-19.

The goal now is to identify other viruses that may be highly contagious and lethal in humans, and to use that information to devise plans to stop them from ever infecting people — to forestall the next potential global disease outbreak before it gets started.

In a highly connected world, an outbreak in one place endangers the entire globe, just as the coronavirus did. And the Brazilian team is just one among many worldwide racing to minimise the risk of a second pandemic this century.

It's no coincidence that many disease scientists are focusing attention on bats, the the world's only flying mammals. Bats are thought to be the original or intermediary hosts for multiple viruses that have spawned recent epidemics, including SARS, MERS, Ebola, Nipah virus, Hendra virus and Marburg virus.

. Italy is considering more stringent nationwide coronavirus restrictions during the Christmas and New Year holidays as concerns rise over a possible spike in infections in January.

After some restrictions put in place last month were eased, crowds of shoppers flocked to many city centres on Sunday, as Italy reported 484 coronavirus-related deaths.

On Saturday, Italy surpassed Britain as the European country with the worst death toll.

The government could decide to put the country under so-called "red-zone" lockdown rules from Dec. 24 to at least Jan. 2, extending night curfews, banning non-essential movement and closing shops, bars and restaurants on weekends and holidays, with the exception for those selling essential goods, Italian media reported.

A decision is expected after a Monday morning meeting between Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, ministers and the scientific committee that has been advising the government since the beginning of the coronavirus emergency

. Singapore has approved Pfizer-BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine for pandemic use and expects delivery of the first shots by the end of December, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Monday.

The city-state of 5.7 million expects to have enough vaccines for everyone by the third quarter of 2021, Lee added, and will make it free for all Singaporeans and long-term residents.

Lee said he and other government officials would be among the early recipients, after healthcare workers, frontline workers, the elderly and the vulnerable.

. Kerala reported the maximum number of single-day recoveries with 5,258 recoveries. Maharashtra follows with 3,083 new recoveries. West Bengal recorded another 2,994 daily recoveries.

About 75.82 per cent of the new cases are concentrated in 10 states and union territories.

. German biotech firm CureVac has enrolled the first participant for a Phase 2b/3 clinical trial of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, it said on Monday.

The trial, which is relevant for regulatory approval, will assess the safety and efficacy in adults and is expected to include more than 35,000 participants in Europe and Latin America, it added in a statement.

The study aims to demonstrate the efficacy of its vaccine candidate in preventing first episodes of confirmed cases of COVID-19 of any severity as well as preventing moderate to severe confirmed cases of COVID-19 in participants who have never been infected with SARS-CoV-2, CureVac said.

. South Korea ordered schools to close from Tuesday in the capital Seoul and surrounding areas as it battles its worst coronavirus outbreak since the pandemic began, surpassing the previous peak in February.

The school closure is a step towards the imposition of Phase 3 social distancing rules, a move that would essentially lock down Asia's fourth-largest economy.

. With the pandemic still in full swing and the first doses of a coronavirus vaccine just starting to ship in the United States, Google has pushed back the planned return to the office by a few months, to September 2021.

But even as it extends the remote work period for most of its staff, Google is laying out a series of proposed changes that may substantially alter how its employees and people at other technology companies will work.

. Trial fails of ruxolitinib in COVID-19 complications - Novartis

(Adds details from statement)

Novartis said a late-stage clinical trial of ruxolitinib on top of standard therapy showed no significant reduction in severe complications of Covid-19, including death, respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation or admission to the intensive care unit.

The RUXCOVID trial also did not show relevant benefit for other endpoints including mortality rate by day 29 and time to recovery, the Swiss drugmaker said on Monday.

It was another setback as Novartis tries to repurpose drugs to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Novartis licensed ruxolitinib - an oral inhibitor of the JAK 1 and JAK 2 tyrosine kinases - from Incyte Corp for development and commercialisation outside the United States.

. A broad lifting of anti-pandemic measures in Germany early next year is unlikely, Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff, Helge Braun, said on Monday.

Germany goes into full lockdown on Wednesday to tackle high infection rates. Braun told broadcaster n-tv he was very optimistic that the stricter measures would help to bring new infection numbers down.

However, during winter and as long as not enough vaccines are available for everyone, "we are going to have some difficult days ahead," he said. "A comprehensive easing is very, very unlikely."

. Young Indian-American scientist Gitanjali Rao, TIME magazine's first-ever 'Kid of the Year', has said she is brainstorming about solutions for the effective vaccine distribution to address a pressing challenge posed by the coronavirus, and has set her sights on preventing future pandemics.

In an interview with PTI, the 15-year-old inventor said she was focussed on using technological tools to offer solutions for vaccine distribution, a challenge that confronts the world grappling with the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.

Rao was named by TIME magazine this month as the first-ever 'Kid of the Year' for her "astonishing work using technology to tackle issues ranging from contaminated drinking water to opioid addiction and cyberbullying". She was selected among over 5,000 nominees for the honour.

. Under Sect 144, Hookah bars are banned to operate in Chandigarh from 14th Dec-11th Feb 2021: DM, Chandigarh

. Jharkhand's Covid-19 tally rose to 1,11,510 as 144 more people tested positive for the infection, a health department official said on Monday.

The Covid-19 death toll climbed to 999 as four more persons succumbed to the infection in the last 24 hours, he said.

Two deaths were reported from Dhanbad and one each from Ramgarh and Palamu.

Ranchi district registered the maximum number of fresh cases at 76, followed by East Singhbhum (19), Dhanbad (7), Hazaribagh (7).

Jharkhand now has 1,571 active coronavirus cases, while 1,08,940 people have been cured of the disease so far, the official said.

The state has tested 15,822 samples for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, he added.

. As many as 411 new Covid-19 cases have been found in Thane, taking the tally in the Maharashtra district to 2,36,209, an official said on Monday.

The district has also recorded seven more deaths due to the viral infection, raising the toll to 5,816, he said.

Currently, there are 5,639 active Covid-19 cases in the district, while 2,24,754 patients have recovered.

The Covid-19 recovery rate in the district is 95.15 per cent, the mortality rate is 2.46 per cent, while the active cases constitute 2.39 per cent of the total cases reported so far, the official said.

Among cities in the district, Kalyan has so far reported 55,751 coronavirus cases, Thane-53,486, Navi Mumbai- 49,653 and Mira Bhayander-24,853, he said.

. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 16,362 to 1,337,078, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Monday. The reported death toll rose by 188 to 21,975, the tally showed.

The numbers are usually lower on Mondays, because there is less testing and less data being transmitted to the RKI on weekends.

. The daily new Covid-19 cases fell below 30,000 for the third time this month taking India's virus caseload to 98.84 lakh, while the number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 93.88 lakh, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday.

The total coronavirus cases mounted to 98,84,100 with 27,071 infections being reported in a day. The death toll rose to 1,43,355 with 336 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 93,88,159 pushing the national recovery rate to 94.98 per cent, while the Covid-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.45 per cent.

The Covid-19 active caseload remained below 4 lakh for the eighth consecutive day.

There are 3,52,586 active coronavirus infections in the country which comprises 3.57 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

. A quarterly survey by the Bank of Japan shows business sentiment has improved sharply with expectations that the economy is recovering from a year-long recession.

The BOJ's “tankan” released Monday reported rebounds in all categories, both manufacturing and nonmanufactuing companies, large and small. It was a marked improvement from the past several quarterly reports as Japan battled the coronavirus pandemic.

The main measure of business conditions of large manufacturers rose to minus 10 from minus 27, while business sentiment among large non-manufacturers such as service industries rose to minus 5 from minus 12. The actual results were better than forecast.

. Arunachal Pradesh's Covid-19 tally mounted to 16,513 with four more persons testing positive for the infection, a senior health official said here on Monday.

Of the four fresh cases, one case each was reported from the Capital Complex Region, Papumpare, Anjaw and Lepa Rada, state surveillance officer (SSO) Dr Lobsang Jampa said.

All the infections were detected through rapid antigen tests, the SSO said.

Barring one, all the new patients are asymptomatic, he said.

The state now has 252 active coronavirus cases.

Twenty one more people recovered from the disease on Sunday, taking the total number of recoveries to 16,206, he said.

A total of 55 patients have succumbed to the infection as of date, the official said.

. IIT Madras has been functioning on limited capacity with only 10% students in hostels. As soon as spurt in symptomatic cases was reported by some students residing in hostels, the Institute arranged for all students residing in hostels to be tested for COVID: IIT Madras Statement

. With 336 new deaths, toll mounts to 1,43,355. Total active cases at 3,52,586

Total discharged cases at 93,88,159 with 30,695 new discharges in the last 24 hours.

. Adding an arthritis drug called baricitinib to Covid treatment regimens that include antiviral drug remdesivir might shave a day or more off recovery times, especially for those who are seriously sick, according to a study published Friday.

. Of these, 8,55,157 samples were tested yesterday.

. Stocks started a busy week with guarded gains as investors gauged the chance of added U.S. fiscal and monetary stimulus, while the British pound rose in relief as a last-gasp extension to Brexit talks dodged a hard divorce.

Progress on coronavirus vaccines cheered risk sentiment, with the first shipments speeding across the United States as part of an historic mission to inoculate more than 100 million people by the end of March.

"The vaccine has and will likely continue to provide a tailwind to the market that is allowing investors to look beyond record case levels, hospitalizations, and deaths," said analysts at JPMorgan in a note.

E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 responded by rising 0.5%, while March Treasury bond futures slipped 4 ticks. EUROSTOXX 50 futures added 0.6% and FTSE futures 0.3%.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.1%, having hit a string of record highs last week.

Japan's Nikkei added 0.6% as a survey showed the mood among hard-hit Japanese businesses had improved in the December quarter.

Sterling firmed on both the euro and the dollar after Britain and the European Union agreed to continue talks on post-Brexit trade beyond Sunday's deadline.

. Credit: Reuters

. By Sunday, deaths from the coronavirus were approaching 300,000 in the United States, a toll comparable to losing the entire population of Pittsburgh or St. Louis. Reports of new deaths have more than doubled in the last month to an average of nearly 2,400 each day, more than any other point in the pandemic. The deaths have been announced in the traditional fashion, in obituaries and notices on websites and in newspapers that have followed the same format for decades, noting birthplaces, family members, jobs and passions.

But in recent months, as the death toll from the coronavirus in the United States grows steadily higher, families who have lost relatives to the disease are writing the pandemic more deeply into the death notices they submit to funeral homes and the materials they share with newspapers’ obituary writers. They are crafting pleas for mask wearing, rebuking those who believe the virus is a hoax and describing, in blunt detail, the loneliness and physical suffering that the coronavirus inflicted on the dying.

. Rating agency Moody's Investors Service said on Sunday that Pfizer Inc's US Covid-19 vaccine authorisation is credit positive.

"The approval is credit positive because of incremental profit and cash flow from sales of the vaccine," Moody's said. "The revenue and profit opportunities for Pfizer are significant because it has priced the vaccine at a profit."

. Since the onset of the pandemic, there have been incessant discussions over India’s shape of recovery. From the rapid and optimistic V to the sharp and pessimistic W, conversation on how we will come out of the pandemic has not ceased. Lately, however, there has been a growing consensus that India is witnessing a multi-speed recovery, with different sectors of the economy growing at different paces. The issue, however, is that this multi-speed recovery hinges on another shape – ‘K’, which could lead to exacerbated inequality in an already unequal India.

. Despite the horrifying surge of Covid-19 cases and deaths in the United States right now, one bit of good news is emerging this winter: It looks unlikely that the country will endure a “twindemic” of both flu and the coronavirus at the same time.

. President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and other top USofficials will be offered the newly approved Covid-19 vaccine beginning on Monday as part of a plan aimed at ensuring the continuity of government, a source familiar with the plans said.

. There are plenty of reasons why we need to bring this pandemic to a swift end. With each day, thousands of more people die, and hundreds of thousands more become infected, while the ongoing disruption to daily lives, business, trade, and travel is costing countless people their jobs as more businesses go under and economies continue to sink. But another important and less-talked-about reason why we need to end it sooner rather than later is that the longer this crisis continues, the weaker we will be when it comes to fighting the next one. Because with each day, this crisis is helping to fuel another, silent pandemic: that of antimicrobial resistance, or AMR.

Even before Covid-19, AMR was widely seen as one of the biggest threats to human health. Over time and repeated exposure, pathogens can build up resistance to the very drugs designed to treat them—especially with suboptimal use—eventually rendering them ineffective and the infections untreatable.

. Trucks and cargo planes packed with the first of nearly 3 million doses of coronavirus vaccine fanned out across the country Sunday as hospitals rushed to set up injection sites and their anxious workers tracked each shipment hour by hour.

The distribution of the first federally approved vaccine marked the start of the most ambitious vaccination campaign in American history, a critical, complicated feat that one top federal official compared to the Allied landings at Normandy during World War II. Now, the United States is trying to turn the tide of battle against a virus whose out-of-control spread has killed nearly 300,000 people, ravaged the economy and upended millions of lives.

. A $908 billion bipartisan Covid-19 relief plan set to be introduced in the US Congress as early as Monday will be split into two packages in a bid to win approval, a person briefed on the matter said.

The plan's highlights were made public on Dec. 1, but the authors now plan to divide them into two proposals that could be voted on separately, the source said.

One will be a $748 billion measure, which contains money for small businesses, the jobless and Covid-19 vaccine distribution. The other will include some key sticking points: liability protections for business and $160 billion for state and local governments.

The leaders of the House of Representatives and Senate did not immediately respond to requests for commen

. Oil prices rose on Monday, pushing Brent back above $50 a barrel, buoyed by hopes that a rollout of coronavirus vaccines will lift global fuel demand, while an extension of Brexit talks eased jitters on that front for now.

Brent crude futures for February rose 8 cents, or 0.2%, to $50.05 a barrel by 0137 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures for January were up 4 cents, or 0.1%, at $46.61 a barrel.

Oil prices have rallied for six consecutive weeks, their longest stretch of gains since June.

. Gold eased on Monday as the roll out of coronavirus vaccines in the United States lifted risk sentiment, offsetting support from hopes for more US economic stimulus and a weaker dollar.

Coronavirus news highlights: India's tally reaches 99 lakh-mark, recoveries stand at nearly 94 lakh

Covid-19 triggering rare, deadly fungal infection, claims Ganga Ram hospital

Hunger study predicts 168,000 pandemic-linked child deaths

Night curfew on, No parties allowed post 9 pm on Dec 31 in Ahmedabad

Sweden records all-time high of Covid-19 hospital patients

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